I proudly celebrate Easter.
Even managed to get dragged to church today as well (see forum), which I wasnt happy about, BUT! Last night I did my own little ritual.
Where I live in Northern MI, Ostara is still during a rather bleak time in winter. It isnt the happy little description that most 101 books talk about, with rabbits and grass and animals being born and flowers. No, its snow. Sick, disgusting, DIRTY snow (the last end of it, so there's car fluids and dirt mixed in mmm, pretty sweatdrop ). Anyways, while I still celebrate a version of Ostara, just out of habit, I also have adopted an Easter Ritual that I'm gonna blab on about in the next few paragraphs.
Easter, in a more religious aspect, is when Christ rose from the dead. Now, if you've any inclination to Egyptian pantheons, you will find striking similarities between the latter half of the Passion story, and a nice little chunk of Osiris's death and resurrection.
For those of you who are Egypt-inept, Osiris is a vegetation god, who later becomes Lord of the Dead when his brother Set murders him. While being the supreme judge/overseer of the dead, he manages to still be in charge of life above his head as well. So we have a life/death god, who was murdered for all the wrong reasons and manages to come back for a short period of time, sound familiar?
Now, he's only back for that short amount of time. Personally, I see it from now until Beltane (because before his death, he and Isis conceive Horus, which falls in perfectly with the nature of THAT sabbat xd ). While I thought to honor his visit on Ostara, like I mentioned earlier, there were no signs of spring under our two feet of snow. The last few days however, were gorgeous, and a sure sign that spring is here to stay. So! Time for ritual!
First, I gathered three significant items of food, not-so-ironically, they were intended for the Easter feat I gorged on today. Firstly, a hard boiled egg (uncolored, so its white duh), and a slice of bread. Then I filled up my offering bowl with some milk. Eggs symbolize the seed of life, while milk is what we're first nourished on, and the bread is what continues to nourish us as we grow older. All three were living at one time, and have been sacrificed (no matter how menial it was) so that another life can continue.
Anyway, I gathered all that up, with a knife, my tiny statue of Mr. Osiris, and a gold candle which was used to symbolize the God, sun, and that happy feeling you get when spring FINALLY stays for more than a day (for us MI people, that is an AMAZING feeling). I set it all up on my windowsill, and took out the screen so I had outside to work with as well.
I casted a simple circle, to serve as sacred space purposes only, and said a simple chant to call in the elements. I usually save the heavy duty invocations if I'm doing something -extremely- important. Anyway, I laid out the three food stuffs in front of Osiris and lit the candle behind him. Meditating for a while, I thought on Osiris' death, and why he was brought back. I thought about how, though Winter needed to come every year, that Spring would eventually follow, and bring blessings with it. I said a small, personal prayer to Osiris, and went on about the significance of life and death, and how each serve a purpose. Taking a bite/drink of each, I then gave my offerings to whatever stumbled across them in the night, hoping they would nourish -something- (even if it was just a poor little tribe of ants). I closed the ritual down, and the circle, and felt a little better about Spring.
Short, sweet and personal. I hope you all had a great Easter and didnt get sick off of candy. Or Eggs. Man those can make you sick if you dont cook them right...
gonk
~Mer
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