Ostara Festival of the Spring Equinox

This Wheel of the Year festival of Ostara is the celebration of the Spring Equinox and marks the end of winter and the beginning of the time of rebirth (spring) and is celebrated by the collective of female fertility deities. In Wicca, a gathering is held to draw energy from the ether and deposit it into the earth with the intention of giving strength. While we observe the Spring Equinox on March 21, Ostara is often celebrated from March 20 to 23.

With the arrival of March comes the promise of spring the month is said to roar in like a lion, and if we’re really lucky, roll out like a lamb. Meanwhile, on or around the 21st of the month, we have Ostara to celebrate. It’s the time of the vernal equinox if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s a true marker that Spring and warmer, sunnier days have come. There are many different ways you can celebrate this Sabbat, depending on your tradition. Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal.

Ostara is a celebration of the resurrection of Spring and is actually a widely popular holiday. You may have even been practicing Ostara this whole time without even knowing it! To many, Ostara is a feast day that honors the Spring goddess and Earth Mother. A form of this traditional springtime celebration was practiced by many Pagan cultures throughout history, in tales that are too eerily similar to be mere coincidence.

In this day and age, more and more pagans are coming out of the woodwork and looking for ways to honor these traditions and celebrate the beauty of nature through the sabbats. With this in mind, it’s important to understand all of the symbolism and rituals that are involved in participating in this joyous occasion and truly embracing the energy of this powerful equinox.

Why not take advantage of the season to do a bit of Spring magic?

Ostara Ritual Tips – Now is a good time to use spring to work on magic related to rebirth and growth.

Here are some tips of things to do this spring.

Perform rituals outside, if at all possible, in the early morning as the sun rises, to reconnect with the earth.
Consider your own place within the earth, the sun, and the Divine. How do you fit into the grand scheme of things? How do you find balance between light and dark in your own life?
Make an offering and find a sense of balance and harmony between light and dark, winter and summer, warmth and cold.
Spring Clean your sacred space and set Up Your Ostara Altar.
Spring clean your home and hearth. Shake things up and move furniture around, get in the cracks and under the furniture!
Perform simple Ostara Ritual designed with You the solitary practitioner in mind.
Earth Meditation: As the earth begins to warm back up, use this meditation to help get yourself grounded.
Celebrate Ostara with the Kids in Mind.
Serpent Magic: Snakes are found in folklore around the world.
Egg Magic: Eggs are often associated with new life – a good time for egg magic.
Magical Spring Flowers: The earth is blooming, and spring flowers can come in handy for your magical workings.
Daffodil Magic: Daffodils are early bloomers and have a useful magical purpose.
Rabbit Magic and Mad March Hares: There’s a lot more to rabbit magic than just the Easter Bunny.
Magical Gardening: Growing plants is a magical act–let’s look at how you can include it as part of your daily practice in the spring.
Cook Hot Cross Buns ~ As we bake our Ostara creations and watch the yeast rise, we are reminded of the newly growing plants and herbs sprouting up out of the ground. The finished loaf, a product of the last year’s harvest, is also baked with a wish that the next season will be even more abundant. These loaves of bread can be decorated with flowers, fruit, vegetables, and peppers, laid carefully on top to create beautiful springtime works of art. You can also bake hot cross buns, which are symbolic of the Celtic cross and the pagan Wheel of the Year.

Ostara Festivals celebrates several different goddesses around the world.

Asase Yaa (Ashanti) ~ Asase Yaa, also called Aberewa (Akan: “Old Woman”, in the indigenous religion of the Akan people of the Guinea Coast, the great female spirit of the earth, second only to Nyame (the Creator) in power and reverence. The Akan regard the earth as a female spirit because of its fertility and its power to bring forth life, and they further personalize it as a mother because human beings depend on it for their continued nurturance and sustenance. Asase Yaa is of paramount importance to the Akan because it is through her, by way of libation and dance, that they gain access to and maintain familial connections with their ancestors.
Cybele (Roman) ~ For the ancient Romans, the Feast of Cybele was a big deal every spring. Cybele was a mother goddess who was at the center of a Phrygian fertility cult, and eunuch priests performed mysterious rites in her honor. Her lover was Attis (who also happened to be her grandson), and her jealousy caused him to castrate and kill himself. His blood was the source of the first violets, and divine intervention allowed Attis to be resurrected by Cybele, with some help from Zeus. In some areas, there is still an annual celebration of Attis’ rebirth and Cybele’s power, called the Hilaria, observed from March 15 to March 28.
Eostre (Western Germanic) ~ The word Easter looks a lot like the Spring Goddess’s name Eostre, doesn’t it? There’s no coincidence there! Ostara (the Spring Equinox) was celebrated by Germanic people and by the Anglo-Saxons. Fertility and rebirth of the earth were the two main reasons for Ostara festivities. The earth is returning to its abundant greenness and the sun is returning to the high skies. Flowers are budding, lambs are bleating in the fields, and the whole of nature is singing. Every year at Ostara, everyone begins chatting about a goddess of spring known as Eostre. According to the stories, she is a goddess associated with flowers and springtime, and her name gives us the word “Easter,” as well as the name of Ostara itself.
Freya (Norse) ~ Freya (Old Norse Freyja, “Lady”) is one of the preeminent goddesses in Norse mythology. She’s a member of the Vanir tribe of deities but became an honorary member of the Aesir gods after the Aesir-Vanir War. Her father is Njord. Her mother is unknown but could be Nerthus. Freyr is her brother. Her husband, named Odr
Osiris and Isis (Egyptian) ~ The Festival of Isis was held in ancient Egypt as a celebration of spring and rebirth. Isis features prominently in the story of the resurrection of her lover, Osiris. Although Isis’ major festival was held in the fall, folklorist Sir James Frazer says in The Golden Bough that “We are told that the Egyptians held a festival of Isis at the time when the Nile began to rise… the goddess was then mourning for the lost Osiris, and the tears which dropped from her eyes swelled the impetuous tide of the river.”
Saraswati (Hindu) ~ Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music, art, wisdom, and nature, represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. She is the mother of the Vedas, and chants directed to her, called the ‘Saraswati Vandana’ often begin and end Vedic lessons. Saraswati is the daughter of Lord Shiva and Goddess Durga. It is believed that goddess Saraswati endows human beings with the powers of speech, wisdom, and learning. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness, and ego. In visual representations, she has sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus, the symbol of true knowledge, in the opposite hand.

A House Blessing Spell

You will need: sea salt, a white candle, rose oil, and rose incense. You will begin in the room to the right of the front door.

Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt in each corner, moving clockwise. Sprinkle a pinch in the doorway as well as in the windows, sprinkle some on the sill and say…

Let evil and negativity flee this space and make this room a blessed place. So shall it be.

Continue through each room in a clockwise direction, until the whole home has been salted.

Then, take a white candle and a bottle of rose oil. Light the candle and carry it into each room as you did before.

Anoint the windows and doors with the rose oil, as you Say…

Bless this home and all who enter, Bless it from floor to ceiling, And wall to center.

Light a stick of rose incense. Picture any negativity being carried away on the smoke as it wafts through your home. When the candle has burned to a stub and the incense to a stick, take the spell remains, anoint them with a drop of rose oil, and bury them near the front door. Stand in your doorway, facing into your home. Say…

This space is clear, this spell is done,
For the highest good, with harm to none.
So it shall be!

Sometimes, your home can begin to feel heavy or uncomfortable. Performing a house cleansing and blessing is an excellent way to put everything right, by removing negative or unwanted energy and lifting up the vibrations of your space. Even if you have lived there for decades, a house cleansing can make your home feel bright and new again.