Spring Equinox and Ostara

Although we are currently in meteorological spring, it still feels like winter!  But I’m loving the sunshine and the new growth in nature at the moment. I’ve been making the garden ready for spring and bought some reeding and re-painted the fences with some wood protector. I’ve also waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so I can sow some wild flower seeds for a bit of colour; and to attract bees and butterflies.

The spring Equinox is the time of year where we celebrate the coming of the light, at the point where daylight length becomes longer than the night. Ostara takes its name from the goddess, when celebrations in her honor were made for women’s fertility and the rebirth of nature.

During the Spring Equinox the Sun rises exactly in the east travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. On the Equinox this is the motion of the Sun through the sky for everyone on earth. Every place on earth experiences a 12 hours day twice a year on the Spring and Fall Equinox.

Looking to decorate your altar?

Why not paint some eggs to decorate your altar?  You may wish to blow your egg before placing it on your altar. If you want to do this, use a large needle and pierce a hole in both the top and the bottom of the egg, making one hole large than the other. Don’t forget you need to pierce the albumen in order to get the egg out! Find a container to catch the egg and blow gently through the smaller hole. You may need to widen the holes if it doesn’t work. If you’ve blown your egg, you may wish to thread it and hang it up once you’ve decorated it. Don’t forget, you can use your kitchen magick to fry, scramble or poach them and eat them on the eve of the Equinox!

You can also hard boil your egg and write a wish on it, and leave it in the woods as an offering.

Collect some wild flowers and greenery and place them on your altar.

Bake some bread and place some on your altar and leave some outside as an offering.

Put some Green, pink, yellow, and purple spell candles on your altar and use them in the spell work.

Use your cauldron because this is a symbol of fertility. Burn incense or place flowers in it if you are not incorporating it into a spell.

Colors: Yellow, green, pink and purple

Foods: Eggs, honey, bread, cake

Stones: Rose quartz, emerald, amethyst, citrine

Symbols: Rabbits, eggs, spring flowers, lambs, bread

Flowers: daffodils, crocus, tulips,

Deities: Isis, Estotre/Ostara, Adonis

So what is the difference between Ostara and Easter? Simply put, Easter is the Christian reinvention of Ostara to coincide it with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Jesus was crucified and died during the Jewish festival of Passover, which this year is 27th March – 4th April. Easter this year is 2nd – 5th April.

It is thought that the the rebranding of a pagan celebration to a Christian one would make conversion to Christianity easier; such as it was with Yule and Christmas.

Shop Stuff

1) It looks like we will be back open for face to face trade from Monday April 12th, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will happen!  I can take credit/debit cards and phone contactless payments in person, or you can click and collect by paying online. This is still five weeks away, so thank you for being patient!

2) As such, I will not be offering face to face sales at this time, and will continue to suspend the click and collect service until restrictions are lifted.

3) However… I will remain open for trade online as normal. To help facilitate this, I will continue to offer free delivery on all items over £20, so make sure you tick this option at the checkout.

Thank you for your continued support with this, and hopefully things will return to normal. I’ve had my first Covid vaccine so I should have the second dose by the end of May.

New Items

I am going to be more creative this year. I have some witchy soaps lined up to come out in April/May once the Consumer Product Safety Reports are back. These will include a range of smudge soaps and will be made locally and blessed.

My second creative project this year is to produce more hand made jewellery, so I will be working with copper, bronze, brass, sterling silver and crystals to produce a unique range of jewellery.  I already have a couple of new pieces available to buy online.

I have been busy with putting together a couple of my witchy boxes. These come with candles and crystals and a few other goodies! Also over the summer I will be teaming up with fellow Crawley creative Holly Flynn from Flynn Care, and a few of her wonderful products will make it into the next round of witchy boxes!