Yesterday was the Spring Equinox, the time where day and night are the same length. Us pagans call this day Ostara, a celebration similar to Easter. For a while now I’ve wanted to get back into celebrating the seasons and the pagan wheel of the year. Since spring is the time of new beginnings, this seemed a perfect place to start!

I wanted to do something small. I love elaborate rituals in large groups, but when I’m alone, a few words are enough. I decorated my altar with a few Ostara symbols: spring flowers, eggs and most important for my ritual today; rabbits.

The rabbit is a symbol of fertility, of spring and is one of the Trickster animals. To me, the high leaps of the rabbit signify the ‘leap of faith’, of taking a chance and starting something new. This is what I wanted to focus on for this ritual. Spring is my favourite season, a season of new life and happiness, bright colours and a bit of silliness. Inspiration for this Ostara ritual came from two things: S.J. Tucker’s Rabbit Song, a song about how Trickster chose Rabbit as his animal, and a silly Lesser Banishment ritual of the Chocolate Rabbit I found online, which includes lots of sweets and jellybeans.

For my Chocolate Bunny ritual I got a chocolate bunny {after eight minty chocolate, oh my!} which became the center of my small celebration. I called upon Mother Moon, Father Forest and the Elements for guidance and support and started by lighting the pink candle, which has been a feature in all Ostara rituals so far. I sang the Rabbit Song and blessed my Chocolate Bunny with the fertility, growth and leaps of faith of the real rabbits and took a bite. {Really, any excuse for chocolate is a good one, right?} During the day I will eat my Bunny, letting the blessings of spring flow through me and strengthen me on my path and my new venture.

There is a new project I’ve been working on {I’ll tell you all about it later, promise!} and, since I’m a total oracle cards hoarder, wanted to lay some cards on the project. I picked one of my favourite decks for this one; the Messenger Oracle by Ravynne Phelan. I drew three cards: inspiration, action and outcome. The first one represents the inspiration, which was the card ‘follow the moon’. It told me to follow the moon’s cycle both in nature and within me. The action card was ‘seek your destiny’, which told me to not be afraid to take that next step and seek my true power and destiny. The last card was the outcome, the ‘need and necessity’ card told me that it can go either way, but if it is something I feel I need to do {and I do}, then the outcome doesn’t matter.

I thanked the God and Goddess and the Elements and promised them to try and strengthen our connection this year. I’ve been feeling a bit disconnected to my Path and to the Gods, and it’s something that I’ve been missing. So I hope that this year I can reclaim that connection again.

This little totem bunny was made last year from clay, after a spirit animal meditation. I still adore this little thing and wanted to show her off just a little…

How did you guys celebrate spring/Ostara/Easter? I’d love to hear!