A Few Goodies for the Grown Up Witches

Ostara Oil

Put in soap or annoint candles
5 drops lavender
5 drops jasmine
5 drops patchouli
5 drops rose

Add a lavender bud and small lapis lazuli, rose, and clear quartz crystals. This has the gently smell of spring beginning to blossom. Very lovely!

 

 

Ostara Incense

Recipe by Scott Cunningham

2 parts Frankincense
1 part Benzoin
1 part Dragon’s Blood
1/2 part Nutmeg
1/2 part Violet flowers (or a few drops Violet oil)
1/2 part Orange peel
1/2 part Rose petals

Burn during Wiccan rituals on Ostara (the Spring Equinox, which varies from March 20th to the 24th each year), or to welcome the spring and refresh your life.

(The above recipe for “Ostara Incense” is directly quoted from Scott Cunningham’s book: “The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews”, page 83, Llewellyn Publications, 1992.)

 

Spring Equinox Ritual Potpourri

Recipe by Gerina Dunwich

A small cauldron filled with homemade potpourri can be used as a fragrant altar decoration, burned (outdoors) as an offering to the old gods during or after a Sabbat celebration, or wrapped in decorative paper and ribbons and given to a Wiccan sister or brother as a Sabbat gift.

45 drops rose oil

1 cup oak moss

2 cups dried dogwood blossoms

2 cups dried honeysuckle blossoms

1/2 cup dried violets

1/2 cup dried daffodils

1/2 cup dried rosebuds

1/2 cup dried crocus or iris

Mix the rose oil with the oak moss, and then add the remaining ingredients. Stir the potpourri well and then store in a tightly covered ceramic or glass container.

(The above recipe for “Spring Equinox Ritual Potpourri” is directly quoted from Gerina Dunwich’s book: “The Wicca Spellbook: A Witch’s Collection of Wiccan Spells, Potions and Recipes”, pages 161-162, A Citadel Press Book, Carol Publishing Group, 1994/1995.)

Source

Ostara Lore
Researched and Compiled by StormWind

 

 

Ostara Soap

1 cup grated unscented soap
1/4 cup hot water
1 tbsp. apricot oil
1 tbsp. Jasmine
1/2 tbsp. rose
6 drops frankincense oil
6 drops sandalwood oil
3 drops lavender oil

Place grated soap in a heat-proof non-metallic container and add the hot water and apricot oil. Leave until it is cool enough to handle, and then mix together with your hands. If the soap is floating on the water, add more soap. Leave to sit for 10 minutes, mixing occasionally, until the soap is soft and mushy. Once the soap, water, and oil are blended completely, add the dry ingredients. Once the mixture is cool, then add the essential oils (essential oils evaporate quickly in heat). Enough essential oils should be added to overcome the original scent of the soap. Blend thoroughly and then divide the soap mixture into four to six pieces. Squeeze the soaps, removing as much excess water as possible into the shape you desire, and tie in a cheesecloth. Hang in a warm, dry place until the soap is completely hard and dry.

Recipe adapted from Kate West’s The Real Witches’ Kitchen Sabbat Soap recipe.

Pagan Parenting: Get the Children Involved in Fun Activities for Ostara

(Not only do they have fun, they also learn about our Sabbat)

Older children can research to find out what creatures lay eggs. Have them make large paper eggs. Have them cut the top of the egg off and reattach with a metal brad. Then the can make a creature they have found and glue it to the paper egg so that it looks like it is coming out of the egg when they open the top. They can decorate the egg according to the creature they chose.

Older children can write a story about finding a mysterious egg. Younger children can tell you the story and you can write it down for them.

Plastic eggs can be used for all sorts of games. You can write math problems on the outside of the shell on a pieces of tape (so you can change the math problems.) Then write the answers on a piece of paper and put into the egg. The child can do the math problem and check the answers by “cracking” open the eggs. You can also write fortunes inside the eggs, hide them, and let the children find them. Or you can make a treasure hunt with the clues written inside the plastic eggs.

Make a flower pot bunny. Turn a small flower pot upside down. Let the child paint the pot like a bunny head. Then make bunny ears out of felt. Poke the “bunny ears” out through the drainage hole in the pot and glue or tape the ears on the inside of the pot. (acrylic paint works best with this project.)

Hard boil eggs. Color with crayons, and dip into egg dye.

Cut out an egg shape out of a large piece of paper. Let your child paint it with watercolors.

Let your child experiment with adding white paint to green, yellow, and red. Then the child can paint with the Spring colors he/she made.

Have your child sprinkle grass seed into a paper cup filled with dirt. Let your child water it carefully and place in a sunny window.

 

Bunny Biscuits

Make biscuits with your favorite recipe (even out of a can if you want.)

Cut into circle shaped biscuits.

Two biscuits make a bunny head. 1 makes the face. Cut the other one in half and flip each half over.

Stick to top face on a cookie sheet and bake according to directions.

Tell your children the story of the Goddess Eoster. She was thought to take the form of a white bunny and hop all through the countryside bringing eggs. She was the Goddess of fertility, which you may want to explain as being the one who helped people have new babies, grow crops, and new animals to be born.

Read “The Runnaway Bunny” by Margaret Wise Brown.

Have an egg relay race. Divide the family or group of children into teams. Give each person a spoon. Give each team a hard boiled egg. Make a starting line and a got to line. Say, “On your mark, get set, go!” Then each person in the front of the line holds out their spoon with the egg on it and goes as fast and carefully as they can to the “go to line” and back. They pass off the egg to the next person. The first team to have everyone go to the line and back with the egg wins.

Have an Egg Hunt. I like to hide plastic eggs with jellybeans inside, because animals (such as kitties,) won’t bother them, and they won’t spoil.

Make a white paper bag bunny. Find a white paper lunch bag. Cut ear shapes out of the top of the bag. Have the children decorate it to look like a bunny. Stuff it with newspaper. Staple or glue it shut. Or, they can leave it open and fill it with goodies instead.

Make bunny head bands. Take a strip of paper. Wrap it around your child’s head and forehead. Staple it into a circle that fits. Have them draw, color, and cut out bunny ears. Tape or staple them to the head band. Then they can hop around.

Cut out a large egg shape out of paper. Have your child paint on it with watercolor paints. Let dry. Have them color over the entire egg really hard with a purple crayon. Give them toothpicks and let them scratch a design into the purple crayon. The watercolors will show through where ever they scratch.

Make a white paper plate bunny. Fold a paper plate in half. Staple it that way. Add a cotton ball tail on one end. Add paper ears on the other. Draw a face on the end with the ears.
Make a baby chick in an egg. Get two yellow pom poms. Cut one egg portion from an egg carton. Glue the pom poms, one on top of the other, into the egg carton piece. Cut a very small diamond shape out of orande paper. Fold in half. Glue onto the top pom pom for a beak. Glue on googly eyes

 

Ostara Egg Shell Mosaics

Save all the egg shells from your Ostara eggs.
Put them in a strong plastic or paper bag.
Smash them by rolling a rolling pin over the bag.
Your child can glue down the colorful eggshells in any mosaic patten that they wish on sturdy paper or cardboard.

 

Homemade Ostara Egg Dye

1 Tablespoon Vinegar
You need these ingredients for EACH color you want for your eggs.
1/4 teaspoon food coloring
3/4 cup hot water
1 Tablespoon hot water

Mix theses ingrdients all together in a bowl for each color that you want. Leave the egg in until it reaches the desired shade.

You can also add one of the follwing ingredients to water and a bit of vinegar in a saucepan and heat to make your own colors: Onion skins, Blueberries, beets.

To make interesting designs on your Ostara eggs, try putting rubber bands on the eggs before dying. Use rubber bands of varying widths. Remove rubber bands after the dye is dry. You can even recolor egg after the bands are removed.

You can use masking tape or stickers on the egg before you dye it. Then remove tape after it is completely dry.

You can make tye-dye eggs. Take a 6 inch square of cotton cloth. Wet slightly and roll the egg in the cloth. Secure in place with a rubber band on each end of the egg so it looks like a piece of hard candy. Use a medicine dropper to put drops of dye on the cloth-covered egg. Use several different colors. Unwrap

 

Pear Bunny

Put a canned pear half on a lettuce leaf on a plate.
Use almonds for the ears.
Make a tail out of a marshmallow.
Make eyes out of raisins.

 

Bunny Rolls

1 head of lettuce
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Wash and remove large lettuce leaves. Let (or pat) dry. Mix remaining ingredients. Spread on lettuce leaf. Roll up and eat.

 

Fluffy Rabbit Finger Play

See the Fluffy rabbit as it hops,
(Hold hands at sides of head for ears.)
One ear up while the other one flops.
(Bend down one hand.)
She’s a gentle bunny with a twitchy nose,
(Wiggle nose.)
She’s all furry from her ears to her toes.
(Wiggle rabbit ear, then toes.)

Goddess Magick with Eostre

A Blessing for Your Home

The vernal equinox is the launch of the spring season. This festival’s familiar symbols of rabbits, pastel-colored eggs, and bright spring flowers are sweet and romantic ones. Look around you: everywhere in nature there are signs of life returning to the land. To bring a bit of this natural magick indoors, pick up a pretty pot of blooming bulbs—try tulips for love or daffodils for chivalry and honor—and take them home to brighten things up.

Perhaps you can jazz them up a little by tucking some moss over the soil or adding a festive bow or tiny colored eggs to the container. Enchant these spring flowers for fresh starts and good luck. Light a soft green votive candle and call on the goddess of spring, Eostre, to work this sabbat spell for new beginnings and to increase the positive things in your life.

Ostara begins our season of spring
Good luck, joy, and cheer these flowers do bring.
Eostre, bless my home, family, and friends
May your love and blessings never end.
For the good of all, with harm to no one
By the goddess of spring, this charm is done!

Allow the green candle to burn until it goes out on its own. Happy spring!

If you care to modify this spell a bit, here are some correspondences for the goddess Eostre/Ostara. Colors employed are all pastel shades and, of course, spring green. Symbols for the goddess include the white hare and colored eggs, birds, feathers, nests, and baskets of spring flowers. The goddess Eostre can be called on in magick for balance, illumination, renewal, new beginnings, fertility, and rebirth.

 

–Seasons of Witchery: Celebrating the Sabbats with the Garden Witch
Ellen Dugan

Spring Equinox – Ostara Traditions

Ostara or the Vernal Equinox is also known as Lady Day or Alban Eiler (Druidic). As spring reaches its midpoint around March 21, 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.

The Spring Equinox or Ostara is sacred to Eostre, the Saxon Goddess of Spring, Green Earth and Fertility. Ostara is said to be the Greek translation of Eostre’s name. Her two symbols were the egg and the rabbit. The first Easter egg was said to have been decorated for her by a small hare determined to make the egg as beautiful and new as Eostre made the world each spring. Today her symbols are commonly known as the Easter egg and Easter bunny.

In nature, hens begin to lay eggs when there is 12 hours or more of daylight. At the onset of spring our ancestors could count on gathering fresh eggs from their chickens and the egg became a reliable symbol of rebirth in the cycle of nature.

Herbs and Flowers: Daffodil, Jonquils, Woodruff, Violet, Gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, Narcissus and all spring flowers

Incense: Jasmine, Rose, Strawberry, Floral of any type

Sacred Gemstone: Jasper

 

Wiccan & Pagan Holidays: An Easy Beginner’s Guide to Celebrating Sabbats and Esbats (Living Wicca Today Book 1)
Kardia Zoe

Ostara, The Symbolic Change

Ostara is symbolic of the change in the Goddess from Winter’s crone to Spring’s maiden The holiday calls to the youthful spirit within us all, no matter what our age, and celebrates the land’s slow rebirth after the deathlike sleep of winter.

Witches observe the holiday with rituals and feasts, and decorate their altars with the traditional tional fertility symbols of rabbits, chicks, and eggs (no, not actual rabbits and chicks, although you are welcome to try it if you’re feeling brave and don’t mind cleaning up poop).

And if those symbols sound a bit familiar to those of you raised in one of the Christian religions, gions, it is because many of the traditions of Easter were adopted from Ostara. Even the name Easter was taken from a Pagan goddess: Eostre, a Saxon goddess of spring. Think about it: the symbols of Easter all represent fertility (those same eggs, chicks, and rabbits)-much more suitable able for a Pagan holiday than a Christian one. Oh, the things they didn’t tell you in Sunday school …

So adorn your altar with a few beautiful early spring flowers, draw some Pagan symbols on eggs before you dye them, and prepare a feast of traditional spring foods like asparagus and lamb. If you want, you can even plant a few seeds. Then, alone or with other Witches, plant the seeds for the changes you wish to occur in your life during the coming year.

Source

Deborah Blake, Everyday Witch A to Z: An Amusing, Inspiring & Informative Guide to the Wonderful World of Witchcraft

A Little History

The Vernal Equinox

In some magickal traditions, this is the start of the new year. The Roman year, for example, began the fifteenth of March (the Ides of March). Also, the astrological year begins on the vernal equinox, when the sun enters the astrological sign of Aries the Ram.

The word vernal is Latin and means “spring,” while the word equinox actually comes from the Latin word aequinoctium, which means “equal night.” Once again, our daylight and nighttime hours are fairly equal. When the sun crosses over the earth’s equator, this moment is known as the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. At the spring equinox we celebrate the midpoint of winter changeably. The Anglo-Saxons hailed Eostre as the Maiden Goddess of spring. Some say that her name means “moving with the waxing sun.” Eostre (Old English) and Ostara (Old High German) are both the names of this goddess of the dawn and spring.

Her name was taken for the Christian celebration of Easter, probably due to the fact that in Germanic traditions, the month of April is called Eostur monath (Eostre’s month). Back in 1882, Jacob Grimm had this to say about the goddess Ostara. Check out this interesting quote from his book Teutonic Mythology:

This Ostarâ, like the [Anglo-Saxon] Eástre, must in heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries.

Eostre, the goddess of spring, was once offered cakes and colored eggs at the equinox. The hare was sacred to her, as is the white rabbit. In many other mythologies, a white animal such as a deer or a horse is often considered a sign of divinity, and it is sacred. Some scholars consider Eostre to be a Maiden Goddess of the east and the dawn, similar to the goddess Eos, who is the Greek Maiden Goddess of the sunrise. Isn’t it interesting how these different deities from different cultures have so many similarities? Also, in my opinion, having Eostre associated with both the spring and the sunrise makes sense, as on the day of the vernal equinox the sun rises at true east.

This sabbat honors the fecundity of the land, the sprouting of the seeds within the earth, and the coming of spring’s warmth and light from the sun. This time of year is all about balance, renewal, and rebirth. It’s a fantastic occasion for new beginnings, starting new projects, clearing out the old to make room for the new, and embracing a fresh start.

Eventually the snow and ice will thaw and melt, and things will be muddy and sloppy for a while. This, too, passes as nature puts all that moisture to good use and it nourishes the plants. To survive the thaw and reblooming of spring, all plants and wildlife have to be hardy and strong. Spring is a season of dramatic change. Even though folks like to romanticize it and say how soft and pretty it is, often the fiercest winter storms happen now. Spring is a brutal season. Only the hardiest of early spring plants endure the wild weather, temperature swings, and severe storms. It is both a challenge and a test of faith to thrive in this season, but spring is all about faith, strength, birth, and growth.

 

–Seasons of Witchery: Celebrating the Sabbats with the Garden Witch
Ellen Dugan

Ostara to Beltane

The advent of Spring marks the turning of the year, when hours of daylight begins to outnumber the hours of darkness again. New growth emerges around us and we experience renewed energy and hope, while fertility becomes the focus of the animal and human world and is also seen in the reawakening of the Earth and the flora it sustains. Because the Sun returns to our lives at the Spring Equinox, it is associated with the color yellow.