Beyond Eggs: Ways to Celebrate Ostara

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Ostara Blessings To Everyone

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Beyond Eggs: Ways to Celebrate Ostara

 

by Melanie Fire Salamander

 

The wheel of the year turns; the days get longer, dawns earlier. The

Spring Equinox, Ostara, approaches. You want to celebrate, but how?

The same way you did last year? Nah, boring. Or maybe you've never

planned an Ostararitual before. Maybe it's a holiday you've always

gotten stuck on: You understand Imbolc, you understand Beltaine, but

Spring Equinox -- what do you do then? Following are some ideas to

get your imagination ticking.

 

First, as with any Sabbat, consider whether you want only to

celebrate the time of year and the goddesses and gods of spring or

also to perform magick to accomplish a goal. If you want to perform

magick, what goals do you and your co-ritualists have, and how do

you work for those goals in magick appropriate to the time of year?

 

Whether you perform magick or simply celebrate, your Ostara rites

begin with understanding the time of year. If Litha, June 21 or

thereabouts, is Midsummer, Ostara is Midspring. It's the second of

the three spring holidays, Imbolc marking spring's first glimmer and

Beltaine spring's heightand power. If Imbolc is about inspiration,

Beltaine about consummation, Ostara is about growth. At Ostara, the

seed that stirred at Imbolc sprouts and pokes its head above ground.

At Ostara, you can begin to feel spring:

 

The crocuses and daffodils are out; the cherries blossom. The air

smells of wet earth and flowers; earth and air begin to warm. You

see the tall spring cumulus, feel the first spring wind, greet kite-

flying weather. You can make your Ostara ritual part of this

burgeoning spring, celebrating Earth's fertility and the fertility

in your own life.

 

You can also consider Ostara as a time of balance between light and

dark.Night and day equally divide the 24 hours now; the dark half of

the year gives way to the light. You can perform rituals to ask for

balance in your life, and to honor both dark and light.

 

You can also work with Ostara as the first quarter of the Sun-year,

parallel to the first quarter of the Moon. It's a time to start new

things or to consolidate beginnings. If the first inspiration began

at Imbolc, now is the time to pour on nurturance and growth. You can

also plant new seeds now.

 

Symbolic associations for Ostara include the element air, the

direction east and the time of dawn.

 

In a related association, this time belongs to the Maiden and her

parallel the Young God. Other gods and goddesses concerned with

Spring Equinox include the Greek wine-god Dionysos and his Roman

counterpart Bacchus; the Greeks held Dionysia at Spring Equinox,

when the new wine made the previous harvest was first drunk. The

Norse at equinox celebrated the feast of the goddess Iduna, bearer

of the magick apples of life, symbol of the light half of the year.

We get the name of the holiday from the Germanic goddess Eastre or

Oestara, whose symbolism is similar to Aphrodite's, whose

associations include Near-Eastern Astarte and Indian Mother Kali and

whose consort is the lusty Moon-Hare.

 

On the day before the equinox, the Greeks and Romans honored wisdom

goddess Athena and her counterpart Minerva. Rhea, mother of Greek

Sky-Father Zeus and an aspect of the Great Mother, has her feast day

March 15. March as a whole is sacred to the Roman god Mars and his

Norse equivalent Tyr, and to the Anglo-Saxon Earth-Mother Hertha.

 

To celebrate Ostara, you can do any of the following, or use these

ideas as a springboard.

 

Get out in Nature. Take a walk around your neighborhood or favorite

park. See which plants are sprouting, which budding, which blooming,

which still are in the grips of winter. Feel the air; smell the

scents of Ostara.

 

Clear a space for a garden, or start flowers, herbs or vegetables

indoors.

 

It's too early in this climate to plant fruits and vegetables;

frosts can happen as late as April in the Northwest. But you can

clear weeds, grass and rubbish from the spot where you plan a

garden, or you can start seeds indoors. Check with your favorite

garden store what flowers and vegetables might best be started now.

 

Pick up litter at your favorite park or beach. Help the earth

rejuvenate by getting rid of the mess. Even an hour of cleanup can

make a big difference.

 

Ritually color hard-boiled or blown eggs. Eggs, a potent symbol of

fertility, figured in pagan spring worship long before their

appropriation by the Christian Easter. Ukrainian pysanky, blown eggs

with patterns drawn in wax and dyed, are pagan amulets for

fertility, prosperity and protection. Pysanky have come to us

basically unchanged in form from the hunter-gatherers of Eastern

Europe.

 

For your own rituals, you can draw in crayon or white wax on hard-

boiled eggs symbols that represent things you want in the coming sun-

year, or write on the eggs these things' names, or both. You can

then use Easter-egg or natural dyes to color the eggs; your wax

symbols and writing will stand out against the dye-color. Next,

raise energy in ritual for your goals, charge the eggs with that

energy, then peel and eat the eggs, taking in the things you want to

manifest. Alternatively, you can mark and dye unboiled eggs,then

crack tiny holes in both ends with a pin and blow out the matter

inside, keeping the eggshell on your altar.

 

Perform oomancy (divination by eggs). To perform the most common

form of egg-divination, separate egg whites and yolks. You then drop

the white into hot water and divine from the shapes it assumes.

 

Perform love or other divination with apples. Apples are a Northern

European pagan symbol of spring and of love. You may recall from

childhood two forms of love-divination by apple, using the seeds and

the stem.

 

To divine whether someone loves you by apple seeds, choose and eat

an apple thinking of your loved one. Next, split the core and count

the seeds chanting this rhyme:

 

One I love, two I love, three I love I say, four I love

with all my heart, five I cast away; six she loves, seven he loves,

eight they both love; nine s/he comes, ten s/he tarries, eleven s/he

courts, twelve s/he marries.

 

To divine the first letter of your spouse-to-be's name,twist an

apple's stem while chanting the letters of the alphabet. The letter

at which the stem breaks is his or her initial.

 

Both these love-divination techniques can be adapted to other uses.

To adapt the former, alter the rhyme with words suiting your

situation. To adapt the latter, you can simply chant yes and no

while twisting till the apple stem breaks; you can also chant " yes,

no, maybe " or use words more specific to your situation.

 

Meditate on the imagery of the seed. Consider a seed and how it

relates to the earth, how it falls from its mother plant into a rich

loam made from the breakdown of other dead plants. Consider how the

seed is influenced by sun and rain, by the energy from sky and

earth. Or contemplate as a seed an idea or situation in your life,

then imagine the seed breaking open and sending out roots and

sprouts. Study what these roots and sprouts look like, where they

find barriers and where they grow most strongly.

 

Perform magick by planting a seed to grow with your spell. A

traditional love-spell runs as follows. (Of course, you shouldn't

perform this spell to draw a particular person, but rather to draw

the right person toward you.) Just after the New Moon, plant the

seed of some sturdy plant in a pot. Water thoroughly, and charge

your spell by raising energy and saying over the plant:

 

As this root grows, and this blossom blows, may my true love be

inclined toward me.

 

You can adapt this spell to any purpose naturally achieved over

time, such as the success of a business.

 

Meditate on the season's flowers. Around us now bloom crocuses,

daffodils and early tulips. You can find or purchase cut or living

flowers and meditate on them. Sitting before the flowers, consider

what is growing in your life. Flowers are the sexual organs of

plants; consider what this says to you.

 

Perform magick to give back to the earth. Raise and send energy to

return to the Earth, our mother, some of the bounteous energy and

fertility She gives to us.

 

Meditate on the Moon-Hare. Rabbits provide an obvious symbol of

animal fecundity. Meditate on the Moon-Hare, the animal the early

German tribes and the Aztecs saw on the face of the moon, and see

what comes to you about literal or creative fertility in your own

life.

 

Honor the spring or Earth goddess or god of your choice, or a

goddess or god of balance. To honor balance, venerate Roman Janus or

his female counterpart Jana, or any pair of twin goddesses or gods.

You can also honor goddesses and gods of spring or fertility now.

Greet Ostara with rites like those of Aphrodite; drink new wine in

honor of Dionysos; celebrate warlike Mars, deep and fertile Hertha

or ever-young Iduna. Likewise, you can honor the Maiden,either sole

and free or ripe for consummation.

 

Light around your house pairs of white and black candles,

symbolizing dark and light. Each time you pass a pair of candles,

you can honor the balance of light and dark we find this time of

year, and the balance of light and dark within yourself.

 

Light a bonfire at dawn on the Equinox to honor the light half of

the year. Not only did ancient Northern Europeans burn such fires,

but also the Mayans.

 

Meditate or perform ritual at dawn or sunset. These liminal times are

particularly significant now when we balance between dark and light.

 

Meditate or perform ritual for balance in your life and in the

earth's life.

 

Meditate on that ancient Eastern emblem of balance, the Yin-Yang

symbol.

 

Consider what is dark and hidden, rightly or wrongly, in your life,

and what is daylit. Consider how you best can create balance,

honoring both sides of yourself. Likewise, contemplate what you see

as dark and light in the world around you. Meditate upon what this

year will bring, dark and light, and how best you can take right

action in the world. You can also use these symbols actively,

raising energy and asking that balance come to your life.

 

Do a ritual denoting the passing of the year's dark half. Medieval

Bohemians, after honoring the Christian savior on Easter Sunday,

performed a ritual for his pagan rival on the following Monday, or

Moon-day. Village girls sacrificed an effigy of the Lord of Death in

the nearest running water, singing

 

" Death swims in the water, spring comes to visit us, with eggs that

are red, with yellow pancakes, we carried Death out of the village,

we are carrying Summer into the village. "

 

As an updated variation, you can create an effigy of the dark half

of the year and imbue it with the things of winter you'd like to

leave behind. You can then either burn it in a bonfire or drop it in

the nearest watercourse.(In the former case, you'll want to make the

effigy's components flammable, in the latter biodegradable.)

 

To return with the spring, bring back to your home greenery cut with

respect or water from the stream.

 

Use the energy of the time of year as you would the first quarter of

the moon. You can use the energy of this time of year to fuel any

new project or goal.

 

Meditate on beginnings, on the East, on air, on dawn. This station

of the year reflects these traditional associations. In meditation,

note how these symbols connect organically and how you relate

personally to them.

 

Moon Bathing and Purification Rites

 

You will need a cup, bowl, or chalice of silver. Glass is the best

substitute.

 

On the night of a full moon, set the chalice outside or in a

window to absorb the moon's lunar rays and energy. Leave it there

for a few hours before the ritual.

 

Place the chalice with water in it, in your non-dominant hand and

place your other hand over the top of it. To empower the water, say:

 

" By the silver light of Lady Moon,

By my hand and will so sure,

By all that is Blessed, true and strong,

I bid you, Cleanse me Pure. "

 

Now, take a moon bath, or anoint yourself with the blessed water.

Anoint your feet:

 

" Silver Mother of the Night,

Bless my feet that they may always walk securely

Upon your sacred path. "

 

Anoint the forehead:

 

" Mother of all Life,

Be in my spirit, my magick, and my visualizations.

Fill me with your creative energy,

And cleanse me from thoughts unworthy of your child. "

 

For the moon bath, say:

 

" By the Silver light of Lady Moon,

By my hand and will so sure,

By all that is Blessed, true and strong,

I bid you, Cleanse me Pure.

May both my hands the good works do,

My feet walk firm the path,

My head and heart stay free from harm,

As I take this sacred bath. "

 

Now is the time to meditate on your goals. Allow the water to drain

before you leave the bath. As it is draining, imagine all the

negativity being sucked away.

 

" I am free from all unworthy influences,

Fit to meet, greet, and be the Goddess.

As I was in the beginning of time,

I am now, and will always be.

So mote it be! "