The Wheel of the Year as a Spiritual Psychology for Women
At Spring Equinox, we honor both the Divine Girl Child and the Return of Persephone.
To have a Holy Day specifically for the sacred Girl-Child is radical work; when we create healing rituals for girls, that healing goes out to the universe for all girls: past, present, future and beyond. The Divine Girl-Child is the beginning of us, our life force – our vitality. Psychological patterns are laid down within the first two years of life. During our Divine Girl-Child ritual, participants are given a ball of clay to represent the brain. They are invited – with words, song, movement – to look at ways their exuberance and creativity may have been harmed as a child, and how that harm may have been ingrained. They then smooth or reshape the ball of clay, symbolically creating new pathways. This healing activity can free up incredible amounts of creative energy, and connect us with the incredible resilience of children.
From a spiritual and psychological standpoint, the transition from winter into spring is a restructuring time. We may feel a stirring of new life, new ideas, or a movement from inertia to growth. There are many ways to return from an Underworld or Innerworld experience – it is not always a comfortable time. How can we help each other through this turbulent re-entry? We Answer in ritual. We begin with purification – a sweat, or a bath in a river, the ocean, – to clear away the dross of deep inner work. Then we move toward Return. This may take the form of an actual journey through the woods, or through guided meditation. We may enact a meeting with Hecate and a welcome by Demeter to the Outerworld, easing into spring, the time of restructuring. It is important to be gentle and caring with each other, to assure full and complete reintegration. We have been to Hel and back. That we returned at all is often miracle enough.