The Equinox and its Spiritual Significance
What exactly is an equinox? The equinox (occurring twice yearly, when day and night are of equal length), is the perfect time to become conscious of what it means to be in communion with all sentient beings. The word communion comes from Latin roots – “com” meaning “with, together,” and “unus,” meaning, “oneness, union.”
Trust, intimacy and sacred sharing are the vibrational underpinnings of true communion, forming a chalice that holds the potential for balance, duality, creation, healing, and rebirth. At this spring equinox, it is a perfect, potent time for ayni (sacred reciprocity), that reflects, honors, and “feeds” this moment of sacred rhythm shared by Pachamama(Earth/Gaia) and Inti (sun). (To read more about Ayni and the practice of sacred reciprocity, check out this blog.)
In the springtime of the Northern Hemisphere, as each bud opens to sun rays of increasing warmth, it becomes clear that each Soul is called to bloom, to consciously give and receive in its unique role in “The All.” In the Southern Hemisphere, autumn begins the wet season, giving way to the dry, warm temperatures yielding to the cold. It is a time to reap what has been sown, and for the “going within,” visioning and contemplative, time to begin.
As North America, known as “Turtle Island” to the First People, now expands, South America, or “Heart Island,” contracts. On Turtle Island, it is the traditional time to enter a new lodge in the Medicine Wheel, to enter into communion through the unique aspects of spring’s offerings, both visible and invisible. On Heart Island, it is time to tend to apachetas, the stone cairns that act as energetic portals, and create despachos. The traditions of each land can be practiced in the other; in fact, this is strongly encouraged by spiritual Elders, both past and present.
Within and between each hemisphere, there is beauty, sacred exchange, and cosmological balance. And always, at every opportunity on every land, with every sacred exchange, there is the opportunity to offer gratitude.
Why We Honor the Equinox
This is a time to “reset” ourSelves, and align ourSelves with both earthly and celestial relatives. If you choose, in the spirit of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition/Heart Island practices, you can actively participate in this unification of dualities, this communion, by creating and/or visiting, tending to, and feeding your apacheta. Offer your organic haywas (ritual offerings) or ofrendas (sacred earth offerings) of flowers, sacred waters, tobacco, or cornmeal. You can partake of creating an despacho, or participate in a fire ceremony.
From the Turtle Island perspective, recommit to your Medicine Wheel, to the aspects of nature that present themselves to you during this season, and to the Guides who traditionally accompany you on this leg of your Earth-Walk. In all traditions, there is honoring of the Ancestors and the land, the consciousness of the cosmos, intentions for the Seven Generations to come.
It is a Time for Receiving
In the northern hemisphere: Open, and accept the celestial offering of Spring Equinox energies within your cells, within your body, and your energy system (chakras and meridians) to ground and center yourself solidly into your earth walk upon Pachamama; beckon your earth mastery at this potent vortex.
Allow Inti’s warming and lighting of Pachamama to thaw and ignite you to enliven the “seeds of life” within you the same way it coaxes birth and renewal from the soil beneath your feet. Be aware of this season’s sacred gifts of increased energy, the Elixir of Light, to feed us on all levels of our consciousness. Be aware of the moments of grace in your spiritual practices and in everyday moments – the moments of communion.
Be mindful that this Spring Equinox is in the sign of Aries, The Ram, and there is many offerings from the cosmic realms as we experience forward movement into changes within us and around us. Remember that our Earth Mother is stabilizing and calming. As you emerge from her “womb” during this time, consciously giving and receiving, know that the ayni in which you partake benefits you, your Ancestors, the world around you, and the next Seven Generations.
“Walk softly with Pachamama, and be Her prayer.” ~ Mona
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For information about the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition (PMT) of Cross-Cultural Shamanic Arts, of which Mona is a Carrier please visit http://heartofthehealer.org.
don Oscar Miro-Quesada is the founder of PMT, and the author of a memoir that includes instructions for how to create apachetas and despachos. It’s entitled, “Lessons in Courage: Peruvian Shamanic Wisdom for Everyday Life,” and is co-authored by Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Ph. D.
