Farewell to March and A Final Sign of Spring

On the evening of the Vernal Equinox, I stood in the dark silence of the night and looked up to find the "Big Dipper." I wanted to know if it was indeed in its appointed place according to the time of year .... The "Big Dipper" is actually a group of stars in the Constellation "Ursa Major," and is apparently called by that name only in America. Ursa Major, or the "Big Bear" is certainly a very ancient constellation, known to the Mesopotamians, and the Indians of North America, as well as cultures of the Old World and Siberia. The identification of the "Bear" may date the constellation to as long ago as 8,000 to 10,000 years, about the time of the migrations across the Bering Straits.

The "Big Dipper" is not, properly speaking a constellation, but is a part of those constellations which we call "circumpolar." It is important to those of us who in North America
learn to "find" the north star by following an imaginary line from the "bowl" of the dipper to the tiny star which has lead the way home for travelers of so many millennia.

In the Rocky Mountains, in late fall, if I gaze Heavenward to find the Dipper, it seems to be laying down on its side, and just fits into an indentation formed by the ending slopes of two ridges which are highlighted against the deep space sky of a mountain hideaway that is not polluted by artificial light. At that time of year, it rests very close to the horizon, almost snuggled into the silhouetted mountains. Here in the Mid-west, in the spring of the year, the Big Dipper is very high-flying, almost directly overhead, and it stands straight up on end, as though it is performing a miraculous balancing act pirouetting on its handle. As I gazed skyward on the evening of the Vernal Equinox, the Big Dipper seemed very near to me, and big, and I followed the trail from the edge of the "bowl" to the tiny speck of light which is Polaris, the North Star.

Finding the little chart which shows the seasonal rotation of the "Bears Tail" or Big Dipper was a piece of serendipity, which confirmed for me the impressions I've had of the behavior of the Dipper at different times of the year and which also stirs memories of the "sacred circle" of stars which surround Polaris and which is celebrated in some lore shared by the Lakota and Dakota Nations. The far northern region of the world in which this "Big Bear" dances around the sacred circle is called the Arctic, the abode of Arktos, which in Greek means "Bearish."

March and the Things That Come With It: Being a Synchronicity of Hare, Rabbits and the Moon.

While exploring a very interesting blog which I've recently discovered, I learned it is a British custom to say "rabbits" at the end of a month and "hare" at the morning of the first day of the beginning month. So, perhaps,my little white rabbit, from February 27, (who's doppelganger lives in the Lady Chapel of St. David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire Wales) was pointing to an even earlier and more "earthy" connection to the changing of the seasons than my narrow focus on carnival and Mardi Gras warranted. They did give me a day's warning though so I was able to cast about for the actual message they were sending.

Then on the 11th of March, the full moon rose a breathtaking shade of harvest orange and turned quickly to white light .... five minutes later, there was most
definitely a "hare in the moon." In Celtic mythology, Eostre was the goddess associated with the moon, and with mythic stories of death, redemption, and resurrection during the turning of winter to spring. Eostre was also said to be a shape–shifter, taking the shape of a hare at each full moon. There was also a sacred connection between hares and various goddesses, warrior queens, and female faeries, and the belief that old "wise women" could shape–shift into hares by moonlight. The Celts used rabbits and hares for divination and other shamanic practices by studying the patterns of their tracks, the rituals of their mating dances, and mystic signs within their entrails. It was believed that rabbits burrowed underground in order to better commune with the spirit world, and so that they could carry messages from the living to the dead and from humankind to the faeries.

The stories of the hare as a sacred symbol, and sacred to the goddess appear to be universal .... the earliest depiction of three chasing hares is found as ceiling paintings in Buddhist cave temples in China dating to the fifth and sixth centuries CE. Other examples are
found on Iranian and Jewish coins, caskets and Syrian and Egyptian
pottery shards.




It has often been belived that rabbits burrowed undergroud to be closer to the realm of the fairie folk, for Hare can also be a trickster, and in modern day myths he is found in the guise of Bugs Bunny, or "Brer Rabbit. Long ago in Syria, Fairuz the Hare held court while addressing other hares as displayed in this 14th Century manuscrip.


Not much left to say here, except that the Hare and the Rabbits and the moon have lead me right into the realization that today is indeed the Vernal Equinox and that tomorrow the daylight will last longer than it does today .... I believe that the Greenman, who actually never sleeps, but probably does indulge in tiny cat naps from time to time is indeed waking up for the duration and will be getting on with his work on the chartreuse weather and the deep lush green of summer. He's been about surely, the birds and the buds and the bunnies (we call them that in Indiana) have all been out and about for a good while now








.