Happy Spring New Year!
March 17 has long been celebrated as the beginning of the year! Which makes sense doesn’t it? Who can follow through with resolutions and new beginnings in the middle of a death cycle. Winter is a conclusion, it is a time of endings. This is why so many people are unsuccessful in their new years resolutions and then end up giving up all together.
Not this time! Start them fresh in March or even April and you will feel a completely different energy around your resolutions and untimely be able to follow through with them, until winter. Which is completely normal! We are not meant to live day in and day out like the sun cycle. Our intuitive nature compels us to live closer to the Earth and Lunar cycle. When the Earth is dormant, sleeping, in death, there is a space for rest, rejuvenation, planning. The implementation comes when you begin to see the grasses green, the buds on the trees start to unfurl. There is a wisdom in moving, being, and creating with the cycles of the Earth and Moon. The sun keeps us healthy through absorbing Vitamin D through our skin, giving the plants its rays to produce photosynthesis so that we have fresh greens to eat to cleanse our bodies of the rich and fatty foods we ate all winter. Each day is part of a bigger cycle. Each say there is something more occurring than what just appears on the surface.
More is occurring than what you hear about on the news or through Facebook. The cosmos has its own cycles as well.
In our modern society we have begun to think in very short terms. We believe that what we are experiencing is the first of its kind. Such as storms, global warming, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. This is also a cycle. There have been ice ages in the past, and global warmings. We are currently still coming out of a global warming, as there are still places on this globe that are glaciers and covered in ice from the ice age 12,800 years ago!
There are shifts in our precious Earth each 13,000 years actually. Can you imagine living in a 13,000 year cycle instead of so heavily focused on your current lifetime cycle?
What aspects would you change if all your decisions impacted 12,900 years after you?
We tend to think so small. At least I know that I do. I know that our government and corporations think small, and immediate future instead of thinking even of the next generation!
Cycles are something that are so important to our lives. As women we see our menstrual cycle each month, reminding us that we are deeply connected with the moon. Mine has switched to ovulating with the New Moon and Bleeding with the Full Moon, as each time I think about having babies this switch happens. When I am content and not wanting anymore children, my cycle goes into Ovulating with the Full Moon and Bleeding with the New Moon. What aspects has your cycle shown about your own desires or longings?
Let’s get back to the Spring New Year though! Ostara, which was a germanic pagan celebration that honored Eastre the Goddess of Spring, and where we get the name Easter was celebrated on March 17, or at least the past 700 years it has been celebrated on this day. March was also the first month of the year until 1592. That year sound familiar? It is when Columbus set sail on the ocean blue- that poem was the only reason it rang a bell in my mind. So when the church sent out Columbus to take over other lands, they also shifted the calendar to begin in January instead of March. Can you imagine the affects of that distraction 500 years ago? Everyone would have been in such a frenzy over the calendar that they would not have been able to focus on the events unfolding around them. This sounds awfully familiar with our own distractions given to us over Chinese weather balloons, while they are lighting forever chemicals on fire in East Palestine, Ohio. The distraction of the Ukraine war to try to take over countries that are not even in Nato. These distractions keep us from our magical selves. They take us away from making choices for generations to come to staying small and in our anxiety.
So in 1592 the calendar was shifted. If that calendar started in March, this is why October, Oct means 8, would be the 8th month. December, Dec means 10, would be the 10th month. So I am going to move with the way things were originally, that Spring or March are the beginning of the Year, not January.
Why March 17?
March 17 is the day of Equilox, not equinox. This is the day when the sun is exactly equal with night and day. Not when it moves over to the other side of the equator. The equilox affects us much greater, and is of more importance. It is also what would have been celebrated by local individuals since it is witnessed, instead of the crossing of the equator which would not have been experienced all over the globe.
The story of the Easter bunny is all about the Goddess Eastre and her bringing life back into the land, and the struggle that winter and spring have as they flip/flop back and forth until the last frost.
It was a bitter cold day but the sun was shining low in the sky, the rays were beginning to melt the snow and ice that had held the land in captivity. Eastre, was walking through the woods, trailing behind her a cloak of green that dragged along the floor. As it melted the snow underneath it, grasses and early spring flowers would pop up underneath it. She walked through the woods for crating a beautiful early spring meadow that pulled the animals and birds out hiding to enjoy the warmth of the growing sun. She was happy to help her friends have a day to stretch and run. Frau Holle was the Goddess of Winter, she loved crafts, especially spinning flax, and gave women time in the year that they could sit and do these hideous takes with no distractions. She is responsible for all the shifts of seasons, and sometimes she wants her most favorite season of winter to last a bit longer, But Eastre always shows up on the exact same day every year! She is so punctual. She wanted to have put one more frost, so she called upon the cold and wind, and put a hard frost onto the earth that night. But she did not realize that a little bird had been gathering worms early in the morning and had caught that frost.
As Eastre went for her morning walk the following day, she found this half frozen bird on the ground. She gently picked it up and blew her warm flower scented breath onto it. She was so delighted when she felt the flutter of her little wings begin to go. But soon her smile faded as she realized that one of the birds wings was not working and had acquired frost bite. She continued to blow her warm breath on the bird, and she fluffed her feathers, dried off and began chirping the the most beautiful chirp. Eastre did not want this bird to die, as it would have if it did not have the use of both wings. So she thought of what animal would be the most warm of all in the winter so as to not have this little one go through this experience again. The Hare, or rabbit came to mind. So she placed the bird on the ground ad transformed her into a thickly covered and warm rabbit. The little bird began hopping around, twitching its nose and excitedly trying to give Eastre a hug. She picked up the bunny and snuggled it as it gave he little licks on her cheek of gratitude.
The bird turned bunny was so excited that it immediately started looking for a gift for her queen. All the creatures in the woods were excitedly getting gifts ready for Eastre as well, as they were always so grateful for the spell of winter to be broken. The little bunny hopped higher than all the other rabbits, she almost flew hopped, and she was also incredibly light compared to the other rabbits. She looked high and low, and suddenly came upon a house. There was a chicken coop with all different kinds of chickens inside. Some laid brown eggs, some laid white, but there was a beautiful blue egg within that she knew would make Eastre smile. She asked the chicken if she could have this beautiful egg to give the Queen of Spring, Eastre, and the Chicken was most delighted. Her egg was chosen!! Nobody usually choose her egg, they wanted pretty white or brown eggs. She was delighted to have her beautiful blue egg choose. The rabbit hopped back to the line of creatures waiting to give of her gift. She found some dried leaves and a crocus to wrap it in so that the Queen of Spring could be surprised.
Finally, Eastre looked at her rabbit, that was only shortly before a bird. She smiled warmly and extended her hand to have her approach. The bunny hopped carefully to Eastre’s feet and she picked up the Bunny so delicately. The bunny offered her present and looked away shyly.
Eastre took great care in opening up this sacred gift, and was delighted by the blue egg that was within. She Frau Holle often would visit that children and women on winter solstice, she decided she too wanted to do something to delight the children come spring. So she asked the rabbit to gather up all the colored eggs from all the coops and to hide them for the children so that they could go and find them. The rabbit did this easily and even had some of the chickens hide their own eggs. All the creatures waited in anticipation for this event as they all loved watching the laughter and joy of children.
As the sun dawned and the children awoke the next morning, a curious little girl saw a bright blue something in a budding bush outside her window. She ran outside to discover more beautifully colored eggs!
All the children ran around the whole morning finding these colored eggs and even Eastre was laughing in delight watching them. She decided that this would happen every year. She sent her beloved rabbit into the stars to live for eternity with her and come back each year to delight the children of the world with the magic of eggs.
This simply story is one that has many meanings. The egg was a symbol of rebirth. The collaboration of nature was often repeated, as we needed to remember that we ourselves are nature, and we get the opportunity to work with nature. Allowing for the magic of transformation within our own selves to happen this time of year as well. Is there parts of your life, your body that are frozen or stagnant? How can you bring movement and joy back into those aspects?
I am opening up a one on one sessions again for the spring and would be happy to have a session with you to help move this frost or stagnant area of your life. You can visit https://magicalmothering.com or PM me to schedule.
May the beauty and abundance of spring bring you joy and curiosity!
In unconditional love and a mothering embrace,
Stephanie