March Out Like a Lion!
March comes in like a lion …
And goes out like a lamb
Or so says the old adage.
However, as true as that may be about nature, the opposite is true when it comes to human nature. If you are like me - and most people I know - right about now is when we commit to some personal Spring cleaning. Rubbing our eyes we awaken from our soulful slumber of Winter as the reign of night is overtaken by the ascendancy of longer, brighter days. About now we shake out the cobwebs of cozywinter habits and see ourselves striding out boldly toward the fields of summer.
Like it or not, we humans are creatures of nature, our emotions ruled by the influences of the season exactly the same way as our bodies are governed by the laws of gravity. As the bumper sticker reminds us: “Gravity. More than just a good idea, it’s the law”, so the Taoist sages of ancient times spoke of ‘wu-wei” - knowing when to act and when not to act. As Lao Tzu wrote (over 2,400 years too early to cash in on the bumper sticker craze):
He who flows as life flows
knows no wear,
feels no tear,
needs no mending,
no repair.
Bottom line: there is no use trying to fight the ebb and flow of life. Far better to note it, celebrate and harness it in order to use the power of timing to our natural advantage.
In western folklore, this is the time of Eostre - The Saxon goddess - from whose name we get the direction East and the holiday Easter - goddess of dawn. Just as the dawn is the time of new light, so the spring equinox is the time of new life. Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, is reunited with her daughter, Kore (the essence of spring), who has been in the Underworld for six months. A mother and child reunion transpires and the earth once again teems with the energy of life renewed.
March also contains holidays dedicated to the great mother goddesses: Astarte, Isis, Aphrodite, Cybele, and in indigenous South America, the Pacha Mama. The returning goddess shows herself in the blossoms, the leaves on the trees, the sprouting of the crops, the mating of birds, and the birth of young animals. In the agricultural cycle, it is time for planting. We are assured that life will continue.
In our personal lives, the time has come to plant seeds that will bloom later into the magnificent flowers of Summer. Be you agrarian, suburbanite, city-dweller, or even mountain-hermit like me, a wonderful ritual for Spring is the planting of seeds. Try it:
Pick up a packet at the local supermarket and follow the instructions on the back (even I can do this). Visualize the kind of personal success along with the qualities - wisdom, understanding, patience, etc - you most desire coming into full bloom in your life in the months ahead as you plant your seeds. Imagine your seeds growing ever stronger until they flower forth with new life. Place the pot somewhere where you will be able to see the growing plant every day as a reminder to keep tending to your blossoming (and, of course, the plant’s, too!).
Throughout history for nearly every culture on the planet, now is also the time of resurrection and rebirth, celebrating the return of life as a victory over death. Attis, Adonis, Osiris and Dionysus — who like Christ die and are reborn each year - each is a divine son and savior who saves his people in some way, sometimes through sacrifice. Each, like the earth’s vegetation, dies in the Fall (at harvest) to be reborn in the Spring.
For many of us, Winter has been the time of hibernation and growing strength. While the field may have appeared fallow in truth it was all the while gathering potential, the energy necessary for the revitalization of Spring.
Ask yourself, what has been incubating inside me these last months? Make a list of the goals and ideals that have become yours through the winter.
Determine to take action. For action taken now - the wisdom of the ages reminds us - has the strength and power of all life behind it. Spring forward. March out like a lion. And remember, as the 19th century sage, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.
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