On this episode, Michael Meade considers ancient understandings and practices related to the Spring equinox as well as deeper meanings of the word “balance.” What ancient people intuitively knew that modern people need to rediscover is that the balance of the earth and the cosmos is tipped towards ongoing creation and a renewal of life at both predictable points and at critical times.

While many ancient people felt aligned with cosmic rhythms and nature’s ways, modern people tend to be cosmologically disoriented and primarily connected to history. This loss of the instinctive connection between the cosmos and the human soul has profound effects on life on Earth at this time. Without a felt sense for a living cosmology, life can seem increasingly random and pointless. The sense of cosmological dislocation diminishes our sense of self as well as our reverence for life.

Rituals of renewal, some of which were enacted at the time of the equinox, sought to stop the loss of energy and imagination that leads to a decrease in the quality of life. Rather than being a fixed point of balance, the Spring equinox would also be a crack in the wall of time and an opening in the cosmos, through which people could assist in the renewal of life, not simply by celebrating, but also by helping raise the quality of life energy on Earth.