Wheel of the Year - Ostara Edition

As always this is from Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials. You can preview and order this book from this link: Ostara  For the most part, I'll stick with the books wording. Occasionally, I'm skimming to create this blog. There's a tad bit of condensing going on. My goal is a swallow of information to get you started on your own way. 

Ostara -March 20-21 (approximately check your calendar)

It is believed the ancient Irish people (predating Celts and Druids) celebrated the solstices and equinoxes. A large part of this prof comes from megalithic cairns built throughout Ireland. While many people believe the Druids built these cairns and henges, scientific testing and dating methods show these monuments and sites to be much older. While the Druids may have eventually used the sites for ritualistic or other practices, they were not responsible for their existence. A particular group of cairns located in Loughcrew contains a passage tomb that is constructed so that a back stone is lit up by the sun's rays on the Vernal Equinox. The back stone contains astronomical symbols that are fully lit at the equinox. (Megalithic Ireland) While this may have been just some sort of elaborate calendar system, the astronomical symbols imply that it did indeed have a greater importance than just marking one day of the year.

The Mayans have celebrated the Spring Equinox for more than 1000 years. When the sun sets on the ceremonial pyramid El Castillo in Mexico, it creates an illusion known as the "Return of the Sun Serpent." The sun creates what looks to be a giant snake descending the stairs of the pyramid. In this way, they honor the return of their sun god. (Atlas Obscura)

In Vermont, a stone structure incorporated with an amphitheater-type basin, now called "Calendar One," has stones marking where the sun rises on the Summer Solstice and the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes. While it is not known for sure what peoples actually built Calendar One, theories abound attributing it to Native Americans even though some of the writings found were actually Irish Hinge Ogham. (Angel) Could the Celts have traveled to North America at some point-- even before the current era?

In Salem, New Hampshire, the 4000 year old "America's Stonehenge" stands on Mystery Hill. It is believed to have been built by some unknown European migrants or Native Americans. It has five standing stones and one stone that points to the sunrise and sunset at both equinoxes, along with being an accurate astronomical calendar for other events. Several different ancient languages have been discovered at the site, suggesting it was at least used or visited by several different groups of people over its existence. (Goudsward)

All of these sites, and many more, mark the position of the sun on the day of the equinox. Whether these sites were created as spiritual places for ritualistic events or simply to mark the passage of time as a calendar, we may never know for sure. However, we have seen over time, groups all over the world have celebrated and honored the astronomical occurrences they saw in the skies above them. Even though it was Gerald Gardner who turned the Vernal equinox into what we now know as modern-day Ostara, it is clear that for thousands of years, not only did people know that the equinox existed and occurred, they kept track of when it would happen as it must have held some sort of significance for them. Whether they saw it as a time of balance, a time of new beginnings, or simply as a time to plant, people took notice of the equinox and marked its occurrence often in elaborate ways with grandiose, complicated structures.

The themes of Ostara are most closely associated with the Christian Easter, though they don't always fall very close on the calendar. Easter is held on the first sunday after the first full moon that happens either on or after the Vernal Equinox, unless that full moon is itself on a Sunday, then Easter is delayed a week. Debates still go on as to whether or not Easter was "stolen" from Ostara (or any pre-Christian equinox feasts of fertility) or the other way around.

At Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, considered to be the son of God, who was sacrificed two days earlier on Good Friday. This provides a parallel with the themes of resurrection and rebirth often shared with Ostara. Although Jesus himself is not "reborn," he was resurrected from his tomb, and because he had died for the sins of those who believe in him, those people have the chance to be "reborn" through him. Modern Easter, like Ostara, is celebrated with springtime imagery of eggs, baby chicks, and bunnies, emphasizing new life rather than the tomb of death. The Christian symbolism of the lamb is due to the fact that Jesus's death during Passover made him a "Passover lamb."

While the druids didn't celebrate Ostara, they did have their own holiday known as Alban Eiler, which translates into "Light of the Earth." It was the day that both the night and the day stood as equals. This was the day that crops were to be sown, and it was seen as a time of transition. Many believe the Druids thought this to be a highly magical time. (The Sacred Fire)

Seasonal Activities

There are many ways to celebrate the season of Ostara. Many people don't spend just one day in celebration. While a ritual may take place on a certain day, that does not necessarily mean that is when the celebration begins and ends. 

Taking a spring walk is a great way to welcome the new life and growth in the world and to share in it. 

Another activity people often take part in at this time of year, especially families, is kite flying. The act of Kite flying can truly be a spiritual experience if you make it so. It is a great way to teach children about the element of air, which is also associated with new beginnings, and also about grounding. Kite flying is a really good metaphor for how we can send our energy and intentions out into the universe while staying firmly grounded. It also teaches us that while we may sometimes dream with our head in the clouds, we need to ensure our feet are planted on the earth. When we lose connection with the ground and don't keep track of what our feet are doing, we can end up tripping, heading the wrong direction, or even falling, and then our kite comes crashing out of the sky.

In modern celebrations at Ostara there is a blessing of the seeds, figurative and literal. This may be done by writing a list of the goals you want to accomplish or your hopes and dreams and then using the list in your ritual. In a more symbolic way of planting your goals, you can write them out on a piece of paper and actually bury them in a garden plot or even a planter filled with dirt that will eventually contain seeds or a garden plant. This way as the plant grows, your goals do as well.

Cascarones are a good way to celebrate (The book says its cool to google it, I did. You can find a list cascarones) 

The egg dance may actually go back hundreds of years, but for many people this is a little-known tradition that seemed to have been far more popular in Germany and the United Kingdom than it ever was in America. Perhaps it's time to change that and make the egg dance an annual event at your Ostara gathering. The concept is easy. Fill an area (preferably outdoors in the grass) with eggs scattered about and then dance in that same area trying to avoid destroying the eggs. There are many fun "springy" songs that go along great with this activity such as "O' she will bring" by Alice Di Micele, just about any version of "Lord of the Dance," or Lisa Thiel's "Ostara (Spring Song)."

Spells and Divination

Divination by Oomancy

This practice is the art of diving with eggs and comes from the Greek words oon for "egg" and manteia for "divination." It is also known as ooscopy, oomancia, oomantia, ooscopia, ovamancy, or ovomancy. 

The most common type of egg divination begins by separating the whites from the yolk and then quickly pouring the white into very hot water and interpreting the shapes that form. The best way to do this is to bring the water to a rolling boil then remove it from the heat, allowing the bubbling to cease before quickly adding the whites. How you interpret the shapes you see is entirely up to you, but remember to keep an open mind and don't just see what you want to see. This is also a good divination to do with a partner so you can bounce ideas and interpretations off of each other. What one may see as a dollar sign, another may see as a snake.

Another form of divination with eggs is to tell whether a mother is having a single baby or multiples. Take a fresh egg and rub it on the mother's pregnant belly for a few minutes, the crack the egg into a bowl. The number of yolks predicts how many babies the mother will have. This can be a scary divination for some people, particularly if there is blood in the egg or if the yolk is broken. These are signs of a miscarriage or some other problem with birth.

Recipes and Crafts

Steamed Asparagus with Lemon

Asparagus is pretty much the first plant ready to be harvested, and it's ready early in the year, so it is perfect to eat while celebrating the first day of spring.

Ingredients: 

• 1 pound asparagus
• 1 lemon
• salt and pepper (optional)

Make sure to cut the hard ends off the asparagus and place the rest in a steamer. It does not take very long to steam vegetables, so keep an eye on them. When ready, they will turn darker green color. It will probably take five minutes or so so ones the water for the steam starts boiling, if you would like the asparagus a little softer, cook it longer. While the asparagus is steaming, zest one table spoon of lemon peel and then juice the lemon and mix the juice and zest together. Drain the water off f the asparagus and pour the lemon mixture over the asparagus. Lightly salt and pepper if you wish. 

Grasshopper

For the adults, this rich and minty alcoholic beverage is perfect accompaniment to Ostara. It's light green color blends in well with the colors of the season, and its minty taste is cool and refreshing. Even the name evokes feelings of spring and the out doors. The grasshopper can be made in a blender with ice cubes to make it a frozen drink or in a shaker on the rocks. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 Part cream
• 1 part white creme de cacao
• 1 part creme de menthe

Mix all three parts together in a shaker and pour over ice in a martini glass. Or add mixture to a blender with ice cubes and blend until smooth for a frozen drink.

Kids' Spring Green Punch

This punch van be made up for the kids to have their own cool green drink. 

Ingredients: 

• 8 cans guanabana nectar
• 4 cans 7UP
• 1 Quart Green sherbet

Mix all ingredients together in a punch bowl and serve. 

Eggshell Plant Pots

These are fun little crafts to make for people of all ages. They can also be used to decorate your altar if you like

What you will need: 

• Eggshells- keep as much of the egg whole as you can, breaking out just the top of the small end
• potting soil
• grass seed (or cat grass is a good one to use)
• Paint
• glue
• any color pipe cleaner

Begin by making the stand for the egg out of the pipe cleaner. Wrap it in a circle several times at the bottom of the egg, giving it a little stand to set in. Glue the egg to the stand and let the glue dry. You can make all the stands ahead of time so that when the kids or guests are ready they can just spend time decorating them and then planting the seeds. 

Paint the eggshells any way you like. You can make them look like people (perhaps have a contest to see who can make their egg look the most like themselves or maybe a famous person). You can decorate them with symbols such as runes, zodiac signs, pentagrams, or any other symbols you find appropriate. These could be used as altar decorations. They can also just be painted solid colors. What ever you want to do with them is up to you. 

Once they are painted, they will need to dry. You may use markers to color them instead of paint to decrease the drying time, but you can get a better color choice by going with paints. 

When they are all dry, use a spoon to add some potting soil to your egg planter and then add lots of the grass seed and water. Cat grass grows relatively quickly so it shouldn't take long before you start seeing sprouts come up. Make sure to check the dampness of the soil every day to make sure they are getting enough water. With the small amount of soil in the eggs, they will dry up rather quickly.