Happy Ostara and full moon lunar eclipse waxing!

It was the Equinox on Tuesday, 20 March this year, and what a sunrise it was too, aligned with one of our sacred sites here on Guernsey. I managed to catch sunset too, down at Fort Grey, the sun setting in the notch of some rocks off towards Pleinmont. You know there were over 70 dolmens back in the day, and now we only have four remaining, but I’m grateful for those and their various solar and lunar alignments.

There’s a Libra lunar eclipse heading our way on Monday and asking us to delve deeper into the way we are relating and tapping also into the energy of balance that the equinox brings.

Eclipses are powerful transformers for change, I’m only just recovering from the last one and the way of change that brought in! Equinoxes are potent too, my life was changed beyond recognition by a chance encounter in a dolmen on the spring equinox 3 years ago now reminding me that we are never in control, that there is a higher being/organising principle that orientates our life in a more positive direction, even though it may not feel like that at the time, as always there is upheaval and a need for letting go for the new to settle in.

We are reminded of this throughout the Yoga Sutras and in Reiki too, that we may think we are in control, we may do all we can to ensure control but at the end of the day we really aren’t in control as the pandemic proved. We just have to hold still to that deeper part of ourselves that ‘knows’ and can surrender to the greater magic that enters our life when we let go of thinking we know.

For me that’s really what all of this is about, the sun, the moon, the stars, the shifts from one alignment to another, all of them lead to magic. But we have forgotten this in our fast paced 3-D mundane reality, where so much is externalised and where are constantly distracted by phones and busy-ness and supposed gold, like magpies, believing happiness and contentment comes from outside ourselves, in the cars we drive, the houses we live in, the clothes we wear and other people’s thoughts and opinions about us.

It’s all crap of course, just distraction from finding more magic in our lives, in ourselves and in the land. The powers that be don’t want us to be free and able to connect with the magic, because that is a threat to the establishment and the human order of things, meanwhile we come sicker as a society and squeezed individually. I am eternally grateful to the teachings of Patanjali for offering a path to freedom and to Reiki for bringing more magic into my life and the life of my students.

On a practical level, the energy is definitely potent, but making us tired too, lots of viruses circulating to help to clear the excess Kapha (earth and water) out of the system, with all the phlegm being released, and of course encouraging us to be quiet, restful and contemplative.

I spent the Equinox doing exactly that and it was much needed, engaging in an Ayurvedic re-set and prioritising rest and sleep. These shifts should not be taking lightly, the equinox especially, it’s a big one, as we head now towards the longest day of the year in June.

It’s possible the next few days could be intense, especially if your cycle is aligned to the moon. We need to do all we can to retain a peaceful mind, especially in relationship to others and fortunately the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali offer us some advice in verse 1.33 by naming four qualities we can cultivate to establish and maintain a peaceful mind:

maitri karuna muditopeksanam sukha duhkha punyapunya visayanam bhavanatas citta prasadanam

Maitri - friendship - friendliness to those who are happy or content. Be friendly and happy towards those who do well.

Karuna - kindness and compassion towards those who are suffering.

Mudita - Joy, being pleased and enthusiastic in people who are doing good things, celebrate and be joyful

Upeksha - Detachment, distancing ourselves from and not allowing ourselves to be disturbed by incorrect/bad behaviour/ destructive things people are doing. Try not to allow ourselves to be affected and disturbed.

There’s a lot to learn from that one sutra, especially if we are dissatisfied with our life and with those people in our life. It helps us to cultivate greater love and appreciation for those who are doing lovely and wonderful things to support our lives and to have greater compassion for those who suffer, and also it gives us permission to detach from those who treat us badly, so that we are no longer disturbed by them, at least mentally.

So as the equinox and the libra full moon, all about balance, cast more of their magic in our lives, we are reminded of this too, to seek balance where we can. The mind can have a really hard time with this, especially if we are used to always doing, so it’s an awareness if nothing else, another opportunity to witness the workings of our mind and the way in which it holds us captive, restricts and limits us and gives us a very hard time if we let it.

Happy Ostara and waxing moon!

Love Emma x