Personal Reflections on the Spring Equinox A creative essay by Victoria Houser The pagan holiday Ostara is celebrated during the Spring Equinox, when the sun crosses the equator line heading north. Ostara originates from the ancient Germanic goddess of dawn and spring, Eostre, who signals the season of growth after winter’s darkness. Eostre marks the end of winter’s passive darkness with a sharp piercing dawn of vitality. Ostara is a celebration of earth’s imminent return to life.
Ostara occurs over a brief, transitory moment of
equinox.
contrasting
The
Spring
seasons
of
Equinox winter
balances and
the
spring
in
because so much of our institutional
which the massive stretch of dark, gritty cold
support is, in fact, empty and feckless.
months does not easily give way to the earth’s
While the winter months can provide
renewal
periods of intense internal growth, the
in
springtime.
The
Spring
Equinox
is
a
moment of piercing that exposes the shadow life
process of renewal always requires a gentle
experienced
that
tending to the piercing lightness of spring.
the
Ostara invites us to consider the cycles of
needs
in
tending,
winter. a
It
fragility
reveals
a
brought
wound forth
by
relentless drudgery of darkness.
our spiritual, mental, and physical wellness in the process of renewal.
This winter season brought unprecedented challenges with the unabating global pandemic,
Cleansing and Clearing
widespread violence against people of color, and the most recent storm that swept through
As the earth shifts to green new life,
Texas. In the past month alone, thousands of
resistance to the emerging energy is
Texas residents, already battered from the
natural. Ostara sits shrouded in the glow of
effects of COVID-19, suddenly faced the
dawn, offering fresh life, but the path
severity of a winter crisis that wreaked havoc
toward her is still dimly lit as we look out
on their lives. In times such as these it is
over the depth of shadows cast by winter’s
difficult to imagine the warm and gentle
cycle.
touches of spring. Nothing feels easy to carry because in the midst of the chaos, there is little
Hope is a heavy weight to carry through
support offered to those in need. The promise
months of grey solitude and ceaseless cold.
of spring's renewal seems empty and feckless
Winter’s harsh cycle of frozen hands,
34 | Spring 2021 | Cultivate SA