Beltane – A Little of This & A Little of That

Beltane Oil

Carrier oil specific: almond
3 drops apple
3 drops calendula
3 drops frankincense
3 drops lilac

–Gianne’s Grimoire of Personal Power
Lady Gianne

 

Celebration Powder

Talc in the color of your choice
Glitter in the color of your choice
Rosemary
Cinnamon
Use equal parts talc, rosemary, and cinnamon, adding as much glitter as your want. This powder can be worn to any appropriate celebration. Dust yourself lightly.

–Gianne’s Grimoire of Personal Power
Lady Gianne

 

Beltane Incense

3 parts Frankincense
2 parts Sandalwood
1 part Benzoin
1 part Cinnamon
A few drops Patchoulli essential oil

This makes an easy powder to throw on a charcoal block or on the balefire.

 

 

Beltane Ritual soap

Add Thyme and rose to an old knee-high stocking filled
with those soap slivers you saved. The soap will tempt the fairy folk
into joining your celebrations, if it is possible.

 

Beltane Anointing oil

Add lily of the valley essential oil (no more than 8
drops to 1/8 cup good nut oil like peanut or safflower)
and warm slightly.

This will provide more than enough to anoint everyone in the circle.

 

 

Beltane Ritual Potpourri

Recipe by Gerina Dunwich

45 drops frankincense oil
1 cup oak moss
1 cup dried bluebells
1 cup dried lilac
1 cup dried marigold
1 cup dried meadowsweet
1 cup dried rosebuds and petals
1 cup dried yellow cowslips

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

 

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

The Lighting of the Balefire

The name “Beltane” has been traced back to an old Celtic word meaning “bright fire,” and is thought by some scholars to be related to the ancient Sun god Belenos, whose name has been translated as “bright shining one.” Belenos was worshipped throughout Celtic Europe and his feast day was on May 1st, so this connection seems logical, but is not universally accepted by historians.

For one thing, Belenos (also known as Bel or Beil) doesn’t make significant appearances in the mythology of the areas where Beltane was historically celebrated: Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Mann. In fact, he was much more significant to the Gaulish Celts of the European continent, where the May 1st festivals are known by different names. Nonetheless, the ritual importance of fire was a central focus of Beltane for the ancient Celts of the western-most islands, where the first references to the holiday are found.

The chief event at Beltane in ancient Ireland was the lighting of the balefire on the eve of May 1, the first fire of the light half of the Celtic year. In preparation for this event, every household hearth was extinguished.

Legend has it that tribal representatives from all over Ireland met at the hill of Uisneach, a sacred site where a giant bonfire was lit. Each representative would light a torch from the great fire, and carry it back to their village, where the people waited in the darkness. From the village torch, each household would then relight their home fires, so that all of Ireland was set alight from the same initial flame.

In another version of this story, the fire at Uisneach could be seen from several miles away in every direction, signaling to the surrounding villages to light their own central fires, which was then spread throughout their communities. Either way, this act marked the beginning of summer, with hopes for plentiful sunshine throughout the season.

As a living symbol of the Sun, ritual fire was clearly seen as having magical powers. In many Celtic areas, the Beltane fires were also used for ritual purification of cattle before they were turned out into the summer pastures. The cattle were driven between two large bonfires, which were tended by Druids who used special incantations to imbue the fires with sacred energy.

The fire would clear the animals of any lingering winter disease and protect them from illness and accidents throughout the summer. People would also walk between the fires, or jump over them, for luck and fertility through the coming year. In some areas, the ashes from the smoldering fire would be sprinkled over crops, livestock, and the people themselves.

Over time, the annual Beltane fires grew into larger festivals, where people came to greet each other after the long winter. Dancing, music, games and great feasts became traditions, along with a free license for sexual promiscuity on this special occasion. Other customs observed at this time included eating “Beltane bannock”—a special oatcake that bestowed an abundant growing season and protection of livestock—and making a “May Bush,” a branch or bough from a tree decorated with brightly colored ribbons, flowers, and egg shells.

People would dance around the May Bush on Beltane, and then either place it by the front door for luck or burn it in the bonfire. This was believed to be a remnant of Druidic tradition, which held many trees to be sacred and possess magical qualities. A related custom was hanging a rowan branch over the hearth or weaving it into the ceiling to protect the house for the coming year.

Trees, herbs and flowers in general played a part at Beltane and at other May Day celebrations throughout Europe. Primrose flowers and hawthorne and hazel blossoms were gathered and placed at doors and windows, made into garlands, and even used to adorn cattle. Yellow flowers were prized for their association with the Sun.

Herbs gathered on this day were said to be especially potent for magic and healing, especially if gathered at dawn or while the morning dew was still on them. The “May dew” inspired a variety of traditions around beauty. Young women would roll naked in the dew or collect it to wash their faces with, as it was said to purify the skin, maintain youthful looks and help attract a love partner.

 

–Wicca Wheel of the Year Magic: A Beginner’s Guide to the Sabbats, with History, Symbolism, Celebration Ideas, and Dedicated Sabbat Spells
Lisa Chamberlain

Let’s Talk Witch – Beltane

Northern Hemisphere: April 30 or May 1

Southern Hemisphere: Oct 31 or Nov 1

Pronounced: bee-YAWL-tinnuh, or BELL-tinnuh

Themes: passion, mischief, sensuality, sexuality, beauty, romance, fertility, vitality, abundance

Also known as: May Day, Walpurgisnacht, Floralia, Calan Mai By the time May 1st arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is truly in full swing and the balance is tipping toward summer. The heat of the Sun increases with each day, and the Earth turns ever-deepening shades of green as buds and blossoms give way to the emerging new leaves. Flowers seem to explode along the roadsides while birds, bees, and other flying creatures fill the air. And even if a stray chill sneaks back in for a day or two around this time, there’s still no going back—winter is decidedly over.

In fact, May 1st marked the official beginning of the light half of the year in pre-modern times, making this day the official beginning of summer for our Celtic ancestors. Indeed, Beltane—or May Day as it is also known—is a time for exuberant celebration, as the long, warm days and the lush abundance of the growing season are ramping up. The hopeful feeling that was kindled at Imbolc and built upon at Ostara now comes into full fruition.

Wiccans recognize Beltane as a time to celebrate the return of passion, vitality, fun and frivolity, and the co-creative energies of Nature that are so evident at this time of year. By this point all living creatures have come out of hibernation and are enjoying the sunshine and the mild days.

“Spring fever” is at its peak, as people find themselves unable to concentrate on their work or studies and long instead to spend all their time outdoors. Primal urges toward lust and wildness become stronger and we see both animals and humans pairing off, sparked by that most basic of instincts: to reproduce.

This life-giving relationship between masculine and feminine energies is honored now, perhaps more directly at this Sabbat than at any other point on the Wheel of the Year. In the cyclical story of the Goddess and the God, this is the shift between their mother-child relationship to that of partners in co-creation.

Over the spring months, the God has matured into his young manhood, and the Goddess is again ready to step from her Maiden aspect into the life-giving Mother. In their prime of life they fall in love and unite, and the Goddess once again becomes pregnant, ensuring the rebirth of the God after the current growing season comes to an end in the autumn.

This is the act that brings about new life in the form of abundant crops, healthy livestock, and forests full of wild game and healing herbs. It is the fundamental building block of the continuation of life, and so is celebrated joyfully at this time by Wiccans and other Pagans alike. In some traditions, the union between the Goddess and God is seen as a divine marriage, and so handfastings—or Wiccan weddings—are customary at this time.

In addition to the Sun God and/or the Horned God, many Wiccans and other Pagans recognize an aspect of the God in the Green Man, an archetypal image of a male face camouflaged by leafy foliage. This mysterious face is found carved into very old buildings throughout Europe, including cathedrals, and is often connected with the Celtic god Cernunnos; however, variations of the image have been discovered all over the world. In early May, as leaves begin to emerge from the trees and shrubs, the return of the Green Man is imminent.

Soon the summer foliage will hide all that was visible during the bare months of winter, and we are reminded of the divinity hidden within plain sight that this greenery so often evokes. Perhaps for this reason, Beltane is also a time of the faeries, who are considered to be more active on this day than any other except for Samhain, which sits directly opposite the Wheel from Beltane.

Faery traditions can be traced back to the Irish Aos Sí, a name often translated as “faeries” or “spirits,” but are found in various forms throughout ancient pagan cultures. They are said to inhabit various places in Nature, from hills and forests to small plants and flowers. Wiccans who are sensitive to the presence of faeries will leave offerings for them on Beltane Eve.

 

–Wicca Wheel of the Year Magic: A Beginner’s Guide to the Sabbats, with History, Symbolism, Celebration Ideas, and Dedicated Sabbat Spells
Lisa Chamberlain

I know it is not Beltane yet, but I ran across this beautiful little poem. I believe it expresses the true meaning of this special time of year and wanted to share it with you on this Beltane Eve.

Beltane Union

A woman stands, Alone in the woods, Awaiting her fate once more, Returning to her place in the cycle of life.

What is that? A rustling in the forest, Closer and closer the noice creeps, Is this the one to seal her destiny?

Now he stands before her, Clad in nothing but the sky, Grown to full manhood, and awaiting, Her.

Their eyes met, Locked in a familiar gaze, Have they been here before, Shall they dance this dance again?

No words were spoken as they met, Quietly they drew close together, And trembling with anticipation, They were united again once more.

He touched her face carefully, She seemed so familiar to him, As if he had always been a part of her, As if they completed a whole.

Beneath the hallowing moonlights glow, They danced the dance of ages, They met, and loved, and joined as one, Completing the holy union.

As they lay their after, A new cycle had already begun, She lay now holding his child, And he lay forseeing his death.

They would come apart again, And meet together once more. For it is the cycle of everything, As goes the Beltane Lore

—Lady Amhranai (2002)

 

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.