Category: Our History

The Easter Egg – DIY natural dye, lore, Faberge

The Easter Egg

The legend of Ostara
The legend of Ostara, springtime Goddess

The holiday of Easter, known as Paschal in some regions, is celebrated across many many nations and peoples around the globe, especially if they are pre-dominantly affiliated in religious culture as Christian.  However, Easter Sunday as we know it now, has a pretty interesting background of traditions going back into the times of pagan Europe and even becoming such creative symbols as the exquisitely jeweled eggs of Russia’s House Faberge.  Let us take a look at this hallmark springtime festivity and check out some of its rich history.  At the end, we can all enjoy a hand at DIY non-toxic natural egg dye options for some creative, de-stressing fun no matter how old you are or how you’ll be celebrating the holiday!

Lore

Easter originally was a pagan European holiday that centered around a feast to the Germanic Goddess of Spring Eostre/Ostara around the Spring Equinox of March 21st.  A mother goddess of Northern Europe who was honored as the bringer of the dawn and of springtime, Ostara had a couple of stories about her regarding white rabbits and bird eggs (symbols that would come to represent the Easter feast).  One of the myths of Ostara features the bunny. As the story goes, Ostara, was late bringing spring one year. As her energy swooped across the land, she came upon a little bird whose wings had been frozen in the snow. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly, she turned him into a snow hare and gave him the gift of incredible speed, to flee from the hunters.  Still partially a bird, the hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts and painting them pretty colors.  The Goddess loved the gifts so much, she ordained that her feast would always feature this activity henceforth.

Such is as the saying goes…

So how did the Easter feast get turned into Easter Sunday?

In his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie, Jacob Grimm cites comparative evidence to reconstruct a potential continental Germanic goddess whose name would have been preserved in the Old High German name of Easter, *Ostara. Addressing skepticism towards goddesses mentioned by Bede, Grimm comments that “there is nothing improbable in them, nay the first of them is justified by clear traces in the vocabularies of Germanic tribes.” Specifically regarding Ēostre, Grimm continues that:

We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ôstarmânoth is found as early as Eginhart (temp. Car. Mag.). The great Christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of OHG remains the name ôstarâ … it is mostly found in the plural, because two days … were kept at Easter. 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.

Thus, as Christianity spread throughout all of Europe, Easter (originally a celebration of the renewal of life during springtime) became transformed into Easter Sunday (the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ) to help the new religion integrate with the natives of whom were the primary converts to such.

Inspiration

The beautiful painted eggs became a symbol widely recognized across not only Western Europe, but later on Eastern Europe, North America, South America, and beyond as a tradition that still holds weight to this day.  In fact, some artists took their inspiration from these eggs to scale their fame quite far.

The House of Fabergé (French pronunciation: fabɛʁʒe) (Russian: Дом Фаберже) is a jewelry firm founded in 1842 in St. Petersburg, Imperial Russia, by Gustav Faberge.  Using the accented name “Fabergé”, Gustav was followed by his son Peter Carl Fabergé, until the firm was nationalized by the Bolsheviks in 1918. The firm has been famous for designing elaborate jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs for the Russian Tsars and a range of other high quality and intricate works.  Faberge is a brand you might recognize in a lot of places, especially if you see one of these delicate lavish pieces of art:

DIY all-natural Easter Egg dyes
DIY all-natural Easter Egg dyes

DIY all-natural dyes

Whether your Easter weekend will be filled with children, family and traditional Easter activities or drinking wine, donning bonnets, and making vegan chocolate rabbits in a friend’s apartment kitchen, I encourage you to take up with the season and make the brightest, most colorful Easter eggs you can dream up—without using artificial colors and potentially toxic dyes. These eggs can eventually be eaten, displayed (if drained), and just plain recycled at the end by burying the shells in your garden (makes for great plant fertilizer!).

You can keep things safe (and thrifty) by making your own natural dyes from things you probably already have in your kitchen.

For Orange, use yellow onions. mix 1 cup yellow onion skin (about 2 onions’ worth), 1 teaspoon vinegar, and 3 cups water in a pot. Boil for one half hour, cool to room temperature, strain out the onion skins, then soak hard-boiled eggs in the dye for one half hour.

For Red, use beets. Combine 2 cups of grated raw beets with one tablespoon vinegar and 2 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes. Let water cool, then add eggs; the longer you soak, the deeper the red color will be.

For Yellow, use cumin or turmeric. Boil three tablespoons turmeric or cumin. Strain the ingredient (if necessary) and add one tablespoon vinegar to the dye. Allow the dye to cool a bit before (adding) the eggs.

For Lavender, use Hibiscus tea bags.

For Blue, use purple or red cabbage.  Dice ¼ head of cabbage and add to 4 cups boiling water. Stir in 2 tablespoons vinegar. Let cool to room temperature and strain before adding eggs.

For Green, use parsley and/or spinach. 

Want to make intricate designs easily on these eggs?  Check this video out.

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I hope you had fun learning!

For those who don’t want to go the DIY route but still want to keep things natural, check out these natural dye kits on Eupterra Foundation’s article page.

For more on all-natural DIY, visit Eupterra’s homepage.

Be sure to subscribe to our seasonal newsletter for more tips and tricks, and tell us what you think!

The Element Earth

earth element

EARTH

Finally we come to the Element of Earth. The source and provider of all our needs. Represents sensations, decay, patience, stability, strength, health, warmth and comfort, animals and animal instincts, farming and physical labor.

Its feeling is dry and cold, its season is Winter, its colors are Browns, Blacks, Purples and some Greens. Its symbol is the Pentacle or Rice, Salt or grain in a brass or terra cotta bowl or a Stone. Its Moon phase is the Fourth Quarter and its favored time is Midnight. A high Earth person seems a practical sort and quite “down to earth”. A hard worker, stable and a good provider. Can be a little too stubborn sometimes however. A low Earth person can seem confused, insecure and alone, unable to feel wanted and the work may be affected.

Earth Magick can involve the use of herbs and plants. Using the correct herb to attain your desire along with the other tools can be very effective. Burying something and making some offerings to the Earth such as planting trees is a form of Earth Magick. Using your gems or crystals and burying them in the Earth under the appropriate tree while making your wish is also effective.

Another type which is considered Earth Magick is any type of routine magick. Anything you do on a routine basis can be used as a magickal vehicle. While performing something you do at the same time everyday, prepare yourself and use this period for clarity on a subject, figure the best course of action in a situation or to find just where you are in the course of your life.

Perform an Earth Meditation Ritual

Perform an Earth Meditation Ritual

Try this simple meditation to help you attune to the element of Earth. To do this meditation, find a place where you can sit quietly, undisturbed, on a day when the sun is shining. Ideally, it should be in a place where you can really connect with everything that Earth represents. Perhaps it’s a hillside outside of town, or a shady grove in your local park. Maybe it’s somewhere deep in the woods, under a tree, or even your own back yard. Find your spot, and make yourself comfortable.

Sit or lie on the ground, so that as much of your body as possible is in direct contact with the ground. Use all of your senses to attune to Earth. Relax your body and breathe slowly, through your nose, and taking in the scents around you. You may smell freshly cut grass, or damp earth, or flowers and leaves. Close your eyes, and become aware of the earth beneath your body. Feel the cool breeze blowing by, and allow yourself to become in tune to the rhythms of nature.

Author

Paganism/Wicca Expert

Article published on & owned by About.com

Folklore and Legends of the Element of Earth

Earth Folklore and Legends

Each of the four cardinal elements – earth, air, fire and water – can be incorporated into magical practice and ritual. Depending on your needs and intent, you may find yourself drawn to one of these elements more so that the others.

Connected to the North, Earth is considered the ultimate feminine element. The Earth is fertile and stable, associated with the Goddess. The planet itself is a ball of life, and as the Wheel of the Year turns, we can watch all the aspects of life take place in the Earth: birth, life, death, and finally rebirth. The Earth is nurturing and stable, solid and firm, full of endurance and strength. In color correspondences, both green and brown connect to the Earth, for fairly obvious reasons! In Tarot readings, the Earth is related to the suit of Pentacles or Coins.

Let’s look at some of the many magical myths and legends surrounding earth:

Earth Spirits:

In many cultures, earth spirits are beings that are tied to the land and plant kingdom.

Typically, these beings are associated with another realm, the forces of nature that inhabit a particular physical space, and landmarks like rocks and tees.

In Celtic mythology, the realm of the Fae is known to exist in a parallel space with the land of man. The Fae are part of the Tuatha de Danaan, and live underground. It’s important to watch out for them, because they’re known for their ability to trick mortals into joining them.

Gnomes feature prominently in European legend and lore. Although it’s believed that their name was coined by a Swiss alchemist named Paracelsus, these elemental beings have long been associated in one form or another with the ability to move underground.

Likewise, elves often appear in stories about the land. Jacob Grimm collected a number of stories about elves while compiling his book Teutonic Mythology, and says that elves appear in the Eddas as supernatural, magic-using beings. They appear in a number of old English and Norse legends.

The Magic of the Land:

Ley lines were first suggested to the general public by an amateur archaeologist named Alfred Watkins in the early 1920s. Ley lines are believed to be magical, mystical alignments in the earth. One school of thought believes that these lines carry positive or negative energy. It is also believed that where two or more lines converge, you have a place of great power and energy. It is believed that many well-known sacred sites, such as Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor, Sedona and Machu Picchu sit at the convergence of several lines.

In some countries, spirits associated with various landmarks became minor, localized deities.

 

Today, many modern Pagans honor the spirits of the land by celebrating Earth Day, and use it as a time to reaffirm their roles as stewards of the earth.

Deities Associated with Earth:

  • Brighid (Celtic)
  • Cernunnos (Celtic)
  • Cybele (Roman)
  • Dionysus (Greek)
  • Gaia (Greek)
  • Geb (Egyptian)
  • Pele (Hawaiian)

 

Author

, Paganism/Wicca Expert

Article published on & owned by About.com

 

The Four Classical Elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water

The Four Classical Elements

Earth, Air, Fire and Water

In many modern-day Pagan belief systems, there is a good deal of focus on the four elements – Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. A few traditions of Wicca also include a fifth element, which is Spirit or Self, but that is not universal among all Pagan paths.

The concept is hardly a new one. A Greek philosopher named Empedocles is credited with the cosmogenic theory of these four elements being the root of all existing matter. Unfortunately, much of Empedocles’ writing has been lost, but his ideas remain with us today and are widely accepted by many Pagans.

In some traditions, particularly those that are Wiccan-leaning, the four elements and directions are associated with Watchtowers. These are considered – depending on who you ask – a type of archetype, guardian, or elemental being, and are sometimes invoked for protection when casting a sacred circle.

Each of the elements is associated with traits and meanings, as well as with directions on the compass.

The following directional associations are for the Northern hemisphere; readers in the Southern hemisphere should use the opposite correspondences. Also, if you live in an area that has unique elemental characteristics, it’s okay to include those – for example, if your house is on the Atlantic coast, and there’s a big ocean right there to the east of you, it’s okay to use water for east!

Earth Folklore and Legends

Connected to the North, Earth is considered the ultimate feminine element. The Earth is fertile and stable, associated with the Goddess. The planet itself is a ball of life, and as the Wheel of the Year turns, we can watch all the aspects of life take place in the Earth: birth, life, death, and finally rebirth. The Earth is nurturing and stable, solid and firm, full of endurance and strength. In color correspondences, both green and brown connect to the Earth, for fairly obvious reasons! In Tarot readings, the Earth is related to the suit of Pentacles or Coins.

Air Folklore and Legends

Air is the element of the East, connected to the soul and the breath of life. If you’re doing a working related to communication, wisdom or the powers of the mind, Air is the element to focus on. Air carries away your troubles, blows away strife, and carries positive thoughts to those who are far away. Air is associated with the colors yellow and white, and connects to the Tarot suit of Swords.

Fire Folklore and Legends

Fire is a purifying, masculine energy, associated with the South, and connected to strong will and energy. Fire both creates and destroys, and symbolizes the fertility of the God. Fire can heal or harm, and can bring about new life or destroy the old and worn. In Tarot, Fire is connected to the Wand suit. For color correspondences, use red and orange for Fire associations.

Water Folklore and Legends

Water is a feminine energy and highly connected with the aspects of the Goddess. Used for healing, cleansing, and purification, Water is related to the West, and associated with passion and emotion. In many spiritual paths, including Catholicism, consecrated Water can be found – holy water is just regular water with salt added to it, and usually a blessing or invocation is said above it. In some Wiccan covens, such water is used to consecrate the circle and all the tools within it. As you may expect, water is associated with the color blue, and the Tarot suit of Cup cards.

Do You Have to Use the Elements?

Do you have to work with the elements, at least within the classical context of earth, air, fire and water? Well, no, of course not – but keep in mind that a significant amount of Neopagan reading uses this theory as a basis and foundation. The better you understand it, the better equipped you’ll be to understand magic and ritual.

Author

, Paganism/Wicca Expert

Article published on & owned by About.com