by Emma Reeves | Feb 21, 2023 | spiritual practices
Mother Earth experiences four main seasons every year, with the transitions marked by Solstice and Equinox. Solstice and Equinox are significant astrological markers that are not only a time to focus on the external changing of seasons but your internal landscape too. So, with the March Equinox coming up, what should you do?
The March Equinox is the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, also known as the Spring Equinox. And in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Autumnal Equinox. Read on to learn more about how to celebrate Equinox and find balance during this time.
What Is an Equinox?
An Equinox is when the night and day are equal in length, with the term Equinox coming from Latin, meaning ‘equal night’. Spring and Autumn arrive on Equinox, whereas Solstice marks Winter and Summer. The two Equinoxes on Earth occur around March 20th and September 22nd each year.
Astrologically, an Equinox occurs because the sun is directly above the equator at noon. After the March Equinox, the sun’s subsolar point begins to travel North, marking the season of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
Why Is Equinox Important?
Equinox does not only mark the change of seasons. Equinox is a time of balance between dark and light, death and life, honoring the struggle and finding peace within it.
The Autumnal Equinox is often a time to celebrate the harvest and what needs to be shed. Whereas the Vernal Equinox marks the return of the light, the Spring, where seeds begin to be planted. And in general, Equinoxes are important times of rebirth and renewal, offering a moment to reflect on how to maintain balance moving forward.
Different cultures believe days like Equinox are the best time to transcend the physical realm, as everything is in balance. This includes the feminine and masculine, the day and the night, the light and the dark.
Also, for many cultures, the March Equinox is considered the first day of the new year. This is because ancient civilizations were in sync with nature, the moon’s movement, and the sun’s movement. Equinox is an important time to reconnect to nature and these cycles.
Equinox Rituals of Ancient Civilizations
Equinox has long held importance in different cultures, with evidence of many Equinox rituals of ancient civilizations. For example, there are many ancient structures aligned with the stars around the world, which people would gather at during significant dates, such as Equinox. These include Stonehenge in England and El Castillo in Mexico.
There were different Equinox rituals of ancient civilizations, including ceremonies, parades, offerings, plantings, and music. It was seen as a time to give thanks, gather in community, and connect to the elements.
How To Celebrate Equinox Today
Many cultures still celebrate Equinox. For example, the March Equinox is the Pawkar Raymi celebration for Mother Earth and Harvest in Ecuador. These celebrations are often referred to as ‘Mushuk Nina,’ which roughly translates to new fire, so a time of cleansing, renewal, and harvest.
There are many other ways to celebrate Equinox and mark this important astrological event.
Gather in Community and Give Thanks
Equinox is the perfect time to gather in a community and show gratitude toward your loved ones. It can be a time to renew connections and restore balance in relationships. If you cannot gather with loved ones, find a local community event, write a gratitude list, or send messages of thanks.
Be Around a Fire
As Equinox is a time of renewal and a restoration of balance, it is a great time to be around our grandfather fire. He has the power to cleanse, ground, and help you find alignment once more. Attend a sweat lodge, go to a plant medicine ceremony, join a fire circle, or light a candle and meditate.
Get Outside
Equinox is not only a reflection of the outer landscape but the inner world too. Women experience all the seasons every month as part of their moon cycle. However, Equinox is also a significant time for the sun, marking its journey to balance, so it is a time for everyone to recap and give thanks for what has passed during the season.
Spend time outdoors, connect to Mother Earth, and check in with how your inner nature is doing. You can recap your time since the last Equinox and determine what you need to find balance in yourself again.
Connect to Music
Listening to music, playing an instrument, or singing can help raise your vibration and change your energy. If you feel unbalanced, take a moment to pause and connect to this powerful medicine. Music is the perfect way to find your rhythm, send prayers, and express thanks, especially during Equinox when energies are coming into alignment.
Attend an Equinox Plant Medicine Retreat
Ayllu Medicina is holding a March plant medicine retreat to honor the time of Equinox. This transformational plant medicine retreat is the perfect way to renew, join in community, connect to the elements, and find your equilibrium. There will be a variety of ceremonies and activities to help you find balance, including:
- Ayahuasca ceremonies
- A San Pedro ceremony
- Sweat lodges (temazcales)
- Daily yoga, meditation, and breathwork
The sacred plant medicines can help you make space to welcome in the new season, connect to your heart’s center, and let go of what no longer serves you. The temazcales are also powerful medicine for purification and rebirth, so you will feel renewed for the seasons ahead.
The plant medicine retreat will also help you restore balance through nutritious food, daily yoga practice, meditation, and breathwork. After all, in order to transcend physical limitations, you need to care for your body and find balance here first.
We will also be focusing on music during this March plant medicine retreat in Ecuador as a way to connect to your heart’s rhythm and the elements. There will be drum circles, song sharing, and workshops to learn more about this powerful medicine.
Celebrate March Equinox and Find Balance Within
The March Equinox is the perfect opportunity to pause and give thanks to Mother Earth; for all the ways she supports us, including through her changing seasons. Equinox is also the ideal time to pause, go inwards, and check that your inner landscape is also finding ways to maintain balance.
Connecting to the rhythm of your heart will help you find peace within the light and dark, recognizing these seasons are part of planting new seeds, healing wounds, shedding what no longer serves you, and making space for new energy and growth.
If you are wondering how to celebrate Equinox this March and connect to your heart’s rhythm, join one of our Ayllu Medicina 2024 events! We have a sweat lodge and meditation on 21st March at 4pm, then a San Pedro ceremony on 23rd March at 9.30pm (spaces are limited, please reserve your spot).
Contact us directly to learn more.
by Michaela D'Amico | Jan 4, 2021 | Plant medicines, spiritual practices
During our retreats, everyday we cleanse and purify our minds in different ways – with meditation, purification, and with different forms of tobacco. Gaining new relationships with different parts of nature, or improving your current connections, is a crucial part of integrating your experience. However, before any power plant medicine ceremony, we have to begin a holistic detox and purify ourselves, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Purification
There are several purification (what some might consider a form of detox) practices that we use to cleanse ourselves before entering the sacred space to work with plant medicines. One of these practices is meditation. Another is temazcal, or sweat lodge, where the heat allows us to purify all of our 5 senses, including releasing the toxins in our body. Through sweating and with the addition of various herbs and prayer, we purify our emotions and undergo a full 360 degree purification process. We also use Sacred Tobacco for purification, in 3 forms – liquid, smoking, and offering it to the Earth.
Sacred Tobacco
Tobacco, which is native to the Americas, is of course well known for its use in commercial cigarettes. However, it was used first thousands of years before within native traditions, and is considered the highest power plant of all the medicinal plants. One reason for this is because of its use is linked to the 4 elements – Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. During a retreat, you will get to experience the many beneficial and sacred ways to connect to this power plant.
Perhaps you are surprised to hear that tobacco is part of ceremonial spaces. We are NOT talking about cigarrettes. There are two species of tobacco that are commonly used today – Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica. Nicotiana Tabacum is the variety used by cigarette companies, mainly because it is smoother and less potent so it can be used more habitually. Nicotiana Rustica, a much stronger variety, is used in the native traditions, including in Native America and the Amazon.
Liquid Water Tobacco
The Amazonian cultures of Ecuador use liquid tobacco for purification. The practice includes making a “tea” in which the tobacco plant is soaked in water. Then, we inhale this water through each of our nostrils, cleansing all the breathing channels that lead to our mind. That same water we exhale by spitting it out our mouth. Beyond the physical cleansing, energetically this practice allows us to open and activate the pineal gland so our breath can connect to it directly. This process is used to literally cleanse the thoughts. It allows us to refocus and cleanses the mind. If we do it well, we cleanse all of our thoughts.
This is one of the main ways we use this strong power plant. We inhale water tobacco before sweat lodge and before ceremonies, to get our minds ready to focus on our main purpose.
Smoking Tobacco
In native cultures all around the world, it is said that the tobacco plant has a memory of the way that humans have used it. We give direction and power to the plant depending on the use that we give it. The tobacco plant has been used for centuries to communicate with God, or the Great Spirit. When we smoke tobacco, we are opening a direct pathway to connect to God, and to the Universe.
This is how we can communicate our intentions through the smoke. The belief is that every inhalation of tobacco is one less breath for your life. That is why when we are smoking tobacco, we pray carefully and focus our intention. And we send this little bit of energy of life through the smoke up to the sky to connect to the rest of the Universe.
Offering tobacco to the Earth
Beyond cleansing and praying, we also use tobacco for offerings, protection and connecting to everything that is sacred. It is well known all over the world that nature recognizes the language communicated through the tobacco plant. For example, when we get to a new place, we give a little bit of tobacco to the Earth. It is a ritual action just to say, “Hello, we are here, we are going to honor and care for you, Mother Earth.”
And there’s more!
There are several other ways we begin the process of purification and detoxification, including rapé or snuff which is the ash from tobacco and other sacred plants, and offering tobacco to the fire to set our intention. Another key step for purifying and detoxing is following a simple cleansing diet. Head over to our FAQs to read more about this, and subscribe so you can receive our next blog which will dive into the explanation behind eliminating certain food groups in preparation for a ceremony.
by Michaela D'Amico | Dec 30, 2020 | plant medicine ceremonies, spiritual practices, Uncategorized
It is New Moon, the sky is dark and full of stars. A time for renewal and reconnection to ourselves and our source, the new moon reminds me to pause and give thanks.
I walk out to the small palm tree on the path to the garden and dig a small hole, singing about the love and abundance that surrounds me. Prepared with me is an offering of food and treasures I prepared throughout the day – toasted corn, plantain, a chocolate bar, eggs, a beautiful crystal found on the beach, earrings made from seeds, dried tobacco leaves, palo santo, a few coins, and essential oils. As I offer this heap of abundance to the small hole for Mother Earth, I pray with gratitude for all that she has offered me this past month. I thank her for the sunshine, the waves in the sea, the lush soil nourishing our vegetables, the fruit trees blossoming with guayaba, the vast skies, and include some prayers for what I would like to bring to my life in the coming weeks.
We hold sacred this practice of nurturing and acknowledging our Mother Earth, especially during the New Moon. This includes giving an offering to the tierra, the Earth, to sustain that familiar and love connection that we have with the Earth as a live being. The ritual is renewing for the Earth and for us. The idea is that we must help keep her alive, so we feed her and this connection between us. We open a wound, literally a hole in the ground, trying to always use the same one each month.
Maybe you are wondering, what could we possibly offer the Earth that she does not already have? Again, the idea is to bring her life and sustain our connection, so the act is as much symbolic as it is literal.
We save food from each meal that day, and also give her a bit of everything we have eaten during the month. The idea is not to give things you do not need anymore – the end of the candy jar, the last bit of leftovers, or the necklace you don’t wear anymore. Rather, it is important to offer things that have true worth for you, and even things you have been working with the whole month. The offering is like a summary of what we are grateful for from the past month. All of this we want to share with and give to Mother Earth.
For example, sometimes I even include in my offering Vitamin C or a certain type of tea that I have been using that month.
The Earth does everything that is in her power to keep us alive, so in turn, this is our way of nurturing this connection and showing our gratitude.
Indigenous people all around the world have been following the moon calendar since their existence, and also follow this ritual. New Moon is the time for planting and planning, and Full Moon is for harvesting.
We align with this by praying and giving on the New Moon. We give voice to what we want ot thank the Earth for, as well as what we want to receive in the weeks that follow. By giving and praying in this way, we can receive with humility and gratitude throughout the rest of the month.
During the Full Moon, we continue the offering, by giving liquid, milk, or plant medicine, to keep this offering of gratitude alive.
More on the Full Moon soon. For now, it is New Moon, and we are singing:
“Mother Earth, dear Mother Earth, we are here, we are here, hear our cry.”
