ostara blessings

Just wanted to post a quick note on Ostara or the spring equinox, which took place on Friday. We spent it with friends around a bonfire after an egg hunt amongst the wood anemones. Am just reading The Idle Parent (which is hilarious, subversive and quite brilliant) so it was timely to watch all these home educated children running free, climbing trees and enjoying self-directed play with other kids of all ages. And hasn't the weather been gorgeous and uplifting? I have had the chance to get really stuck into my garden and that has been blissful. Also brewed up my first batch of nettle tonic of the season and it's taste is spring encapsulated. Anyway, back to Ostara... Cultural connections Ostara is a time of balance, as the equinox is the point at which the day and the night are of equal length. After this night the days become longer than the nights which is a special cause for celebration in some cultures (such as Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey), and actually marks the beginning of their New Year. For the Anglo-Saxons, the equinox also heralded the beginning of the New Year. The celebration honoured their Goddess of Spring, Eostre, and this is believed to be the forerunner of the Christian celebration of Easter. The themes of these celebrations throughout the world are very similar, all of which focus upon new beginnings, fertility, and new life. Embrace fertility Ostara is a wonderful celebration, the second of the fertility festivals (Imbolc being the first). Falling at such a beautiful time of year, there is much to celebrate! The days gradually lengthen and the beauty of spring is all around. The air is fresh and sweet smelling, and there is a sense of ‘lightness’. Our heavy winter clothes are shrugged off, and most are feeling a renewed sense of hope and happiness as the sun prepares to smile down upon us for a little longer every day. Personal celebration It's a good time to reflect upon the balance of your life. Springtime heralds change and transformation, and the opportunity to hold a mirror to yourself and ask, ‘what do I see?’ This is not a physical question, rather one of honesty. It is a time of clarity and new beginnings, a fresh outlook. All that we resist will reappear continually until we confront and accept what we fear to change. We can manifest new intentions just as easily as flowers spring up from the earth. Ostara blows in on a fresh easterly wind, (usually accompanied by cleansing showers as we have seen today!), as its element is that of Air. Accept change Allow the winds of change to move you. This may be gently, blowing away the cobwebs of winter, freshening the space between your relationships, and cleansing your communication with others. If you have stagnated, hibernated or stayed stubbornly in one place allow the sweet easterly breeze to flow around you and through you. Savour and delight in the fresh fragrant smells it brings: spring blossoms, warming earth, awakening fresh greens. Permit yourself the youthful perception and clarity of spring; it’s flexibility and strength. Once you embrace this, you yourself will bend gracefully under the fiercest of winds like a strong, young sapling. Living life lightly and affecting positive change is all about acceptance – of others, yourself and your situation. Spring is a special time to invite new challenges, or face old problems, with a renewed sense of purpose. This evocative pentagram image is created by Jennastasia