131719-HEART OF GLASTONBURY-MARCH 24 - Flipbook - Page 15
According to some folklore documents from the 1800's, Eostre was said to have found a poor
songbird frozen solid while she was out for a walk one day in mid spring, around the equinox.
Being skilled in the art of transfiguration and feeling sympathy for the little creature, she was
able to revive the songbird by turning it into a hare, but it became a unique half breed of sorts.
This hare could continue to lay colourful eggs like the bird it once was, explaining the origins of
the Easter eggs and the Easter bunny. It’s also mentioned in folklore stories that at dawn every
day, the hare died and with it the moon, only for them to be resurrected once more as the twilight
overtook the world, bringing the night. This ongoing cycle is said to make the hare a symbol of
immortality, fertility, and the aforementioned restoration, renewal, and new life. Likewise, the
moon shares these symbols.
The cross blazoned across hot cross buns also has it’s roots in pre-Christian Europe’s honour of
Eostre as a baking tradition which the pagan Anglo-Saxons carried to England. They marked their
wheat cakes with a cross as the sacred symbol of the sun wheel to represent the perfect balance
at the Spring Equinox. Interestingly, the same sun symbol is connected to the Roman goddess of
love, war and fertility, Venus , the ‘morning star’ - connected to the Babylonian fertility goddess
Ishtar/ Inanna, who was resurrected 3 days after her descent into the underworld into the
heavens- predeceasing the story of Christs Easter Sunday resurrection by over 1000 years.
In Celtic folklore, perhaps our nearest comparison to the clues left behind in other pantheons, is
the goddess of Victory, fertility and the moon- Andraste, symbolising the cycle of life, death and
rebirth. Not quite the easter bunny, however she was famously evoked by Boudicca before
heading into battle with the Romans for victory, shouting, “I thank thee, Andraste, and call upon
thee as woman speaking to woman!” while releasing a hare from beneath her dress as a form of
divination. (The success of the battle could be foretold according to the direction in which the
hare chose to run.) Incidentally, she was later syncretised into the Roman Goddess Diana of the
moon, leading us back once more to the similarities shared with the goddess Eostre.
Today, one might celebrate a Celtic Spring Equinox by saining the home with burning bundles of
herbs, and Spring cleaning to clear the energy for the year ahead. You could decorate an alter in
honour of Andraste, along with spring flowers such as daffodils and decorated hard boiled eggs
to represent the season of fertility. Or bake hot cross buns, reminding yourself of the cycles of life
renewing itself before the sunshine of the Spring. Perhaps you could visit the White Spring in
Glastonbury, to also present an offering of honey mead to the alter of the horned male god of the
wild hunt- Cernunnos, who is additionally associated with the cycles of life and death, nature and
fertility in Celtic folklore. And in return, just like the hare, you might find that these deities fill
your spirit with the rising energy of the waking Earth and all the victory that’s required to help
you leap into the year, full of gusto, along with the life force of the daffodils being kissed by the
light of Spring.
Written by Kubi May, a White Witch & Therapist from Glastonbury. Contact her for 1-1
Therapy or check out her Workshops/ Retreats in Wand Crafting, Reiki Training & Celtic
Healing Certificates at: WWW.KUBIMAYCRAFTS.COM . Facebook & Instagram : @kubi.may