So sorry for the late post! My hard drive crashed and I have been recovering it for the last 2 weeks slowly but surely. It has my entire Book of Shadows on it! Luckily, we are good to go now! More posts to come!
Ostara is also known as the Spring Equinox, the Vernal Equinox, Feast of Annunciation, Old Lady Day, Lady Day, the Feast of Trees, and Alban Eiler. The Spring Equinox is the traditional celebration of the new life that bursts forth with spring. It has given us the modern celebration of Easter. Ostara brings an optimistic energy as we celebrate the beginning of spring and a turning point as the Northern Hemisphere once again tilts back toward the sun. Until this tilt takes places, it is a time of balance. Spring Equinox is the exact midpoint between the winter and summer solstices. There are exactly 12 hours of night and 12 hours of daylight. This is a time of huge energy and immense forward motion. Nature is waking up after its long winter sleep and everywhere you look there is evidence of life’s ability to regenerate.
This is a time of renewal, regeneration, and resurrection as the earth wakes from her long slumber. This is the time of planting, children, and young animals. Ostara promises freedom from the dreariness of winter and heralds the return of hope and dreams.
The Goddess Persephone returns from the Underworld to her mother, Demeter. In Wiccan lore, the Oak King, the god of light, has now won a victory over the Holly King, the god of darkness. As light conquers darkness, the great Mother Goddess welcomes the young sun god in the sacred marriage and conceives a child. Nine months later, at winter solstice, the child will be born and the cycle will begin all over again. The next full moon (a time of increased births) is called the Ostara and is sacred to Eoestre the Teutonic Goddess of spring and dawn, and Saxon Lunar Goddess of fertility (from which we get the word estrogen, whose two symbols were the egg and the rabbit)
The Ostara (Easter) festival, like many others, was assimilated by the Christian Church. The date of Easter is still calculated as the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. The Christian Church gradually transformed Easter from a celebration of the Spring Equinox, and the Earth’s revival after the dead of winter, into a celebration of the resurrection of Christ who died and rose again after 3 days. Interesting, the moon also dies (disappears) and then rises again (reappears) after 3 days. Symbols of Ostara like eggs, chicks, and rabbits have been adopted by Christians in their Easter Holiday. The word Easter comes from the goddess Eostra/ Eoestre, Ishtar, or Astarte.
From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,
