A Little Rant for Ostara

I'm taking some time off of getting ready for our Ostara celebration tonight. I've just finished compliling our ritual- in my coven, we all decide on key parts of the ritual, and we all help write it- and I'm getting ready to start my potluck dish.

Ostara is the name of a Germanic goddess of springtime, and the day bearing her name falls on the Spring Equinox, a day where the light and dark are balanced- literally. On the equinox, we have equal lengths of day and night. Ostara is a day to celebrate new growth, reverence for the Earth, slowly awakening from Her winter slumber, and also balance. That's the cliff notes version.

I was looking at all of the #ostara tweets coming out of twitter today, and a few reminded me of tweets I see every time a sabbat rolls around.

"OMG! How did I not realize that today was {nameofsabbat}! I must make last minute plans for this evening!"

The reason that you didn't realize that today was Ostara is because it's not important to you. If it was important to you, then you'd know. It doesn't just come sporadically. It's close to the same day every year. If you wanted to pay attention to the cycles of your environment, you'd realize that spring is on the way. Even if it's still cold where you are, the natural cycles will give you subtle hints. Or, you could just use a calendar to remind you of Her cycles and to tune into them.

Not that this has never happened to me. When I was solitary, and just starting out on my Craft path, I wouldn't realize that a sabbat was basically upon me, and I wouldn't do a ritual just because it was March 21st. I'd use that as a reminder that I should be tuning into the natural cycles of the Earth.

If you don't feel the seasons, and it's not a priority to be aware of the nature around you, or are still learning to do this, don't feel that you HAVE to do a ritual. Circle because you want to celebrate Spring. If you don't feel that its Spring yet, you can wait until you feel that it's Spring in your area to circle (unless you are practicing within a tradition that dictates otherwise). Don't fake it. Do what feels natural.