Are you doing any rituals for the Equinox?

[pixel_fortune]

I find the equinoxes more powerful times than the solstices, being at the balance point before one thing transitions into another. I usually do a major tarot reading at this time.

Just wondering if anyone has rituals or magical work planned for the upcoming equinox? (Anything beyond the wheel of the year sabbat, for pagans)

In the Golden Dawn, they change passwords at the equinoxes. A tarot blogger called

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a personal version of this, where you choose a symbolic guiding word for the next 6 months (then ceremonially destroy it and choose a new one after that)

The Essence Of The Ceremony Of The Equinox
So, here’s how to apply this ritual formula to your life. You can use these questions as journaling prompts or pull a tarot card for each one.

1. Abrogate your password. What outdated idea or belief is ruling your day to day life? Toss it in the compost heap.
2. Invite balance. What brings balance to your life?
3. Lay down the role that no longer serves you. What is keeping you attached to your outdated idea from step 1? How can you lose this role?
4. Remove the four elements from the altar. The four elements are the basic ingredients of life. We must have them. But sometimes they get out of balance. We take them apart to bring each back into balance. What structure needs to be taken apart at this time?
5. Briefly contemplate the fact that at this point in your ritual, you no longer have a password, role, or even the basic ingredients of life. As you feel this emptiness, remember that the Divine is everywhere, even now, here. Even when you feel like you have nothing. Feel the Divine fill your emptiness.
6. As you feel the presence of the Divine, choose a new password. This is your theme for the next six months! It’s your intention, your bountiful harvest that you can achieve by the spring equinox.
7. Replace the four elements on the altar. From these simple components, you can build anything. What new foundation do you need to lay so that you can build your new goal?
8. Choose your new role in life. This is the quality you will develop that will most help you reach your goal.

 

[Yazata]

It's a nice idea. But here I go being a dick:

In the discussion in the thread by Diluculo it was brought up that it is expected to at least add something of your own to content rather than copy-paste something from somewhere else.

I know you can create good posts and I appreciate a lot of them. So please, add some sauce and herbs next time.

 

[pixel_fortune]

Fair!

 

[Anziel_Merkaba]

I'm ruminating on some ideas. Thinking since it's occurring on a Wednesday, I might toss some planetary magic into the mix. Feels like it would be a good time for a working involving finding new employment or forming business relationships.

 

[Yazata]

I was reading a bit about Ostara / Eostre today, as the time of the Equinox is here, and I had to smile. It is believed and claimed and disputed and rejected and defended and contested that Ostara is a pre-Christian Germanic Goddess of fertility and the Spring.
The descriptions call her a herald of the sun(light). So this – obviously – makes you think of Venus as the Morning Star.
On Wikipedia I read a reference to a writing by a protestant pastor where he discredits Catholicism (apparantly) by making the connection between Ishtar and Ostara. The English for Ostara is Eostre and Easter is drived from this.

The pronunciation of Ishtar obviously is close to Easter, and Ostara is also (somewhat) similar to Astarte who is associated with Venus.
But the claim was thoroughly debunked because Ishtar was never depicted with an Easter Bunny or something.
So take that!
Is Ostara Astarte? Of course not.
Will the world end if you dedicate a ritual to Astarte this Equinox? Of course not.

The beginning of Spring is a great time to “plant a seed”, and that's what I'm gonna do.

 

[pixel_fortune]

The pronunciation of Ishtar obviously is close to Easter, and Ostara is also (somewhat) similar to Astarte who is associated with Venus.

Oh I have such a bee in my bonnet about this one!! (You always see viral posts on social media in the lead-up for easter, and they're always riddled with misinfo - you probably read a stronger case for it than they usually make.)

A lot of "Christian thing comes from ancient pagan thing" relies on words sounding similar in English. It seems really uhh Anglocentric, is that a term? (Probably this was covered in the wikipedia article but the word for "Easter" in most languages is based on Passover and is some variant on "Pesach".)

The beginning of Spring is a great time to “plant a seed”, and that's what I'm gonna do.

It's the Autumn Equinox here, and I'm always telling myself I'll do some ritual that will help me ease the passage into winter with grace and nobility, but in practice I'm always desperately checking the weather forecast and begging the universe for one more warm day before the Six Months of Dreariness begins. No grace or appreciation for the cycles of nature whatsoever. (I live in a city where it's a cliche to complain about the weather, but it doesn't stop me).

 

[Yazata]

I like to believe words can go from one culture into another and then change meaning, so I really have no problem with thinking of Easter as being related to Ishtar. And even if there's no relation at all, I see no harm in the link. No matter how many hardcore debunkers are screaming against it
Also not sure why that protestant thought it was such a gotcha and it would smear Catholicism if the Princess of the Dawn was secretly venerated here.

Yes, in Dutch it's called Pasen (sounds like Passover). "Pa" is Dutch for father, so Jesus was "sent" back to his Pa. The T in sent obviously is the crux duh!

Get that bee out from under your bonnet before it stings you and you walk around here with a swollen head

 

[pixel_fortune]

even if there's no relation at all, I see no harm in the link.

Oh 100%! - my bee is not with you, my bee is with the social media posts which are often full of fake facts (similar to the ones around Christmas time - there's nothing wrong with connecting Horus to Jesus, that's a common thing in the occult. but when I see posts "proving" Jesus is just a copy of Horus by saying Isis was a virgin, I get irritated (I guess it doesn't count if the penis has been severed?).

The purpose of these posts is usually either atheists or faux-feminists erasing the complexity of history (or spreading outright falsehoods) to make an irrelevant point for social media Likes (you're not doing any of those things! It's totally different! No bees here! )

not sure why that protestant thought it was such a gotcha and it would smear Catholicism

So they were calling Catholics pagans. At that time, Protestants didn't want people celebrating Christmas or birthdays or singing in church - it was all idolatry and paganism to them (and therefore devil worship).

They were saying that Catholic celebration of Easter was really just Ishtar worship.

It is a BIT funny that smug atheists use Protestant propaganda as their source

Get that bee out from under your bonnet before it stings you

The bee is because I'm a former atheist who still agrees with a lot of that position, and still a feminist. You always get more angry/cringy when it's people on your "side" being stupid and reductive - "you're making the rest of us look bad!"

I suppose HGA-work wise, it's worth noticing though. I am trying to pay more attention to these minor "sins" (obstacles). Looking for the positive impulse (desire for truth) and rescuing it from under the pile of wasted energy and negativity, so it can make itself useful

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

Just my combined daily list of rituals from Kraig and Christopher, all exercises. My therapist wants me to do spells or rituals to help relieve past trauma incurred. So likely a lot of IOB rituals.