Tomorrow we have a few things happening! The Sun moves into the sign of Aries, which also means it’s the Astrological New Year! This is a fresh start for us as we move through a new astrological cycle. 🌞🌱

Last year in March, the energy was tough with the Sun conjunct Chiron and a Capricorn Stellium. This year is shaping up to be much more optimistic, with the Sun being closely conjunct to Venus. 👫

Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac, and brings fresh, motivated energy. Aries is fiery, bold, enthusiastic, and always ready to take action. ♈️🐏

March 20 is also Spring Equinox and the Pagan Celebration of Ostara. This is a time of balance, and a time to celebrate life and Spring! 🐣

In researching the origins of Ostara, I found some conflicting information, as is usually the case when it comes to how holidays came to be.

In some interpretations, Ostara (Eostre or Eastre) is the Germanic Goddess of Spring and dawn. It is said that Pagan Anglo-Saxons held festivals in her honour. The symbols of Ostara are hares/rabbits (fertility), eggs/seeds (creation), serpent/dragon (kundalini energy is high!), flowers, and the colors green, yellow, purple, pink, blue, and orange. This is where coloured eggs and most Easter traditions originated from. It is said that when Catholicism tried to take over, they changed the name to Easter and changed the day it was celebrated to coincide with the resurrection of Jesus.

In the Catholic Faith, there are 2 holidays that get mixed up with the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. The first, occurring on March 25th, is the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the day that Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary she was “with child”. This occurs 9 months prior to Jesus’s birth, December 25th.

The other holiday that gets mixed up with this is Easter. Easter too, celebrates the victory of a God of Light (Jesus) over darkness (Death), so it makes sense to be celebrated at this time.

It is said that Easter is named after Eostre, the ancient Teutonic (German) Goddess of the Spring Moon. This coincides with the German Goddess origins of Ostara, except for the fact that Eostre was a lunar Goddess. Eostre is where we get the name Estrogen from, the female hormone. Her holiday, the Eostara, was held on the Full Moon AFTER the Vernal Equinox. Of course, the Church doesn’t celebrate Full Moons, so they chose for Easter to be on the following Sunday. Thus, Easter is always the following Sunday, after the Full Moon, after the Vernal Equinox. It should be noted, that the Church was so adamant about not incorporating Lunar Goddess symbolism, that they added a further calculation; if Easter Sunday falls on the Full Moon itself, the Easter is postponed to the following Sunday.

The other theme we see around Easter, is the decent of the God or Goddess into the Underworld for a period of 3 days. We see this when Jesus died on the cross and went to the Underworld for 3 days until he ascended into Heaven. We also see this in Pagan religion, and other historic traditions too. The fact that we are dealing with a 3 day period, indicates a lunar theme for Easter, and not a solar one.

Another piece of conflicting information said that there is no evidence of Ostara being celebrated at all in Pagan times, and that evidence doesn’t show up until the 1800’s.

It can be hard to pin down the origins of our traditions, but it is quite obvious to me that most, if not all of our traditions, began as an effort to honour nature and it’s cycles. Somewhere along the lines, Ostara became about celebrating Spring, and Eostara is the lunar celebration of the Vernal Equinox. 🌞🌝

Enjoy this time of celebration and growth! Enjoy the increase in the light! Celebrate new beginnings! Look to this next season with optimism and hope. 🌷🐞

Also, on March 21, Venus enters Aries too, ramping up the love energy! It brings a renewal of the heart, and reminds us of our innocence and that we instinctively know what we want. 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

Happy Spring Equinox! 🌷🌞🌱

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