of Easter...Eostre....

Odd celebrating Easter in the southern hemisphere now, a celebration of rebirth and renewal and the assertion of Eternal life- a spring celebration! Yet as we move from the Autumn of reflection, of gentle leaves falling and the winds of change…into the nadir of winter, it’s good to rise up in joy for all the blessings we have and to recall the mystery not only of Eostre( see below) but of the Mabon ( see below)…truth will always be heard, no darkness is without a seed of light, suffering, like the pain of birth will produce growth and come to an end, the circle of life shall continue- whatever out faith these remain essential mysteries- and of course, love always love, whatever we sow with love, will grow love…

A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn? Hugh Mackay

I am very proud of this work because it is more about the meaning of the Easter Rising and its relationship to what this whole century has been about, people liberating themselves, freeing themselves. Leon Uris

Easter tells us that life is to be interpretednot simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals.
- Charles M. Crowe

The resurrection asserts a truth which is by no means always written legibly for all men on the face of nature. It tells us that the spiritual is higher than the material; that in this universe spirit counts for more than matter.” - H.P. Liddon.

Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion.”
Dalai Lama quotes

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. (Quote by - Anatole France)

The mysteries below are the stories of spring from our traditional pagan world…they too tell the story of Easter, of death and darkness and new beginnings…of eternal life and resurrection of the sun…of a new dawn for every dark night.

Eostre for those who do not know…The name Easter evolved from the Goddess's name, Ostara or Eostre (depending on spelling and culture) which means "movement towards the rising sun" or "East". Ostara is the living symbol for air and the life force of spring. East is representative of the element of air and our mental powers. Air is about new beginnings and allowing your spirit to soar. Ostara is Goddess of joy, new beginnings and fertility. That is where Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies (rabbits) come in. Eggs are an obvious symbol for fertility and the rabbit-albeit originally a hare (Ostara's power animal) has a rather well known propensity for reproducing. She is goddess of the dawn. Of the light after the dark.

The story of Mabon for those who do not know….
From the moment of midsummer, the Sun's strength diminishes, until the moment of the Winter Solstice in December ( northern hemisphere) or June ( southern Hemisphere), when the Sun grows stronger and the days once again become longer than the nights... During this time Mabon, Young Son, Divine Youth, Son of Light also disappears. He is taken at birth when only three nights old. His Mother Modron laments... With the help of the wisdom and the memory of the most ancient of living animals - (the Blackbird , the Stag, the Eagle, the Salmon, and the Owl), Mabon is eventually found. All along, Mabon has been dwelling, a happy captive, in his mother Modron's womb. (Or the womb of the earth?) Modron is Guardian , Protector, Healer, the Earth herself. Her womb is nurturing and enchanted, but also filled with challenges. Only in so powerful a place of renewable strength can Mabon be reborn as his Mother's champion, the source of joy and Son of Light. Mabon simply means the son of the mother. Yet, Mabon is at one level child and, at a higher level, solar deity, son and sun.
There are many similarities in this myth, to the death and resurrection of Christ, son of god...deity, son and light.( see addendum)

Addendum... James George Frazer: “Now the death and resurrection of Attis were officially celebrated at Rome on the 24th and 25th of March, the latter being regarded as the spring equinox, and…according to an ancient and widespread tradition Christ suffered on the 25th of March…the tradition which placed the death of Christ on the 25th of March…is all the more remarkable because astronomical considerations prove that it can have had no historical foundation…When we remember that the festival of St. George in April has replaced the ancient pagan festival of the Parilia; that the festival of St. John the Baptist in June has succeeded to a heathen Midsummer festival of water; that the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin in August has ousted the festival of Diana; that the feast of All Souls [following Halloween] in November is a continuation of an old heathen feast of the dead; and that the Nativity of Christ himself was assigned to the winter solstice in December because that day was deemed the Nativity of the Sun; we can hardly be thought to be rash or unreasonable in conjecturing that the other cardinal festival of the Christian church—the solemnization of Easter—may have been in like manner, and from like motives of edification, adapted to a similar celebration of the Phyrigian god Attis at the vernal equinox…It is a remarkable coincidence…that the Christian and the heathen festivals of the divine death and resurrection should have been solemnized at the same season…It is difficult to regard the coincidence as purely accidental” (The Golden Bough, Vol. I, pp. 306-309).