Welcome to The Nudge

Spring Equinox 2025

“The Spring Equinox opens the veil between the physical and the spiritual so that a resurrection in our lives can be inaugurated. The keynote of this season is creation. It is the drive to move our lives upward, like a seed pushing forth out of the earth into the air. The Spring is the time when the creative powers we have been nurturing through the winter can be expressed to initiate a new world of opportunities for ourselves.”

Ted Andrews, Nature Speak

Dear Friends, Kindred Spirits and Anam Chairde

Táimid as bís -we are excited to prepare our monthly care package, The Nudge, for you as we approach the Spring Equinox or Cónocht an Earraigh as Gaeilge, here in the Northern Hemisphere.

While these times feel like a descent into the underworld, it is vital to remember that we are in a creative process of collective transmutation. This process was known by the alchemists as Nigredo and is the first stage of the Great Work (Magnum Opus). We see this human experience woven through history since time immemorial - in the dark night of the soul, Kali Yuga, the Bardo, the Belly of the Whale, the Wasteland and at the portal of Samhain in the ancient Irish tradition.

Right now we are being invited to co-exist in the energies of Samhain and Spring Equinox simultaneously. So we dance with these opposing forces and recognize this tension not as conflict but as a spiral of unfolding. For the Alchemists, Nigredo is an initiatory pathway to Albedo and Rubedo - this is how lead turns into gold. And so there are glimmers of possibility everywhere if we look closely enough. This is what our President Michael D Higgins speaks about in a conversation that we hosted with him and Manchán Magan in December. We invited him to share his wisdom and heart-centred leadership with us as a Saoi - a term in the Irish language that refers to one who is highly respected for their mastery in art, literature, and culture. He responded not only as a statesman but as a poet and philosopher, a son and grandfather, an elder and an ancestor-in-training.

At a time when leadership, vision, and moral clarity are in high demand, it serves as a reminder of the power of meaningful discourse and the urgent need to reflect and engage as citizens of a shared global community. This conversation feels like a gift—a set of simple instructions for living in these times. It was a great honour to sit with a President who speaks of placing his hands in the soil to tend to the soul. This is the medicine our world needs right now so we are releasing this today as a commitment to help nudge humanity forward….

Bain sult as - I hope you enjoy it.

Kathy

On The Spring Equinox

The Spring Equinox is a solar festival of the Wheel of the Year, when the sun rises in the east, travels across the sky for twelve hours and sets in the west. Equinox means “equal day and night”, when the length of daylight and darkness are equal. This moment is a pivotal point in the Wheel of the Year, where night and day, winter and summer, masculine and feminine find equilibrium and harmony. The ancients erected monuments and structures to align with the rising sun on the Spring Equinox. Here in Ireland, at sunrise on the Spring Equinox, the sun enters cairn T and illuminates the back wall of the chamber of LoughCrew in Co. Meath. It is believed that the pagan Spring Equinox festival became Christianised and rebranded as Saint Patrick's Day—Lá Fhéile Pádraig as Gaeilge. St. Patrick has never been formally canonised, and in the thousand years that passed, any memory of his actual birth date was likely lost. The choice of March 17 may have been influenced by its proximity to the Spring Equinox, which this year falls on Thursday, March 20.

On The Rites of Spring

The Spring Equinox is a time of renewal and rebirth. It heralds the awakening of nature and of our own creative life force or ‘neart’. It represents the new light and new possibilities as we emerge from winter’s hibernation with a renewed sense of wonder and enthusiasm. This moment in the Wheel of the Year is an opportunity to make a commitment to your life. It's a new beginning — a time of initiation.

There is so much wisdom and well-being available when we track and align with the cycles, seasons, rhythms and life force of nature around us and inside us. Our ancestors lived in rhythm with the natural cycles and honoured this time with ceremony and celebration. The solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, while the equinoxes mark days that are equally light as they are dark. The ancients believed that the successful progression of the year relied heavily on sacred rituals observed on solstices and equinoxes.

Like our ancestors before us, we can harness the rites of spring as a gateway into creative activation and expansion.

journal prompts to inspire you:

🌿 How do you sense your growth and transformation since the last turning of the Wheel at Imbolc? What have you been tracking and what wisdom have you gathered in this cycle?

🌿 What new energies are beginning to emerge? How do you feel these shifts stirring within and around you?

🌿 What seeds are ready to push forth at this time, and how can you nurture their growth? How might you awaken your neart—your creative life force—to fuel your passions and bring them to life?

what's coming up at the trailblazery:

As the Great Wheel turns, we are invited to pause and remember what we have travelled through together. We are excited to let you know what the future holds for our community here at The Trailblazery.

Scoil Scairte

Course Dates & Times:

Thursdays, Apr 03 - May 29. 7pm Ireland | 2pm ET | 11am PT

Meitheal Community Meet-ups every Tuesday, Apr 08 - May 27

All hosted via Zoom

Scoil Scairte Beo: Songs and Storylines is a 9-week immersive journey into the heart and soul of Irish culture, heritage, and language. Join our global online learning community to explore how language shapes the way we see and sense the world—and our place in it.

Following the sell-out success of our first six live immersions, we are thrilled to announce a brilliant line-up for the upcoming seventh edition. This journey brings together some of Ireland’s greatest poets, philosophers, writers, dancers, storytellers, singers, and cultural luminaries. The guides are keepers of the flame, who honour the old ways, in new ways.

For more information and to secure your spot, visit our website here.

3 curated resources to mind your life & nourish your senses in the days ahead:

❀ Listen: For your ears

Last year, we approached President of Ireland (Uachtarán na hÉireann) Michael D. Higgins’s office with the idea of an interview rooted in his relationship with the Irish language, with support from Foras na Gaeilge. We invited him to share his wisdom and heart-centred leadership with us as a Saoi - a term in the Irish language that refers to one who is highly respected for their mastery in art, literature, and culture. We hope you enjoy this piece from our time together.

✦ Connect: For your soul

Bearing Witness to Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes

This retreat will take place this May, offering a space to remember and honour the women and children who were institutionalised in Mother and Baby Homes. This five-day retreat invites participants to engage with this history through deep listening, reflection, and collective remembrance.

Held in the Zen Peacemakers tradition, it provides an opportunity to acknowledge the past, explore its echoes in the present, and sit with the question: Which parts of others and ourselves have we banished behind high walls? You can learn more here.

✮ Watch: For your eyes

✮ Feel: For your heart

Kathy was honoured to be celebrated by the Irish Government as one of 21 standout women in Ireland on International Women’s Day 2025. You can find out more here.

EnJOY these days - may the force be with you.

Thank you for walking this path with us,

Beannachtaí,

Kathy and all at The Trailblazery

The Nudge - Dispatch 27 | Spring Equinox 🌿