Spring Equinox Rituals: Rituals of Looking Back and Looking Forward

Sometimes, when we are hiking on a trail, we are in a hurry to get somewhere–that far-off vantage point, that mile marker on the map, or just seeing what is over the next horizon. I remember hiking with some friends who regularly backpacked; they were so intent on speeding through the woods to their goal and putting the miles behind them that they left me behind at multiple points as I got off the trail to explore something. This “speeding towards a goal” is, perhaps, part of who we are as humans, and certainly, a product of Western Civilization, which is so growth and progress-oriented.  Even with our spiritual practice, we can be so intent on focusing on a goal (that next grade or degree, for example) that we forget about the journey itself.  On this trail, the day I took this photo, my intuition told me to pause and turn around. I stopped, turned around, and there on the opposite side of the tree was a beautiful specimen of my favorite mushroom, Chicken of the Woods.  Had I kept on going in that direction, I never would have seen the mushroom, and I would have missed my dinner.  All it took was choosing to look behind me that allowed me to find it!

The Spring Equinox offers us one of two “balance” moments in the wheel of the year, where the light and dark are in balance, where we sit between the threshold of the dark half of the year (what is behind us) and the light half of the year (what is in front of us).  As a balance point, but also as a time of year that is “gaining” energy, I find that the Spring Equinox is my favorite time of the year for a pause, a chance to stop on our trail, and simply taking in where we’ve been and taking a chance to think about where we are heading next.  So in this post, I’m going to detail an activity (that you can ritualize, as I do) to take that moment of pause and reflect back on your spiritual journey, and what’s to come.

Reflection is when we consider, ponder, and look back upon things we previously experienced. Reflection helps us understand where we’ve come from, and helps us, to some extent, figure out where we are going next. Just like many of our sacred holidays in the druid tradition allow us to “pause” and experience the moment in time, so too does doing this kind of reflective work for our own spirituality  Reflection is a critical component of any spiritual practice; it helps us grow deeper and more intentionally.  Some reflective practices simply review what has come before–while others encourage goal setting or envisioning the future to come.  Reflection can be done in a multitude of ways: through spiritual journaling, mediation, through sharing stories with others.

All of the following activities are “ritualized” ways of reflection; that is, they are engaging in reflection as a sacred activity, part of ritual and certainly, part of spiritual life.

A Spring Equinox Ritual of Reflection and Growth (Solitary)

This first ritual is a way to reflect upon your journey–it is meant to be a solitary ritual.  I’ve done this ritual for a number of years (not every year, but usually every other year) and it is a very powerful experience.  Budget at least an hour or two for the ritual itself–it can sometimes take time to reflect.

Ritual Supplies and Preparation

Materials for Reflection and Your Journey. To do this ritual, you’ll need to gather up any spiritual journals or notes that you have.  If you belong to a druid order like OBOD or AODA, you might also want to get any end-of-coursework reflections that you wrote.  For the ritual, it will be helpful if you put these journals in chronological order (especially if you have a lot of them!  If you are starting out, you may only have one, and that’s fine too!)  Additionally, gather up items of spiritual significance to you.  You don’t need everything here but think about highlights–these could be items that helped mark the start of your journey or helped you on the path.  They may be new or old.  Bring them into your ritual space.

Rosemary tea or springs of fresh rosemary. Rosemary is a powerful herb that helps us with remembrance; it is a very useful plant spirit ally to use in this ritual. I suggest preparing some rosemary tea (place about 1 tbsp of rosemary (dried or fresh) in 1-2 cups boiling water, let seep for 5 min, and then add honey or sugar).  Alternatively, you can use a rosemary incense or have fresh sprigs of rosemary nearby. You can easily obtain this even at a grocery store, and the ritual is much better with Rosemary as an ally!

Other Objects: Elements, etc. Prepare an altar with the elements and/or representations of any other energies or spirits/beings/deities that you work with.  You want anyone or anything that has been with you on this journey to join you for this work.

A Journal/Paper and a Pen: For writing as part of the ceremony.

Spiritual Cleansing:  I strongly suggest before doing the ritual itself, you do some kind of cleansing.  Smudging yourself with rosemary and sage smoke, taking a ritual bath, and so on, are all possibilities here.

The Ritual:

Part 1: Open up a sacred space:  Open up a sacred grove in your tradition (if you don’t know-how, there is an overview in this post).  This typically involves cleansing the space, declaring your intent, declaring peace, drawing in the elements, and creating a protective circle or sphere.

Next, invite anyone (spirits, guides, plants, elements, etc) into the space that you would like to come with you on your journey.  Take all the time you need to do this; it’s important to have your spiritual support for this ritual.

At the end of the opening, sip your rosemary tea or crush a few rosemary needles in your fingers and smell them.  Call upon the sacred power of rosemary to assist you in this journey.  You can say anything that comes to you, or use this:

Rosemary, holder of the keys of memory
Rosemary, keeper of histories of time
Rosemary, holder of insight and reflection
Rosemary, sacred plant ally, help us remember.

Drink your rosemary tea and enjoy it throughout the rest of the ceremony.

Part 2: Creating your Physical Journey Map. Once you have your sacred space open, begin by arranging your objects and journals around you chronologically. Use a table, the floor, etc.  When I do this, I usually use the floor and surround myself with objects on all sides.  As you are arranging, think about when these things came into your life, and begin by creating a “roadmap” of where you’ve been, something you could physically see. Take all the time you need to do this (and it doesn’t have to be exact!)

Part 3: Reflecting on your Journey.  Now that you have everything arranged in chronological order, spend time reflecting on your journey.  You might read selected entries from your journal.  As you pick up each journal or object, hold it and speak of it or meditate upon it.  Work your way through the entire “map” you created.  Note anything “new” you realize or, just as importantly, insights you had forgotten about.   Reading previous journal entries, I find, is really useful and helpful in this process–it lets me clearly see where I was and where I’m going next!

Part 4: Deep insights. After your reflection, consider any major insights you have from the experience of creating your map and reflection. Write these down; these deep insights.  These are the key lessons from you previous experience, and that which can follow you into the future.

Part 5: The Journey to Come. Now, reflect on the next year to come. The Spring Equinox is a time of new beginnings and starting new things, so you might consider what you’d like to accomplish spiritually in this next year–get these down in writing and put them somewhere that you will see them often.

Close out the Space. Thank Rosemary, thank those who you called and close out the space.  As an additional way to honor rosemary, you might consider growing a rosemary plant this year as a way of remembering the past journey and honoring the journey to come!

Storytelling Ritual of Looking Back and Foward (Group)

This second reflective ritual is a great ritual for 2 or more people and would be appropriate for a grove or even getting a few friends together.  The number of objects or journal entries shared largely depends on how many people you have in the group–obviously, 2-3 people can each share a lot more than 20 or 30 in a larger setting!  You can also change the theme of the ritual: today’s ritual focuses on reflecting on past spiritual journeys, but you could have them reflect on gifts others have given, ancestors, favorite plants, etc.

Ritual Preparation:

Memory/Storytelling Objects: Instruct each person who is coming to the ritual to bring objects or journal entries about key moments in their spiritual life.  These should be objects that hold some significance to the person.  Even in a larger group, if a person can’t share all that he/she/they brought, they can still have these objects with them–the selection process itself is sacred.

Prepare an Altar Space: Create a large altar space, something that everyone can add their objects to during the ritual.  A folding table with a nice tablecloth works great.

The Ritual:

Open up a sacred space:  Open up a sacred space in whatever tradition you use.

Honor Rosemary. Honor Rosemary and invite her spirit into the space. Bring rosemary physically into the space in some way:  you can aspire each participant with rosemary (take rosemary and dip her in water, and then lightly fling the water on each participant or lathe their forehead with it).  You can also offer rosemary tea or a rosemary smudge/incense (even rosemary needles burned on a charcoal block work great!)

As you conclude, all participants say:

Rosemary, holder of the keys of memory
Rosemary, keeper of histories of time
Rosemary, holder of insight and reflection
Rosemary, sacred plant ally, help us remember.

The Storytelling. Depending on the number of people, there are a few ways you can do this.  With a small group, you might go around the circle, and each person talks about the key object they brought and tell their own story and then add it to the altar.  With a much larger group, people could break into several groups, which would allow each person more time to tell their story.  After the groups reconvene, they add their objects to the altar.

Looking Forward: Each participant gets a sheet of paper and a pen, and then can write their spiritual goals for the coming year.  The goals can be shared aloud if participants choose or simply kept quiet.

Close out the space. Close out the space in your usual fashion.

Life Journey Ritual (Solo)

A final ritual you can do doesn’t use objects but relies on the mind and memory itself.  For this ritual, prepare the rosemary as described above and open the sacred space.  Then, step back into the beginning of your spiritual journey–where you started in childhood, the different paths you took, and how, ultimately, you ended up here.  Spend time reflecting and remembering each major step you took–and then reflect on things to come.  This journey can take a lot of forms and end you up in really interesting places!

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of variations you could do with these rituals, but I think the core ideas are there: spend time journeying into your past, integrating the many experiences that you have had, and then moving forward into the present so that you can fully make use of the amazing spiritual insights and lessons that you have gained.  This technique is useful to you at *any stage* of your journey–and you get different things out of it.  I remember the first year I did it–as a new druid–and reading my journals after just a year was incredible.  Now, nearly 15 years in, its hard to believe how far I’ve come and exciting to think about where I’m heading next.  May the blessings of the spring equinox be upon you!