Ostara – Spring Equinox
Mar 19, 2024
Key Words: Fertility. Rebirth. Life. Renewal. New Beginnings. Balance.
Possibility. Potentiality.
Ostara, the Spring Equinox, is a time of duality and balance in which light and dark, day and night, are equal in length with the scales tipped in the Light’s favor as it will increase in strength as the days move forward and ever longer from this magical state of balance. The snows have melted. The earth is supple and moist. Bird song fills the air. Signs of life, fertility and rebirth abound as the newness of Spring is observed in tender green shoots and buds. Newborn foals, calves, and lambs fill the fields as vibrant symbols of life, newness, and possibility.
The Goddess Ostara/Eostra
Ostara is a goddess of Spring celebrated by the peoples of Northern Europe. The worship of Ostara as an active practice by the people of Britain was described in the writings of Saint Bede in the 700s. Her name Ostara comes from the old Norse Ost which means East, connecting her to the East, to the rising sun, and to the renewal of life. Hence, she is often called the Goddess of Dawn or Light. Her Anglo Saxon name Eostre was later adopted for the festival now commonly known as Easter.
As Goddess of Spring, Ostara is the divine feminine as Maiden, a young woman in her prime, joyful and radiant dressed in flowers and greenery. She is responsible for resurrecting the world after winter’s frozen grip has been withdrawn. She blows the warm winds of springtime over the lands enabling fields and trees to become green again and flowers to blossom safely.
The Legend of Ostara and the Hare
As goddess of spring, Ostara’s arrival heralded warmer air and earth. One year, according to legend, she arrived later than usual and discovered a poor bird with frozen wings. Feeling sorry for the bird who could no longer fly, she breathed warmth into it and transformed it into a hare so that it would be able to run fast and avoid hunters. Honoring her earlier life as a bird, Ostara also gave the hare the ability to lay eggs in all colors of the rainbow. The hare remains a symbol of the goddess to this day.
Hares and Rabbits
Hares and rabbits are traditionally symbols of fertility and spring. Each having short gestation periods and producing multiple litters through the spring months. Hares are nocturnal animals except in March and April, their prime mating season, when they can be seen playing, socializing and gamboling all day long. Hence the term mad as march hare.
Eggs
Eggs are a symbol of the vernal equinox representing the cyclical rebirth of nature and creation. The golden center of the egg is a representation of the sun, hence the egg symbolizes both masculine and feminine – the god and the goddess.
In addition, eggs were a welcome dietary supplement to the meals of older civilizations. Traditionally, the last winter stores were consumed as part of the spring celebrations and people would hunt for and collect the many colored eggs from the nests of wild birds.
Traditional Associations:
Season: Spring
Colors: Pastel shades of pink, green, yellow, white, peach, and lavender
Crystals: Flower agate, green aventurine, aquamarine, amethyst, rose quartz
Incense: Jasmine, honeysuckle, rose, violet, narcissus
Astrological Sign: Aries
Tarot Card: The Emperor – structure and stability
Trees- March: The Ash tree – sacred to druids and to Norse as Yggdrasil, the World Tree whose towering branches reach into heaven and large deep roots anchor themselves in the earth.
April: The Alder tree – a magical tree on which the male and female flowers grow on the same branch symbolizing the balance of the masculine and feminine. Alder flowers and twigs are also charms against fairies mischief.
Moon: The hare moon. The hare is a symbol of regeneration, fertility, new beginnings, and magic.
Food and Drink: Eggs, kale, spinach, light bread, honey, honey cake, hot cross buns
Plants & herbs: meadowsweet, clover, lemongrass, spearmint, daffodils, crocus, tulips, snowdrops, hyssop
Traditional motifs: Hares, rabbits, chicks, lambs, painted eggs, ribbons, baskets, tulips, daffodils, treasure hunts, painted garden stones
Focus
Renew, bring to life, take action, energy, enthusiasm
Consider: what is bursting into life? What is calling to you? Where is your energy being directed? What seeds (real or metaphoric) can you plant?
How to work with Ostara
Go outside! Feel the sunshine on your face and the warm breeze in your hair.
Spring clean or cleanse your home.
Bring spring flowers inside such as tulips and daffodils.
Paint eggs
Prepare and fertilize your garden.
Plant new life – start seedlings indoors if it is too cold to plant outside.
Have a bonfire. Ostara is a solar festival, so honor her with fire.
Actively make the changes in your life you have been thinking about. Look back to the intentions you set in the dark of winter. Now is the time to bring them into the light.
Decorate Blown Eggs
Supplies:
Uncooked eggs
Tool for making holes
Bowl
Paper clip
Bulb syringe
Water
Bleach
Thin round craft sticks
Place egg over a bowl. Using the tool, poke a hole in each end of a raw egg.
Open out the paperclip and gently swirl around inside the egg to loosen it up, then drain out the contents.
Either blow gently into one hole in the egg by mouth so that it flows through the other hole. Or use a bulb syringe as a suction tool to draw the raw egg out of the shell.
Clean out the blown egg gently with water and a tiny amount of bleach to remove any remaining contents.
Let the egg dry completely.
Gently thread the craft stick through the holes in the egg so that you will be able to easily turn and decorate all sides of it.