A Celtic cross
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The wheel has a longstanding position in art. Before Christianity swept through Europe and Britain, the Wheel of Life, the Roman laurel wreath and the Sun disc (in each of their cultural versions) existed - along with many others. The circle as a symbol within religion is almost universal. After conversion, the circular shapes remained but changed in meaning. The most basic wheel - that of the cycle of life - now culminated in ascent to Heaven or a fall to Hell, metamorphosing from a moving, changing wheel to a static and stationary one.
Wheel images dominate Christianity today. The Celtic cross with its wheel bisected by the four arms. The Papal stole with the star of Ishtar and the solar disc of Shamash. The Catherine Wheel, a firework not only reminiscent of the cartwheel upon which the saint died, but also of the earlier, burning wheels of Heathen belief. It would be easy to forget. To see the visual portrayal of the wheel as Christian. Or even to not see it at all.
But we should remember - they are Pagan in evolution, Pagan in nature, Pagan in symbolism. That a later religion adopted them should not wipe them from our lexicon.
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Shamash the Sun God and his Solar Disc
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~ Wheel of Fire ~
I am a Heathen. In March I celebrate Ostara when the Spring Equinox occurs. Ostara is a Heathen holy day that has become a universal Pagan one. This interests me - why Ostara? There are other Spring Festivals, and surely each of the other paths had its own? Why take ours and in doing so lose track of its roots and its traditions? For that is what happened.
Ask any Pagan celebrating Ostara what it's about and I'll bet the most you'll get is something like "a spring festival celebrating rebirth that focuses upon the Pagan goddess Ostara". Maybe there'll be some comment about sacred bunnies or hares, maybe even recounting the legend of how she created the hare able to lay eggs. But it'll be a rare Pagan indeed who can give you much more, let alone the truth.
So what is it?
Ostara, herself, has a name that originates in the root word for East. The rising sun. The new dawn. All things also associated with spring and probably indicative of who she is. This indicates that she has a strong association with rebirth, beginnings, spring.
The plethora of bunnies and eggs and such indicate support for the fertility concept - being a spring festival, that's a logical progression. However, I tend to feel that it may be a later addition/development. Maybe an influence from other traditions. For the earliest records of the festival held to honour Ostara would have to be those of the Osterraederlauf, a Germanic festival held at the vernal equinox. The earliest record of it is in 784 AD, when the Heathen Saxon people were still holding the yearly festival and Charlemange allowed it to continue - briefly. That this festival has much older roots is clear in the nature of the festival and the solid entrenchment of it by that time.
It was sometime soon after this encounter with the Osterraederlauf by Christendom's wonderous emperor that Easter gained its name, and a number of interesting traditions. Some Catholic churches still light the Easter fires that originated in the Osterraeder (Ostara wheels).
Wheels? Yes, wheels. The main feature of Osterraederlauf is the crafting of large wagon wheels, stuffed with straw. These are set alight and then freed to roll down the long hills in the night. The symbolism of this is strong indeed - the wheel of the year, the flaming circle that looks like the sun, rolling madly along through the night. The sun defeating the darkness, summer advancing as winter departs.
This is the symbolism of Ostara's Day - not fluffy bunnies and flowers, but fire blazing against the cold night that threatens us all, as |
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the year turns. The wheels had inscriptions carved into them - dedications to the gods. Fires were lit everywhere - a fire festival in antiquity grounded in battle and survival and sex - life.
Don't get me wrong. I like chocolate. But if you plan to follow Gardiner and appropriate my festival and proclaim it yours, at least get your symbolism right and your power balanced. As Ostara is celebrated by so many today it is a sweet and cute celebration of fertility. Think about that for a moment - what is fertility grounded in, but the strongest of urges? That to survive. To fight for life. To be strong. Those who survived the winter were the strong. They celebrated with great joy and great enjoyment of all that survival meant. It's not just about the new shoots and the flowers springing up. It's about having lived through the winter, feeling life surge through your veins and creating new life. It's about laughing in the face of your fears of death, age, the dark and cold night that awaits.
I craft a wheel of plaited straw each year, and I fill it with the detrius of the past 12 months. Fragments of the carefully saved greenery from May Day, for example. An unpleasant email I received. Ticket stubs for a wonderful night at the opera. All the good and the bad. I write out an inscription to Ostara, honouring her, and pin this to the wheel which I then decorate in whatever new-sprung flowers and shoots I can find. This is my Wheel of the Year - I don't have the space to set fire to a wooden wagon wheel and roll it down hill, so I make do! My family and I feast and celebrate through most of the night, telling stories and singing and having fun. In the wee hours of the morning we throw our wheels onto the fire and invoke Ostara. Old enmities are brought out, and "thrown to burn". New joys are shared. New loves are introduced (and snuck away with). As the morning approaches, we have porridge cooked on the fire and spend time together in quietness as we think about what Ostara's Day means to us. And then we walk out to greet her as she rises in the east with the sun.
This is my Holy Day - why not try it?
Reader submission: Avril H.
Mysteries of the Oserraeder
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Shakti