The Spring Equinox: New Beginnings and an Introduction to De Esoterica

From Death comes Life

March 20th is a day that brings forth many celebrations. The Vernal Equinox, which marks the official beginning of Spring, the rise of Aries season, and the Astrological New Year, and finally, the long awaited Archetypal Experience of Rebirth and Renewal.

Welcome, my friends, to Spring!

During the Vernal Equinox, the day and the night reach equal lengths. Afterwards, the days will begin growing longer, the Sun warmer, the Earth will begin thawing, and we will literally see life emerge from the ground anew.

Our ancestors held this time of year as sacred, and even today, many cultures continue to revere the Spring. Numerous cultures throughout history have created myths and celebrations surrounding the emergence of Spring. Humanity has universally experienced the spring as a time of rebirth and renewal for ages.

Capricci of ruins with figures An Allegory of Spring (Alberto Carlieri)

The Spring marks the end of Winter, and for our ancestors, making it to this day often quite literally meant that they had survived! That their preparations throughout the past year were indeed enough to keep them alive.

I like to think that part of their excitement, and exuberance over their victory of survival each year, still exists within us today. However subtle, or instinctual, the spring, along with the other turning of seasons, are universal, archetypal experiences that we can tune into if only we allow ourselves the opportunity.

Cultivating Spring-time Mindfulness

Tulip Culture (1889), George Hitchcock

As nature experiences this transition from Winter to Spring, go out and feel the Sun warm your body. Let it instill you with hope and optimism for the year ahead.

Imagine all the possibilities this upcoming year has in store, all the potential waiting to be realized. Like a seed still waiting beneath the earth for the right conditions in order to emerge, think of all that resides within you, all the growth and expansion that is in store.

Now, ask yourself:

• Do you feel more empowered? More enlivened? More energized?

• Can you feel that inner stirring of growth and potential within you? That seed of hope ready to emerge? What will it grow into?

• How do you feel now as compared to at the beginning of January? Better equipped to invite change into your life?

This is only the beginning. Pay very careful attention to what the feelings that arise from within you as Spring goes on. Listen and follow where your body and soul are calling you to.

Use this universal experience to jump start the changes you want to make in your life.

Resolutions, Renewal, and Rebirth

Allegory of Spring (1670), Jerzy Eleuter Szymonowicz Siemiginowski

Having an annual reset point is in vital to our psychological wellbeing and mental health. It allows us to conceptualize time as cyclical, instead of linear. This gives us the ability to understand that we return to the same points in our lives over and over again. We repeat the same patterns until we learn and grow.

Though new challenges may arise, each time, we are more empowered than before. With new perspectives and experiences, we can iterate on our past, avoiding the mistakes we made the first go-around.

The New Year gives this gift as an opportunity to reevaluate our lives and set intentions for positive change.

However, far too easily do we fall into the popular mistake of setting our resolutions for the beginning of the Calendar year, January 1st, instead of the beginning of The Astrological New Year: March 20th, the Spring Equinox.

Society teaches us that come the New Year, we are to reflect on all the change we want to invite into our lives; we make plans, set our resolutions and on January 1st we try to muster the surge of energy required to make good on theses promises we’ve made to ourselves.

But how does this usually play out?

If you’re anything like me, and frankly, most people, you give it an earnest try, only to get disappointed when you inevitably fall short in the weeks that follow.

This is because winter is an archetype of Death. A season of endings, not beginnings.

The beginning of January, the midst of winter, is not the time to upheave the structure of our day-to-day lives in the name of positive growth and change.

When we do so, we miss out on participating in the Archetypal Experience of Rebirth that comes with the beginning of Spring.

In the cold quietude of winter, we are meant to be still. To use that time stuck indoors to reflect, to introspect, to look inwards, and engage with the deepest parts of ourselves in order to better understand the past year in the greater context of our lives as a whole.

Winter is the time to take inventory, to assess what worked for us and what didn’t. To plan, envision, and clarify what we want or need to set out and accomplish.

The Lonely Monk, Enoch Wood Perry Jr.

But now we find ourselves at the threshold of Winter, the season of death, and Spring, a season that has been viewed as a period of renewal, and new beginnings since time immemorial.

Now we can take all that we’ve reflected on, learned, planned, dreamed, and envisioned during the wintery months and use the energy of Spring to take the first steps towards our goals.

Introducing 'De Esoterica'

An alchemist in his laboratory, D. Teniers II

In accordance with this universal experience of rebirth, and to add a bit of sympathetic magic to this moment, today, I formally introduce the world to “De Esoterica”: An Exploration of the Arcane.

Latin for “about the obscure”, De Esoterica is inspired by years of researching world religion, mythology, psychology, divination, and the arcane.

My hope is that De Esoterica becomes a resource for any who are looking to explore spirituality, mysticism, and divination through a grounded, psychological perspective.

Here, I’ll share my thoughts, learnings, musings, and the resources I’ve made and use in my everyday practice.

I’ll explain why spirituality matters, and how it’s been a vital part of us from our very beginnings, and how we should approach it now as modern mystics.

I’ll demystify, and break-down the tarot, astrology, and divination, showing you how to invite these practices into your everyday life, and much, much more.

My dream is for De Esoterica to be the resource I wish I had all those years ago when I started on my own mystic path.

I hope De Esoterica sparks your intrigue; I hope it inspires you, piques your curiosity, and most importantly, provides you with a container in which you know you are free to explore your individual spiritual growth, and that you are not alone in that quest.

Every one must walk their own spiritual, mystic path, and I’d like to play a role in your spiritual growth and development. I’d like to show you a way of reclaiming the spiritual for your Self.