Spring is a time of transition. As the days grow longer and the weather warms up, the world around us comes to life. Use this opportunity to acknowledge your own journey. This is the perfect time to release what no longer serves you and take the first steps towards your goals and dreams.

Today, Reiki Master Luciana Naclerio, explains how a Medicine Dance can help us embrace our power, heal, and celebrate the life within us.

Splendid Spoon: Hi Luciana! What do you do to celebrate the Spring Equinox?

Luciana Naclerio: Hi! The Spring Equinox is a time of rebirth, love, and fertility. I mark it by connecting my womanhood and my wildness. My favorite way to celebrate is a Medicine Dance party with my friends.

SS: What is a Medicine Dance?

LN: Medicine Dance is the call to remember the sacredness of the body and the power of its expression. It’s a way to release, heal, and celebrate life inside you.

SS: What are the benefits of a Medicine Dance?

LN: It’s a form of dynamic meditation, so it empties the mind and opens the body to deep healing and clarity. Medicine Dance honors the world around and within us. We dance for the earth, waters, air, and fire; we dance for our ancestors; we dance for the future; we dance for our pain and our joy.

SS: What are some healing practices for the Spring Equinox?

LN: The Spring Equinox is a time to gather and create. I love to tap into the traditions of my ancestors. On the Spring Equinox, women in Italy (I’m Italian!) come together to plant seeds that they would like to see bloom over the next few months. They water them, care for them, sing to them, and acknowledge the hope that they hold in their infinitesimal bodies. Over the next few weeks, the seeds rise from the darkness, symbolizing life triumphing over death. You can plant these seeds literally or metaphorically!

SS: Do you think all movement can be used as medicine?

LN: I think that anything that moves you is medicine.

SS: How does movement balance the energy of body and mind?

LN: Movement is very primal. It releases the mind and brings us back to our center. It breaks us out of our “one foot in front of the other” way of life and allows us to explore the world more deeply.

SS: What music or sounds do you dance to?

LN: My breath. I see the breath as our own inner symphony from which all movement originates. It’s very powerful to let your breath lead the dance.

SS: Can you share a breath and movement practice we can do at home to awaken our energy?

LN: Stand in goddess pose with the arms in cactus [That looks like this! — Ed.]. Inhale, straighten the legs, and reach the arms up to the sky. Exhale, bend the knees deeply, and sway the hips, spine, and arms side to side. Inhale, straighten the legs, reach the arms up. Exhale, release completely, bend the knees, and sway the upper body in surrender. Repeat until you feel your body and breath are alive and warm.