Deities & Demons: Ostara and the Dawn

March 19, 2020 0 Comments

Deities & Demons: Ostara and the Dawn

Deities & Demons

Ostara or Astarte

by Sera Timms
Image by Marcin Nagraba
-William Shakespeare 

 

THE DAWN

Ostara, Ēostre who stemmed from Astarte is both an Ancient Germanic Goddess and one of the eight Neopagan Sabbats which make up the Pagan Wheel of the Year. The Sabbat, or Holiday celebrates the re-birth of Spring after the barren winter season. The face of the Goddess Ostara is the Virginal Maiden of Spring, the smiling celestial crescent, emerging in the sky from the black horizon of winter.

One must imagine the ancient European Winters to truly appreciate the return of this gentle fertility Goddess. To get through the barren season, families would store grains, nuts, dried meats and herbs for their survival. This preserved prosperity directly from the land equated with the sustaining of life when external conditions i.e. weather did not support it. Ēostre emerges from the rich Pagan canon of deities who came about when survival truly depended on the fertility and abundance of the land and humanitie’s harmonious relationship with it. She is and was and is a Goddess of the People, the Workers, the Creators, the Stargazers, and the Bacchanalian Merry makers. Now more than ever, in our modern age of convenience, and urban aversion to the laws of Nature’s Cyclic cornucopia, do we need the return of an abundant feminine force.

 

aurora

Aurora Triumphing Over Night, by Jean- Honore Fragonard

 

The Neo-pagan celebration of Ostara is held on the Vernal Equinox which always falls around March 20th, and has always been heralded by a Goddess of the Dawn. Dawn is the event of the rising sun, which is why you see the resurrection of Christ on Easter. Christ symbolically represents solar consciousness, known as Beauty or Tiphareth on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. The secret revealed by this symbolic discourse here is that the Maiden Goddess of Dawn is in fact the carrier of the resurrected solar consciousness, which is why it’s now commonly being called Sophia Christ Consciousness, which includes the Divine Mother, Sophia.

Linguistic reconstruction of Ostara traces the name back to Ausṓs which is “dawn” or “to shine” and linked to Goddesses Eos, Aurora, Ushas and Hausos. The Dawn Goddess Archetype is responsible for bringing light into the world which drives away oppressive forces of darkness and evil, and resets the human energy field from chaos back into alignment with the cosmic order. Eos is shown in a chariot pulling the New Dawn across the sky in the company of the Horae, the feminine personifications of the hours who ascend in an arc across the Heavenly dome as they scatter illuminated bursts of creative intelligence into the aetheric planes. When one obtains Sophia Christ Consciousness, or highest conscious awareness, one experiences the actions of the Dawn Goddess and her cohort as feelings of activated light energy, bringing expanded awareness, infinite possibility and alignment with all cosmic and terrestrial cycles of time. This is to transcend dictatorial limiting concepts of time and obligation divorced from the natural cycles, and to re-enter the unified sphere of ecstatic time-space experience found in the merged Vesica Pisces gateway, formed when the circle of the Solar Masculine is truly united with the circle of Feminine unconditional love which is the true foundational field of the Mother Goddess.

Ostara’s Saxon name Ēostre was coined by a Northumbrian Monk, Bede, in 725 in his The Reckoning of Time. The book was essentially a very detailed instructional manual to calculate the date of the Easter or Paschal Full Moon which is the First Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after this. The element of time is a key quality of the very existence of this Goddess. The Vernal Equinox Sabbat could easily be considered her birthday, with Easter being her slightly belated birthday celebration. In this case, as a Mother does, she is actually bearing the greatest gift as the returned Solar Son, represented by the Christos.

This year the Equinox falls on March 19th, which is the earliest Northern Hemisphere Vernal Equinox we’ve had in 124 years! Considering the tumultuous month of March so far with it’s pandemic quarantine limitations, I think we should all welcome this early return of Spring! On the Equinox, the Sun appears to rise at the exact compass point of East, and set at exact West, and day and night are equal to one another. Without getting too deep into calculations, it’s notable that the early arrival of Ostara this year is due to a Leap Year which occurred in 2000.

 

aurora  Aurora, as depicted on the ceiling of the Akasaka Palace in Japan

 

 

QUANTUM MESSENGER

The concept of a Leap Year leads us to the Easter bunny. The rabbit or moon hare is an animal that’s always been associated with The Goddess due to it’s lunar fertility associations. Women’s fertility cycles were traditionally aligned with the circles of the moon, and rabbits are known for their extreme fertile nature which begins in Feb/March. The most fascinating facet of a rabbit’s fertility is it’s ability to become pregnant again while already pregnant! In the world of symbolism, a rabbit is associated with the phenomenon of Quantum Leaping due to it’s hop or leap.

If you recall Alice in Wonderland, Alice falls down the rabbit hole by following the white rabbit who is notably shown carrying a pocket watch, and is always anxiously exclaiming that he is late. In essence this reveals that a rabbit can lead one into another world or dimension, much like a Quantum Leap, or a “glitch in the matrix”. Return to the fact that this early Vernal Equinox is born of a Leap Year in 2000 which was called Y2K. The shift from 1999 to 2000 brought a scourge of fear and paranoia regarding the digital ramifications of early coding which did not take the 1900 to 2000 shift into consideration.

 

star falls by ebineyland

"Star Falls," by Ebineyland

 

This early Equinox, or early Dawn is the repetition of a cycle from 124 years ago. 124 can be broken down into the exponential equation, “1+1 =2, 2+2=4” and the numerology “1+2+4=7”. This reveals an early arrival of the Feminine Dawn associated with exponential growth, within the framework of distilled numbers 4 and 7. In numerology, 4 is the number of the builder, and 7 is the number of spirit. This symbolic equation reveals the “spiritual builder”, which was the archetype which created the illuminated empires such as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Ancient Egypt.

Also notable is the position of the Sun rising at exactly East. East is historically seen in magical, mystical, and mythological lore as a Gateway to Sacred Illuminating Light. The world at large was paranoid of digital havoc in 2000, and now in 2020 we’re re- experiencing havoc being under quarantine, and the Digital Realm has surged in traffic. Many brick and mortar stores are scurrying like spring rabbits to adapt into virtual online stores and service providers. In a matter of days the physical workplace has largely leaped into a digital reality. We have been forced unanimously into our homes, told to sit still like children, and many of us wait to find out if we will be receiving some sort of financial help. The Goddess is the magnetic force of Yin, the Moon, the receptive: this is literally the mode which we’ve been forced into via a crisis. The Yin carries the Yang in the story of the Dawn Goddess. Dare I say that the foundation for a Quantum Leap of conscious evolution was laid in the glitch of the 2000 Leap Year, which has led us into the new dawn of the resurrecting divine feminine force, Ostara?

 

 

Reality is formed through thoughts, intentions, symbols, and many other mysterious ingredients. Time is made of numbers, and is supposed to correlate to the phases of the cosmic bodies, but has not followed the moon cycles since the Solar Calendar was invented around 700 BCE. Our year 2020 is about clear vision, and finding out what is real and what is illusion. The Reckoning of Time may take on a whole new meaning as we all have been suddenly pushed out of our daily hamster wheel routines of wake-commute-work-sleep-wake which were built upon a time architecture of reality separate from the natural cycles of the lunar calendar which takes 33 full years to complete a cycle. The number 33 is representative of Christ Consciousness, more recently dubbed Sophia-Christ Consciousness, which is essentially a state of unified, enlightened consciousness that can be activated in all of us through the Heart Chakra of divine love. The heart Chakra is a radiant green, the immaculate heart activated through the Quantum Return of the Rising Goddess of Dawn who now gifts us with her loving, patient, firm embrace. What will you plant in this garden of time which she has bestowed upon all of us?

 

SYMBOLS AND ASSOCIATIONS

  • Cosmic Events: Dawn
  • Animals: Rabbit
  • Plants: Daffodils, Primroses, Violets, Crocuses, Celendine, Catkins, Pussy Willow, Jonquils, Woodruff, Violet, Gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, Narcissus and all spring flowers.
  • Incense: Jasmine and all floral
  • Gemstone: Jasper
  • Trees: Birch, Ash, Alder
  • Food: Sprouts, Dandelion Greens, all unprocessed plant foods, especially seeds. Honey, Eggs, and Dairy.
  • Associated Goddesses: Astarte, Eos, Aurora, Ushas, Hausos, Venus

 

RITUALISTIC INSPIRATIONS

  • Wake up at Dawn on the Paschal Full Moon on April 7th, also called the Pink Moon. Light a Full Moon Candle and hand paint an egg as an offering to Ostara. Send her gratitude for the new fertile growth cycle which is being revealed.
  • Wake at Dawn and make scrambled eggs (tofu fine for vegans!) and garnish with pumpkin seeds, and sprouts. Offer a serving to Ostara in a Crescent Moon Tray symbolic of the Maiden Moon.
moon tray
  • Ostara Meditation: Cleanse your space with Palo Santo Flora Bundle. Close your eyes and picture a black horizon with a dim pink sky. Invite Ostara or any Dawn Goddess to rise above the horizon into your consciousness. Patiently observe as she forms before your eyes. Note any symbols or actions which are shown. Ask her what seeds you need to be planting in your “garden” of reality now for your highest growth
  • Decorate your altar with spring flowers, jasper, burn floral incense, offer honey and seeds. Use our Strength and Power kit which includes Jasper to boost your own Ostara Goddess frequency. Sit before your altar and sing or play a song which reminds you of spring, fertility, optimism and new growth. Dedicate it to Ostara with gratitude for her coming Spring gifts, and simply feel the warmth and joy of this energy.
  • Plant 13 seeds in your garden to honor and align with the 13 moon cycles of the year. Keep a New Moon Candle which aligns with planting seeds to light for the beginning of each lunar cycle. This candle should only be lit with the New Moon to honor the darkness from which the light is born. This also honors each of your 13 seeds. If one dies then it has served it’s purpose and it’s time to plant a new seed. Feel free to attach goals and dreams to any of your flowers or plants. If they die it does not mean the end, it simply means there is an adjustment process in the works, and to continue to nurture that goal of it’s still in your heart.
  • Quantum Leap meditation: Because Quartz is associated with time, dust your feet with Crystal Quartz Sand and hold or have near you a Quartz Point. Close your eyes and see yourself in a Spring meadow as the sun is rising. Call upon the spirit of the White Rabbit. Allow the White Rabbit to be your quantum guide. Ask him or her to take you through a Quantum Portal which will reveal more of your own light to you, to help you become like a Goddess of Dawn. This may lead to a past or future life experience, and interdimensional realm, or even a subconscious chamber of trauma or pain. It often involves the rabbit literally guiding you into a rabbit hole, a temporary door of light, or into a room, a castle, a mirror. Try to follow the rabbit without judgement or rational thought, and this will reveal corridors of illumination in your psyche. Remember that what may appear as “negative” is always an experience which serves to expand your awareness into the infinity of your being.

 *Interested in reading more on Ostara and the spring Equinox? Read our blog here.

 

 

 

Sera Timms of LVXTENEBRAS is Gemini twin sister, occult and esoteric lover and practitioner, musician, and wise woman from California. Read more about her here, and from her on our blog, Esoteric Insights.

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Read more on astrology, horoscopes, occultism, magick & ritual on our blog, Esoteric Insights!





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