The Wheel of the Year: OSTARA - the Spring festival of Balance, Renewal & Rebirth
Today as I write this Ostara post, it’s the first day in a while I’ve had the window open in my little ‘Room of One’s Own’ where I write, and I actually felt a marginally warm breeze 🥳🥳🥳 (I say marginally and actually because this is Southern England we’re talking about and it has been an extremely rain-sodden and rather grim February and early March!).
However this warm breeze feels suitably portentous for writing this post. It’s a couple of days before the dawn of Ostara, the beginning of Spring, the beginning of the ‘Light Half’ of the Wheel of the Year, the beginning of Aries season - that fiery, cardinal Initiator of the Zodiac and the beginning of the Astrological Year. Phew!
All this initiatory energy! 🌱🌱🌱 It makes me want to rush out and buy a fresh new notebook or something and start officially Making Plans.
Not the in-depth, introspective, soul-searching type journalling of Samhain or the often fanciful resolutions lists of Yule/New Year’s Eve (next year I WILL definitely not drink so much and the like). Nor the almost wistful, dreamy intentions of Imbolc - that season marking the first stirrings of Spring but when we still feel not quite ready to do an awful lot about those intentions. Now, as Ostara breezes in, it’s like an energetic gear-change from the Universe - time to turn intentions into action plans.
Today, on this eve of Ostara, it seems as if the Dark Half of the Wheel of the Year has upped and left. As if overnight the Natural World shrugged off her thick, grey, woolly shroud and donned a little floral spring dress. On going on a walk about the countryside today there was an almost astounding display of blooms in every which colour that had sprouted up as if from nowhere overnight, as if she was showing off her prolificacy - daffodils bobbing cheerily in the breeze, chunky pink cherry blossoms so fruitful they’re almost crowded on their branches, the hedgerows, no longer scarecrow twigs, are already covered in budding green. Nature, it seems, is BACK.
And, apparently, so must we be - energetically speaking - if we want to make the most of aligning ourselves with the natural rhythms and potency of the current Earthly and Zodiacal energies.
Ostara is usually celebrated on the Spring Equinox which honours the point in the Year when we have equal day and night and was honoured as a time of balance and equilibrium. It was named for the Goddess Eostre - the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Pagan Goddess of Spring, the Dawn, Renewal, Fertility and New Beginnings (dedicated blog post to follow next week on Eostre along with two other Goddesses who embody Ostara themes🥚).
Subsequently, Ostara was the pagan festival usually associated with bunnies (a symbol of fertility), seeds (representing potential and growth), butterflies (symbol of rebirth) and eggs (also a symbol of fertility, rebirth and potential).. Hmm… bunnies, eggs, rebirth, ‘Eostre’…this is all sounding veeery familiar… 💁♀️
Ostara was a celebration of the return of the Maiden aspect of the Triple Goddess (the Mother aspect is primarily honoured in the three harvest sabbats post-Beltane and the Crone from Samhain to Imbolc). The Maiden aspect of the Goddess is associated with fertility, inception, expansion, enchantment, the promise of new beginnings, youth and youthful enthusiasm.
In the Ancient Greek mythical explanations for this point in the year, Goddess Persephone (who I mentioned was just starting to stir from her slumber in the Underworld in my Imbolc post) has now had her morning coffee, shrugged off her Queen of the Underworld garb and re-ascended to Earth, returning to her Maiden aspect as ‘Kore’ and Goddess of the Spring once more, to rejoin with her Mother, Demeter - Goddess of the Grain, Agriculture, Nourishment and the Sustainer of the Earth. Demeter, in her joy at being reunited with her daughter can now restore the fertility of the land.
Ostara marked the turning of the Wheel of the Year to the ‘Light Half’ of the Year when the more introspective, intuitive and Feminine ‘Dark Half of the Year’ that began with Samhain gives way to the increase in the warmth and light from the Sun or the Masculine - one ancient tradition at Ostara was to gather around fires symbolising the increasing warmth and light from the sun.
The Light Half of the Year is all about birthing forth and actualising our potential from the seeds of intentions we may have sown through Yule and Imbolc, from the wisdom gained from the deep and alchemical work of the Samhain portal. It is a potent time to use the extra energy we increasingly start to feel with the increase of warmth and longer days to start taking action towards any project, goal or manifestation of our own we may want to grow.
Ostara offers us an inviting portal - the seeds of intention that we water, nurture and grow through the Spring fertility seasons of Ostara and Beltane can soon become the rewards of harvest come the end of Summer.
RITUALS TO HONOUR & CELEBRATE OSTARA
Create an Ostara altar with symbols of the regeneration and fertility of the natural world - decorate it with cuttings of Spring flowers such as blossoms, daffodils, tulips & crocuses, seeds and either crystal or decorative eggs. Or if you’re feeling creative, dye some eggs with pretty water-colours for Spring (maybe one for each intention you’re wishing to manifest) Apparently you don’t even need to hard-boil them to dye them (which frankly, might get pretty stinky pretty quickly on your altar!) AND it means no waste so you can do the next ritual, once the eggs need using up….
Cook an Ostara Eggy Brunch Feast for yourself & friends or family in celebration of the fertility of Ostara - you could go for something a bit fancy like a frittata, Oeufs Cocotte (baked eggs), Shakshuka, Huevos Rancheros, a poached egg on a cheesy scone topped with a bacon/facon rasher or a classic - scrambled eggs!
Planting seeds or bulbs is often a tradition at Ostara symbolising the awakening of the Earth’s fertility. If you don’t have a garden to freely plant your own plants in, you could always get a small flower-pot, herb-pot or pot-plant for your house or balcony. If you’re anything like me and not terribly green-thumbed I’d highly recommend a Japanese Peace Lilly - they are very low-maintenance and very forgiving of lack of watering!
Watch my Ostara reading on YouTube: What New Beginning is Blossoming in Your Life This Spring? when it goes live at 3pm GMT on Monday 18th March.
If you feel called to receive some extra support with birthing forth and actualising your potential, harnessing the potent energy of the Light Half of the Wheel of the Year and the manifesting potential of the New Moons, I invite you to join my upcoming ‘LIGHT GODDESS CIRCLE’ in my Moon Temple Membership, beginning April 7th and running as a live online gathering once a month on every New Moon from the New Moon in Aries until the New Moon in Virgo.
The Circle will be a small, nurturing, held space and will incorporate a New Moon Intention-Setting Ritual together (which really amplifies their power), rituals unique to each New Moon’s specific themes and a powerful Goddess activation to energetically anchor in your specific intentions.
Harness the New Moon, super-charge your intentions and actualise your potential all with the support of a nurturing, like-minded community! There are LIMITED SPOTS available for the Circle.
➡️Get all the details on the Circle and my other Moon Temple Membership options HERE