Ostara

Minor Festival

Traditional Date: Either Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lady Day), March 25th or Easter Day.
Astrological Date: Vernal Equinox, Sun 0° Aries
See also: Calendar of Festivals

Meditation

These meditations on the Solar Festivals are intended to be performed on or near the appropriate date. Please see the Calendar for more details.

Ostara: Prepare yourself for meditation in the usual way.

You are on a grassy hillside, close to a small wood. It is a clear, sunny day. The sky is blue and birds are singing in the trees. Yesterday it rained, and in the night there was a heavy dew; so today everything is especially green and bright. There is a fresh breeze, rippling the grassy meadows and making the tree boughs gently sway. At the foot of the trees are some early flowers: daffodils and crocuses. These, too, nod their heads gently in the breeze. The trees themselves are waking up from slumber; on every branch there are opening buds, ready to break forth into bright, green leaves.

In a field nearby some sheep are grazing. Little lambs are leaping about in play, their new white fleece contrasting with the greyer coats of their mothers. As you watch, a hare scampers across the field; running fast, it soon disappears into a hedgerow.

In the valley beyond the fields is a river, sparkling clear and bright in the sunshine. Beyond there river are mountains, on whose slopes patches of yellow gorse¹ blossom are showing.

Walk down towards the river; your feet swishing through the dew-wet grass as you go.

In the valley is a small building, like a chapel or a temple. This is your own personal Temple, which you will often encounter in the course of these meditations.²

Go into your Temple and look around. The floor of the Temple is empty, except for the small altar in its centre. A bright, golden object is lying on the altar. Go nearer and examine it: it is an egg.

Pick up the egg, handle it. It feels just like an egg should: warm to the touch; neither rough nor smooth; solid, and yet fragile. The only thing remarkable about this egg is its bright, golden shell.

And yet perhaps this shell is an illusion. Look closer; it seems as though you can see inside the egg. Faint swirls of coloured light seem to come from within.

Bring your centre of awareness closer still, and you will find that you can project your consciousness right inside the egg. And now, you find yourself floating gently in a great, dark void, surronded by the brilliant pinpoints of stars and the luminous swirling masses of galactic nebulas.

One point of light, bluer and brighter than the rest, drifts closer, and you recognise it as a planet. It is our planet, the planet Earth. It draws closer and closer, until it fills almost the whole sky in front of you.

Contemplate the beauty of the globe before you. The sea; the land; the endlessly swirling masses of cloud. The slow, but never faltering, rotation of the whole sphere under the illuminating Sun.

And now, draw back from the globe. See it grow smaller as it recedes into the distance, to be lost in an overall suffusion of golden light.

You are back in your Temple, holding a golden egg in your hand. An egg that contains the whole of the Universe that is to be. The egg, symbol of potential, creation and renewal of life, and yet it cannot exist without the creative and cherishing intelligence of the life that has gone before it. In the same way, the future of our Earth is as nothing if we do not perform our own small acts of creation and protection for the benefit of the life we live and the lives of all those creatures who share the planet with us.

Contemplate the egg for a few more moments, then replace it on the altar. Leave your Temple, closing the door carefully behind you.

You are once again on a sunny hillside, standing on the lush, green grass, feeling the fresh wind on your face. Drink in the delights of this natural scene for a few more moments; and then return to objective reality, in the place and the time where you started your meditation. Put your consciousness in the centre of your head, just behind your eyes; and when you are ready, open your eyes.

Take a few hours, or a few days, to absorb the significance of this meditation. If you wish, you may repeat the meditation several times during the period around the Festival concerned.

Note 1: Ulex europeaus, also known by the dialect names whin and furze
Note 2: for more detail about the personal Temple, see the Imbolc meditation