Spring Season, Easter Season

Easter, with its ancient pagan origins as a lunar-timed festival,
is always the first Sunday following the first Spring Full Moon.

This year, the first Spring (Aries) Full Moon =
March 30, 2010, at 2:27 am UT.

So Easter is on Sunday, April 4, 2010.

We then count backwards 40 days (without counting Sundays)
to arrive at Mardi Gras (this year, Feb 16).
Lent begins the following day on Ash Wednesday.

 

 

Easter, the season of rebirth, rejuvenation
rising from the dead, from the dead of winter
shaking out of hibernation
awakening from slumber, sloth, inertia

season of fertility, potency, vitality
celebration of new life, a new dawn
the triumph of light over darkness, and life over death

 

so what's with the bunnies and eggs ?

read more here:

Celebrating Spring

Pagan roots of Easter

 

 

Enjoy the following text by Steve Nelson
exploring the Source of this
Carnival-Lent-Easter Season ~

Awakening & Taming of the Dragon

Preparation for Spring rebirth is a key part of the annual cycle
of celebrations in all ancient traditions.
A mid-winter Carnival is followed by a Lent period,
a time of abstinence and spiritual discipline.

The Saxons and Angles of ancient Europe
observed fasting and sexual abstinence
during the two weeks before the Spring Equinox.
These practices were well established in Europe
long before the advent of the Catholic church.

It was their custom to apply ashes to the head during this time.
Wood ash applied to the brow during Lent
stimulates this center and helps raise the vital energy
awakened in the lower chakras during Carnival.

According to the old formula,
the primal Dragon is awakened during Carnival
and tamed during Lent.
Many of the ancient practices and later additions of the church
are designed to serve the purpose of
psychic awakening and transformation.

Meditation, prayer, and vegetarian diet
help heighten sensitivity to the joys of the natural world.
The Lenten practices can also help in deepening self awareness
and gaining more freedom of self-expression.
Freedom of choice is always possible when an impulse first begins.
Meditation at this time helps lower the lumen of consciousness
so that undesirable psychic energies
can be more easily be brought to awareness and released.

Many celebrate Carnival and ignore Lent.
Others follow the customs of Lent but have forgotten Carnival.
By observing both it becomes possible to
move beyond the old duality of repression or obsession.

This ìnoble middle wayî is ultimately
more energetic and brings great benefits.
And the bigger the Dragon
awakened during Carnival and tamed during Lent,
the more psychic power is available for creative works
in the Spring and Summer seasons.

 

The forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness
is the prototype for Lent in the Christian tradition.
When he meets the devil on the mountain
Jesus doesn't say "Get off my mountain."
He says ìGet ye behind me.î
That's hardly what would be said to a real enemy.

This biblical encounter suggests
an integration of the shadow at this time in the annual cycle.
And Sunday is the weekday best suited for psychic integration.

It is common in the old Catholic tradition to exclude Sundays from Lent
and to allow oneself on Sunday what is otherwise given up for Lent.
This can act as a relief valve and may also bring
more consciousness (Sun) to the particular issue at hand.

Lent is the scapegoat season favored for stirring people to war.
Projection of shadow is the psychological term for scapegoating.
All who repress the shadow are subject to
being manipulated through this mechanism.
Shadow projection is happening on all fronts now,
it is something to be cautious about.
No one is all light and no one is all shadow,
demonizing conjures demons, giving energy to the good brings out the good.

Personal liberation is the primary purpose of the Lent tradition.

 

Dragon Taming Methods

A good psychic yoga for ìdragon tamingî
is to allow perception of what is disturbing or distracting
while breathing more deeply
and giving attention to the light above the crown of the head.

First do neck rolls to relieve the tension in the neck
that tends to keep the head disconnected from the body.
Then sit with the back straight and focus on the light
and on the ideals that you want to make real.

It will be natural,
when the neck and abdomen are tension free,
to feel energy flowing from the sexual center.
It is important not to repress this perception
nor to give it undue direct attention.

In the old esoteric school, focusing directly on primal energy
was called ìlooking the dragon in the eyeî.
Then, of course, the primal ìdragonî can take over
and the charge of energy is apt to be lost.
However, if the focus of attention continues to be on the ideal,
then that is what gets energized.

The more disciplined the personal imagination becomes,
the stronger the channel for transformation
and the more primal current can be aptly channeled.

The light above the head is sometimes called
ìthe soul starî.
Full incarnation of this soul light is a goal of our spiritual evolution.
Attention given to the soul light over the crown of the head
allows positive thought forms to take shape there.

Conscious direction or ìsublimationî of primal energy
in no way diminishes personal sexuality.
All natural systems are strengthened in the raising of the primal current.
This is the electricity that runs all other systems
and there is an abundant supply.
It only needs to be conducted to where it is needed.

Lent is more about
opening to the joys of the world than it is about self denial.
Only addictions and other habit patterns that inhibit
personal experience and Self-realization are to be eliminated.

The time for psychic weeding continues until the first
Spring Full Moon (March 30, 2010, 2:27 am UT).
Easter is then on Sunday, April 4, 2010.

Easter, with ancient pagan origins as a lunar-timed festival,
is always the first Sunday following the first Spring Full Moon.

We are called to become like the flowers of Spring and
unfold the petals of our creative self-hood.
As sap flows upward through plant stems all around,
so vital energy is flowing upward inside us now.
The appreciation of natural beauty helps
in unfolding the subtle powers of the higher centers.
The more the windows of perception are opened
and attention is given to what is beautiful and elevating,
the more will there be an experience of natural ecstasy.
And the easier will it be to let go
of whatever keeps the soul from being free.

Happy Lent! Happy Easter!

 

Steve Nelson is a professional astrologer, cycles researcher, and mythologist
living in Charlotte, NC.
Email SteveNelson@carolina.rr.com

Thank you Steve !