Red Deer:

Well folks, 'tis 9:02... let's start getting settled in for class

Red Deer:

I'd like for EVERYONE to give Cloud a BIG hug & thanks

Red Deer:

She's here after major ice storm and no power for days... and STILL got ready to lead class...

CLOUDBURST:

It's 'cause I wrote all the stuff like Tues., RD - little did I know it was actually NECESSARY!

melilot:

{------------loggin

LadyGrnEyess:

{-----------ready

ViragoWitch:

Settling in...with her nail stuff:

x Magyar x:

{-----------logging

Red Deer:

thanks meli, as usual, you anticipate me

ViragoWitch:

{- protesting the logging of the pristine forests

CLOUDBURST:

Who's guarding the ol' door?

THORSSON:

lol, vw

Arcadea:

{-------------settling

Red Deer:

and folks, I'd like to publicly thank my sis (meli) she's saved us on the logs twice recently when we lost 'em

Red Deer:

that me be me Cloudlet

ViragoWitch:

thanks, meli

CLOUDBURST:

Thanks, RD

melilot:

awww {blushes}

x Magyar x:

thanks meli....{s}

LadyGrnEyess:

way to go Meli {G}

Red Deer:

Would you like me to review class etiquette B4 you begin?

CLOUDBURST:

please

Red Deer:

OK

Red Deer:

x Magyar x:

and mags

THORSSON:

sure red

Red Deer:

thanks bunches mags and thorsson

Red Deer:

with that, I pass the besom to our dear friend and sister, Cloud...

x Magyar x:

anytime red

CLOUDBURST:

Ready?

CLOUDBURST:

{--catching besom and sitting up straighter{G}

A funny thing happened between finishing the intro stuff for this class and actually getting here, which was a 3-day reminder from Mom that things don't necessarily happen in our time...{G} So I'm going to cut loose with the prepared text, without having had time to revise, and then we ALL get to have comments{G}.

Here in the northish of the "temperate" areas of the US, Spring is still mostly imaginary at the Equinox; what's happening is more subtle. There aren't any leaves, but the buds are fat; there aren't any flowers, but the grass is up. You may not be able to get a hoe into frozen ground, but the onions you forgot to pull last fall are reincarnating themselves in little green spears. Everything is having babies.

If Yule was conception and Imbolc was birth, Ostara is toddling around. If Yule was the minute after the dark of the Moon and Imbolc was the first tiny crescent on the west horizon for two minutes after sunset, Ostara is the night the slender New Moon cradles the Old Moon in her arms. Yule is midnight, Imbolc is somewhere around 3 AM, and Ostara is sunrise (or maybe breakfast time{G}) Ritually, Yule was energy, Imbolc was use of energy to give raw form to potentials, and Ostara is time to get KINETIC. If you hatched the idea of starting a garden at Imbolc, at Ostara it's time to be turning over the sod in the yard - still planning, but concretized.

The essence of Spring Equinox is Ready. It's not planting time yet, but there's plenty to do working the soil and appeasing the spirits. Think in terms of absolute readiness - building the power to where it's big enough to do the job independently, like those teensie tomato plants that get to stay warm in the window until the time is right and then BLAMMO! TOMATOES!

ViragoWitch:

{G}

CLOUDBURST:

If you're a gardener, this is a time of intense work, most without immediate payoff. Soil preparation is about what your plants will be like in the dry times of summer, far away in comparison with weeding, which is about the quality of next week's salad. It's not time to weed. It's not even time to plant. It IS time to make sure you have good ground for your seeds to grow in, and to begin the baby transplants that will, if you take care of them properly, give you food in abundance - later. So here we are, with incredible energy surging all around us, with horrendous work to do, and it's all about LATER??!! Yup, pretty much{G}.

One of the great lessons of spring in the real world is PATIENCE; you can't always get what you want NOW, but you CAN work for it now. Ritual workings are for what we plan to start, now or soon. If not the garden, perhaps that project we need to actually begin working on (not just thinking about) first thing tomorrow. It's OK to talk about the outcome, but the intention has to include doing the work. The best way to celebrate in the time of rebirth is to get outside. Feel the mud - barefoot, if you're blessed with a thawful day. Look for baby squirrels and bunnies. Feel the force. From here to Beltane, nobody would have had to make up symbols for what's going on, but they made them anyway, and what symbols! Flowers and eggs are both symbols of potential in this climate - eggs literally, because of their power of new life inside, and flowers figuratively, because we mostly have to imagine them. The season's colors are sunrise, new grass, early flowers, the baby pink of bunny ears and dogwood.

Pause for a slight commercial here; the following ideas borrow (at least) from a beautiful little ritual book published last fall be Obscure Pagan Press; I'll post the address at the end. It's very Right that the early Christians appropriated Passover for the Resurrection; it's a festival of redemption (from Pharaoh or winter) that strongly emphasizes eating. The Seder is a terrific spring feast; it uses the last of the stores and the first of the greens, to send home a main point of *faith*. People may have died of disease or cold during winter, but spring's when you can starve. To make a feast of the stored bounty of last year is to say "We trust You to get us through 'til we can pick what we're about to plant". If you've used up the stored food, you're going to live on wild greens and whatever you can catch, almost up to zucchini time. Faith. Trust in the cosmos to keep us alive, trust in the earth to return to green in time to give us what we need 'til the work pays off.

A Seder-type meal can be a wonderful idea, borrowing the ceremonial concepts but not the mythology or the words (unless you're Jewish). Eat with your family, coven, and/or ancestors, some food left from last year (ours is veggie stew with what's left of our frozen produce), the first coming-up greens (dandelion salad, for one, is an old spring ritual left over from when our not-so-distant ancestors were in the same boat; a tastier alternative comes up every year here in the form of perennialized swiss chard), and the potential of the coming season-probably an egg. Spend your time at the table talking about your gratitude for getting through the winter and/or whatever else you've survived lately, remembering harder winters(etc.), and formulating PLANS - for the garden, summer vacation, whatever. Tell appropriate stories from mythology: Persephone's return, perhaps. For the "ritual" part of the ritual, taking everyone outside to turn over a piece of ground for a ceremonial crop is nice if you've got the space - it could be corn for Lammas, perhaps.

Inside, seeds in a cup (or an eggshell!)-if most of you are urban, plant something people can grow in a window to eat later - perhaps parsley, but with a little stretching you could hit on lettuce or even dwarf tomatoes! Charge them with hopes and wishes about concrete plans and projects, and let 'em grow!

I'd like to stop now and spend the rest of the hour on questions and/or discussion, SMIB. As my ol' prof used to say, it's time for Q(uestions), C(omments), W(itticisms) or C(riticisms). Needless to say, as an end of lecture statement, that got REAL old{G}.

One of MY criticisms is that I didn't dwell real heavy on mythology and I'd be willing to try to remedy that...?

ViragoWitch:

ok... i live on the 17th floor & manage to kill most of my houseplants... any suggestions? i'm about ready to plant kudzu- i'd probably manage to kill it, too.

melilot:

try herbs vw catnip would be good

ViragoWitch:

oo, and the cats would like that

CLOUDBURST:

ROTFL, VW - Suggest you pick up a little book called "Growing Myself" - very recent by Judith Handelsman - real good on plant empathy.

ViragoWitch:

ok, will do, cloud

CLOUDBURST:

She would say, and I'd agree with her, that you're probably not talking to them enough and you may be watering them too much{G}

ViragoWitch:

of course... it might be that the cats are eating the plants, too much

CLOUDBURST:

Um, in that case, catnip might not be your answer{G}

ViragoWitch:

cactus?

melilot:

that's why the catnip vw, put it low for them and it'll be funny how the others start growing

CLOUDBURST:

{---grinnin' like a fool about the cactus. They probably won't eat THAT, though I have one who eats garlic tops in the garden{G}... pretty weird breath on that cat

We planted seeds in eggshells at a ritual I was at a few years ago - it was a nice touch. The eggs themselves were in an omelet someone made for potluck - I think the seeds were marigolds.

ViragoWitch:

I've always been fond of the Sader

CLOUDBURST:

Me too, VW, and Sam's description of a Wiccan variant was too gorgeous. His Pacific Northwest coven does it at the time of the salmon run,

The book is THE WITCHES' SEDER, a family ritual collection. 1996, Obscure Pagan Press, POB 2205 Clearbrook BC V2T3X8 (that's Canada)

ViragoWitch:

ok... thanks for that

CLOUDBURST:

Sam Wagar and a couple other people collected the rituals, which also include a GOOD handfasting and a real fine funeral, should anyone happen to need one

ViragoWitch:

Cloud- if the handfasting doesn't work out... I will need the funeral!

CLOUDBURST:

ROTFL yet again

melilot:

not you vw he will

CLOUDBURST:

I think Sam's Seder captured my attention because eating the fruits of the season is such a concrete way of celebrating the real happenings around us in the Sabbats... easy, too, even for urbanites, to find SOMETHING grown locally that's immediately in season and use it as a sort of focal point.

FyreLily:

People engage in lots of kitchen witchery in this season ... IMHO, it's nice to see people making their beliefs concrete and real.

ViragoWitch:

I agree, Fyre...

ViragoWitch:

Meli- I meant for him

CLOUDBURST:

Important. We can't, IMHO of course, worship Earth without participating. Not easy, for people who live in the midst of concrete, but probably more necessary

Actually, kitchen witchery for Ostara is real easy - you can always get eggs{G}

ViragoWitch:

Lots of marvelous things to do with eggs

FyreLily:

These little steps bring many people closer to their beliefs, because so many people live under constraints that keep them from regular ritual or open expression of their faiths

Azrael 8:

That's why they call it the incredible edible egg

FyreLily:

Nobody's gonna get riled up over an "Easter egg," tho {G}

CLOUDBURST:

Absolutely right, Fyre

FyreLily:

{--lets it all hang out at Ostara {G}

ViragoWitch:

and i've got a gorgeous set- blown eggs, rolled in glue and then each rolled in a different spice, grain, etc.

CLOUDBURST:

One year at the height of my invisibility I colored crackled eggs with onion juice - great color, and very nice flavor

FyreLily:

What a wonderful idea, VW

CLOUDBURST:

Some year I want to learn to do that nifty Ukrainian stuff!

FyreLily:

Did you make them?

ViragoWitch:

Yes... and nearly passed out from blowing too many eggs in one sitting

FyreLily:

LOL... Was wondering about that part

CLOUDBURST:

I love the sound of your collection, VW

Which, Fyre?

FyreLily:

What kind of glue?

FyreLily:

Oh, the egg blowing part, Cloud {G}

ViragoWitch:

i used elmers-

CLOUDBURST:

yup

FyreLily:

ROFL! Simple things are best

ViragoWitch:

i think just about anything will work, though

FyreLily:

{chuckling} Duct tape, maybe

ViragoWitch:

you were perhaps expecting industrial strength epoxy 10,000?

CLOUDBURST:

I use Elmer's for everything, VW - can't keep my specialty glues straight{G}

FyreLily:

Well, heck, I thought maybe you MADE something, you invincible, creative little thing, you {G}

ViragoWitch:

i've also got some pretty egg-shaped baskets i made with natural cord

CLOUDBURST:

Martha Stewart most of us ain't{G}

Red Deer:

El is {G}

FyreLily:

{-- definitely not Martha, Lily

ViragoWitch:

i've been called martha before

melilot:

El is better than martha

CLOUDBURST:

OTOH, maybe VW....? Gotta get the directions for those baskets

ViragoWitch:

sure-

melilot:

El's cute and sweet martha's not

ViragoWitch:

made these a few years back, so bear with me

you need balloons, a whole bunch of cord, string, or something similar. and some sort of stiffening agent. i tried a cornstarch solution at first, but ended up using a glue... blow up the balloon, and this is important..tie it shut {G}... soak the cord in cornstarch or the glue solution... wrap it around the balloon... and around and around and around...several yards. and hang it to dry. spray some glue on it, in fact. then comes the fun part... pop the balloon and cross your fingers that the glue worked

FyreLily:

I'm an idiot. What the heck is a glue solution? Watered down? What?

ViragoWitch:

Just call me ViragoMartha

Fyre- you can buy all kinds of fun glues at craft stores... you want something you can spray

melilot:

vw what's a "glue solution" and how do i make one

Pandora 2:

could you put glitter on it to make it sparkle?

ViragoWitch:

sure... glitter would work

FyreLily:

Aha, mel! I don't feel so dumb! {G}

melilot:

LOL fyre

ViragoWitch:

Tell y'all what- i'll check to see what the glue stuff i use is called & post it on the BB

PAniteowl:

depends Mel ... you can use Elmer's, cut it with a bit of water and it's cheaper than buying the "specialty" glues {G}

FyreLily:

Well, spray glue doesn't sound strong enough for the whole thing

CLOUDBURST:

What did I miss while I was getting bumped?{G}

ViragoWitch:

Cloud- I've become Martha Stewart

FyreLily:

We're making her egg baskets, Cloud

CLOUDBURST:

Congrats!

Somebody has to be her{G}

melilot:

vw i just can't picture martha with a feather boa hon

Red Deer:

did you get bumped before you finished Cloud?

CLOUDBURST:

Fair to say we're in discussion, RD. I was done with the prepared stuff and we were drifting into egg decorations

melilot:

thanks pa {G} i think i'll try the elmers and water

CLOUDBURST:

Wondering if anyone else want to bring up anything on Equinox, though

Red Deer:

does anyone know the alternative druidical explanation for eggs?

CLOUDBURST:

Is there one, RD?

PAniteowl:

nope RD ... do you?

melilot:

i'm not sure i want to know red {G}

ViragoWitch:

{G}.. tell us

Red Deer:

the druids called them glain...they were elliptical orbs of red agate found at certain places in Great Britain. Believed to be Dragon's eggs, and MONDO MAGICK when found at Lady Day

CLOUDBURST:

oooh... super! So eggs in the British Isles might just be a substitute?

CLOUDBURST:

(humdinger substitute, though - and edible)

Red Deer:

can't say for sure... perhaps a melding of two sets of symbolism rather than a substitute.

ViragoWitch:

raises hand: I have an egg-question- how does that little white bunny lay those cadbury cream eggs?

Red Deer:

he pushes REAL hard VW

Pandora 2:

what did the red agate do?

CLOUDBURST:

Sounds better - someone MUST also have made the connection with the organic kind...

melilot:

artificial insemination vw

ViragoWitch:

LOL...thanks, all

Red Deer:

solar stone... store power... also used for energy source in scrying

PAniteowl:

The first spellworking I was taught involved an egg

Red Deer:

some say truth stone

Pandora 2:

ahhh..

CLOUDBURST:

A truth stone would be very appropriate this time of year, IMO

Pandora 2:

I know agate is a powerful healer too.

CLOUDBURST:

Red agate ought to be dang near a storage battery

melilot:

a truth stone would be handy anytime of year cloud {G}

PAniteowl:

hehehe Mel

CLOUDBURST:

{G}{{{meli}}}