It's spring! It's Ostara! It's Spring! Whoo-Hoo!! *Doin' the Happy Dance* Okay so I may be getting a wee bit ahead of the actual calendar, I still wanted to make sure to get an Ostara post out, before the DAY. With two days and counting...St. Patrick's day is a good send off...and this week, looks like it could be a busy one.
After a long, harsh winter full of flu bugs, super flu bugs, and one of the nastier flu seasons I've seen. Spring has FINALLY arrived! Mother Earth is starting to wake up! And I am so excited about it! Here is my Spring/Ostara altar. I will be adding to it, as the season progress's. I don't usually do a traditional (anything) Ostara altar, with eggs, hares, chicks etc. To me, it is too much like Easter decorations to do that. I LIKE looking at other peoples altars with such things on them. The eggs just don't call to me personally; But the Fae, DO call to me this time of year ;-)
I have a small working space for my altar. I like to keep it decorated at all times, for each sabat and season. When I am doing actual ritual work, it changes. I use my cauldron a lot during ritual work or spells. While it will fit on my altar, it is too big to always look *right* for the decorated altar though. So for my seed blessing rituals, and working with the fae, it will change around a bit.
This was last years Ostara ritual altar. In progress. As you can see, it never stays the same, that is what I love about each altar setting. I know there is a *right* way and *wrong* way to set up ones altar. I just don't like to follow the rules that much. So, I do what feels right at the time, and looks good to me. If it works for me, I figure, the Gods & Goddess's, really aren't going to mind that much ;-)
Kind of a close up of some of the stones. The amethyst is hard to see in the picture, but I usually keep it pretty close to the altar. I just love its energy. The plan is to get ALL my crystals out to the Garden altar this first Full Moon in Spring coming up!
Here are some of my crystals, getting ready for the Full Moon in August of last year. They haven't been *Cleansed* since then, so they are ready for a good, spring recharge!
Last Spring equinox we played with the broom a lot, getting it to balance of its own accord. The Son loved it, and got quite a kick out of it. Especially since we got it to stand there, for at least 30 minutes! It was fun, and entertaining ;-) If you haven't tried this, be sure to try it. It's fun, and your kids will definitely think you are full of *magic*. Some of my neighbors did too ;-) *cackle*
Also on another Good note this week. Mercury has gone direct! Whew~! But alas, there are still some stagnant energies to be aware of, as Mercury is still retracing its Mercury Retrograde steps and won't be back to its proper placement where it started at 19 degrees Pisces until April 6th. So while everything feels Fresh, New and cheery, with the beginning of Spring just remember while Aries is getting ready to settle down into its Sun sign, there can be some nervy, electric and volatile energies yet to endure.
Above all else, make sure to get your hands in the dirt this week! Plant some seeds, invite the Fae into your gardens, and home for full fae blessings. Just remember, they like to be catered to, so don't forget the cakes, honey & ale...they love honey and milk, and shiny baubles.
A walk through my gardens this weekend, I seen where the Iris's are starting to pop up, the raspberries are starting to turn green at the ground, and the grass is starting to green up as well. Blade by blade...no, I'm not anxious or anything, I didn't seriously count the 50 blades of green grass, honest. ;-)
To say Spring Fever has hit my household this weekend, is putting it lightly. The husband went golfing yesterday {GOLFING! My husband, is NOT a golfer! hahaha!} But he just had to get out and about. And son, he too, was out and about all day.
During one of his *check-in's* my son and his friend came in, all excited, because they had seen a HUGE RABBIT...a HUGE RABBIT with black ears and a LONG tail...bigger than our dogs! { Which, okay doesn't take much, since we have a chiweiner, and a chihuhua} but still, it must've been a big one!
I said, well it was probably a Jack Rabbit. "NO," My son said, all serious..."it didn't have any horns."
If you are not familiar with the mythological Jack-a-lope, it is a much sought after rabbit with horns, out here. But apparently the one my son seen yesterday did not have horns. { tongue-in-cheek }
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope
So, I said, well maybe it was the Easter Bunny? " Nope, it didn't have a basket either" .....Well I said, he could have just been hopping around, scoping the place out. You just never know ;-)
It was, the highlight of the day.
Today is another beautiful day. The husband and son are out metal detecting today for *treasures*. I hope they don't scare off the Easter bunny or jack-a-lopes.
*I* on the other hand, am doing the mundane things that mother's do on sundays. Like getting the laundry finished, and making sure everyone has clothes to wear for Monday morning, all the while, dreaming of the next few weeks, when I can get outdoors and start digging in the dirt again.
This is my Ostara altar from last year. 16 days till spring! I. Can. not. wait! What a long winter it has seemed to be, with January and February being the two longest months of it!
I can't wait for the yarrow to start blooming!!
Or the wormwood! I made some spectacular smudge sticks out of my wormwood last year. I just love this stuff.
I plan to add many more herbs to my herb garden this year hopefully. These are just a couple of what are already there. Last year, I added three new ones, lambs ear, horehound, and comfrey. I hope they made it through the winter. Maybe I will do a blog post on just the herb garden alone, if I can find all my pictures.
Happy Spring....almost!
