HOW TO LIVE: Happy Spring Equinox! Welcome to the Real New Year, Fellow Pagans!

Whaaa? you may be asking yourself. New Year’s was months ago, you wacky girl! Au contraire, my friends: that’s thinking for slaves to the Gregorian calendar, descendent of the Julian calendar, that invention of those oppressive Romans! Pagans, astrology types and the ultra-connected-to-the-heartbeat-of-the-universe know that today is the start of the astrological new year, as well as the approximate vernal equinox. The Sun moves into Aries, springtime is unfurling and it’s time to get this party started, as many a 90s hip-hop song exhorts. Doesn’t it make more sense for us Northern Hemispheric types to start a new year today? HELL YES. Here’s a list of ways to celebrate and harness this lovely time of the year, ranging from super-earnest touchy-feeliness to, you know, drunken fun.

LET’S START WITH DRUNKEN DEBAUCHERY AND FUN!
Too bad it’s going to be Monday tomorrow, but I hope you spent your nights this weekend frolicking under the “supermoon.” But a mere Monday has never stopped true stars-and-heavens-above connected pagans from indulging in revelry. You hereby have permission to extend the opening of the astro new year into a fortnight of pleasure. (As a universal power, my reach and authoritas is highly limited — to myself, basically — but whatever!) Drink mead in a forest, imbibe champagne with a table of lovelies, dump glitter in your bathtub and roll around like a gleefully nutso disco fairy…whatever it takes to get some effervescence happening in your life.

EMBARK ON A NEW CRUSH
Spring = renewed libidos. Take advantage of it! There is a school of thought that says that crushes have to happen organically. I am not of this school, believing that being in a state of crush is a vital expression of the youthful, joyous spirit. I think you can just be like, “I’m bored! I wanna have a crush! I’m gonna have a crush on you!” I think it’s perfectly lovely to be in a state of being perpetually charmed and excited about something or someone, however unreachable or unthinkable. Successful crushes are about journeys, not destinations, unencumbered by the weight of expectations and hopes! Think of it like Zen meditation in a really weird way. Pick something or someone, be excited when you see or hear about it/her/him/them, get all giddy when the universe gives you “signs” about your synchronicity, and just riot in the garden of infatuation for pure fun’s sake. Possible objects for crush: musicians (duh), co-workers, sales people, baristas, bartenders, your significant others. (It’s fun to have a crush again on your significant other.) One caveat: no exes! (Although if you really wanna go there, who am I to stop you?)

REAL NEW YEAR, REAL RESOLUTIONS
I always felt it was royally stupid to make resolutions in the middle of winter, with about 2-3 months left of soul-dampening weather. Who wants to exercise more, confront financial situations and generally be superhumanly productive when all you want to do is sleep and hibernate? Nonsensical, I tell you. Plus, the tenor of most New Year’s resolutions are so ego-based, or based on conforming to some outside ideal of success — which as we all know is a good but stupid way to buy into general bullshit and sometimes slightly kill your soul. It makes so much more spiritual sense to make intentions in the spring. So why not take this opportunity to look at your faux New Year’s resolutions, see how that’s panning out for you, and either recalibrate or dump them in favor of what your soul really needs?

ADVENTURE IN LARGE AND SMALL WAYS
The start of the astro year means the start of Aries! Let’s try a lifestyle experiment (or, if you’re not “lifestyle-inclined,” think of it like performance art): Use the beginning of each sun’s transit through a sign as a chance to try on that sign’s energy. In this case, that means Aries’ sense of adventure and bold endeavor. I know lots of Aries (particularly of the crusty punk dude types), and even a few rare reserved Aries, and they are all different beautiful universes of individuals — but I have NEVER known of an Aries who’s shied away from an adventure or challenge. I’m not saying you have to jump out of planes or get wasted and hurl yourself at your love interest (although that could be cool.) But I’m sure there’s some way you could extend beyond your usual boundaries, whether it’s finding a new band to get into or reading something out of your usual range or starting a whole new life endeavor, or indulgin that peculiarly Aries way of charmingly and “accidentally” making out with someone you like. (Oh, Aries, you’re so obviously cute!)

SPRING CLEANING DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A DRAG
The impulse behind spring cleaning is a wise and noble one, but why confine it to your closet or your house? Now’s the chance to take inventory of all your baggage and decide once and for all to get rid of that shit holding you back. Stupid love affair? Onerous parental expectations? GET RID OF IT. If you’re really truly a cleaning sort, dump some tiny, persistent soul-destroyer with every item you toss in the garbage. Start a forest fire in your heart and blaze away what’s not working for you.

Those above pics are what you get in the top results when you Google Image search “vernal equinox.” These following, however, are my equinox babies…wild roses and forget-me-nots! And they’re not even dead yet!

Related Posts

• April 25, 2011 -- HOW TO LIVE: Let’s Pretend We’re Tauruses! (10)
• July 14, 2010 -- An Astrological Guide to Arthouse Cinema: Movies With Subtitles That Will Actually Keep An Aries Entertained (13)
• September 19, 2011 -- Let’s All Have a Crush on Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train (8)

Tags: anti-Gregorian calendar, Aries, astrology, crushes, equinox, HOW TO LIVE, paganism, revelry, spring cleaning

This entry was posted by Kat on Sunday, March 20th, 2011 at 11:36 pm and is filed under HOW TO LIVE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.