Ostara
Day and night stand equal for a breath, and then the light tips forward.
Ostara takes her name from Ēostre, a Germanic dawn-goddess mentioned by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century as the namesake of the paschal month. Whether her cult was widespread or nearly forgotten by his time, her name survived in the English 'Easter'.
The spring equinox is a rite of return. Eggs — the first laid after the long winter — were dyed and eaten. The hare, sacred in Germanic and Celtic Europe for its associations with the moon and rapid renewal, became the emblem of the season. Both survive in modern Easter, largely unrecognised.
Ostara is the season of setting seed. What you do now, quietly, will bear its shape by high summer. Balance is the day's teaching: work paired with rest, sowing paired with patience.
- — dyed eggs
- — the hare
- — young greens
- — pale linen
- — hawthorn bud
Pale sun, cool wind, first green. A tentative brightening.
Objects of Ostara
No objects yet marked for this station of the wheel.
Return with the turning