That’s right, another holiday of the Wheel of the Year is upon us! Ostara (remind you of anything?) is the second sabbat of the Julian calendar and marks the Spring Equinox. It’s the time of year when we begin working on our gardens (for some of us at least, it’s mid winter here…) by either planning or by starting our seeds depending on our personal climates and indoor growing abilities. In the same stride we can metaphorically begin planting seeds by planning upcoming projects for the light half of the year which begins today.
We’ve been talking for some time now about the dark half of the year and how it's all about reflection and introspection but now, as the weather warms up it's time to get out of our heads and start taking action again! At Imbloc we began clearing the cobwebs from our tools and from our brains but now it's time to start greasing the wheels.
Of course we will get to an appropriate recipe but with the change in format overall I thought I’d stick with it for the sabbats as well. So today’s post is gonna be all the witchy metaphysical stuff and then you can find the recipe posted on Sunday this week!
For my own practice I've been trying to put together what I’m calling, “Simplified Sabbats,” it’s still a work in progress but basically I want to focus on just a few correspondences rather than the whole slough that comes with each. This is what I want to share with you along with some traditional and historical stuff.
Ostara’s History
Ostara is named after a Germanic goddess of the same name who was later adapted into a Saxon deity Eostre. Both are associated with fertility and in that same vein hares and eggs. Sounding familiar? As with many Christian holidays we can find their roots in Pagan celebrations. But before we get into that I want to finish up on the Pagan bits. Basically Ostara is the more modern holiday (being found on the Wiccan Wheel of the year) for any vernal equinox celebration. It goes by many names in different cultures (such as: Alban Eiler, Rites of Spring, Eostra’s Day, Vernal Equinox, March Equinox, Spring Equinox, Lady Day, Bacchanalia) but they all share the celebration of being able to begin a new agricultural cycle.
Slowly Christians took Ostara to Eostre and moved further away to what we now know as Easter. Interestingly enough there is another fertility goddess, Ishtar. Ostara + Eostre + Ishtar = Easter? Anyway, this is where the symbols of the more secular side of Easter comes from, the bunnies and the eggs. There is a story of Ostara that relates the two but if you wanna hear about that you’re gonna have to tune into my Twitch Stream on March 15th at 9:30am EST.
Magical and Metaphysical
This is where my Simplified Sabbats comes in:
Colour: Pastels
Recipe: Devilled Eggs
Food/ingredients: Eggs, spring greens, chocolate
Crystal: Rose Quartz
Plant: Lavender
Animal: Rabbit
Focus: Fertility and Beginnings/ Planning
Deity: Eostre/Ostara
My food focus this year for Ostara will be eggs, which I will do a spotlight on at some point but for now here’s some quick correspondences for you:
Eggs: One source says all elements because it contains life. So then planetary association of Earth or Venus? Eostre (along with other fertility deities) fertility, abundance and protection.
Celebrating
Including your Muggle Friends and Family
We’ve been talking for some time now about the dark half of the year and how it's all about reflection and introspection but now, as the weather warms up it's time to get out of our heads and start taking action again! At Imbloc we began clearing the cobwebs from our tools and from our brains but now it's time to start greasing the wheels.
Of course we will get to an appropriate recipe but with the change in format overall I thought I’d stick with it for the sabbats as well. So today’s post is gonna be all the witchy metaphysical stuff and then you can find the recipe posted on Sunday this week!
For my own practice I've been trying to put together what I’m calling, “Simplified Sabbats,” it’s still a work in progress but basically I want to focus on just a few correspondences rather than the whole slough that comes with each. This is what I want to share with you along with some traditional and historical stuff.
Ostara’s History
Ostara is named after a Germanic goddess of the same name who was later adapted into a Saxon deity Eostre. Both are associated with fertility and in that same vein hares and eggs. Sounding familiar? As with many Christian holidays we can find their roots in Pagan celebrations. But before we get into that I want to finish up on the Pagan bits. Basically Ostara is the more modern holiday (being found on the Wiccan Wheel of the year) for any vernal equinox celebration. It goes by many names in different cultures (such as: Alban Eiler, Rites of Spring, Eostra’s Day, Vernal Equinox, March Equinox, Spring Equinox, Lady Day, Bacchanalia) but they all share the celebration of being able to begin a new agricultural cycle.
Slowly Christians took Ostara to Eostre and moved further away to what we now know as Easter. Interestingly enough there is another fertility goddess, Ishtar. Ostara + Eostre + Ishtar = Easter? Anyway, this is where the symbols of the more secular side of Easter comes from, the bunnies and the eggs. There is a story of Ostara that relates the two but if you wanna hear about that you’re gonna have to tune into my Twitch Stream on March 15th at 9:30am EST.
Magical and Metaphysical
This is where my Simplified Sabbats comes in:
Colour: Pastels
Recipe: Devilled Eggs
Food/ingredients: Eggs, spring greens, chocolate
Crystal: Rose Quartz
Plant: Lavender
Animal: Rabbit
Focus: Fertility and Beginnings/ Planning
Deity: Eostre/Ostara
My food focus this year for Ostara will be eggs, which I will do a spotlight on at some point but for now here’s some quick correspondences for you:
Eggs: One source says all elements because it contains life. So then planetary association of Earth or Venus? Eostre (along with other fertility deities) fertility, abundance and protection.
Celebrating
Including your Muggle Friends and Family
- Start preparing for Easter by decorating eggs! (Magic it up with specific colours and/or sigils and symbols)
- Spring cleaning! (Magic it up with some energetic cleaning)
- Talk about the goals you have over the coming months and plan projects to do together! (Magic it up by doing a seed blessing to grow your goals)
- If you're in a place where the snow is melting do some community clean up! (Magic it up by providing this as an act of service to a deity or your ancestors)
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