3.22.2024
Wait--you mean it's not Winter anymore?
Yes, I completely missed the Spring Equinox.
That’s partly because the date usually falls on March 20, with 19 and 21 being outliers.
According to my BFF ChatGPT:
The spring equinox can occur on March 19, 20, or 21, and its date varies from year to year due to the difference between the Gregorian calendar year of 365.2425 days and the tropical year of 365.24219 days. This means that the date of the equinoxes can shift by a day or two over time, and it takes approximately 400 years for the equinoxes to shift by one calendar day.
Past that, GPT gets hilariously confused when asked to explain why (or even when) specific celestial events fall on certain days. But for practical purposes, the last March 19th year before this one was 2020, and before that 2016—but not 2012, so give up on the “every four years” fantasy. The most common date is March 20, but I obviously missed that as well!
So now it’s today, and I want to catch up in two ways. First, I’ll highlight the folks who tried (by way of my Inbox) to alert me to the Equinox. And second, I’ll flash back to last year’s turn of the season.
Inbox Harbingers
1
Visit that post, and you’ll find a link to this quite beautiful page filled with Spring lore:
The page includes journal prompts, a brief history of Ostara, a tour of Spring symbols, ideas for creative projects, and much more.
2
Over at Llewellyn, there’s a Spring sale!
And their Equinox newsletter offers a Spring-inspired “Meadow Spread,” using the Bee Tarot.
3
For a pleasant shift from text to sound, here’s a Spring playlist shared by Wanderer’s Tarot.
Not sure I completely grasp the thematics—but an intriguing mix of artists!
The Flashback . . .
The onset of Spring is our first major marker for the year. The two equinoxes (when day and night are equal in length) and two solstices (when either day or night is at its longest) remind us that we live on a planet, in a solar system, in a universe.
Rachel Pollack has an innate sense of that larger reality—and a rare gift for sharing her awareness with others.
It seems Rachel will be leaving us soon. Her brilliant, multifaceted body of work will remain, which offers consolation. But everyone who knows her (or appreciates her work) will miss her presence terribly.
I’ve known Rachel a little for many years, as we were brought together by a shared interest in serious Tarot. I didn’t really focus, though, on the range of her accomplishments. I’ve only now taken a more careful look—and to say I was impressed is to say the least.
I’m planning a series of Daily Notes this week, with more about Rachel, her work, and her personal gifts. I hope you’ll join me, and share any comments you may have.
To start with, a focus on her uniquely thoughtful and visually inspiring Tarot deck, The Shining Tribe. Here’s a brief description, from The Fool’s Dog:
Shining Tribe Tarot takes us to a mythic realm inspired by fifty thousand years of culturally diverse art. Sourced from ancient rock carvings, shamanic art from global cultures, the Kabbalah, and Jungian psychology, Shining Tribe is powerful, sophisticated, and utterly unique.
In Shining Tribe, the suits are renamed as Trees, Rivers, Birds, and Stones, and the royalty have become The Place, The Knower, The Gift, and The Speaker. The Major Arcana provides a map of the soul’s journey from birth to enlightenment, and the Minors show the kaleidoscope of human experience in all its varied forms.
Author/artist Rachel Pollack is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Tarot. “All of us who work with Tarot form a kind of tribe, one whose roots go back many thousands of years before the actual appearance of Tarot cards. This is the tribe of diviners, those special magicians, shamans, psychics, and visionaries who use cards, or sticks, or trees, or stones, or shells to communicate with the Gods.”
If you’d like to know more about Rachel’s process for creating the Shining Tribe, here’s a wonderful interview. It includes this illustration . . .
I can’t believe it’s been a year since then.
If you haven’t already, please help yourself to this collection of EP posts about Rachel’s extraordinary life and work.
More soon. C