#eostra

[limoncats]

CoAD doodles i drew at school yesterday + Wadanohara!

image 1: Renn image 2: Torak at the start of Outcast 💔💔 image 3: kidostra image 4: pouty Seshru lmao image 5: Wadda!!!!!! <333

[swirley1618]

[wandering-wizardry]

Time for the Annual Eostra post

"Easter is a stolen pagan holiday" No it's not. It's a split off from the Jewish holiday Passover that has had 2000 years of drift and official state doctrine piled on top of it. It is now a completely unique holiday all it's own, and only has the barest trappings of it's roots such as the date.

"The eggs are pagan!" Eggs are associated with spring and rebirth because chicks hatch in the spring. This is a thing that happens literally everywhere.

"The rabbit is associated with Eostra!" We have 2 attestations for Eostra's existence, Bede's account and the name of a month on the Saxon calendar, neither of these mention any animals. The association with rabbits was made by one of the Grimm brothers in the 19th century.

"Bede hated pagans we can't trust him!" Boy do I have some bad news for your about the entire discipline of history.

"Eostra was a major Germanic goddess!" Then why do we have 0 archeological evidence for her? Charms? Pendants? Poems? Folktales? Carvings on a rock? I no longer think Bede made her up, I do believe she was a goddess that was worshiped. I believe she was a small local or obscure dawn goddess that got a month named after her on the Saxon calendar. Honestly I think she'd make a lovely goddess of things forgotten in a revival practice, but I highly doubt she was a major goddess.

"But what about [insert practice here that may be pagan]?" No culture lives in a vacuum and each barrows and molds with it's neighbors naturally. This does not automatically make something stolen.

"But what about [cites something written from 1880-1950 in Europe]?" are you 100% sure you want to cite that source? I want you to be really really sure you are alright with the person who wrote that, because there is a pretty good chance they were a fucking monster.

[thecatsandthecrone]

The Wheel of the Year: Ostara

Photo by Anna Bratiychuk on Unsplash   ☽🔮☾🕯🃏🌕🕸✨🍃🍄🧿🌙✩ 🪄📚

In Wicca as in witchcraft, festivals and festivities are held in high regard as important occassions to reflect on ourselves, on the universe and on goals at large. They are also a moment to take a pause and partake in nature, celebrate and spend time with loved ones (or with yourself, if you are a solitary witch), or to communicate and honour your deities. Every witch festivity celebrates a season or the middle point between two of them, and that is how we have a festival roughly every month and a half.

After the new year, the first one we encounter is Imbolc, while the second in Ostara. Ostara is celebrated often from the 20th to the 22th of March (or 20th to 22th September in the Southern hemisphere) and it celebrates the Spring Equinox. As Ostara celebrates the beginning of spring, it carries with it meanings of renewal, of new beginnings, birth, and new life and hope rekindled.

In origin, this festivity celebrated the goddess Eostre, an ancient goddess of dawn, spring and fertility. Her name, and the images we associate with her, gave us much of the folklore surrounding Ostara and the festivities that derived from it (Easter bunny and Easter eggs, anyone?).

Eostre and Ostara both have associations to new beginnings, renewals and fresh starts. Likewise, they also are associated with births, new life, fertility and change. Ostara is a good moment to reflect on the past and prepare ourselves for the future, to set new goals and to start over. It is also an occassion to overview the past, come to terms with it and be at peace with change. This is the season to plant your seeds to have a bountiful harvest in summer, and the moment where animals are born. The Earth is coming alive again.

This festival is often associated with the maiden aspect of the triple moon, and with youthful deities. It is a good moment to honour Persephone or Cybelles, Freya, Osiris, Ceres... but also those associated with beauty such as Venus or Aphrodite.

As you can probably guess there are plenty of traditions associated with Easter, a lot of them fairly well known after being popularized by christianity: some meditate, reflect or pray to their deities, while some fast (or refrain from eating meat) and others feast (particularly on foods related to fertility, such as milk, eggs...)

If you'd like to celebrate Ostara, here are some good traditions to do so:

-Fast: Fasting can be a good way to keep in touch with yourself, and truly reflect on how scarce food can be to some. Fasting or refraining from eating certain types of food can be a show of devotion to deities, but also a great way to appreciate the sacrifices made for the food you eat and to truly become grateful for food and for the way it nourishes your body.

-Feast: Just like with any other witchy festivity Easter is a lovely time to enjoy food and partake in merrymaking. Eat well, share your meal with your loved one and rejoice in foods associated with fertility, spring and new beginnings: eggs, milk, cheese, meat, anything that includes flowers... Don't forget the chocolate ! -Easter egg hunt: Egg hunts are perhaps one of the most well known activities of Easter/Ostara. They are fun and lovely for both children and adults, and while they are best practiced in a group, you can absolutely enjoy them alone: take a walk in the woods and notice athe offerings that nature might have left for you there: flowers, feathers... Make sure to ask nature before you take anything, and thank it profusely after you do !

-Give it a witchy spin: Not a fan of searching for chocolate eggs? Vegan? That's not a problem. Turn your easter egg hunt into an even witchier affair: hide crystals, bundles of flowers or herbs, incense or cool rocks for your group to find. If you are doing this in a public space make sure to clean up afterwards!

-Spring cleaning: What better time to cleanse and make room for new beginnings than Easter? Clean up your house thoroughly, perhaps with some Ostara herb infused cleanser? Don't forget to protect your house and yourself afterwards!

-Fertility and love rituals: Spring is a time associated with births, so if you are looking for one of your own what better time to pamper yourself and throw yourself and your significant one a little party? The rituals can be as complex as a full blown, hour long complex spell or as simple as taking a rose water infused bath, whatever fits your schedule and needs best.

-Self love rituals: Self love is love all the same, and since Spring is associated with love this sort of ritual is also fitting for this season. Buy yourself some chocolate dipped strawberries and drink some champagne in the bath, oh my!

-Offerings for your deity: Your deities always appreciate proofs of devotion and those related to Spring will be particularly happy to receive some love for Ostara. Some offerings that are particularly fitting for the season might be flowers, decorated eggshells or small feathers.

-Decorate your altar: Deck your altar in the colours of the season, and add some fitting decorations. For Ostara, green, white and any sort of pastel colour will work perfectly. Effigies of baby animals are another excellent decorations and so are flowers, eggshells or eggs, feathers and crystals related to the season.

Colours associated with Ostara: White, green, pastels Crystals associated with Ostara: Amethyst, rose quartz, citrine, moonstone Food associated with Ostara: Egg, dairy, grains, meat I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you would like me to continue making posts like this please support me so I can continue making them: you can support me by donating here https://ko-fi.com/bunnymatchamochi or by visiting my Etsy store here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LovenestAtelier?ref=profile_header Reblogs and likes also help ! Thank you so much for reading me !

[consult-sherlockholmes]

Happy Easter, Sherlock 🥚🐇

Happy feast of the ovum and hares, of the spring goddess Eostrae or also called Ostara, or how you said it, happy easter. A celebration of spring equinox, fertility and resurrection.

[barkbarkattree]

Tried to figure Eostras design a while back and idk i kinda like this one tbh, i was a bit inspiered by eagle owls and their features. I also tried to like make her not actually look that intimidating because i think it would be interesting

[orphancookie69]

Holiday Rant: Easter

Eggs, Flowers, Crosses-there is so much happening on this spring holiday! It is Easter y’all! While I do not celebrate this day like I used to in childhood, I fondly remember being in church with family celebrating the religious aspect of this day. But what is the day truly about? 

Easter is always on a Sunday, and if you follow the religious aspect of this-for Christians this is the day that Jesus rose from the dead, 3 days after his Crucificxion. I believe that for Catholics, lent ends this day. So while Christianity and Caltholicism are similar, they celebrate differently. I remember as a kid, my catholic friend would give up video games. One of my adult friends gives up smoking, it works during lent. 

If one were to go back further beyond, the Christians have similar timing to the pagan celebration of Eostre or Eostrae-celebrating the goddess of spring and fertility. Today we color easter eggs, the easter bunny visits the houses of good children with baskets. Chocolate, is it a holiday with a chocolate egg? Also, why are eggs so much more delicious when made with sugar? 

More info here: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday

Some people celebrate Easter, Passover, or Ramadan. Easter Eggs, Spring, Bunnies, and Family Gatherings. Regardless of whether you are religious or spiritual, faith in a power beyond you is an essential part to all of our lives. I myself choose to honor Easter for its spiritual origins, and show gratitude for the family I get to have a wonderful ham dinner with this coming Sunday. Regardless of how others choose to celebrate this day, respect each persons choose to honor what they honor and be careful of those spring pollens! 

[saurondrielprompts]

Prompt: Galadriel has accepted to be Saubrand's queen and they are to be married/bonded during the Spring Equinox or Tuile`Eostra or Sheelala. However, the queen-to-be is hiding from the Wolf in Man's clothing that is tempting her to fornicate before they are wed. #Mairon is a h*rny mf istg #That eyefuckery on the raft is 🔥 #Aprehensive queen-to-be fending 4 her virtue #Sword fighting and innuendo as foreplay 😈

Sneaky sauron! Sword fighting/innuendo, omg yes pls

Did you mean this:

Or perhaps this:

Oh wait this:

No no no, it was this:

There’s literally so many more I could use. Why was there no sexy times on that raft again??

[loveartformyself]

Flexi-Shield (Eostra), 2019

Amy Brener (b. 1982, Victoria, Canada)

[theelkmaiden]

Interesting comment I found on a video about the origins of Easter and the goddess Eostra.

Melissa Marsh

"Fun fact: it’s not nearly this simple. The celebration of Jesus’ resurrection is based on the date of Passover because that is a calendar-based Jewish holy day from thousands of years before Jesus and the time when the crucifixion supposedly happened.

So, you know, not based on a pagan spring deity.

When it began to become more widespread in Rome, it was never called Easter. It was derived from the word Pascha which came from “Passover”. In fact, many countries today still call it something that derives from Pascha. It is called Pâques in French, for example.

Where did this Eostra thing come from, then?

Welp, the Venerable Bede wrote that he thought there was a pagan goddess named Eostra that was tied to the Easter celebrations of that time (800AD if I’m not mistake ) but there is literally no other text extant that mentions this goddess. And no other proof.

In fact, it is much more likely that the specific word “Easter” which comes way way waaaaay after the Resurrection (Pascha) was celebrated in the first centuries after Christ, more likely is derived from the Old Germanic word “eostarun” which simply means “dawn.” Not the goddess of dawn. Just, you know, the word for the sun coming up. Which is why Easter is “Ostern” in German. Why did they call it this? A lost in translation snafu between Latin and Old High Germanic.

Were there spring deities and rituals being celebrated by many cultures at the same time? Obviously. Were people of newly Christianized countries highly encouraged (and often forced) to celebrate Easter/Pascha rather than other pagan spring deities or rituals? Absolutely! Religion has always been used as a convenient way to manipulate the masses and wield power.

Is there a much stronger argument to be made that Christmas was established to forcibly supplant local winter pagan celebrations? Also yes. There’s no actual confirmed date for Christ’s birth like there is for his death, since his death is tied to Jewish Passover. So it was a convenient way to get people celebrating how you wanted them to by swapping one holiday with another. Et voilà! Jesus was apparently born in December!

But the whole goddess Eostra thing is a fun, attractive load of conjecture with little more than vague references behind it.

Celebrate pagan spring rituals, or the Christian version of Easter, or just have fun with the Easter bunny and eggs. Or do a mix! We should all enjoy the day as we see fit. Just wanted to clarify the actual history of the holiday and the terminology, in case anyone wanted to know. 😉

Sincerely, someone with two master’s degrees focused

in Anglo-Saxon and Celtic literature, language, and history.

Because I kind of love this stuff."

[limoncats]

blood warning

posting the Eostrahime drawings from this post here

bloody version under cut

[thepete77]

Its been a two and a half decade process of study and practice for me to develop the spiritual views that I have. There were some definite negative times and slow times and significant emotional alignment and adjustment to even the basics of witchcraft that started with very much excitement to be able to buy a lot of cool stuff from the local occult shop in town, that I was not even half way aware of the application of the stuff I was getting. Dried herbs, oil burners, statuary and decor, and books on a regular basis, tea light and other candles, and other items that were mainly just entertaining to get. Contemplating on the significance of every symbolic meaning later and my application of my own path, has really ingrained some points that I am easily able to refute Christian nonsense with all around.

First, the universe works in a way that is not in the Christian way it works. The early Jews were antagonistic as slaves in the societies and culture of the Egyptions and Babylonians, and during the initial writings of their documents they stole pagan concepts of spiritual practices and integrated them. This can be seen in major ways of the inquisitions and crusades era and before, when the church built cathedrals replacing the central and publically known temple areas of early people of Gaul and the British Isles. It can be seen about the identification of the fictional story of the Nazarene with the winter solstice, and the seasonal adaptation of spring and the Germanic deity Eostra for developing their non existent resurrection to replace the earlier held beliefs of Reincarnation. It as well can be seen in their theft of the African symbolical meaning of the serpent, and the application of the different names of their so called singular God in use of Canaanite deities like El Elyon and Adonis, into Elohim and Adonai, and their direct theft of the Roman Italian deity Lucifer as their adversary.

Offerings were a major practice of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians who gave food, beverages, items of worth, and burned incense and candles and poured drink offerings to invoke favor and blessings from them. The Hebrews separated themselves, supposedly, from these practices, and went through long eras of spiritual confusion and doubt about their own god, trying to establish their nation of Zion, Israel, in lieu of their appearing theocratic warrior priest king to rule a refurbished earth with his non-existent spiritual authority. Until Christianity was established as the Roman authorized religion, Christians stuck with the unintelligent lower orders of non-aristocracy in small private groups, knowing exactly the non-favorable and displeasing responses they would receive.

Studies of the ancient Greek practices revealed a strong legal structure of politics and citizenship and enforcement of punishment upon criminals. A major method of punishment was a large hollowed iron oxen, that criminals would be placed in to experience the heated iron from sunlight and possibly even flames. The complaining, whining, and bickering Christians more than likely took this activity and slandered this ancient law enforcement custom, writing that they sacrificed children to the flames of Moloch.

Thus the first passages of traditional commandments to the slave nation was “thou shalt have no other gods before me.” with their theft of Babylonian legends of their priests upon the mountain of Sin, turning it to the mountain of Sinai. The original mountain of Sin was attributed to the Babylonian moon god by the same name, affiliated heavily with the Babylonian moon goddess Innanna.

This is important material to know aforehand, not only because of the Christian use of the word sin and the way that they inaccurately think, but also to understand and crystallize the principles and concepts of polytheism and the mindset of traditional pagan worship of the gods. God, Gods, and Goddesses, are title nouns. They are not the pronouns declared by the gods as how they refer to themselves. Starting in the Christian faith with a standard modern world view, one can see the preaching and declarations about the word God like God is the actual word their deity goes by, treating their so called creator and ruler of the universe commonly, like they just have to pray using their words to have a conversation about even the most trite and basic topics of interests. The consecutive manner of this focus can lead to grandeur failures of recognition of reality, thinking they can walk on water and raise the dead and cast out demons, speak in tongues, prophecy, and heal the sick and other miraculous events, and fall flat on their faces looking entirely foolish.

One should be cautious of this potential failure even in witchcraft, that there are legends of very severe reputation of blighting crops, causing tempests, destroying livestock, and other activities that have very significant different meanings and beginnings. One can fade out from interests in magical practice with a standard sane mindset having severe doubts about being able to summon and evoke demons, even doubting their very basic existence. A general rule of thumb that I've read, is that sorcerers/witches should strive practically according to mundane efforts at all costs and use magic only as a last resort when things aren't working. This basic premise makes very much sense to me on many accounts, and is a very wise way to begin in choosing the discipline of witchcraft.

One should not feel disheartened however, about the existence of spiritual entities and deities, thinking all is fraudulent and their is no hope at all. Or try and misuse science of different types trying to debate about foregone conclusions in ignorance and false authority. During my spiritual practices as a Christian, having former views from the Mormon church, I valued the Bible as being at least more authentic from actual ancient manuscripts that still exist in museums to this day, rather than the obviously non-existent and suspiciously disappearing plates of brass, and the so called required faith it takes to have the spiritual wisdom from them and the little blue book. The history of printing having central texts like the Guetenberg Bible, and the idea of the king James Bible being published initially in 1611, at least has a length of more intellectual history. Still, the original writings of the initial documents and history of the slave nation is corrupt even in that context. Within standard rational thinking of the content, thinking of the related ancient cultures involved and the bits and pieces of names and principles listed, the Bible can be used to put things together in combinations. Knowing titles like Asherah, Baal, Amun, Belial, and Leviathan, and the practices of burnt offerings and libations, invocations, and following Greek roots of words like Sheol, Word, and practices like meditation and ascension, can prove to be beneficial.

Getting adjusted to the modern occult practices of witchcraft when coming from a judeo Christian background of any sort takes patience, courage, honor, and rationale. When you have the right attitude about even basic items like offering candles and spell kits, they can be most powerful and intriguing in the way they impact a persons life. Just be sure to keep your records about your activity, even in basic mundane non spiritual terms for review, you'll be surprised of what can happen even in a year.

[silialvis]

Characters for my educational practice

Sata - goddess of the night, Eostra - goddess of nature and Kinlas - god of water

[atrusofmyst]

I could get behind the idea that the modern English name of Easter is derived from a supposed lost festivity of Eostra (even though we only have Bede's word for it), but I wonder how they think that we got from Ishtar to the Hebrew pesach...

It’s that time of year again. Courtesy of digitalhammurabi.com

Addition about the image, courtesy of Twitter user @lui_log: wrt the background image, which is a stone plaque showing a winged goddess flanked by owls: “Also, we don't know whether this is a depiction of Ishtar, as the piece has been looted, thus has no archaeological context that could point us to whom it shows. Nor does it bear an inscription. The owls could mean that it is Ishtar's sister Ereshkigal, Goddess of the Underworld.”

[mr-holzark-and-co]

Eostra

an Easter themed character I made

[barkbarkattree]

 Nef takes the “its for the best of the clans” thing of the soul eater’s ideology very much to heart. In the third book she mentions it multiple times. This is what the lens that the author wants us to veiw her from. And it makes sense, her son died from starvation and she either was the mage of her clan at that point or was training to be one. So not only that she’s the mother that failed to protect him, she’s also the mage that failed to protect him. (from her perspective, I mean). This is not only with just her son though, i suspect these feelings would also extend to guilt about not being able to protect her entire clan as well. She was out of control when that happend but she doesn’t have to be.

(this is so long so im putting a keep reading here but i talk a lot about her below) (warning its long and idk if it makes 

The “this is for the best of the clans” is the mantra that she used to justify all of the horrible things that the soul eaters did. She really doesn’t want power like the other soul eaters, she just wants to like stop illness and famine. They may all be evil and the things they do may be horrible but they’re doing pleases the world spirit. And when they do that, things don’t have to be unpredictable anymore, trough this; she can make things make sense and things won’t be out of order.

We don’t know a lot of what the soul eaters did in between the fire that separated them and soul eater (the book). Seshru was in the high north and close to the narwhal for at least a while. Tenris was like taking over the seal clan. But we don’t know what Nef was doing at all which is such a shame because it would tell us so much about her. Anyways when see her in soul eater, she’s unsure of herself and her place in the soul eaters. This is maybe the first time all of them have been together since after the fire that scattered them. 

Considering that Nef seems to not like Seshru or Thiazzi and that its just them now along with Eostra, whom the rest of them honestly seem a bit scared of, and that the one (confirmed) sort of positive relationship with anyone in the soul eaters is gone (aka the one with she had with Torak’s dad), it makes sense for her to be unsure of her status within the soul eaters. Especially since Torak’s dad probably introduced her to the soul eaters and so her first impression of them and what they want to do is trough him. So if the person who first introduced her to her goal and her mantra, still realized that what they were doing was wrong, then what does that say about her goals.

But Nef has this deep personal relationship and experience with her goal that drives her and keeps her fixated on this goal. She needs to fix the world, nothing like what happend to her and her son will ever happen again, she can make the world make sense, not be so unpredictable. Torak’s dad, when he got the mindset, kind of didn’t (not that we know of at least). I’m sure he didn’t want people to die and that he wanted stop illness, but maybe not in the same way or on the same level that Nef did, if that makes sense. To leave, to do like Torak’s dad means to give up, accept that the world just is like that and that she’s powerless and can’t make it make sense. 

She’s somehow the soul eater that most sincerely believes in what she’s doing and yet is the nicest and most compassionate and i love her