Ostara 2007
Logistics and Teaching Chants
Explanation and Purpose:
In the Spring, Wiccans celebrate Ostara, a fertility festival celebrating the birth of Spring and the reawakening of life from the earth. They rejoice as the goddess awakens, blanketing the earth with fertility, and the god stretches, matures, and delights in nature's abundance. Part of this celebration includes decorating hard-boiled eggs in honor of the fertility goddess. The egg is an important symbol of Spring, with its golden sun-like yolk representing the sun god and the outer white casing associated with the white goddess. As a whole, the egg holds the power of new life and symbolizes rebirth.
Using a wooden egg for divination and as a spiritual helper in your life's journey to make a choice of what might enrich our lives.
Cleansing with saltwater
Casting the Circle (to include the restrooms and kitchen)
Call the Elements:
East: Hail spirits of the East, powers of Air. We call upon you to blow staleness away, fill our lungs and clear our minds. Come, by the air that is her breath. Send forth your light. Be here now!
All: Be here now!
South: Hail spirits of the South, powers of fire. We call upon you to warm our hearts and let our passions glow. Come spark of life, by the fire that is her bright spirit. Send forth your flame. Be here now!
All: Be here now!
West: Hail spirits of the West, powers of water. We call upon you to rain on us. Quench our thirst and and let us laugh and weep. Come tides, by the living waters of her womb. Send forth your flow. Be here now!
All: Be here now!
North: Hail spirits of the North, powers of earth. We call upon you to keep us centered and our bodies strong. Keep us mindful of Mother Earth. Come, stone, by the Earth that is her body. Send forth your strength. Be here now!
All: Be here now!
Center: Hail spirits of the center. Come, be a spiritual helper in our life's journeys. Be our connection to the Elements of Nature symbolized by the egg. Strengthen us in our center. Be here now!
All: Be here now!
Call the Goddess: Great Goddess, ground of being, joy of life, join us now. Laughing one , dewy maiden, playful, beautiful one, be with us. Sky sailing, pregnant moon, full blown rose, mother of all beings, join us now. Opener of the gates of life and death, we need your energy. We call for your presence. Be here now!
All: Be here now!
Call the God: Horned God filled with love, fierce with passion, join us now. Gentle one, untamed one, awakener of desire, be with us. Lover to men as well as women, young boy, old man join us now. Son, lover, father, brother, join us now. Opener of the gates of life and death, we need your energy. We call for your presence.
All: Be here now!
Spiral Dance
All: Chanting and Dancing:
Spiraling into the Center 1
Spiraling into the Center;
The center of the shield.
Spiraling into the Center;
The center of the shield.
I am the weaver;
I am the woven one,
I am the dreamer;
I am the dream.
I am the weaver,
I am the woven one,
I am the dreamer;
I am the dream.
New Growth Choices (All): Priestess passes out pencils and 3 x 5 cards. Participants are asked to pick 4 things that have the potential for enriching their lives this Spring, write them on the card and to put a symbol or word beside each to symbolize each action.
Egg Decorating (All): Priestess, while passing baskets around the circle, asks participants to pick out either a wooden or hard-boiled egg and about 3 colors of crayons. Priestess then instructs everyone to draw a circle at each end of their egg. At one end place a symbol that means Spring. At the other end draw a symbol that represents Deity to you. Have the rest of the egg divided into 4 segments by drawing 4 vertical lines and put in each the symbol you chose to represent each action.
Meditation: When all are ready, ask everyone to hold their egg in the palms of their hands and imagine it glowing with a spiritual light. Priestess explains that it is a spiritual helper in your life's journey and begins meditation. Priestess thanks the chicken or the earth that has produced each egg and acknowledges the egg as the synthesis of the Elements of Nature--the Earth which is its physical form, plus the Water, Fire, and Air that hard-boiled those eggs or that symbolizes the egg, and Spirit, its connection with you as your spiritual helper.
Divination (All): Invite participants when they are ready to take their egg to the table, roll it down the inclined board and note the symbol facing the sky. Focus on this segment. Meditate on what has been shown to you. Reflect on putting into action in your daily life. Give thanks for guidance received, for this growth and change.
All: Drumming and Chanting
Ancient Mother 2
Ancient mother I hear you calling.
Ancient mother I hear your song.
Ancient mother I hear your laughter.
Ancient mother I taste your tears.
All: Sharing
Feast Blessing: For the fruit of the Earth and the work of human hands, we thank you. For blessings and abundance, we thank you. What comes forth shall return in the eternal dance of Goddess and God. Join with us, enjoy with us, blessed be.
All: Blessed Be.
Devoke the Circle
God: Blessed Lord God we thank you for your presence, for the circle, for darkness and light, for love and change. We ask for your blessing as you depart.
All: Hail and Farewell!
Goddess: Blessed Lady Goddess, we thank you for your presence, for the circle, for darkness and light, for love and change. We ask for your blessing as you depart. Hail and Farewell!
All: Hail and Farewell!
Center: Guardians of the Center, we thank you for your presence, your spiritual help and connection to the elements. Go if you will, stay if you must. Hail and Farewell!
All: Hail and Farewell!
North: Guardians of the North, we thank you for your presence and for witnessing our rites. We bid you hail and farewell. Blessed be!
All: Blessed Be!
West: Guardians of the West, we thank you for your presence and for witnessing our rites. We bid you hail and farewell. Blessed Be!
All: Blessed Be!
South: Guardians of the South, we thank you for your presence and for witnessing our rites. We bid you hail and farewell. Blessed Be!
All: Blessed Be!
East: Guardians of the East, we thank you for your presence and for witnessing our rites. We bid you hail and farewell. Blessed Be!
All: Blessed Be!
All Sing:
May the Circle be Open
May the circle be open, but unbroken,
May the peace of the Goddess be ever in your heart.
Merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again. 3
1. Raymond Buckland, Wicca for Life: The Way of the Craft-From Birth to Summerland, pg. 254
2. Author unknown
3. Found at BryteUnicorn's Enchanted Forest
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