Beginning at Ostara

Welcome and Happy Spring!

Today I want to talk about beginning. This is the perfect time of year to start this conversation. Spring has sprung, the daylight starts to grow longer than the night, and there is electricity in the air of aliveness. 

The springtime is the time of the year that starts with Ostara, which is the pagan celebration of the vernal or spring equinox. This holiday is all about beginning and springtime. Even if you don’t celebrate the holiday itself, there is a feeling of celebration all around you. 

What is Ostara?

Ostara is a time of year where things are in bloom and new life is being created all around us. There is new wildlife being born, the trees are starting to grow green again, and the earth is warming up. You can feel the change in the air as the earth sheds her winter coat. 

This time of year is exciting! We can shed the weight of winter (figuratively and literally), then move forward into a new phase of life. This is the time of year to start focusing on the world outside of ourselves, and then immerse ourselves in the vibrant energy of the season. 

Ostara is the holiday in the pagan Wheel of the Year that is all about spring. There are symbols of new life, growth, rebirth, and, of course, beginnings. This holiday is usually celebrated with these symbols in the form of eggs and chicks, bunnies, and chocolate. Sound familiar? Ostara was the inspiration for the modern day Easter. 

Why do we celebrate Ostara?

Ostara is a holiday that celebrates beginnings. It is the start of the growing season and springtime. It starts the daylight growing longer than the night. And it starts the western astrology wheel with the sign of Aries. 

Aries is a great energy to invoke when you’re starting something new. It’s one of the fire signs so it will light the spark of your new journey. The Aries energy is very take charge and motivating. So if you’re looking to start something new, then using the combination of Aries and Ostara is a surefire way to get things going.  

There’s a reason why the sign of Aries and the beginning of the Zodiac coincides with the holiday of Ostara. This is a time to embrace the energy of creation and of new beginnings. We celebrate this holiday to kick start the goals that we had planned for during the winter months. Now is the time to put plans into action and start at the beginning. 

The Season of Beginning

Beginnings can mean a lot of different things. It could mean new life, it could be starting a project, or maybe a new relationship. It’s about springing forward into something new and different than what you’ve tried before. It could be something physically new, or maybe just a new mindset. 

The great thing about beginnings is that it’s a fresh start. You’re starting with a blank slate. There is nothing written in this chapter yet. You get to decide what is going to happen next. This might give some people anxiety, and while that’s perfectly natural when you’re starting something from scratch, you just have to embrace the energy, and then go for it. 

There is a lot of freedom with beginnings. It’s a chance to do something differently than you’ve done before. Then there are a whole bunch of new decisions to be made. It’s a very exciting place to be when you’re at the beginning of a new adventure. 

What does beginning look like at Ostara?

One thing that you can keep in mind is what has come before. What has led up to this beginning? Where was there an ending in order for this beginning to start? Then what did you learn from that ending that you can take forward with you in this beginning phase? 

Life is cyclical, like the Wheel of the Year. Everything comes around to an ending and a beginning again and again. You can think of it like a spiral; you’ll come back to the same things over and over again, but each time you go a little deeper. 

The lessons of your past influence how to handle this new beginning. When you come upon the beginning of a lesson you’ve experienced before, then you take what you’ve learned and either use it to do something different this time, or you repeat the same patterns over again. 

How to look at a beginning

Perspective is everything when you’re at the beginning of something. There is a great amount of energy that goes into trying something you haven’t done before. This energy is called Adrenalin and it can be a great thing or a not so great thing. 

From a positive perspective, Adrenalin can be felt as excitement. There is the anticipation of something great that’s about to begin and this energy helps us prepare for that. However, from a negative perspective, this energy can be taken as anxiety. This is when the anticipation leads to dread and worry. 

With anything, there is good and bad. The key is to look at your mindset and be aware of the thoughts that are talking about the something you’re trying to begin. What is the story your mind is telling you about this beginning? Does that story need to be written a different way?

By looking carefully at what your thoughts are saying, you can change the feeling you have about beginning something new. If you want to enjoy new beginnings, then you need to tell yourself a different story. 

What are some good things to begin at Ostara?

This is the perfect time of year to start something new. Even if it’s not something “new” new, you can approach something from a new perspective. Try to do something you’ve never done before, then see how it feels. What feelings came up as you did this thing? Were you going into this experience from a positive mindset, or a negative one?

With the energy of Ostara, you can start anything you want. If you want something different in your life, then Ostara is a great time of year to get it started. Different things that the energy of Ostara can be good to help manifest are as follows:

• New jobs or careers
• New relationships
• Fertility or new life
• Projects that need a lot of energy to get off the ground
• Finding or building a new home
• Starting a garden
• Prosperity or monetary growth

This list is not exhaustive, but it might help to give you some ideas about how to use the energy of Ostara in your life. To give you a little help, I’ve written a spell below to help channel the energy of the holiday Ostara. Let this help you to manifest your new beginnings. 

Ostara Spell for a New Beginning

Place some spring flowers on your altar. Light a green votive candle and place it next to the pot or vase of flowers. Close your eyes and imagine your hopes and wishes blossoming like the flowers sitting in front of you. What do your flowers look like? What colors are they? Do they have a fragrance? Associate these things with the new beginnings you wish to bring into your life. When you have that image in your mind, open your eyes and say:

Blossoms of new flowers grow

And with their blooms my wishes go

Up through the air, like petals spinning

To spring into a new beginning

Birds that fly and bees that buzz

I shed the old that winter was

And now bring forth my wish to me

As I will, so mote it be

Sit for a moment and see in your mind’s eye your wish for a new beginning coming true. See it as if it were happening now. How do you feel with this new beginning in your life? What thoughts are you thinking now that you have this new start? What actions did you take to create this new beginning for yourself? 

Until next time, my magickal friend, be well and choose joy. Blessed be.