Tips & Tricks to Survive the Broom Closet: Those who hide their true magickal identities from friends & family are known as dwellers in "the broom closet". Many who work with magick and witchcraft feel the need to constantly hide their practices, of...
Also known as: Lady Day / Alban Eiler (Druidic) / Spring Equinox / Vernal Equinox
A point of perfect balance on the journey through the Wheel of the Year. Night and day are of equal length and in perfect equilibrium - dark and light, masculine and feminine, inner and outer, in balance.
But the year is now waxing and at this moment light defeats the dark. The natural world is coming alive, the Sun is gaining in strength and the days are becoming longer and warmer. The gentle whispered promise of Imbolc is fulfilled in the evident and abundant fertility of the Earth at Ostara.
It is time for the hopes of Imbolc to become action. The energy is expansive and exuberant. It is the first day of Spring! Ostara takes its name after the Germanic goddess, Eostre/Ostara, who was traditionally honoured in the month of April with festivals to celebrate fertility, renewal and re-birth. It was from Eostre that the Christian celebration of Easter evolved, and indeed the naming of the hormone Eostrogen, essential to women's fertility. The Goddess Ostara has the shoulders and head of a hare.
Source: www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/ostara
As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with light on the increase. The young Sun God now celebrates a hierogamy (sacred marriage) with the young Maiden Goddess, who conceives. In nine months, she will again become the Great Mother. It is a time of great fertility, new growth, and newborn animals.
The next full moon (a time of increased births) is called the Ostara and is sacred to Eostre the Saxon Lunar Goddess of fertility (from whence we get the word estrogen), whose two symbols were the egg and the rabbit.
The Christian religion adopted these emblems for Easter which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. The theme of the conception of the Goddess was adapted as the Feast of the Annunciation, occurring on the alternative fixed calendar date of March 25 Old Lady Day, the earlier date of the equinox. Lady Day may also refer to other goddesses (such as Venus and Aphrodite), many of whom have festivals celebrated at this time.
Herbs and Flowers: Daffodil, Jonquils, Woodruff, Violet, Gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, Narcissus and all spring flowers.
Incense: Jasmine, Rose, Strawberry, Floral of any type.
> Set up a temporary altar (or redecorate your permanent one); use colours such as bright green, yellow and purple. Use coloured eggs, seeds, feathers, all spring flowers, green, yellow and purple, all foliage that is sprouting into leaf. > Eat and cook traditional foods; Leafy green vegetables, Dairy foods, Nuts such as Pumpkin, Sunflower and Pine. Flower Dishes and Sprouts. > Plant seeds or start a Magickal Herb Garden. > Take a long walk in nature with no intent other than reflecting on the magick of nature and our Great Mother and her bounty. > Make hot-cross-buns; a Christianised pagan tradition, they feature a Celtic cross.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
