Ostara - Spring Goddess

 

Ostara - German

Eostre - Anglo Saxon 

Radiant Goddess of the dawn & Spring 

Eggs - Fertility

Rabbits - Fertility 

Bede -circa 700 A.D. The Reckoning of Time - later canonized as a Saint Bede is from Northumbria, England. He is a researcher and historian, he is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion and Lutheranism. Pope Leo XIII declared Bede a Doctor of the Church. His shrine is at Durham Cathedral, England.

Bede collected stories from the people of England and wrote them in his book - The Reckoning of Time, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, He was one of the greatest writers of the early middle ages.

I am introducing Bede to you as he is a great reference of that day. He helped me today with writing about Ostara. 

As with all mythology there are very vague descriptions of the deities. The deities virtues are combined. Thats why I decided to create videos about the deities.  

During ancient times the people of the world told stories about why things happen, for example why we see the sunrise so spectaculary during the month of April instead of March. Why the soil is more fertile in April than March.  There is a story for everything and a Deity to go with these natural occurrences. 

Ostara is a spring goddess. She is the goddess that helps with fertility and abundance on all levels. She is a goddess that relates to animals. We don’t want to confuse her with Brigid, a Goddess who we celebrate as the beginning of spring. Ostara is Spring.  Ostara is celebrated for new beginnings, fertility, abundance and seeing joy and blessings in life. 

The people celebrated Ostara by having feasts and bonfires, giving offerings, flowers, a loaf of bread and eggs.

There are theories from the Christian church that Ostara did not exist, She is a made up goddess from ‘heathen worshippers’.  This makes me pause and consider this theory. Christians wanted to be the main belief for everyone so they could be ‘saved’.  When I read ideas like this I tend to lean more toward the people and how they lived before religion was brought to them to be forced into. 

Bede wrote in the 8th Century - Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance - wikipedia 

Here is another example of Christians saying, we can’t get them to stop celebrating their goddess, so let’s align our celebration of the resurrection during this time and everyone is celebrating.  Which has worked out to some extent. 

So how do rabbits, I should say hares and eggs come into this? Here is the story I have read and heard about - The animals wanted Ostara to choose one of them as her symbol. Ostara gave them a challenge, the one who brought her the most precious gift would be her symbol. 

All the animals started crafting. 

The hare went to his humble home and looked around, he found an egg, he was a poor rabbit, but very artistic. He took time to paint the egg, pouring all off his love into painting the egg, making it a masterpiece. 

When it came time to show their works, the hare watched as the other animals brought Ostara beautiful cloth, tapestries, jewelry, sculpture and felt hesitant to give her his gift. When he gave Ostara his gift, she loved it, because it was crafted from the love he had for her. Ostara, decided on the hare and this is why the hare is so fertile to this day. 

There are also stories that hares were birds, Ostara turned them into Hares who laid eggs. In fact there were sales men who sold hares who ‘laid eggs’ then left town quickly when their supply of hares ran dry. 

How do you celebrate spring now? Depending on where we live, we start planting flowers and food. We clear out our homes of debris, we are more active and are out and about more. When we are out and about more we appreciate nature, we are more creative, abundant and fertile. 

Offer Ostara a plant, a creative project, an egg. Sweeten it up by adding some honey.  Place your offering outside for her to see it, make sure the offering is from the heart to receive her blessing of abundance and fertility.

References - 

 https://www.northernpaganism.org/shrines/ostara/about.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2QVP6McVRg

Have a sweet spring! Keep your heart open and aligned with the energy of LOVE!

Auriel Grace