The Dance That Turns the Wheel: Oestara, the Spring Equinox, and Goddess Making Love to Herself

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Celebrating the the Spring Equinox today? Surprise! Your a Witch! Whether you are meditating on internal or external shifts in energy, enjoying the prospect of fair weather, preparing for a full community ritual, or planting and watering actual seeds…You are Pagan. How does it feel? Probably quite natural, because that’s the point. Being Pagan is not a religion and does not rely on belief. It is only the act of acknowledging that the rhythms of the natural world affect you. It is a modern luxury to choose to experiment with what happens when we align our movements around the realities of nature rythms. In the past, to ignore this reality was a threat to our very survival. There has always been a lot of speculation about what Witches do in their secluded huts and in the woods by themselves, but mostly it is things like cultivate mindful awareness of how we are not separate from nature by observing nature and participating with her cycles and seasons. Most find when they do this things flow more smoothly with less effort and suffering. Today the whole of the natural world is showing up to participate in The Dance that Turns the Wheel. So when I talk about The Dance That Turns the Wheel, when I say The Wheel, I mean The Wheel of The Year, and by dance I mean sex. But not sex as most of us know it…

It is rather unfortunate, I would even say not very creative, that when we hear the word sex, many assume we are talking about the penetration of genitals in quest of orgasm. In the past we new better, referring to intellectual intercourse and conversational intercourse and sexual intercourse in the same category- as an exchange. A Dine Medicine Woman once defined shamanism as the understanding that we live in a sexual universe- meaning that every bee and flower and spider and fly and season is as sentient as you and me, and we are all on some level making love to every single other thing in every moment. Orgasm experts help us to redefine orgasm as a spectrum of pleasure with many distinctly different traits. When everything in reality exists on a spectrum, we begin to not just see but actually experience the pleasure of laying down on soft grass and just being present to the warmth of the sun on our skin as tiny (or not so tiny!) orgasms. An afternoon spent hiking or pulling weeds in the garden becomes an afternoon lost in ecstatic lovemaking.

 This thing we are calling the song of creation or the dance of life could just as easily be explained as one extraordinarily complex medicine-music-dance-prayer-performance art- sex magic ritual.

 It's actually a rather vigorous exchange. On the Solstices and Equinoxes, we have an opportunity to pause what we are doing and actually observe (see/ hear/ smell/ feel) this. And in these moments where we are, all of us, on some level, contributing some of our own creative/ sexual energy to the dance that turns the wheel, the more we tune in the more real it will feel. The change of seasons can be seen as a lover who is really good at changing positions seamlessly, confidently, at the perfect moment that keeps the flow, well, flowing. And as we know, changing the angle, the perspective, and the pace of our lovemaking is what keeps our minds from wandering, holds our attention, keeps us from numbing to the experience and allows us to feel the level of sensation we come here to feel.

 

Tantra reminds us that all of male-female polarity is encompassed within the embodied truth that what we are calling nature has been called by other names, mainly, Goddess, and that nature and both men and women as extensions of nature are all just one extremely multifaceted and dexterous Goddess making love with herself. Maybe you have felt this, found your access points into this juicier, more embodied remembrance of our one-ness? 

And while we are speaking of Goddess, we mine as well say Her name! Oestara! Oestara (Ostara, Eostre, Easter, same/same) is the Goddess whose role it is to usher in Spring, and she does it exceptionally well, wouldn't you say? No matter how cold the winter, Spring always comes again. The higher the death toll of winter, the more luscious a Spring we get to enjoy. The name Oestara means Bringer of the Dawn. Some say she didn't exist. Some say she was never historically worshipped. But have you ever stayed up all night to watch the sun come up? I would say you have met Her then, and that you have worshipped her. You have given of your own life force energy to witness and appreciate her, so why not say her name? Perhaps it is enough to just say Dawn, quietly aloud. Maybe you want to give a little more of your creativity to letting her know what it is about her you love.  We can pause for a moment and try this now, since we're here, since we're talking about praising Her name...

Thank You Dawn, for the way you weave night and day! Thank you Ostara for the way you weave death and life, Winter and Spring. How you are always there in the liminal spaces, full of grace, bridging, excusing, receiving, weaving. Gratitude all-ways for your presence in this realm and the great beauty of seamless transitions that are your legacy. We are honored to have the opportunity to deepen our relationship"  

Our words are magic and prayer is a form of sound healing. If you have ever heard a choir sing in church or monks chanting or a trance medium speaking in tongues, or your grandmother speaking the language of your ancestors, or a beloved whisper your name in a moment of peak appreciation of your majesty, and felt a melty sensation behind your eyes or in your womb, felt a rush throughout your entire body, begun shaking or sobbing ucontrollably, then you understand the power of sound and vibration to open us in unexpected and profound ways. This is why in so many Goddess worship traditions, we feed and celebrate Her by keeping her name alive. It is among the simplest of devotional practices. So Oestara is not just the name of a day or a season. Oastara is a Goddess and the seasons are alive and now is her time to be appreciated for her roll in keeping the wheel turning.  This wheel employs the same energy of a compost drum. Death can turn into toxic waste if not tilled and turned, allowing elements of air and fire (heat) and water to participate in the dance and facilitate the process of Death turning back into earth, of death serving the earth element, serving Gaia who in turn serves all of Life. 

And yes, I am saying the seasons are Goddess and the earth is Goddess and Goddess eats death.

But more on that another day! Today we get to drop into deep inquirey. What does our relationship with the seasons look like? Do we greet them like a favorite lover coming home after a long journey? Take a moment to give thanks? Forget about them unless their activities represent and inconvenience to our plans? We would love to know! As with everything at Bridge Temple , our answer is all of the above, and our Medicine Mandala Apprenticeship is designed to meet the Yogini/ Medicine Person, Priestess/ Wise Woman/ Witch that lives as a potential within each of us there, in those deep places where our magic lives, hungry for quality engagement.

We gather on the often overlooked but in our opinion just as powerful, often more powerful liminal Cross Quarter Holy days, the midway point between the seasons, where our inner cauldrons are in full process of co-creating the seasonal shift, which by the time it is visible enough to celebrate it, is actually almost complete.

Ready to more than observe the seasons, but really choose a life (or re-committ to our choice) to align with this ancient sacred way? Let’s do this! The new program and Applications for our 2018 Apprenticeship group will be available in the few weeks. You can click here to explore our current program to get the general idea. To be among the first to know when enrollment opens, scroll to the bottom of this page and click the rainbow cosmic yoni yantra to sign up for our mailing list... 

Blessings and Love!

Yaya Erin