Ostara, the Fulfillment

I hope this new spring season is treating everyone well.

This was my first Ostara celebrated with my friends and family of Shadow Grove. The plan for the day involved egg hunts for the children, and painting wooden eggs, little bird houses, and flower pots. All around, the Grove was showing signs of the new life of spring, and we were surrounding ourselves with its symbols.

The ritual in the early evening did not involve a bonfire as it often did. This time, we were led in a meditation and when we opened our eyes, we were each holding a brightly colored egg. Mine was orange, and I first thought that was not a relevant color to me, but soon came to realize it was perfect. At Imbolc, we each had charged a seed and were told to bring it back with us. During the ritual, while we held on to our eggs for a later purpose, we planted our seed in little peat cups with a little flag marking our names. These seeds will be cultivated and germinated and will later be planted in the Grove garden as a sign of our community, our family. Those who wanted one received a gift of a blooming Narcissus, that many of us planted in the pots we had painted.

The eggs we were given had a special purpose. After the ritual, we trudged back up the steep hill. We were told to draw upon the egg, dividing it into quadrants lengthwise. On either end, we put our name and a symbol that represented our faith (this was a pentacle in my case). We then thought of four things that we wanted, needed, or hoped for and wrote or drew symbols to represent them in each of the quadrants. The task from there was to roll the egg down a hill. When it stops, the quadrant facing up contained what we needed to focus on. Mine was happiness, which I represented by a glowing sun. This is also a feeling I get from the color of my egg, and in line with my wish last Esbat. I then opened up my egg and threw it into the woods so the critters of the Grove could have something to munch on.

After all of that was the feasting and gaiety I've come to expect with this wonderful group of people. Many of us were noting that this was the largest amount of people for a Sabbat that we've yet had. It is so nice to see this ministry growing, though we are near out-growing the ritual space. We have some thinking to do about that dilemma.

Ostara, the Vernal Equinox

An equinox is so named because the time of daylight and darkness is in equal measure. This is the first equinox of the year, marking the beginning of spring for people in the northern hemisphere.

Despite the cold weather my area has been experiencing, the trees are starting to bloom, birds are returning to their summer nests, and fair weather insects and amphibians can be heard through the night.

I've been personally suffering an intense case of winter blues, and only last night realized that is what it was. The process of changing my residence has stalled for now, which hasn't helped my mood. I was certainly expecting to be moved in and settling by now. Because of this, all of my tools are safely packed up in move anticipation, leaving me to performing a very simple meditation ritual.

I placed a pink candle, pink to represent the flowering sakura trees I love so much, into a painted jar and cast my circle. I prepared myself by focusing on the candle and filling my head with thoughts of spring and what spring means: new beginnings, starting fresh, and certainly warmer days that can be spent out of doors. I then picked up an old Book of Shadows and a pencil and started writing.

This is a form of meditation called automatic writing. The only rule it to write whatever comes to mind, and not to stop. I wrote for thirty minutes and filled five pages. The candlelight was just enough so that I could see the lines on the page, but not what was being written. I did not exactly follow the lines on the page, but writing neatly is not the objective. It is an exercise of meditation and channeling. When done right, you don't have any conscious thought about what you are actually writing.

I read over my pages of scribble this morning and found a lot of thoughts about how I've been feeling lately, where it's really coming from, and why I want to hide those reasons, and what I've really been feeling, from the people who are important to me.
Just as spring is a time of beginnings, this exercise allowed for beginning; beginning to see the truth behind my actions and emotions, and maybe even beginning to move them in a different, more positive, direction.

Embrace your beginnings.