Happy Full Moon in Virgo and International Women's Day!

The last Full Moon before the Spring Equinox, Meteorological Spring, your free guide to Gallium Aparine ~ a Spring tonic, International Women's Day and furry almonds

Briefly: 1 week left to enrol on this year’s Ecoliteracy for Educators course which runs from 20th March to 23rd September 2023 /\ A fortnight until Ostara - what rituals will you practice to mark this first quarter day in the Wheel of the Year?

Hello lovely people,

I hope this newsletter finds you well on this March Full Moon. Much has happened both Astronomically and Meteorologically (phew that was a mouthful!) since I last wrote on February’s New Moon. 1 March saw Meteorological Spring but how is this different to Astronomical Spring? The dates of the Meteorological Seasons have been defined by Meteorologists and Climatologists and divides the year into 4 equal seasons, each 3 months long. So we have Winter: December - February; Spring: March - May; Summer: June - August; Autumn: September - November. Astronomical Spring is yet to be upon us and changes slightly every year:

The astronomical definition uses the dates of solstices and equinoxes to define the start and end of the seasons. Spring and Fall (Autumn) begin on the Spring (vernal) and fall equinoxes, and Summer and Winter begin on the Summer and Winter solstices.

Source: Global Weather Climate Center

This year’s Spring Equinox falls on 20 March (it can vary from 20-22) when the Earth's north pole is equidistant from the sun, meaning that the sun's light aims directly at the equator creating 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. In the Pagan Wheel of the Year, this Spring or Vernal Equinox is known as Ostara and this year is almost in sync with the New Moon in Aries on 21 March. The Astrological New Year is in sync with the Spring Equinox this year with the sun moving into the first sign of the Western zodiac: Aries, on 20 March 2023. Here’s to the third New Year of 2023 after the Gregorian one (1st January) and Lunar one (22nd January 2023).

Hoop Petticoat Daffodil on the Algarve Coast (Narcissus bulbocodium)

Spring cleaning

As promised in my little social media videoes, here is a link to my resource all about one of the incredibly cleansing Spring herbs which has many names: Cleavers; Goosegrass; Catchweed and Sticky Weed to name a few. This common ‘weed’ is abundant at this time of year and can be infused in water, juiced or preserved in alcohol in the form of a tincture to help you feel cleansed from the inside out. To find out more about Cleavers fascinating folklore and uses, click the link below to access your free downloadable resource which features in my Ecoliteracy for Educators course.

A bunch of Cleavers (Gallium Aparine)

International Women’s Day

I wanted to create space here at the beginning of this Full Moon newsletter to mark this year’s International Women’s Day. As a small business owner, I wanted to share information about another women-led small business whose courses and content are very much aligned to the vision and values of Foxfire Learning and this Substack newsletter. Cultivate Balance are a Colorado-born business who:

leverage the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda as a key strategy for cultivating resilience in response to modern challenges such as overwork, chronic stress, lack of access to nourishing food, inequity, racism, multigenerational trauma, pollution and climate change.

Source: Cultivate Balance

I’ve had the privilege of joining Molly and Sierra’s online Ayurvedic courses over the past 3 years and highly recommend their teachings, especially their ‘Reset for Resilience’ course which is coming up in April. Later in the Lunar segment of this newsletter I share how the energy of this season (late Winter-early Spring) is represented in the Ayurvedic doshas and some simple ways that you can overcome fatigue and sluggishness which is so common at this time of year.