Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:00]:

Happy spring equinox. In this episode, I'll discuss the significance of the spring equinox and share potent rituals to help you tap into the qualities of the season. I also want to invite you to my exclusive free workshop on Thursday, March 21, to celebrate the onset of spring and weave more magic renewal and creativity into your life. The link to register is in the show notes, but first let's dive into this episode so you can call forth what you most desire this spring. Welcome to the Goddess School podcast, where Eastern wisdom meets Western mysticism. I'm your host, Lisa Marie Rankine, author, teacher, and Ayurvedic wellness coach here to help you reclaim your feminine superpowers, and I am so glad you're here. Listen, women are magical. They are intuitive, creative, wise, and magnetic.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:56]:

However, in today's fast paced world, these gifts often get buried under a more masculine way of life. Together, we'll awaken those powers. In each episode, I'll take you through sacred teachings like Ayurveda, shadow work, and the mysteries of archetypes and rituals so you can live with more clarity, synchronicity, and joy in all realms of life, like relationships, health, money, and more. So let's dive in so you can make the most of your one mythic life, the veil is parting. Let's begin. Hello, beautiful women. This podcast is airing on Wednesday, March 19, and that's just a day before the spring Equinox, And I couldn't be any more thrilled. So let's dive in.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:01:48]:

What exactly is the spring equinox? Well, it marks the beginning of spring, and it's also one of the eight seasonal celebrations. So the seasonal Sabbats identified in the wheel of the year, which is traditionally a pagan calendar that marks the beginning and midpoints of each season. So the spring equinox, or also known as Ostara, marks the beginning of the spring. Now I love working with the wheel of the year because it is just such a beautiful reminder to stay present and to tap into the wisdom of the seasons. The seasons are truly our teachers. I know many of us say, like, I need to get in nature more. I need to be outside more. And, yes, I am sure that's true.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:02:34]:

We all spend more time looking at screens than we do sunrises or sunsets. And I want you to remember that you don't get into nature. You actually are nature. So whatever is happening outside is happening within you too. Sometimes it can feel like the weather is happening to us. And yet, when we start to celebrate the seasons in this way, we recognize that it's happening for us and with us. One of the big markers of the spring equinox is the days and evenings or nights are equal in length. So there's this sense of balance.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:03:18]:

And not only that, but the days are starting to get longer. It's a celebration to mark the return of light, the return of the sun. I am particularly excited about this because I can already feel my energy start to return as well as my enthusiasm and my optimism for what's to come. In the winter where the days are really pretty short, I tend to wanna be in my pajamas by 04:30, and I feel tired. I don't have the same amount of energy. So even with the days starting to get longer now, I can feel that sense of vitality coming back. And those are also qualities of the spring equinox, hope, optimism, new beginnings, and rebirth. It's like we're finally ready to emerge after a long, cold, dark winter, or as the Beatles would say, a long, cold, lonely winter.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:04:16]:

Here in Massachusetts, it has been a particularly rough winter as we've been covered in ice for most of it, and it's also definitely been one of the colder winters. As many of you might know, I got a new puppy this winter. We got him in December. His name is Moose. I call him Moosey. I absolutely adore him. And it has required me to go outside a lot. Every two hours, just about often in the middle of the night and in the early morning, which are normally times I would be hibernating.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:04:49]:

So looking forward to more light and warmer weather is definitely something I'm excited about. My family, like many, has also battled the flu this winter, sinus affections, and many other nasty viruses. So this return, this celebration of the spring just seems particularly poignant this year. The spring equinox, you can think of it as like a gate. It's a portal into the next phase. We can celebrate what's to come, and we can also celebrate that we survived the winter. So how exactly do we celebrate the spring equinox? We can do this by rituals. So before I give you specific examples on how to celebrate the spring equinox or, again, of Stara, that's the wheel of the year name, let's take a moment to talk about rituals.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:05:37]:

I believe that rituals are terribly important. They act as a bridge between the everyday mundane, and by mundane, I don't mean boring, even though that's how we use the word sometimes, but more like just our everyday human earthly realm. So they act as a bridge between the mundane and the sacred. They're also a portal into our personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, and the spiritual realms. Rituals help us tap into the wisdom that is already within us, but we can't necessarily access on our own. They infuse our lives with intention, creativity, and, of course, magical possibilities. By participating in a ritual, we become active cocreators in the divine drama of our lives. And I know that's what we really want.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:06:30]:

I talk to so many women who talk about wanting to become the main character of their life. One way we can do that is by rituals where we actively co create. We think about the intentions, what it is that we want to bring to life. We think about what we want to let go. Rituals allow us to really infuse our life with more creativity and more magic. The term ritual, however, can be thrown around a little lackadaisically in our culture. So let me just clarify one thing. Rituals and habits are not the same.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:06]:

Nothing wrong with habits. They're just not the same as rituals. Habits are a way of conserving our brain's energy. They're the things that we do on autopilot. Like we brush our teeth, drive to work, or take in the mail. Again, there's nothing wrong with habits. We need them to free up brain space. However, because many habits are performed on autopilot, they they actually, you can think of it as contracting our consciousness.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:31]:

We're not even aware that we're doing them often. They take us away from the present moment. Rituals, however, they expand our consciousness. They bring us back into the present moment, back into our inner wisdom, because that is when we can connect with our inner wisdom is when we are in the present moment and they let us be a part of the beautiful tapestry of the unknown. They help us to start to weave the reality we want, become active co creators with the divine. And rituals are very effective. But here's the thing. You need to believe that rituals work.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:08:10]:

You need to go all in. You can't half ass a ritual. There can be personal rituals like a daily self care practices, such as meditation, Abiango, which is a beautiful practice of massaging oil on your body and beautiful Ayurveda practice. Going for a walk could be a ritual if you do it with intention. So there's daily practices that can remind us of our own divinity. And then there's also collective rituals, like the seasonal Sabbath celebrations that connect us to a collective wisdom. In last week's episode, I talked about the enchantress archetype. We had a few examples of the goddesses, Aphrodite, Hathor, Shoon, Ceridwen.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:08:53]:

The enchantress really creates her own reality by managing her own energy, considering how she wants to show up. So this is an archetype of pleasure, magnetism, and, again, creativity. The enchantress engages in rituals to create the reality she desires. So if you hadn't listened to that episode, I definitely encourage you to go back and listen because I believe there's a really big connection between the enchantress and the spring. The spring is all about creation, rebirth, renewal. So let's talk about some spring equinox rituals. Some rituals, we almost have this instinctive urge to practice. For example, the well known ritual of spring cleaning.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:09:42]:

As I've mentioned, spring's a time of growth and rebirth. So if we want to call more in or we want to call new things in, we need to make room for what we want to enter. In the last few weeks, I've really started to clean the house and discard the clutter. I have a new commitment to spaciousness and organization. Part of this is driven because there's a new book I want to write, a new book that is requesting to be birth to life, and I need to make space to bring in the inspiration, bring in the muse. So I've been saying a loving and heartfelt goodbye to many of the things that we don't actually use or need. I'm also inspired to paint the bathroom, start decorating, and really create an environment that's a reflection of my current vibe and the energy that I'm calling in, like in this case, a creative, eclectic, and sacred energy. So when we're talking about the enchantress archetype and calling in that energy, part of how we do that is through how we decorate both our home and ourselves as well.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:10:52]:

Because the spring is a time of rebirth, renewal, I've also been pouring through seed catalogs to plan my garden. And, yes, there will definitely be fairy heddesses. And I'm also considering what herbs I wanna start growing, like mint, parsley, basil, and lemon balm for sure. So all of these things, I don't need to plan. I'm naturally being drawn to do them. So you might be thinking about that as well too. What has shifted within you? What do you have a natural urge to start clearing or to start creating? And then there are also more intentional rituals, and I'll share a few to give you some ideas of how you can celebrate the spring equinox. One is a seed planting ceremony.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:11:39]:

So I said I've been pouring through seed catalogs because spring is a time we get to plant seeds, but both literally, so the actual seeds to grow our herbs or flowers or vegetables, but also metaphorically, so the seeds of our intention. Now I really think this this is a important ritual. So even if you don't have a garden, maybe you live in the city, I encourage you to plant some seeds indoors. This act connects us with this inherent drive that we all have to grow and expand. And as you plant your seeds, really envision, like, what are you trying to call forth? These could be goals you have for your life. They could be desires that you want, and really start to imagine that they are coming forth, that they are growing and evolving just as your blossoming seed is. So this ritual really connects you with this natural cycle of growth and just serve as a powerful symbol of new beginnings and the potential for growth and evolution in your own life. Another ritual is to create a spring altar.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:12:46]:

I love having an altar. So an altar can be a sacred space where you have as a reminder of the things that are important to you. It could be the things that you want to call in, or it could be what you would like to honor. So we can harness the power of spring by creating a space dedicated to the season's themes of growth, new beginnings, creativity, and abundance. So you might have symbols. So if you're a writer, maybe you put your journal and pen on your altar. If there's a goddess that you're working with, like, we've been talking about some of the enchantress goddesses, like Aphrodite or Oshun, both are associated with water. Maybe you put some seashells or some rocks that you have found on your altar, but you could also put elements from outside, whether it's fresh flowers, budding branches, but adding colors, ornaments that will help you reflect on the energetics of the spring.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:13:47]:

And then another one is a wound clearing meditation. So during the spring equinox, as nature undergoes a process of renewal and rebirth, we also can align with that energy to facilitate inner cleansing and growth. So we talked a little bit about spring cleaning, but we can also do an energetic cleansing as well. A woman's physiology also influences her mental, emotional, and spiritual body as well. So the womb is a vessel for receiving. And as women, we are physically designed to hold, but sometimes we hold onto things that no longer serve us, like the energies of ex lovers, past experiences, shame, and other people's baggage. These things keep us stuck in the past and really prevent us from moving forward. So as a spring equinox gift, I have a wound clearing meditation for you that you can get in the show notes.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:14:41]:

One of my very favorite spring equinox rituals is the coloring of eggs. Now coloring Easter eggs does not have to be a Christian practice. In fact, it started as a pagan practice. We can color eggs, decorate them with words or sigils. Sigils are symbols that represent what we would like to call in. Use them for decoration, maybe we can put them on our altar, or then we can bury them, really kind of planting the seeds of our intention. This is actually a practice that we're gonna be doing this season in my community, Enlivened, my divine feminine mystery school. So start to think about what you wanna call forth in the coming months and what rituals can help to act as an initiator, act as a catalyst for what it is that you want.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:15:29]:

And if you wanna invoke your inner enchantress and celebrate the onset of spring, I invite you to join us in my exclusive free workshop. It will be on Thursday, March 20, which is the spring equinox to weave more magic renewal and beauty into your life. You'll learn about rituals, archetypes, and also the seasonal celebrations. You'll also connect with the goddess, Ostaire, the Germanic goddess of spring and dawn to call in new beginnings. It is going to be fantastic. I promise you. The link to register is in the show notes. So happy Ostara to a season of light, vitality and rebirth.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:16:11]:

I hope to see you very soon. Be well, sister. Thanks for tuning in to The Goddess School Podcast. I hope today's episode inspired you to reclaim your feminine magic. Now don't forget to subscribe to the show. And if you've enjoyed the podcast, please leave us a review on Apple. If you wanna dive deeper into divine feminine archetypes and reconnect with your power, check out my book, The Goddess Solution. It's packed with ancient goddess wisdom for the modern woman.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:16:42]:

You can find the book on Amazon, and the link is in the show notes. And if you are ready to embrace these practices alongside a global sisterhood, I invite you to join my Divine Feminine Mystery School, Enlivened. It's a supportive space to embody these teachings with a fantastic community of like minded women. You'll find the link in the show notes. Remember, the Goddess isn't a deity outside of you. She's an aspect of your highest self, and you are the Goddess. Until next time, my friend.