My favorite online Ostara reference is Christina Aubin's excellect overview posted at Witches' Voice. Christina writes about Ostara with much more authority than I could hope to at this point and her article includes all of the essential information about lore, symbology, practices and spiritual significance that we need to know about this Sabbat.

Pagan News also has a nice overview of Ostara - I particularly like their discussion of colored eggs and their correspondences.

Illustration by lachrymose-dollfie at DeviantArt.

The excerpt here is from a section in Christina Aubin's article that resonated most powerfully with me. For those of you who know me well, you will understand why now, in particular, this message carries so much importance and why the message of hope, growth and new possibilities is so meaningful.

The Vernal Equinox is the season of new and renewed life, of new fire and new spark. The gentle, slow awakening of the Earth that began at Imbolc accelerates with almost lightning speed. There is an intensity, a fervor to the energies of this time; it is as if all existence suddenly is whirling its way in a pinnacle climax from which all life bursts onward in its own determination to keep the circle of life spinning.

With such whirlwind fervor one can understand the necessity of spring cleaning, the channeling of such immense energies into productive, worthwhile tasks on all levels of our lives. It is a time of clearing away that which is static to prepare for the dynamic force of the new and renewed substance of life. Clearing the fields, if you will, to make possible the seeding.

Seeding, of course, has a multi-level meaning, for the seeds we plant can be on the soil of our Being as well as the soil of the earth. It is the time after the final harvest of fields and of self during Samhain, the contemplation during the fallow periods of winter, to plant the new seeds given from our experience, pondered and understood. A time to begin to create new life, from the seeds of experience past. A life rich in the wisdom of experience past, brimming with the promise of times future.

Spring Equinox is also celebration as well as a practice of balance. For it is not quite Spring and yet not quite winter, it is the time when we are perched magically between the two seasons. The trees and plants are stirring with renewed life, and yet we still receive the March wintry storms. It is a time to remember our balance in the greater scheme of things, we are an important part of all that happens around us, our actions and inactions, our deeds and not, all have effect on the Earth, Her people, and the Universe. So it is the time of the year when we understand our need to walk in balance with the Universe much more clearly.

The Vernal Equinox also reminds us that there will be times in which achieving balance is easier than at other times in our lives. As the seasons of nature are cyclical so are our lives; we individually mirror the movement of the whole. The Vernal Equinox also serves to remind us that there are times when we must individually "clean house" in order to maintain fertile ground, clear out our outdated conceptions and misconceptions, our grievances and hurts, our self-perceived many times self-inflicted wounds, regrets of our past actions and inactions, our grudges and resentments, our inability to forgive others and ourselves. By clearing house we create the room for new experiences, new understandings, new hope and new joy that would elude us had we not cleared the way and made room for them to occur.

Spring speaks to our soul in messages of hope, of growth or new possibilities realized.

While the messages we learn from Ostara are important and significant for all of us, the blessings of this Sabbat could not be coming at a more significant time for me. I recently was engaged. My fiance and I have had our difficulties and are still struggling with some of them. But we have made our way through the worst of them together and find ourselves this Ostara at a very good place for a new beginning.

Today I will celebrate Ostara at a discussion group with my witchcraft class friends. I missed the Ostara ritual over the weekend, so this small gathering will be my opportunity to share good thoughts and energy for new things to look forward to in the year to come, including the beginning of Witchcraft II later this week!

I wish you much hope and happiness for all of your new beginnings and wish you a Blessed Ostara.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 1:18 PM