Spring Equinox is here! In this episode, we discuss what spring equinox is and what you need to know to help you prepare for it. Equinox comes from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night. It's the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth. Discover how to take advantage of the powerful energy of spring. Use this time to awaken from hibernation in winter to plant the seeds of your intentions for the year.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
Ep #16: Cleanse Your Way To Health
Ep #12: Yoga For Health Wealth and Happiness
Ep #9: Growing Pains and Not Growing Feel Good
Ep #3: Wash Your Brain Daily with This Daily Practice
Transcript: (Read Time: 19 Minutes)
Siri Shakti: Welcome to the RockStar In Life Podcast, where you learn the secrets to unleashing your inner RockStar, so you can make the world your stage.
Dr. Dan: Hey fellow RockStars In Life, Dr. Dan here, and I've got my lovely co-host, Siri Shakti, in the house.
Siri Shakti: What's up everyone?
Dr. Dan: That's right. So today, we're going to be talking about something that's happening right now, right?
Siri Shakti: Yep. It is currently happening.
Dr. Dan: It is currently happening, and you probably didn't even know it's happening.
Siri Shakti: That's right.
Dr. Dan: Some of you might, some of you might not.
Siri Shakti: Yes, and I know I say this a lot. This is my favorite thing to talk, but actually-
Dr. Dan: They're all our favorite. That's why.
Siri Shakti: All of our favorite. But this is something that I love talking about with people, and it's something that I just started learning about a few years ago. I always picked up on the different feelings that each season has, and I know when … I'm sure that you've experienced this. When you have a change of season, like for instance, we just moved into springtime.
There's just something in the air. There's a different quality, like a different energy to it. For instance, anytime we'd start coming into autumn, I would always say to my mom, “I feel the autumn in the air. I want to go make some pumpkin pies and things like that.”
Well, being that we're now into spring, I'm sure that many of you are having the sensation of wanting to get outside more. I know some of you live in areas where you haven't really gotten to experience it yet because there's still snow on the ground, and it's still raining and things like that. But over the next few weeks, you're going to see that shift as we move further into spring.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, the winter months, I just get depressed.
Siri Shakti: I know.
Dr. Dan: I'm like tired because it sucks. It's hard here in Southern California. When it reaches 50 degrees or 55.
Siri Shakti: I know.
Dr. Dan: That's insane.
Siri Shakti: And we have to stay indoors. We can't even leave the house.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Those are the cold days. I mean, I know some evenings it can hit like 45 or something like that, and I know a lot of you that don't live in California are like scratching your head and just going, “You don't know the blizzards we've had here in New York or the East Coast or anywhere else in the world.”
Siri Shakti: Yes. I've been seeing pictures of some of my friends on the East Coast, and it's like covered with snow right now. So, I think we have it pretty easy.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, but that would be fun. I mean, I would like some snow maybe like … I don't know … maybe like three days every month would be cool. We can plan for it, and you could just press a button and then it's snowing.
Siri Shakti: Have a little talk with mother nature and see if we can get that to happen.
Dr. Dan: Yeah.
Siri Shakti: So what we're going to be discussing today is something called the spring equinox. The spring equinox, and just to get a little bit more into it, there's actually two equinoxes each year. There's one in March, and there's one … and actually, the one in March is usually around like the 21st. And then there's one in September, which is around the 22nd. The equinox is when the Sun is the closest to the equator, and then we have something called a solstice, which we also have two times a year. We have one in the summer. It's a summer solstice, and we have one that's the winter solstice, and that's actually when the sun is furthest away from the equator.
So right now, we're experiencing the closeness of the sun, and this particular equinox, the spring equinox, there's a specific name for it. It's called the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox is all about warmth and light and birth and rebirth. Really, I mean, it makes sense. When you think of spring, you think of that the rebirth. You see birds chirping everywhere, baby birds hatching and butterflies, and bees pollinating. There's this sensation for most of us. I know this is how I feel. That I want to get outside more. I want to be in the sunlight and also be more active. And so, the reason that we want to talk about this is, because, just like our last episode, where we discussed the-
Dr. Dan: Mercury.
Siri Shakti: Mercury. Yeah, there we go.
Dr. Dan: Mars.
Siri Shakti: And Mars, yeah. Mercury in retrograde. These types of things that happen with our planet and with our solar system, and these affect us as human beings. They're not just things that happen outside of us. We're a part of the natural world. And so, we want to educate you of what's happening right now on our planet so that way, you can utilize it very powerfully over these next few months while we're experiencing spring.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, I mean, think of it as like if you play games and those challenge games … I mean, it's really helpful to see a map of where you need to go to complete a mission if you're playing one of those mission-based type games. Or even in life, if you are a runner or if you're a race car driver, or if you do anything that it's helpful to kind of like see or take some test runs on what you're doing, so you know the conditions of what's going on. Or if you're sailing to know what the weather's going to be like, because you got to prepare for it.
Siri Shakti: That's right.
Dr. Dan: If there's a storm, you don't really want to get on a boat if there's a storm coming, and you could help it, right?
Siri Shakti: Right.
Dr. Dan: Unless you've got like a death wish. So knowing about Mars … not Mars. Mercury. I did it to myself now. Mercury in retrograde and knowing about the fall and the spring equinox and the summer solstice and all those things, it's helpful to know these things, so you can prepare for them better and prepare yourself for success.
Siri Shakti: Yeah, absolutely. What I love about … when I started learning about this is that there's things that you can do, and we're going to get to that in a few minutes, that you can do with each of these events to propel yourself powerfully in your life, and really, utilize the power of what's happening. That's really the art of being a human, right? is tapping into these forces that we're a part of, that we're not separate from whatsoever.
Dr. Dan: Yeah. I mean, every other species that I can think of prepares for these things. You know, like, bears will go hibernate when it's time, right?
Siri Shakti: Yeah.
Dr. Dan: Bats, bees, flowers, plants. I mean, flowers will bloom and hibernate themselves. They all prepare. I mean, it would be dumb for a flower to not hibernate in the cold months, because then it would die, and it knows this, and same thing goes for human nature. We're the only ones that force it out. It's like, “Hey, let's build a house where we have tornadoes and hurricanes,” or, “Let's build a house in the middle of below temperatures.” It's like you need to prepare for it. If you live in Alaska or somewhere that gets below zero, it would not be too smart for you to live in a tent, would it? No.
Siri Shakti: You could do it, but it's not very smart.
Dr. Dan: Not during the cold time, right?
Siri Shakti: Right.
Dr. Dan: I mean, when it's warmer, yeah, you can do that, but you would need to prepare and pack up that tent and either fly or drive somewhere that it gets warmer or get an insulated house with a fireplace.
Siri Shakti: Yes, yes. So the word … you know, all these words that we have like equinox, solstice, they have meaning. The word equinox is actually a Latin word, and it means equality of night and day. The equinox is the time that the sun actually crosses the earth's equator from south to north, and it's the one of only two times in the year when the day and night are equal in length, and obviously, that makes sense. That's why in Latin it means equality of night and day. So, I love learning like where our words came from, because most of our words, they have deep roots. And so, I thought that was a beautiful example.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, that's pretty.
Siri Shakti: Yeah. So what I want to get into first is I wanted to share with you, like, when I was researching this, I was curious to see how people around the world, how different cultures around the world currently celebrate and acknowledge the spring solstice in our own way. And so, I'd like to just go over a few examples of that. So celebrating the spring equinox in Korea and Japan, they do it by remembering family members, and they actually visit their graves, and it's very common in the Asian countries to do this. So, while we, in our Western society, we actually think of the spring equinox oftentimes as a celebration of new life.
Well, you can see that for them. In Asia, it's also a time to remember those that have passed. So, it's a celebration of life altogether, even if it had already passed. And also, and this one we know a little bit about, because I know, Dan, you're half Persian. So, growing up, you always celebrated the Persian New Year, right? With your family?
Dr. Dan: Yeah, because we always got money, so that was cool.
Siri Shakti: Okay.
Dr. Dan: I like money.
Siri Shakti: Well the first day of spring also marks the beginning of the Persian New Year, and this is a deeply rooted celebration that dates back over 3,000 years of tradition. This is not something recent that people have been celebrating.
Then, this is one that really is dear to my heart. I want to go here so badly. I want to visit England, and I want to go to Stonehenge. And every year, for the spring equinox, the pagans and the druids, they march to Stonehenge, and they celebrate it by watching the sun rise above the stones, and they do beautiful ceremonies and have flowers. People get all dressed up, and it's just absolutely beautiful. At one point, we're going to be doing that, right?
Dr. Dan: Awesome. Let's do it.
Siri Shakti: Yes. Yes. And then this one's kind of funny. This is a lesser-known celebration, and it's considerably more modern day one. This was created in the 1970s in a neighborhood in Maryland, and it's kind of funny. Yacht club members, they shed and burn their socks in celebration of springtime. Now, I didn't find any information of why exactly they chose socks.
Dr. Dan: I don't know. Maybe because they look at it as like, “Oh now we don't need socks with our boat shoes.”
Siri Shakti: “We can wear flip-flops now.” Celebration of flip-flop weather.
Dr. Dan: What are those called? Like Dockers or something? Or those are pants, but they had like those boat shoes. I forgot what they call them.
Siri Shakti: I don't know. I'd have to consult my boat friends that sail.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, talk to them. I think we'll just call them boat shoes.
Siri Shakti: But I just thought that was kind of funny.
Dr. Dan: Yep.
Siri Shakti: So maybe we should start doing that. We'll burn our socks for the spring equinox.
Dr. Dan: No, it's hard to get really good socks. Whenever I find them … and you know this.
Siri Shakti: Yeah.
Dr. Dan: Whenever I find good socks, then I go buy a bunch of them. So I have like 100 pairs of the ones that I like, because eventually, they wear out, and sometimes, they stop making those.
Siri Shakti: Right.
Dr. Dan: And so, I always wanted … And plus, you guys always steal my socks, so I always buy extra.
Siri Shakti: I don't know what you're talking about.
Dr. Dan: Exactly.
Siri Shakti: I never steal your socks.
Dr. Dan: I know.
Siri Shakti: Actually, it's funny. I do, and now, everyone else in the family steals your socks.
Dr. Dan: Well now everybody listening knows too.
Siri Shakti: Yep.
Dr. Dan: Yep. You're on notice. Busted.
Siri Shakti: So that's just a few examples of some different ways of celebrating. I know for me, around this time of year, I like to do things like put out flowers. I like to light candles like-
Dr. Dan: Burn incense.
Siri Shakti: … burn incense, which-
Dr. Dan: But you do that all year.
Siri Shakti: … you love, right?
Dr. Dan: Yeah, all year long.
Siri Shakti: You love my incense.
Dr. Dan: It's always a surprise smell through the house.
Siri Shakti: Yes. “What is that?”
Dr. Dan: I'm like, “Is that an incense or did somebody die? Smells like a decomposing body. Which one is it?”
Siri Shakti: It's sacred. It smells beautiful like a temple.
Dr. Dan: Okay. One of these days, we're going to have a dead body in the house and I'm not going to know. I'm going to be like, “I thought that was an incense.”
Siri Shakti: One thing I love to do as well is doing sage, and we'll get into this a little at the end when I talk about some of the things you do yourself.
Dr. Dan: Well some people that don't know what sage is, can you explain what that is?
Siri Shakti: Yeah. So, sage is an herb, and it's been used for so long, in ancient traditions and Native Americans.
Dr. Dan: And you smoke it, right? You put it in a bong and you smoke it?
Siri Shakti: No.
Dr. Dan: No, don't do that.
Siri Shakti: You light it and you go around the house.
Dr. Dan: It looks like a bush in your hand, is what it looks like. It kind of reminds me of like, not that it looks like it, but it reminds me of like mistletoe, like you're walking around … It doesn't look like mistletoe, but it's like you're walking around with a bushel of mistletoe and you're burning it.
Siri Shakti: It's my burning bush.
Dr. Dan: Your burning bush, yes. Burn your bushes.
Siri Shakti: When I go around the house, and it helps to cleanse the home of any stagnant energy. I mean, some people believe that it gets rid of like bad spirits and things like that.
Dr. Dan: No, it's great. Even if you had like a lot of negativity or whatever. If we've ever had anybody visit, and we're like, “Man, they really just sucked the energy out of us,” then you can. Yeah, you can just light it and either go through the whole house or the rooms that they were in. So it's great. You don't have to just wait till like spring or fall.
Siri Shakti: No, you can do it anytime. I do it throughout the year, and you can even add like beautiful incantations or little prayers, as you're walking around. I mean, you can just create it the way that you want it.
Dr. Dan: I do it every time my wife leaves the house. She just looked at me like, “Grr.”
Siri Shakti: All right. We're going to have to have a little talk after this.
Dr. Dan: Sounds good.
Siri Shakti: Yes.
Dr. Dan: That'll be the deleted scenes of this.
Siri Shakti: And something else that I wanted to share with you when I was researching this beautiful topic of spring equinox is, I'm fascinated with how the ancient traditions of how our ancient ancestors would celebrate this. There's actually so many more examples than what I'm going to give right here, but I just gave the top five that I was like, “Oh this is so cool.” So, the Mayans, in South America, have also been known for their reverence, of the equinoxes, always. They would have great celebrations. They constructed the temple, and I'm going to do my best to say this word. I looked it up, and I think I'm saying it right. It's Kukulkan. No, yeah, Kukulkan.
So it was a sacred temple, which was designed in such a way that only on the equinox, the sun would … It would shine into the temple a certain way, and it would project the image of a serpent onto the walls. The image of a serpent is such a powerful symbolism, and it's been used for so long as a symbol of transformation and rebirth. So, you can see how they go hand in hand. And then the Celtic tradition, which I'm totally fascinated with and love researching, they have their folklore of course. It was said that the equinox was the only day of the year when an egg could be stood on its end, which honestly, I don't even think that's possible, but we can appreciate the story.
And again, just like the snake is a powerful symbol for rebirth, of course, the egg is a perfect symbol of springtime, of new beginnings, of rebirth. Yeah, you know, the hatching of the egg. That's really beautiful. And archeologically, there is so much evidence that suggests that people have been admiring and decorating eggs long before Easter ever came into play. The egg remains fairly common around the world, and it's used as a symbol in so many different traditions, as that symbol of new life and rebirth and things like that. In the pre-Christian Europe, which is like the Anglo-Saxons, they worshiped a beautiful goddess named Ostara. I love learning about this.
Ostara was traditionally seen … and you'll notice, like if you look it up on Google, you'll see she's this beautiful goddess and she's holding eggs, and she's usually standing next to a sacred symbol, which is the rabbit. She was a symbol of fertility. She was the moon goddess. And so, that was their gods that they worshiped all the time, but especially, during this time of the spring equinox.
Dr. Dan: So she didn't like boiled eggs and color them and …
Siri Shakti: No.
Dr. Dan: And hiding Easter egg baskets and doing an Easter egg hunt?
Siri Shakti: She wasn't. I don't know too much about this. I mean, I have read a little bit here and there, but a lot of the things that we consider to be part of Easter are, in fact, very old symbolisms and traditions that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and the Celtic traditions that were later on adopted by the early Christians. And so, I find that to be so beautiful. We tend to think that everything that we celebrate is just like, you know, this is how it always was, and this is … but that's even like Christmas. I know we've talked about so many of the traditions in Christmas date back. So, their roots are so tied in ancient traditions that it didn't even come really from the Christian religion.
So, I highly suggest that you do a little bit of research yourself and learn about things like this, because, for me, it only adds more beauty in knowing where things were rooted, and it gives me more of a feeling of reverence for any symbolism that I use in my traditions and my holidays and things like that.
Dr. Dan: Yeah, and learning is good.
Siri Shakti: Yeah.
Dr. Dan: Yep. Always be learning.
Siri Shakti: Yes. Well what do we always say? Whatever is not learning or growing is dying?
Dr. Dan: Yeah, if you're not growing, then what are you doing? You're dying.
Siri Shakti: Yeah.
Dr. Dan: So, always be growing, which is learning.
Siri Shakti: Yes.
Dr. Dan: And cool stuff like that.
Siri Shakti: Yes. Well, being that we've discussed that this, you know, the idea of the changing of season is a part of you. Well we want to discuss a little bit about what are some things that we can do to honor the spring equinox within ourselves. When I think of the spring equinox, it is a perfect time to set new intentions, because things are blossoming, things are renewing. It's that rebirth. And so, what I like to do around this time of year is I think about, “What are my goals for this next part of my life for these next few months?”
If you're someone that enjoys practicing yoga or meditation, I like to choose a new meditation or something new in my yoga practice. And you can go ahead and practice it for, well, as long as you want, but if you practice it for 40 days, then it becomes a part of you. It becomes a new habit. So I highly suggest that you choose some sort of new practice that you want to implement.
Dr. Dan: Nice. I know quite a few people … I was reading that a lot of people like to do cleanses.
Siri Shakti: Right.
Dr. Dan: They like to go detox and do a cleanse during the equinox, because it's believed … I mean, I didn't look into the science on this, but it's believed that it affects the thickness of the blood and it makes it thinner. And when it's thinner, even just a little bit, just slightly, it's a good time to cleanse because the blood moves faster, and therefore, it speeds the elimination of toxins.
Siri Shakti: Wow. That is so cool. That was something that I just learned today. I mean, as we were learning about this, when you said that, I was like, “Oh I want to go on a cleanse now.”
Dr. Dan: Yeah, that'd be pretty interesting to see when we've done cleanses because I would actually bet that we probably did them around those times, because we just felt the urge to do it.
Siri Shakti: Right, yeah. Actually, it's funny that you said that, because today, when I was thinking about what I wanted to make for dinner, and I'm like, “Let's just order some pizza, because it's easier,” but I felt like my body was like calling to have healthy foods like water-rich foods. So I guess I should listen to that.
Dr. Dan: Yeah. I usually never turn down pizza and I did. I said, “I want something healthy.”
Siri Shakti: Yeah, so, I ate pizza. You ate something healthy.
Dr. Dan: Exactly. Perfect.
Siri Shakti: And I encourage you very much to really get outside more. I mean-
Dr. Dan: Do some earthing.
Siri Shakti: … do some earthing. Get your body moving more. You don't have to overly push yourself, but get outside and go on some walks. Maybe go on a hike. Something I enjoyed doing is going and buying some new pots and planning some new flowers or vegetable garden. Oh of course, spring cleaning, right? Yeah. Well actually, the meditations and the yoga and prayer and things like that, I consider that the internal spring cleaning. So you can do that, but also, there's a reason why people traditionally clean their homes like really clean their homes during spring.
It's because you want to cleanse your home, get rid of clutter, dust and have that feeling of lightness. Just like when you go outside, you feel that feeling of lightness in the air. We want that in our homes as well.
Dr. Dan: Yeah. I mean, this morning, I actually felt the urge … I grabbed the yoga mat, and I actually did it on the balcony.
Siri Shakti: That's so cool. And I didn't know you were out there, and I let the dog out, and he was barking like crazy. Made it really fun for you.
Dr. Dan: Fortunately, that was towards the end, so-
Siri Shakti: Sorry.
Dr. Dan: … I was like meditating, and I'm like, “Yeah, feels good. No, Jingo. Stop. Stop barking. Stop.”
Siri Shakti: We were testing you to see how you could focus.
Dr. Dan: Yeah. Well I was pretty focused, so it was pretty awesome.
Siri Shakti: Yeah.
Dr. Dan: So get outside. Do some yoga. Do some meditations. Go swim in a lake, in the ocean. Get your feet at least in the sand.
Siri Shakti: Yes, yes.
Dr. Dan: In the water.
Siri Shakti: Cleanse your home. One thing I've been listening to some other podcast recently about minimalism, and eventually, I do want to talk about that. Although we are not minimalist ourselves, I'm very interested in it because one thing I've heard many times over the years is that everything that you own holds on to energy. And so, the more things that you own holds onto more emotion and energy that oftentimes can hinder in a way, and I feel that. When we go out into our garage, we have a lot of things in there. I feel like cluttered and internally frustrated by it. So, this past week, I've started cleaning out things, and it's a slow process, but I'm already seeing the difference of how it's going to be when I achieve what my goal is for our home.
Dr. Dan: Nice.
Siri Shakti: Well is there anything else you like to add before we move on to our RockStar mission?
Dr. Dan: No, I'm good. I think we should get into the RockStar mission. But before we do, I want to remind you to go to rockstarinlife.com for links to the resources mentioned: This episode's transcript, download the free books, training, yoga, meditation, homeschooling advice and so much more being added every single week. Go to rockstarinlife.com and join the Rockstar In Life revolution today.
Siri Shakti: Awesome. All right. So, for our RockStar mission, I'm going to touch on what we just finished with, which was how we are going to access and work with the spring equinox on a very personal level. And so, there's two parts to this. Number one, I mentioned the internal spring cleaning, so that has to do with doing like meditation, doing yoga, maybe even just sitting for a few moments each day and having some quiet time to reflect, where you're not being interrupted, things like that. So that is that internal spring cleaning. I want you to pick one thing that you're going to start doing over this next month in the next 30 days that's going to help you with your internal world.
And so, after you've done that, next is working on your external world. The external world would be like getting outside, going out and exercising outside. We'd be going earthing or going on hikes. It would be maybe things like spring cleaning your home. Yeah, things like that. So that's an external world. I want you to choose one of those things that is going to help you. Oh I forgot the cleanse. That would be another one. So I want you to choose one of those you feel is going to help you with this transition of moving into spring and working with the spring equinox.
Dr. Dan: Yep. Unless you want to be an overachiever, which we know you do, and you want to do multiple.
Siri Shakti: Heck yeah. I mean-
Dr. Dan: Heck yeah.
Siri Shakti: … I'm already thinking, “Let's go on a cleanse and let's clean our home.”
Dr. Dan: So at least choose one or two of those things. I'll say one or two and more, if you are an overachiever and you really want to rock this equinox.
Siri Shakti: That's right. All right guys. Well this was beautiful and don't forget to get out there and be a rockstar in your life.
Dr. Dan: Make the world your stage.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to RockStar In Life, your source for unleashing your inner rock star. For more tips, training and free stuff, be sure to go to rockstarinlife.com and join the RockStar In Life revolution today. Thanks again, and don't forget to make the world your stage.
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