Oh My God/dess!
by Rowan Starlight

As I write, delicate, beautiful white and green snowdrops have peeked through the leaves piled in the flowerbeds. It's a breezy, but relatively balmy 50 degrees outside (not bad for the end of February in Connecticut) and, even though there's still snow on the ground, everyone's thoughts are turning to Spring more and more each day. Many of us are beginning to prepare for Ostara or the Vernal Equinox, so the goddess Eostre is the focus this month.

Eostre is the Saxon goddess of Spring, growth, dawn, and fertility. She is also known as the Teutonic goddess Ostara, from which our celebration takes its name. It is obvious that Easter is a derivative of the name of the Goddess, and many symbols of Eostre and her celebration, such as the egg, hare/rabbit, bird, and flower remain as integral parts of the modern Christian holiday. Eostre also lends her name to the East, the direction of dawn, and to estrogen, the hormone that controls a female's sexual development and menstrual cycle.

It is told that a little girl found an injured bird and did not know how to heal it, so she called to Eostre for help. Eostre came to the girl, but she was unable to restore the bird to its original state, so she transformed it into a hare instead. The hare retained its ability to lay eggs and did so every Spring in honor of the Goddess and the Earth's rebirth. Thus, the tradition of the Easter Bunny bringing baskets of eggs to children has survived for many centuries, with the addition of marshmallow Peeps, jelly beans, and chocolate, of course (yum!). The egg as the primary symbol of the Goddess of Spring is also tied to the archetypal myth of the creation or birth of the world as stemming from a "cosmic egg" as in Africa, China, Egypt, Japan, India, and Greece. Other versions of Eostre's story state that the hare was actually the consort of the Goddess, and we all know that bunnies are very fertile and amorous….

Although Eostre/Ostara is usually portrayed as a maiden goddess, she is sometimes associated with mother goddesses of fertility such as Ishtar, Astarte, Ashera, and Isis who are also appropriate deities to honor at Ostara. During this time of balance, as we sit on the threshold of Winter to Spring, it seems natural that the Goddess would be both maiden and mother concurrently.

Dying eggs with children is a great way to honor Eostre. If you have extra time, try using natural substances instead of artificial food colorings to make your own dyes. Using plants, spices, etc. as coloring is healthier for you and the environment, and the muted hues are a pretty change from the traditional bright colors. Depending on what you have on hand and what you plan on cooking around this time, natural dyes can be less expensive and any waste can be added to the compost pile too. Good choices include red and yellow onion skins, blueberries, purple grape juice, spinach, parsley, red cabbage, coffee, tea, turmeric, dandelion greens, citrus peel, etc. Just experiment and have fun. After all, Spring is a time of new life and beginnings so it's the perfect time to try something new.