Happy Ostara!
I'm going to stop prefacing every other entry with some comment about how I'm behind schedule. Just assume that I'm always behind schedule, and in the rare event that I'm on time, or (dare we dream) early, I'll make a point of mentioning it.
Ostara is celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. The equinox itself was March 20th this year, and I celebrated Ostara at an open ritual this past Friday. As you would imagine, Ostara is very much a celebration of spring. I mentioned at Imbolg that the very early signs of spring were just beginning to be noticeable. Now at Ostara, it is evident that winter is on its way out. Not gone completely - we may still have a few ice storms left - but the signs of spring are more visible.
Just as Imbolg was a time to plan for the coming year, Ostara is the time to begin to put that plan into motion. This was symbolized at the ritual I attended by the planting of seeds - now that we've had time to form our plans, we need to prepare for those plans to come to fruition. This is the time to nurture these new ideas, these new projects, these new dreams. In these early stages, we need a lot of support. Things may not go according to plan. We may need to adjust; we may need to learn from our mistakes and form a new plan. But this is definitely the time to move forward.
In honor of Ostara, here is one of my favorite spring poems:
in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's spring and the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles far and wee
e.e. cummings
My mother showed me this poem when I was a kid, and "mudluscious" has been one of my favorite words ever since. Thanks Mom!