"In
our quest for knowledge, We cross the fields of the Earth Mother, And
play in her forests.... Her pulse is in the gardens, Her dance in the
jungles and from the deep within Her, Springs knowledge as the fruits of
the Earth.... Slowly She dances the seasonal rhythms, To the gentle
music of the Woodlands. Pan plays upon his pipes, And She dances in the
grasses, Among the trees, To the tune of the Gentle Hunter.... Our
Mother is the Earth and we are Her children: She gives us wisdom. May we
seek Her knowledge in the flowers, And in the green things.... And in
the passing of time. When we give to Her our souls, She will take our
bodies, And plant them for her flowers...."
Easter falls on the first Sunday of the full moon that occurs on the day
of the vernal equinox (21 March) or any of the next 28 days. This marks
the changeover point between the light and the dark halves of the year.
This now Christianized holiday that we call Easter was usurped from the
Aryan pagans at the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. but still retains the
roots and traditions of its origins. The true Easter is a celebration
in honor of the Anglo Saxon Sun Goddess Eostre, Eostur, Esotara, Eastue,
Eastur, Austron, Ausos, Oestre, Ostare, or Ostara. The origin of the
name Eostre is derived from the word "east" originating from various
Austro-Hungarian words for dawn that also share the root for the word
"aurora" which means "to shine". As Sun Goddess and Mother Earth deity,
Eostre is found to be quite similar in the character to Frigga or Holda
in the Teutonic pantheon. In other areas of ancient Europe Eostre was
known as Brechta, and Bertha of The White Lady.
Both
March and April are the time of the year when the sun impregnates and
fertilizes the earth generating new life, "The Rights of Spring". The
pagan Spring equinox has since been overlaid and muted by the Christian
penitential season of Lent and Holy Week. The traditional Maypole
symbolizes the phallus while the multi colored streamers from the
pinnacle of the Maypole represent the male sperm fertilizing the female
Earth. Here we find what is known as the "Hieros Gamos", (the sacred
marriage). The male role now exhibits his importance as he who
fertilizes the woman and the land, for without him both remain barren.
At the same time it is a day to pay additional homage to the god given
beauty of women which through all of eternity fulfills every possible
desire of the male species.
The painted Easter egg to
this very day retains its symbology of the Spring Equinox, representing
new life and rebirth just as the hare, now portrayed as the white
Easter bunny has always been symbolic of fertility. The origin of egg
painting at Easter began, as legend has it, when Eostre once found a
wounded bird, on the ground in late winter. To save its life she
transformed it into a hare. But the transformation was not a complete
one. The bird took on the appearance of a hare but retained the ability
to lay eggs... the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as
special gifts once a year to Eostre. Eostre's lights, as Goddess of the
Dawn, were carried by hares. Druids were known to dye eggs scarlet red
to honor the Sun. It was also an old pagan custom to place colorful
patterned eggs in tombs or on fresh graves, to ensure the rebirth of the
deceased.
The custom of eating hot cross buns has
always been a traditional custom of Eostre and Easter. The Saxons ate
buns that were marked with a cross in honor of Eostre. The ancient
Greeks also consumed these types of buns in their celebrations of
Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt (known as Diana to the Romans). The
Egyptians ate a similar cake in their worship of the Goddess Isis. The
cross on the buns represent the four quarterly seasonal cycles of the
year. Eostre's reign over the Earth began in the spring when the Sun
King journyed across the sky in his chariot, ushering in the end of
winter. Eostre came down to Midgard (earth) then appearing as a
radiantly beautiful maiden with a basket of bright colorful eggs. The
companion of the Goddess was a white hare who accompanied her as she
brought new life to dying plants and flowers by hiding the eggs in the
fields. Eostre represents spring fecundity, and love and carnal pleasure
that leads to fecundity. The revival of Nature is as certain as its
decline, and its alterations are subject to the appointment of a power
which controls both.
Suggested Affirmations for Eostre's Day:
4 I live life rightly and nobly without guilt or fear.
My libido and creativity are energized.
The vital spark of my being is supercharged.
Today I focus on balance, health and youthful vigor.
I embrace life in its absolute divine beauty and fullness.
I find my path by following my ethnic spiritual inclinations.
My whole being reaches for the new dawn of light, justice,
5 goodness and hope.
I will live each and every day in honor to my gods and
ancestors and in perfect harmony with the All High God
of Creation.
Most often the patriarchal gods have been traditionally
and symbolically identified as the Sun, whose fertilizing rays
impregnate the receiving Mother Earth and produce life. Eostre, unlike
most all other matriarchal deities remains representative as both Sun
and Moon all in one. Many of the far distant gods were at times known to
be androgynous in the earliest beginnings which may be a factor as to
why some female deities are Sun related and Eostre is certainly a very
ancient deity. At this current time in history it has now become firmly
established that the moon and earth are most always symbolic as female
and the Sun and sky as Male. In the body, the Sun rules the heart, the
spine, the right eye in a man and the left eye in a woman. All the
patriarchal one-eyed gods such as Wotan Horus and Ra all display the
right eye, as the solar eye.
"At the Spring Equinox, the light
equals the darkness and this can be taken both as a representation of
the Goddess meeting the God, but also as an emblem of the God's
evolution. He is at the equipoise between unconscious animalism and
growing conscious awareness. It is at this festival that he impregnates
the Goddess but, although coupling with her, he does not stay with her.
He continues roaming the greenwood, as the Horned Hunter."
................Vivianne Crowley
As Sun Goddess, Eostre is often depicted with seven rays
of light forming the crown on her head. Lydia, the mother goddess of
Zeus also wore the seven rayed crown though most people today have
almost no idea that it too reveals the ancient pagan image of the sun
goddess Eostre. The Statue of Liberty in New York City, unknown to most
Americans is in fact the sculpted image of Eostre complete with her
seven rayed crown. And the Goddess Eostre breathed gently into the void;
and behold, the gentle breezes caressed the soul of the Universe. Thus
was born the essence of light, of laughter and cheer.... The Mother
Goddess image of Eostre will forever come to surface through all history
because not only is she an immortal, playfully kind and protective
spirit, but absolutely necessary to mankind. She likewise represents the
eternal constant of the dual polarity between both male and female. It
is for such reasons that the Roman Catholic Church never abandoned the
importance of the pagan concept of a Mother Goddess as did the
Protestants but rather conveniently changed her former pagan name to a
Christianized Blessed Mother Mary. A Goddess of many names her essence
remains the same....she is a symbol, and when you see her you know her
instantly, no matter what title she may bear.
So very
much of religion and mythology is symbolic. Symbolism is the language
of the Mysteries; in fact it is the language not only of mysticism and
philosophy but of all nature, for every law and power active in
universal procedure is manifested to the limited sense perceptions of
man through the medium of symbol. Every form existing in the diversified
sphere of being is symbolic of the divine activity by which it is
produced. The Great Arcanum was always concealed in symbol or allegory;
and those who can today discover its lost keys may open with them a
treasure house of philosophic, scientific, and religious truths.
Neither time nor dominance by either politics or
authoritarian mainstream religions can ever hinder the resurgence of the
ancient Aryan pagan Mother Goddess. The poet W.B. Yeats described the
calling of our inner natural pagan spiritual ethnic roots as "the revolt
of soul against intellect." By this definition as author Peter Haining
points out, "Yeats meant those people who had experienced increasing
disillusionment with the materialistic world in which they found
themselves and sought an older and purer form of satisfaction in the
principles of good and evil. Their search was one for the ancient
practices of man when the mind was less inhibited, when the dark still
held an aura of mystery and the inexplicable was not dismissed by bland
rationality; when man found the root of his beliefs in the seasons
around him, and the changes in his world were the direct cause of
superior spirits who required worship and understanding." Only a
constant and unselfish inner asceticism enables man to overcome the
strong grip of materiality. He can be his real self, only if he forgets
himself and gives himself to his destiny.
The Norse
goddess Idun (also Idunna) is another likeness of ancient Eostre and
likewise represents the personification of Spring or Immortal youth, who
according to some mythologists, had no birth and was never to taste
death, and was warmly welcomed by the gods of Asgard. In the myth,
Idun's fall from Yggdrasil is symbolic of the autumnal falling of the
leaves, which lie limp and helpless on the cold bare ground until they
are hidden from sight under the snow, represented by the wolf skin,
which Wotan, the sky, sends down to keep them warm; and the cessation of
the birds songs is further typified by her husband Bragi's silent harp.
Idun not unlike Bridget the Mother Goddess of the Gaelic Brigantes, and
others is just another identity for the most ancient goddess of Spring.
Perhaps this is why we will never really know the exact time and origin
of Eostre as she is timeless and has always existed. To become
conscious, even for a few fleeting moments of time, of the God and
Goddess life mirrored both within us and from without, means the
beginning of the reversal of our spheres, An awakening!
"From
the deep waters, Of Her eternal wisdom, Brings forth, The mystery of
life, And thus does the initiate, Take on the Quest of All-Knowing....
From the Cauldron of Cerridwen, We take compassion and love. Moving deep
within the Mysteries, We seek inner knowledge.... May the God Poseidon,
(Neptune, Njord) watch over the Seeker, As the initiate plunges into
the depths of knowing.... Our Mother's reflection upon rippling
waters.... May we eternally be bathed, In Her love.... May we seek her
calm, Her tranquility, As we travel from shore, To distant shore...."
From the Sun we take our warmth; from our Mother comes
desire. As the Phoenix rises, renewed of flames may we, too, embrace the
life beyond this Earthly realm....Eostre was a long celebrated and
cherished goddess of our Aryan ancestors and will forever live within
the deepest depths of our being. May she continue to bring beauty, joy
and renewal to this troubled planet and may Eostre, this radiant bringer
of light, life and The New Dawn, live forever in the hearts and mind of
our folk! Hear ye words of the Star Goddess, The dust of whose feet
are the hosts of heaven, She whose divine body encircles the Universe:
"I am the beauty of the green earth, And the white moon among the
stars, And the mystery of the waters, And the desire of human hearts.
Call unto your soul, "Arise!" and come unto me, For I am the soul of
Nature, Who gives life to the Universe, From me all things proceed, And
unto me all things must return. Before my face, beloved of all, Let your
innermost self be enfolded, In the rapture of the infinite. Let my
worship be in the heart that rejoices, For behold, all acts of love
and pleasure are my rituals, And therefore let there be beauty and
strength, Power and compassion, honor and pride, Mirth and reverence
within you. And you who think to seek me, Know your seeking and yearning
shall avail you not, Unless you know the Mystery: That if that which
you seek you find not within you, You will never find without. For
behold, I have been with you from the beginning, And I am that which is
attained, At the end of desire."
EOSTRE'S LIGHT
"Light begins, On the dark side, Of despair, Muffled, In shadow, Like an
ember, There. As it glows, Soon it grows, To a radiant, Sun, Lifting
dark veils, Where despair, Had begun. And it warms, From without, And it
warms, From within, Bringing light, To man's life, Where all sorrows
begin."
…………..……....Ron McVan
Posted in: Editorial,Indo-European
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