#Witchy Sabbaths

[iridescent-witch-life]

I found the this wheel of the year wreath image online but despite searching couldn’t figure out who created it! If anyone does know please comment below! I thought it was such a nice idea, maybe one day I’ll try to make some myself.

[elvthron]

✨🌱🌸 Blessed Beltane 🌸🌱✨

[999lcf]

[hearthandheathenry]

All About Ostara

In this context, Ostara is simply the name for the modern pagan celebration of the spring equinox, celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere around March 19th, or by some on the first full moon after the spring equinox. It is considered a Germanic holiday, but we'll talk a little about the different Goddesses associated with the holiday Ostara, as well as the history and where we're at today with our findings.

Unfortunately, there is not much historical text about the holiday Ostara or the associated ancient holiday Eostre, with the earliest known text being from an English monk from the 7th century, Venerable Bede. In his texts, he states that the rough equivalent of the month of April was dedicated to the Goddess Eostre and called Eosturmonath, but that was about all it mentioned.

Monks like Bede back in the day had orders to Christianize pagan traditions in order to slowly convert pagans to Christianity in the least-resistant way, which often meant adopting their festival dates, names of feasts, and whatnot, which was the purpose of mentioning this holiday in his texts in the first place.

Back in the day, the written reoccurant date of Easter had been debated since it began, as the Ressurection date was hard to nail down. Everyone just knew it happened in spring, so different regions celebrated it at different times. But, scholars believe the Christian church most likely saw that there were date overlaps in pagan celebrations, the Ressurection, and Passover as well, and decided to announce Easter Sunday would always fall on the sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox, following popular pagan lunar traditions. They also adopted the new name from Eostre, cleverly combining the current pagan celebrations around rebirth and the sun into their own holiday traditions, in order to convert people to their religion, while also uniting their own people to celebrate on one date.

Although at one point these were all different celebrations, the Christian church did a very good job of combining and converting the pagan celebrations into their own, enmeshing them for life in history books and making it hard for modern day scholars to distinguish the origins of the pagan holidays seperate from the Christian church's.

After that, the next set of text with a reference to the holiday Ostara or Eostre came over a thousand years later during the Romantic period in 1835, by one of the Grimm brothers, Jacob, while he talked about mythology. In his work, he bridged Eostre with it's Germanic counterpart, Ostera or "Easter" as we know it today, and with the Goddess Ostara. In medieval Germany, they celebrated Ostarun in the month of Ostarmanoth, which gave way to the modern feast of Ostern ("Easter") today. He used these overlaps and more to claim that the two holidays and even Goddesses were most likely one historically

Just like with Grimm, there is mostly just speculation based on language, names, celebrations, etc. In modern-day society, it seems the holidays and Goddesses/Gods of Ostara, Eostre, and Easter have all been mashed up together from bridging multiple pagan religions with Christianity and struggling to seperate it again when we have almost no historical texts to help, since everything way back in the day was based on oral tradition.

As for the Goddess Eostre, who was supposedly a Goddess of fertility and light, she was so rooted in the region surrounding her that it was easier to adopt her namesake for the new Easter holiday (that enmeshed the series of Christian holidays) rather than rebrand under something Christian. According to Bede, her feasting was held in the month of April and celebrated spring. But that's all he mentioned, so her actual traditions have been lost to time, with only speculation to go off of.

After that, Grimm tried to link her with the Goddess Ostara, but we have no historical texts saying she is the same. Nowadays, the only mentions of the Goddess Eostre is with new-age pagan Wiccan practices where they, too, seemed to have linked her with the Goddess Ostara. Historically, it is most likely that the Goddess Eostre is a region-specific Goddess, as she was worshipped in Southeastern England by Anglo-Saxons, and that's where we see the oldest versions of her name referenced in text.

As for the Goddess Ostara, according to Grimm, she seems to have been the more wide-spread form of the Germanic Goddess Eostre, instead of region-specific, and he was the one who first translated her name to Ostara. This is the first historical text we have mentioning Ostara as a Goddess and not just a holiday, which means they (Eostre and Ostara) are technically one in the same, since Grimm was the one who translated the Goddesses name to German in the context that we use today.

In terms of associations with the newly translated Goddess Ostara, the first known reference of rabbits with Ostara in writing was mentioned in a mythology text written by Adolf Holtzmann in 1874 where he related the German tradition of the Easter Hare with Ostara by claiming the symbolism of 'the hare' was also probably sacred to the Goddess.

Afterwards, In 1889, an issue in the Journal of American Notes and Queries talks about the Germanic Tradition of the Easter Hare (gifting cotton stuffed flannel bunnies to children along with Easter eggs) and the story behind it, stating that "The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the Goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the Goddess on her festal day." But that is as far as we've gotten in tracing it in texts.

Most likely, oral tradition has reigned supreme throughout history, and different narratives have surfaced about the origins of the symbolism with Ostara and rabbits and eggs and other things, so it's hard to know for certain what is "true" to celebrating the Goddess and holiday Ostara and what isn't.

In summary, based on the limited evidence that we have surrounding history on this holiday and deity(ies), you should feel free to celebrate Ostara in a way that is meaningful to you, especially since there is much overlap with multiple religions and practices. I did my best to round up the most commonly accepted ways to celebrate, the symbolism, and more related to the holiday and Goddess Ostara/Eostre.

Ostara Associations:

Colors - white, green, yellow, pink, purple, pastels

Food - eggs, fresh greens, dairy products, hot crossed buns, lamb, asparagus, honey, berries

Animals - hares/rabbits and song birds, baby animals, snakes

Items - decorated eggs, lillies, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, dandelions, lavender, other flowers, lemongrass, thyme, red clover, birch trees, seeds

Crystals - aquamarine, amethyst, rose quartz, moonstone, fluorite, amazonite, clear quartz

Other - fertility, renewal, dawn, spring, balance, joy, growth

Ways to Celebrate Ostara:

hold a feast, especially on the full moon after the equinox

plant seeds

connect with nature or go on a walk

decorate eggs

prepare your altar for spring

make a cotton stuffed flannel rabbit

decorate for spring with greenery and flowers

cleanse and clean your home

welcome the dawn and sunrise

bake hot crossed buns

create something

[emo-altdemon]

🍞🍄🍮🫒🍾🍯🥚

[folkandbooks]

I woke up at 3AM with someone banging on the door and the wind moaning haaard.

Damn, Samhain really did start.

[witchysabbaths]

Beltane Tea-Greye’s Herbal Apothecary

Beltane Lemonade-Witchjournal.com

Beltane Shortbread- Herbal Academy

[666candies]

[domestick-clairvoyante]

hello loves!!

if you’re a southern hemisphere witch like me, then you’ll find that the wheel of the year/sabbats dates are in a bit of a tizzy

so, i’ve listed the southern hemisphere sabbats dates for you below :))

YULE (Winter Solstice): June 20-23 ❄️

IMBOLC: August 1 🕯️

OSTARA (Spring Equinox): September 20-23 🌷

BELTANE: November 1 🔥

LITHA (Summer Solstice): December 20-25 ☀️

LUGHNASADH: February 2 🌾

MABON (Autumn Equinox): March 20-23 🍁

SAMHAIN: May 1 🎃

[raven-runes]

la chouette effraie

s'invite dans mon jardin

pour sonner les matines

de son râle mutin

ou est-ce moi le convive

au sabbat des sapins

moi l'étranger

à la ronde des lutins ?

qu'importe, je danse

au bal du Malin

je donne de ma chair

je bois de son vin

[the-inkstained-witch]

(belated) blessed Imbolc! I had an amazing time this sabbat. continuing in the tradition I set last yule, I went over to a friend's house. we burned an incense I've been wanting to burn and haven't had a chance because my parents are sensitive to strong scents. it smelled really good and we got a very nice cleanse out of it. our main activity for the day was making rosemary oatcakes that I had saved on my Imbolc Pinterest board. they turned out really good and I would highly recommend trying them, either for Imbolc or just to try an interesting new recipe. we made 2 oatcakes, which were both divided in 4, and we left out a piece as an offering and ate the rest.

the oatcakes were very pretty and quite easy to make. we used fresh rosemary because I grow it in my garden, and I think that was a big part of the reason it tasted so good, so I would recommend using fresh rosemary as opposed to dried if you can. We also burned a candle, made a sigil, and made some black salt which my friend let later put into a spell jar to gift to our mutual friend.

what did all of you do for Imbolc?

[beewitched-blr]

Happy Ostara to my fellow Southern Hemisphere witches! I’ve set up a lovely altar and am feeling such beautiful energy today. To everyone else, I hope you have a wonderful day full of love and light. From your friendly upside down witch~ 🖤

[999lcf]

FAUN - Halloween (Official Video)

[tailaneepress]

Happy and Blessed Beltane and Samhain

For whichever hemisphere on

I can already feel the heat of summer coming on here in the southern

[faerytalemagick]

Samhain is quickly approaching, and I'm excited to embrace the upcoming celebration! 🦇🔮🎃 This post is dedicated to honoring this blessed sabbath and exploring ways to celebrate it, along with key concepts surrounding Samhain 🌠💗. - - follow @faerytalemagick for more 🍂

#witchcraft #witch #witchesofinstagram #pagan #wicca #magic #witchyvibes #magick #witches #tarot #witchythings #witchy #occult #wiccan #crystals #spirituality #spells #pagansofinstagram #paganism #witchlife #halloween #goth #spiritual #samhain #october #greenwitch #spookyseason #divination #witchery #witchaesthetic

[swirley1618]

🕯️ Imbolc Master Post! 🕯️