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Ostara Season: Potential

By March 29, 2024No Comments

The Wheel of the Year has turned to the Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere and we are entering Ostara season. Acknowledging the eight “spokes” of the wheel of the neo-Pagan year gives you the opportunity to tune into and honor the Earth’s solar cycle, the natural world around you, and your inner cycles of change and growth. While Wheel of the Year ceremonies are spiritual, I appreciate that they give me another opportunity to get real about my life and the state of all life on this planet.

Lore

Ostara is derived from the Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eostre (pronounced yo-ster). Eostre is said to have represented spring and new beginnings.

My 2024 Ostara altar includes bunnies, eggs, and other seasonal symbols.

The celebration of spring is present in many cultures, and Ostara borrows from many of them. Ostara celebrates fertility, rebirth, and renewal. This is the beginning of the agricultural cycle when farmers would start planting seeds.

The claim that Ostara predated Christianity’s Easter is questionable, but the controversy is irrelevant to the way we create celebration and ritual from a forward-looking earth-based spirituality perspective. The intention is to tune into the Earth’s cycles and revive our ancestral relationship with nature, not to replicate an ancient tradition we really have no way of knowing about. Nevertheless, it’s fun to explore the folktales and lore, such as Eostre’s hare, who might have inspired the Easter Bunny.

From Temple & The Moon:

There are a few versions of her legend, but all begin late one Spring when Ostara was in a hurry across the land and stumbled upon a small bird. The bird was shivering and on the verge of death from the cold. Alarmed by the sight, Ostara could not continue on her journey. She stopped and tried to warm the bird and bring it back to life, it was too late. The bird was frozen and so laden with frost that its wings did not open, meaning it could no longer fly and would soon perish. Ostara did not turn her back on the flightless bird. Instead, she transformed him into a hare so that he could hop away instead. In some versions, she bestows the ability to lay colored eggs upon the hare. In others, the hare lays colorful eggs in gratitude towards Ostara for saving his life. In one less saccharine version, Ostara eventually becomes angered by the hare and casts him up to the heavens where he lands as the constellation Lepus, at the foot of Orion the Hunter.  In one final version, Ostara is capable of turning herself into a hare. Hares are nocturnal and thus the connection to the moon, lunar cycle, spring, and fertility are all intertwined by this spin on the tale.

Learn more:

A good review of Ostara, Eostre, and the hare on Folklife Today: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/04/ostara-and-the-hare/

The full Temple & The Moon post about Ostara: https://templeandthemoon.com/read/legend-of-ostara-the-goddess-of-spring-and-origin-of-the-easter-hare

The Spring Equinox from a Druid perspective: https://druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/spring-equinox-alban-eilir

Watch this telling of the folktale “Ostara and the White Hare”:

What’s Real Here

Ferns that stay green all year show bright color as soon as the snow melts off them.

Our Adirondack spring began with a dusting of snow, followed by a big snowstorm which brought more snow at once than any we had during the winter. A few days later, as I write this, the snow has nearly melted. March is tricky here in New York’s Adirondack Mountains and it’s not a surprise to have snow as late as April. What made our early spring snow upsetting to me is the contrast to the warm and relatively snowless winter we had.

Worries about climate change are always there, but the magic of spring helps me cope with the emotions. The birds are loud and riotous. The squirrels are chasing each other around the trees. The disappearance of the snow revealed the evergreen ferns, which amaze me. There are two kinds of ferns in the woods. One has leaves that turn brown and die off in the fall. The evergreen ones, though, just stay as they are, no matter how much snow they are buried under. When the snow melts they appear as delightful splotches of green within the brown of decomposing leaves and fallen branches. For me, those ferns are one of the earliest signs of spring.

Symbols of the Season

Whether you are decorating an altar, preparing a ritual, or just want to be in the energy of Ostara season, here are some ideas:

  • Eggs! Colored or natural, eggs represent the potential of new life.
  • Early blooming flowers in pastel colors, such as crocus, tulips, and daffodils.
  • Gemstones that are reminiscent of spring’s energy in Ostara colors include rose quartz, which invokes love, beauty, and calm, and chrysoprase, a lovely green stone that promotes hope. Lapis lazuli reminds me of the now freely running water. Amazonite is a balancing stone connected to the heart and spring’s air element. Citrine is a solar stone and brings the sun to your altar.
  • Herbs for Ostara include any of the early flowers and flowering trees, such as dogwood and apple, and any sunny citrus. Lavender and lemongrass are also associated with Ostara.
  • Search for signs of spring in your area and include those, or representations of those, on your altar.
  • I am vegan and I have consciously stopped relating farmed animals to the Wheel of the Year, since their symbolism often involves their eventual slaughter. Wildlife is becoming active with Ostara energy, though, so there are plenty of correspondences to choose from. All baby animals are associated with Ostara, but bunnies and baby birds have special significance due to their association with Eostre. I chose to honor rabbits and hares in my Ostara ritual.

Biodiversity to Celebrate

Rabbits and hares are associated with the spring equinox, Ostara, and the Germanic goddess of spring, Eostre, as I mentioned in the folklore above. The European March hare probably influenced that lore. Male European hares are nocturnal and rarely seen except during March, their mating season, when they’re out all day and fighting each other. The phrase “mad as a March hare” comes from that. Rabbits in general, because of their reproductive strategy of having multiple litters every year, are associated with spring’s fertility.

Female rabbits of many species are reflex ovulators, which means they do not have a time when they are in heat. Instead, they produce eggs in response to mating and are almost always receptive. Many rabbit species can get pregnant again right after giving birth or even before they give birth. They can have up to four litters a year and up to eight young per litter. The seeming explosion of the rabbit population in spring reflects the expansive energy of all life.

Food

There is a crossover between foods served at Ostara and Easter, so if you come from a Christian family, you do not have to abandon foods you are used to. I no longer eat lamb or eggs so I have had to let some of mine go, but there are other options for my Ostara celebration:

  • Sprouts and baby greens make lovely Ostara salads.
  • You can imitate egg salad with tofu. There is a good recipe here.
  • Carrot cake is a good dessert choice and there are many vegan and/or gluten-free recipe options.
  • Baked goods such as hot cross buns and the many Easter breads can be adapted for Ostara.
  • Chocolate! Chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies – you can recreate any of the Ostara symbols in chocolate for your celebration.

Cacao

If you work with cacao personally or in ceremony, consider what you might add to your cacao drink to connect to Ostara season. Because spring is air season, think scent. Rose petals and/or rosewater can add a light and lovely scent to your cacao drink.

Offering to the Earth

During Ostara season, consider what will support wildlife while they are mating and rearing babies. I have noticed the birds arriving for spring are eating small seeds and the dried mealworms. You might also give some of your Ostara food back to the Earth. Please consider all wildlife when making offerings and do not leave anything that may be toxic to those smaller than humans. Chocolate should never be left as an offering.

Eastern chipmunks spend the winter in their burrows and appreciate the peanuts and sunflower seeds I leave as offerings.

Activities to Try

Tune into the Ostara season energy by trying one or more of the following activities, on your own, with your family, or with a group:

  • Start seeds indoors, blessing them if you did not do that at Imbolc, or, if it is warm enough where you are, plant them in your garden.
  • Experiment with natural dyes to color eggs, such as onion skins, turmeric, and blueberries.
  • Give your home a spring cleaning and wash your windows.
  • Watch the birds and keep a journal of the birds you see throughout the season.
  • Take walks in nature and look for signs of spring like budding trees and sprouting plants.

A Deeper Meaning

As the Wheel of the Year turns, each season’s energy in some way supports your inner work as well as what you are bringing into the world. It is up to each of us, individually, to find a deeper meaning in our ceremonies and rituals, but I can lead you to an area to explore.

The buzz of vitality that comes with Ostara season taps me into the POTENTIAL of new life and new intentions. While I see potential everywhere, I often forget to look inward for my own. I doubt my creativity and ability to attract abundance. By drawing on spring’s fertile energy, I can charge my creativity and ability to manifest. A ritual of energetic spring cleaning makes space for abundance to grow.