Ostara

Welcome to Spring – celebrated by a Wiccan (Pagan) holiday called Ostara that celebrates spring equinox, when the day and night are of equal length and the sun crosses into the northern hemisphere making us warmer (yes please!).

Spiritually the equinox is thought to represent the struggle between darkness and light and death and life. Even though this winter hasn’t been particularly cold, the energy has felt dense and the sky dark – maybe representing how we are all feeling right now with complex global issues and perhaps personal tragedies. I think we can all agree it’s time to bring in the light, count our blessings, connect with one another and to mother earth.

Personally, I love spring themed yoga classes as spring represents vitality, fertility, new beginnings and spring cleaning (which still continues from my last blog!). We utilise Pranayama (breath work) to breathe deeply and release stagnant air from our lungs and start to move more dynamically on the mat, with postures that increase heart rate and blood flow. There is also a promise that it won’t be long until we can take our weekly yoga classes outside into the woodlands at Hill Farm – my favourite place to practice amongst the trees.

The ancient Yoga sage Patanjali talked about planting karmic seeds to either create flowers or weeds in our metaphoric garden of life. What are you planting this spring to cultivate in the year ahead? What we can do to help one another is important but has limits. However we can practice radiating love, positivity and light healing energy by practicing compassion, gratitude and loving kindness. This is limitless and has a real effect on lifting the darker dense energy.

Let’s finish with this beautiful Spring Equinox blessing:

Thank you for reading and to find out more information on my yoga classes and retreats click here.

Namaste