SPRING EQUINOX

Spring, a what a beautiful time of year, everything is new. New growth is everywhere, the air is sweet with new life, and baby animals are popping up all over. I have the joyful task of taking care and feeding 6 mother and 6 baby goats over the past month. I seem to have become "part of the herd" to them and the provider of "goat treats". So I have had the opportunity to watch the mothers and babies act naturally together. It has given me a new outlook about spring.

Pan and goats were a very important part of spring rites to all cultures that raised them. Watching the goats, especially the babies, grow from a few hours old to adults is going to be a lesson I don't think I will ever forget. I think I understand why some things are hard to put to words, and for people raised in the city to understand. I think that they were the simple everyday things for people who lived close to nature. Some of these were so normal to them that it didn't need to be spoken about. The youngest child could understand them. I think I have attained a better grasp of who Pan is and what Spring Equinox meant to the ancient people.

The joy of watching new life grow or finally earning the trust of the oldest baby goat and being allowed to touch her. Or starting to understand the different noises and motions that the older goats give to the babies. Like come and eat, danger, go away. The grey pigmy goat has a certain "baa - bleep" for me to scratch between her horns. The male pigmy goat is funny. When he is interested in mating, he sneezes and licks his nose allot. The big male goat is greedy, when you put out the alfalfa he will lay in the middle of it so the other can't eat until he is done. I have gained the acceptance of all at least when I have "goat treats". I get mobbed when I open the container with the "treats".

They have those strange eyes, and it seem like they look thru you to some part of you that can't be seen by others. But somehow I know the goats like me because I don't fear them or think of them as dinner There is a lot about them that cannot be explained to another, it must experienced by interacting with the goats.

I can see the joy of life and play that Pan symbolizes. The grey baby pygmy goat zooms around just jumping on and off of things, kicking her heels up. Her fearless joy of life is something to be seen. I also think I understand the fear that Pan's pipes stand for after I heard a goat scream. There again is something that can't be told only experienced.

The first day of Spring holds much in the way of folklore. It is also known as the Vernal Equinox, Ostara, Eostre's Day, Alban Eilir, or Festival of the Trees. It takes place between March 19 and 22. It marks the first day of true spring. It is a time of beginnings, of action, of planting seeds for future grains, and of tending gardens. On the first Sunday after the first full moon following Eostre's Day (the name from which the Easter was derived), the Christian religion celebrates Easter.

Spring is a time of the Earth's renewal, a rousing of nature after the cold sleep of winter. As such, it is an ideal time to clean your home to welcome the new season. Spring cleaning is more than physical work. Some cultures see it as a concentrated effort on their part to rid themselves of problems and negativity of the past months and prepare themselves for the of new things.

In the cycle of the circle it is East, the element of Air. It governs beginnings, mind, thoughts, communications, travel, knowledge, inspiration, hearing, harmony, dexterity, herbal knowledge, plant growth, ideas, freedom, truth, finding lost items, movement and metal abilities (ESP). Also with the Uranus influence, considered a higher harmonic of Mercury, it covers inventions, originality, science, magic, the occult, astrology, psychology and insight into nature's laws. Its gods/dess are Dana, Iris, Persephone, The Maiden in all her different forms, Adonis, Mercury, Hermes, Herne, the Hunter/Son in all his different forms. The elementals are King Paralda and Sylphs, Zephyrs and Fairies. The astrology signs are Gemini, Libra, Aquarius. Air planets are Mercury, Uranus, and Venus (sometimes). The colors are blue, grey, yellow. The few plants of the East are Lavender, plants with fine or highly divided leaves, or herbs that effect the brain, nervous system or speech, ash, mulberry, morning glory, honeysuckle and sandalwood.

This is the festival of Spring and the return to the land of life after the dead of Winter. It celebrates the return of growth and green things to the land. As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with light on the increase, a balance between the forces of nature and man and woman. The young Sun God now celebrates a sacred marriage with the young Maiden Goddess, who conceives. In nine months, she will again become the Great Mother.

It is a time of great fertility, new growth, and newborn animals. The next full moon is a time of increased births. Is sacred to Eostre, Saxon lunar goddess of fertility, whose two symbols were the egg and the rabbit. This is where the Easter bunny and the colored eggs come from for Easter. Which is celebrated the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

To prepare for this sabbat, people did a "spring cleaning" in their home to rid it of all negativity for the past year. They followed guidelines such as any scrubbing of stains or hand rubbing the floors should be done in a "clockwise" motion. It is their belief that this aids in filling the home with good energy for growth.

To the Druidic faith, this is a sacred day occurring in the month of Fearn, part of their practices are to clean and rededicate outdoor shrines, believing that in doing so they honor the spring maiden. This is a time of fertility of both crops and families. In promoting crops, they believe that the use of fire and water (the sun and rain) will reanimate all life on Earth. They decorate hard-boiled eggs, the symbol of rebirth, to eat. The Druids consider this also as Mother's Day and is a time of gift giving.

In Greek mythology, spring was the time when Persephone returned from the underworld and became the Maiden again. Demeter, Persephone's mother, represents the fertile earth and the ripened grain of harvest since it is alleged that she is the one that created the need to harvest crops when her daughter was kidnapped and taken to the underworld. It was through an arrangement that her daughter could return for 1/2 the year that Demeter allowed the crops to spring forth for that time until she again went into mourning for her daughter in the fall.