Pagan Groups Celebrate Spring

Vernal Eqinox Represents Balance, Joy, New Life

Last updated Friday, March 23, 2007 3:36 PM CDT in Religion

By Bettina Lehovec
The Morning News

Similarly, human beings have the opportunity to expand themselves, Ravenswood said.

"It's a time of sowing seeds. What do we want to plant, create in our lives in the coming year? It's also a time of spring cleaning. What dead materials do we want to get rid of?"

Ravenswood and her "herd" --members prefer the name to the occult-laden "coven" -- gathered Wednesday night to observe the equinox. Also known as Ostara or Eostar, the event is one of eight pagan holidays, or Sabbats, celebrated throughout the year. The holidays follow the cyclical pattern of nature, marking the two equinoxes, the two solstices and four evenly spaced points in between.

Wicca is the largest of a number of earth-based religions classified as neo-pagan. Others include pagans, druids, shamans and some American Indians. They share a reverence for the natural cycle of life. Many believe that the divine is embodied in all living things. Others define themselves as atheists.

Ravenswood's group started their ritual celebration by writing down things they wanted to get rid of on slips of paper and burning them in candle flames. That signified casting out the old, she said. Then they planted seeds in a communal planter box. The action symbolized the setting of intentions for the coming season, as well as getting people close to the earth. Members also have spent time helping one another in their gardens in past weeks.

Singing, dancing and drumming added to the festivities. The group ended the ritual with a potluck meal. Symbolic springtime foods included spring salads and eggs. Ravenswood planned to give her friends plastic Easter eggs containing a multi-vitamin, a penny and a chocolate kiss. Those represent health, wealth and love, she said.

A group at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Fayetteville marked the equinox in similar ways. They blessed the earth they'd brought from their gardens and houseplants and took home seeds representing their own inner growth. They shared stories, poems and songs related to plants. They also passed a globe around the circle, infusing Mother Earth with positive energy.

Viewing the earth as a living whole that seeks to keep itself in balance is a basic tenet of pagan belief, an event organizer at the fellowship said. She asked to remain anonymous to protect herself from prejudice against pagans in the community.

The Unitarian Universalist Web of Life is a pagan sub group within the larger fellowship. It takes its name from one of the guiding principles of the fellowship, that of the interdependence of all living things. The fellowship is a liberal religious tradition that affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person and all forms of belief.

The Rev. Dave Hunter, co-minister of the local fellowship, said that participating in an earth-centered ritual such as spring equinox does not necessarily mean ascribing magical meaning to it.

"It's a marker. It gives us a chance to appreciate the earth and our connection to it, how we're a part of nature."

Both groups met outside, underscoring the connection with nature at the heart of neopagan belief. At Unity of Fayetteville, participants walked an indoor labyrinth to mark the coming of spring. Facilitator Linda Flores said that celebrating the solstices and equinoxes, like New Year's Eve, provides a time to pause and reflect.

"We also are on the same (physical) circuit," she said.

Spring Rebirth A Common Theme

The stories and symbols associated with the vernal equinox are echoed in many world religions, including Christianity.

Easter eggs are an ancient symbol of fertility and new life, for example. Hot cross buns represent the pagan Wheel of the Year. The Easter bunny harkens back to the hare, another symbol of fertility and an animal associated with the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre (also known as Eostar and Ostara).

Eostre represented springtime and new life. Her feast day was celebrated on the full moon following the spring equinox. A similar calculation is used to determine the date of Easter. The word "Easter" probably derived from Eostre, most religious historians agree.

The theme of rebirth seems natural to this time of year, when the earth is greening again. The ancient Greeks worshipped the goddess Demeter and her daughter Kore, also known as Persephone. Demeter was the earth goddess who brought forth fruits and grain. When Kore entered the underworld as the bride of Hades, her mother mourned. Her grief was so great that she ceased bringing forth life. The plants of the earth withered.

Eventually, she and Hades reached an agreement whereby Kore returns to the earth for eight months each year. Those are the growing months of spring, summer and fall. When Kore returns to the underworld, however, her mother mourns and winter returns.

Springtime rituals in other parts of the world focused on Attis, consort of the Phrygian fertility goddess Cybele. He was born of a virgin and reborn as the evergreen tree, a symbol of unending life. Attis is known in other traditions as Osiris, Orpheus, Dionysus and Tammuz.

Early Christians likely incorporated existing traditions into their celebrations and beliefs, historians agree. Some Christians worry that such a lineage somehow lessens the importance of their faith. Yet there's really no way to separate Christianity from the culture in which it took root in, others say.

"It's not as if Easter emerged whole cloth," said the Rev. Roger Joslin, vicar of All Saints Episcopal Church in Bentonville. "Every new birth, every emergence of a new religion, takes place within an existing culture. Easter is the same. ...

"It seems quite natural to me that our Easter celebration or festival would be affected by spring celebrations and that those things would be incorporated in the new faith. ... Of course those (pagan) elements would be there. That's the culture from which it emerged."

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