Ostara 2024

 

 

As you probably know, Ostara is the Spring Equinox, a time when we celebrate the rebirth of the land. This makes it an excellent time for both literal and figurative planting of seeds, which is supported this year by the waxing gibbous moon. Rebirth and renewal are similar themes to the new beginnings of Ostara. This makes it an excellent time for any workings involving growth and abundance, especially for new projects or parts of yourself you wish to place more emphasis on in the coming months. Typically, this is a favored time for spring cleaning. This could make sense for you if you perceive this as planting cleanliness. However, I tend to see spring cleaning as a cleansing, a banishing of mess, so I plan to defer as much of my spring cleaning as possible until the waning moon around the 27^th. Similarly, my focus in the garden would be on starting or transplanting the many plants that get started this time of year and I would leave as much clearing and weed pulling as possible until the waning moon, especially if insects are still overwintering in your region. The deity most closely associated with Ostara is, of course, Eostre, the Teutonic goddess of Spring, dawn, and new life. However, while most neo-Pagans imagine Brigid passing the torch to Eostre at this time of year, these goddesses come from different cultures and Brigid is still very much in ascendance as the reawakening land, the bright and shining one, and the goddess of transformation. (As a Brigid devotee, I’m certainly biased!). And, obviously, the many and diverse cultures of the world come with innumerable deities and other beings associated with Spring and fertility, such as Persephone, Ashanti, Saraswati, Zemyna, and Morityema. In fact, many cultures have multiple deities and other entities affiliated with Spring and its many aspects and associations. There are, honestly, too many to name even a representative sample. If you work within a specific pantheon or, especially, if you hope to begin working with a specific pantheon, this is an excellent time to connect with that pantheon’s deities and entities of dawn, life, fertility, flowers, rain, and Spring, even if you don’t usually work with those entities.

The Spring Equinox is also when the light hours and dark hours are in balance. This supports any working or activity meant to bring balance or to explore liminality. In fact, the day before Ostara begins the Celtic Tree Month of Alder, a tree associated with balance and liminality. The alder grows in wet areas such as swamps and riverbanks and its male and female catkins grow together on the same tree, thus it is seen as balancing male and female as well as earth and water and occupying the liminal space between dualities. Alder also expresses balance of opposites in that it is considered both nurturing and martial. It oozes a red sap very reminiscent of blood, thus it is associated with both the blood of life and the blood of the battlefield. It is a nitrogen fixer, which means its symbiotic relationship with a certain bacterium enriches the soil for all of its neighbors. Also, because it favors moist conditions and has very hardy roots, it is excellent at stabilizing soil and preventing erosion, helping to preserve wetland and riparian ecosystems. Alder is a pioneer species; it is able to grow in areas too barren for other species to thrive. It is a very hardy plant, even after being cut. It regenerates easily, it retains its leaves longer into autumn than most trees, and its wood hardens when wet, making it a versatile construction material and traditional wood for flutes and guitars. Due to these attributes, alder is associated with strength, endurance, and protection. Bran the Blessed, of Welsh lore, is said to have carried alder wands for protection in battle. Bran is a martial figure but he is not a bloodthirsty figure. When he went to war, it was to protect his sister Branwen. When he was slain, he had his men carry away his still-animate head and bury it in a special place to protect the land. The Mabinogion, in my opinion, portrays him as more just and lawful than most of those around him.

Alder’s associations are not the only thing bringing in martial energies this Ostara. Though this is not an attribute we commonly associate with Ostara, this year it falls on a Tuesday (ruled by Tiw or Mars/Aries) and the Sun enters Aries (obviously also associated with Mars/Aries). The moon entering Leo brings in even more fiery energy. It is important to remember that Aries often direct their notoriously passionate nature to righteous causes, that Leos are known for their loyalty, and that Tiw was a god of justice as well as warfare. As such, this is an excellent time to follow up on the justice workings you may have done on Lughnasadh, when many of these same energies were in force. While Lughnasadh was very much about harvesting what one had already sown, Ostara should be about what you wish to replace it with. For example, if your Lughnasadh working involved ending systemic social injustices, your Ostara working should focus on building, growing, and nurturing systems that support social justice and equity. In fact, an excellent addition to your Ostara workings would be to donate time, labor, or funds to a charitable organization that focuses on the issue you’re addressing in your working. Whatever your investment, flowing with these Ostara energies will help it grow and flourish into abundant returns. Remember, this Ostara is not bringing chaotic, mindless martial energies; these martial energies are softened by Spring and are distinctly protective and justice-oriented, so work accordingly. For example, if you’re addressing a DA situation, it will probably be more productive to focus on protecting and caring for the victim(s) rather than seeking revenge on the perpetrator(s). If they are still under the same roof, you could do a working to remove the perpetrator(s) from the home or find a new home for the victim(s). You may wish to petition Bran and Branwen for a better outcome than they themselves experienced. This would also be an excellent time to place new wards or recharge your wards.

Tarot cards you could incorporate into your working include 0 The Fool (new beginnings, lack of preconceptions), IV The Emperor (Aries, balancing strength and mercy), VIII Strength (strength in gentleness), and XIV Temperance (balance, past flowing to future). If you work with The Forty Servants, you could incorporate The Mother (fertility, security, nurturing), The Balancer (balance and harmony), The Protector (protection, security, safety), and The Fortunate (happiness, health, and abundance).

If you'd like music for celebration or ritual, check out my Ostara playlist on Spotify! I've organized the songs according to a number of thematic, musical, and other criteria to maximize the listening experience and to facilitate people hiding parts they're not interested in or adding the parts they are interested in to their own playlists. The full song list is available on my Drive.

Review - Poetry as Spellcasting

It might be unfair to review this text as a whole, since it's the product of multiple authors writing individually, but a sufficiently granular review would be effectively unreadable for most people. So, unfair as it may be, I'll be painting with broad strokes on aspects of the book where that's possible.

I did not enjoy this book. Read it anyway. It was an act of willpower to pick it up every time, but I did keep picking it up. This is an emotionally demanding text. Every time I pick it up, I find myself full of anxiety, heart beating rapidly, my mind becoming sluggish. I've been devouring books recently, at a rate of about a book a day. I can only manage this book one or two chapters at a time. It is valuable reading, not light reading. If you're truly giving yourself to the text, as merited, I think you'll need to be prepared for this, even if you don't internalize things quite as physically as I do.

Though this varies chapter to chapter, I think the emotional impact of the text sometimes suffers from being overly entrenched in the language of the literati. Given the kind of person I am and the kind of family I come from, I'm very sympathetic to this particular trait and how it might go unnoticed by those who are initiated into the jargon. While those with degrees or equivalent self-education in poetry and social justice theory will probably have no trouble connecting with the text, those without that background will sometimes find themselves bogged down in technical language, interrupting the flow of the ideas the author is attempting to communicate. I'm fairly married to precision, so I choose to interpret this as evidence of the authors as precise rather than pretentious, but I do think it will make the text less welcoming to some.

Those who approach this as an instruction manual will be disappointed. Those who approach it as a window into the minds of thoughtful people will be informed. Those who approach it as a window into themselves will be edified.

I'll be honest, I didn't pick up this book as an instruction manual. I rarely find interest in others' spellcraft; imitation is anathema to the intuitive flow that is my practice. I picked up this book to hear voices unlike my own, to learn about other perspectives, to be a better activist and ally. Because the subject and method are so intimate, I feel I achieved that goal. Because the subject and method are so abstract, it was an incomplete achievement-- incomplete in direct correlation to my own limitations rather than the authors'. I did find it a transformational work. Not the transformation of The Tower but the transformation of The Wheel, not an unmaking/remaking but a waking/walking.

Ultimately, I didn't get the most from the rituals the authors invite the reader to try for themselves (which sometimes felt a bit trite to me). I got the most from my spontaneous responses to the text, what it revived in me, the unfurling of the tight knot of rationality I'd carefully coiled around my endemic madness, that fount from which the most powerful poetry and spellcasting spring. Ultimately, I didn't find this a welcoming invitation to ritual but rather an invitation to recollect (re-collect) a part of myself, a way of being I'd hermetically sealed to keep separate but safe until I was ready to return to it.

If books were medicine -and I believe they can be- I would prescribe this book (especially "Articulating the Undercurrent" by Dominique Matti) for those experiencing disconnection-- from others, from their environment, from divinity, and particularly from themselves.

I feel like Destiny Hemphill speaks movingly to and for this book in "We Ain't Got Long to Stay" when she says:

"So many possibilities for our commitments, so much discernment required.

   Stay with me. Please.

   Because it's here... It's here at this edge, this possiblity that I'm calling out to you and to your discernment. Earnestly. Right here at this particular crossroads, under increasing surveillance, against the clamor of everydayness that tries to propel us into more of the same-- I'm calling out to you to meet me. Trying to shape the words, the songs, the choreopoems that might seem like a matter of no import to the inattentive. Might seem like just another death chorus. But to you-- it might be a whisper in a register that can only be registered against your skin. And with that heat of breath on your flesh, maybe you know... Maybe you know a surging chorus of aliveness when you feel it? Maybe you recognize the song of liberation gloriously stolen back by kindred? Whispering ...like ...this ...Can you catch it?

Stay with me. Because none of this can stay the same. Breathe with me.

Conspire. We ain't got long to stay here."