🌱The Vernal Equinox is upon us, and with it comes the Festival of New Dawn! 🌇

This celestial celebration highlights renewal, emergence, and the quiet stirring of life beneath the soil. In this exclusive newsletter, we’ll explore the Thicket’s traditions surrounding this festival before diving into the history of its counterpart in the Reader’s Realm.

What does it mean to start anew? For some, it means shedding the weight of the past. For others, it is the first step toward an unseen future. The Thicket embraces them both.

📜 A Whisper from the Thicket

The start of a new season stirs nervous excitement—both in the Reader’s Realm and the Twilight Thicket. Who doesn’t love to watch the pages turn in this book called life? With every turning cycle we get to witness our own growth, the ways we change as well as the changes around us. Each page turns, revealing a path that carries us forward.

The Guardians feel it too—none more than Thistle Rose.

The springtime guardian often wrestles with feelings of inadequacy. The thought that because she only has the power to create, she may not have all the tools she needs to lead. She wonders if her “muchness” is merely the unchecked enthusiasm of a child. She has yet to realize that the strength in holding onto that youthful fervor is the very thing that lifts others from the despairs that change can bring. Her gift for finding silver linings shines especially bright when tasked with leading the Festival that starts her season.

She meets the challenge with more grace than she realizes. And this year? Oh, this year will be different… though she doesn’t know it yet.

🌄What is the Festival of New Dawn

Spring has always welcomed fresh starts. In the Thicket, the Equinox is more than just a shift in light—it is an invitation to begin again. This is the celebration of reuniting with the community after spending the cold winter months apart. A renewal through the soil, trusting that what was once hardened by frost will soften and bloom again. A preparation to launch into the year ahead after a long period of stagnation.

In the Blooming Glade, many residents go down to the Whispering Pines to sleep away the dark winter months. Though the seasons remain, those that must hibernate still take respite away during the cold months. Many residents are missed — The Bears, The Bee Fairies, and Crispin Pomme — the Fruit Bat Orchard Keeper— who returns with the promise of ripening trees.

The Festival of New Dawn marks the moment The Glade’s residents awaken and embrace one another. They celebrate the start of the quarter with shared knowledge, stories, food, and festivity.

Thistle takes the lead in welcoming the New Dawn, ensuring the chapter begins on joyful footing—one strong enough to last through even the occasional spring showers.

Groundhogs Gift

The groundhogs help lead this festival, as they are usually the first to rise in early February. They serve as the festival’s dedicated event coordinators, visiting Thistle as soon as they awaken. Thistle only just learned that in the Reader's Realm, Groundhogs resemble rodents — quite unlike their Glade counterparts. In the Glade, groundhogs take after their namesake—small, moss-covered pigs with wooden skin, often adorned with mushrooms or tiny blossoms. During the winter, they bury deep enough into the ground to stay hidden, and only resurface when it’s time to plan for The Festival. Their internal clocks mark the halfway point between Winter and Spring. They begin their planning over fresh salads and Brigid’s Bannock, gathered around the Hearth.

This year, though, the Hogs see something strange in the shadows cast by the fire. They assure us that we needn’t fret, but it would be wise to expect the unexpected.

The Sunrise Seed Planting

The first morning of spring also brings one of The Glade’s most cherished traditions. At first light, the residents gather to plant the first seeds of vernal time in the community garden. They plant cole crops, root vegetables, and any seedlings suited to the season. A shared promise of abundance, sowed through action and collective care. Long before the afternoon’s festivities, they rise with the sun and plant their seeds. Afterwards, they go back to their cottages to prepare for the feasts.

Spring Cleaning

Many residents choose this day to refresh their spaces, readying themselves for the beautiful and busy blooming time ahead. There’s nothing quite like airing out your home, letting fresh breezes sweep through as you reset your domain.

Spring Loaf

Another cherished Glade tradition is greeting the turn of the wheel with a fresh spring loaf. Each loaf is kneaded with intention, its herbs chosen to align with the baker’s heart and hopes. While waiting for crops to bloom, they ensure there’s always something hearty to nourish them. And, of course, there’s no greater comfort than the scent of fresh bread filling the air — a warm and welcome reward for the work required to renew.

🔮 Spirit Sigil: Flourishing Abundance

The Equinox is more than just a celebration of new beginnings – It’s a time to set yourself up for the future by taking intentional action to sow the seeds of what you wish to grow. Use these Spirit Sigils to cultivate Flourishing Abundance:

🌱 The Celebration’s Gift

🌱 Planting Intentions: A Thicket Tradition

Sometimes, seeing is believing when it comes to our own growth. This Thicket tradition invites you to plant your intentions in the soil closest to your most valued altars and spaces, allowing you to witness your desires take root and flourish.

🌿 Choose a seed that aligns with the growth you seek in this era (Bonus points if it’s a favorite in your kitchen!)

• Rosemary for clarity, memory, and protection
• Basil for prosperity, abundance, and opportunities
• Parsley for luck, purification, and renewal
• Mint for healing, energy, and fresh starts

📝 Write Your Petition on a Compostable Surface: Choose a natural material that will return to the earth as your intention grows:

• Cardboard & untreated paper (grounding your wish in structure)
• Cotton & natural fibers (weaving your desires into reality)
• Straw (a connection to abundance and resilience)
• Twigs & bark (strength and longevity)
• Wood chips & sawdust (breaking down old cycles to create anew)
• Dead leaves (letting go to make space for growth—avoid diseased plants!

✨ Bury & Grow

Write your petition on the paper, adding the sigil if you'd like. Bury it in a pot of soil and plant your herbs on top. Whenever you reach for your garden, flourishing abundance will reach for you. 🌿

🌖 The Dreamer’s Message

Equinoxes mark the moments when the earth sits upright, balancing day and night in equal measure. These two celestial events also signal the shifting of seasons. In the West, the Vernal Equinox marks the first day of Spring, but across the world, this transition holds deep cultural and spiritual significance.

The start of Spring can carry a similar weight and anxiety to New Year’s Day—a time of renewal, reflection, and setting intentions. That’s because, in many cultures, the Equinox is the New Year.

Pagan traditions honor this moment as Ostara, a celebration of fertility, balance, and the rebirth of the earth. The Persian New Year, Nowruz, is also tied to the Equinox, marked by gathering with loved ones, cleansing spaces, and preparing for the season ahead. Even the Groundhog’s Day shadow tradition reflects a cultural longing to understand the shifting warmth—an ancient instinct, wrapped in folklore, that tells us whether winter will linger or if we should prepare for the first stirrings of abundance.

Regardless of where you are, the shift is felt.

New beginnings can bring stress, not because they demand more of us, but because they ask us to release—to move forward with intuition, to let go of what no longer serves our highest good.

This could be an era of abundance—if only you allow it to be.

Welcome to your next chapter. I am overjoyed to have you here as I begin mine. This Equinox marks the moment I share this world with you fully, and if even one of you is reading this, I couldn’t be happier.