March in the Medicine Wheel : Spring Equinox and the Moon of Budding Trees (March 21 – April 19)

March in the Medicine Wheel is a double passage: the Spring Equinox tipping the world toward the light, and the Moon of Budding Trees inviting us to act on what winter has quietly ripened within us. Under the guidance of the Golden Eagle of the East, this is a time of new beginnings, rediscovered creativity, and that vital force the natural world offers freely, if we choose to open ourselves to it.

Innocence Recovered

Spring as a first breath

Some March mornings bring me back to that spring I lived through during my year-long plant diet. A long inner winter — a time of silence, of contraction, of being present to myself in a state of complete stripping away. And then, one morning, something shifted.

Nature erupted.

Not gently. Not gradually. Like a cry of joy. As if the earth had been holding its breath for months and was finally releasing everything in one single surge. The buds, the light, the colours, the scents... everything reached my heart with an intensity I had never known before. I would spend hours outside, perfectly still, just watching. A newborn leaf. A ray of light in the grass. A flower opening. And something inside me would begin to tremble — with wonder.

I had become a child again.

Not in the sense of regression, but in the sense of innocence recovered. That way of seeing everything for the first time. Not explaining, not naming — simply feeling. Letting the beauty of the world enter all the way to the deepest part of oneself.

This is exactly what the Moon of Budding Trees carries.

What nature offers us every spring

On March 21, the Earth crosses its equinox. Day and night find perfect balance, and in that balance, something is released. The energy that had been sleeping beneath the snow, in the roots, in the seeds, rises. It surges. It pushes toward the light with a quiet, irresistible force.

Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel teaches us that this movement is not only outside — it is also within us. We are nature. We are part of this great cycle. And when the Earth awakens, something in us awakens too, if we give it the space to do so. This is the very heart of what we live through in March in the Medicine Wheel: a reminder that we belong to this great turning.

This moon, guided by the Golden Eagle, Guardian of the East, is the moon of first steps, of projects seeking to be born, of beginnings in their purest and most enthusiastic form.

The East is the direction of dawn. Of the first breath. Of the newborn who opens their eyes upon a world they do not yet know — and which already belongs to them.

Wabun brings us his gifts with open arms and no holding back: the spontaneity of acting before overthinking, the creativity that rises from unexpected places, the wonder of seeing the world as if for the first time. His element is air — invisible, vital, free. His colour is the gold of the rising sun, that first spark of light that touches the treetops before the earth has even stirred.

When we step into this direction, something within us remembers. We recognise that we are standing in the space of a beginning. A rare and precious space where everything — absolutely everything — becomes possible again.

March in the Medicine Wheel : the Moon of Budding Trees

This is the fourth moon of the year, the first moon of Wabun. It is guided by the Thunderbird Clan — the clan of Fire. It is direct, vivid, enthusiastic. It calls forth our creativity and our freshness. It is the light we see after emerging from the emptiness of the winter months.

Its totems speak to us with a simple and beautiful wisdom.

The Red-Tailed Hawk

Indigenous peoples call it the Red Eagle. It flies so high that prayers are entrusted to it, to be carried all the way to the Creator. Its gift for this moon: clear vision, a true sense of direction, the courage to rise.

The Fire Opal

The most energetic of stones, a symbol of hope since the beginning of time. Beautiful and fragile all at once — like every new beginning.

The Dandelion

This great healer, so often dismissed as a weed. It grows in the cracks, between the asphalt and the stone. It does not ask whether the place is right, whether the moment is right. It simply grows. That is all.

The Guardians of Spring

Drawing on this force to begin

The beauty of the plant diet is that it stops us completely.

Everything is set in place so that we, as human beings, can open our sensitivity — to nature, to the invisible, to the Creator. The plants we receive during the diet expand our field of perception into the living world with immense precision. The plant teaches. It heals. It guides. It speaks to that part of us which still knows how to listen.

And so, when spring's awakening takes place in nature while we are on diet, we feel it with extraordinary force. Not as an observer. As a being who belongs to that movement. We feel, fully, our bond to the living world, to the Earth our Mother.

And that is when something reveals itself.

This is one of the most precious teachings that March in the Medicine Wheel offers us: we do not need to create the energy of renewal. It is already there. Nature gives it to us. Freely. Abundantly. All that is needed is to connect to it.

When you place your feet on the earth this March, when you watch a bud open, when you feel that light returning after the long winter months — let that force move through you. Do not observe it from a distance. Let it in.

This is the same vitality you can bring to your projects, your dreams, to whatever is seeking to be born in you.

What is that project you have been carrying since autumn? That idea that germinated in the silence of winter? That direction you sense — tentatively still, but present, insisting, waiting?

Nature is telling you: now is the time. It is pouring all of its strength into the life that is emerging. Align yourself with this movement. Feed your seeds with that same vitality.

The Rising Sap

A simple practice for March in the Medicine Wheel

Go outside. Walk slowly. Notice what is pushing through, what is opening, what is returning. Let that beauty touch you truly — not in the mind, in the body.

Then place one hand on your heart and ask:

What is wanting to be born in me this spring?

Listen. The answer often comes simply, in the silence between two breaths. Then make the first gesture — however small — to honour this beginning.

Go further

If this article has moved something in you, if something within you recognised itself in these words, I invite you to continue this path together.

Discover the teachings on Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel a living cycle of learning that accompanies you through the thirteen moons, the four directions and the seasons, to walk in harmony with the rhythms of the Earth.

Explore the full moon series: January, the time of purification February, the Moon of Strong Winds and now March, the Moon of Budding Trees. Each moon is a doorway. Each passage, an invitation to walk month by month with the cycles of the Earth.

Join our workshops and circles at the Yoga With You studio, or book a drum healing session to move through this spring with renewed clarity.

And if you feel the call of a deeper path, join our community and explore the teaching circles. We walk together, honouring each person's rhythm, with gentleness, listening, and presence.

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