22/03/2026
Let me tell you a story,
One that connects different stories from completely different times of this world –but all is connected, after all.
Yesterday we celebrated the spring equinox – this unique time that day and night align. The light came back to the earth. The snow has melted, flowers blossom, nature is filled with new life, hope has been defrosted.
In Germanic Pagan Mythology the old ones celebrated the renewal of life in tribute to the Goddess Ostara aka Eostre,
She is connected to the new dawn, fertility and renewal of life. Fair and beautiful, Life bringer she walks hand in hand with 3 symbolic attributes;
Eggs - potential, creation
Hares - fertility, lunar cycles, sensual vitality
Blossoms - the earth literally exhaling back to life
The festival of Eostre begins on the day of Equinox – the 21st of March and celebrated for 3 days.
What if the seasonal Pagan traditions and rituals have a much longer mythical lineage?
In Mesopotamia – thousands of years before the celebration of Eostre there was a goddess worshiped throughout the region; her name was Ishtar, (aka Inana and Astarde in other eastern cultures),
Though Her story is different, considering the region and the time of the world.
Ishtar was the goddess of Fertility, love and sexuality, who also governed the realms of life and death, her most famous myth the Descent to the underworld - She descends, dies and returns—bringing fertility back to the land.
In order to descent to the underworld she had to let go of all her layers – first of Crown, then her Jewellery and lastly her clothing – symbolic to Ego, status and illusion.
Still the ruler of the underworld (her sister) sentences Ishtar to death by hanging on a hook... as she dies life on earth begins to wither.
The gods intervene because without her, existence collapses, and so she is revived, there is much more to the story,
but the message is;
To rise in power, you must first be willing to be undone.
Though there is no historical proof she is the spark in the story of Eostre there are visible connections.
It is know that the Germanic and Norse people were adventurers and conquerors, traveling near and far to plunger and bring back to their land.
What they found and sometimes settle in the territories they forcibly took.
Could it be that they have taken the story of Ishtar back with them to the northern lands?
Through Mesopotamia – to other East lands – through the mountains of todays Europe,
the wind carried a story of feminine energy of fertility, renewal of life, sexuality, endurance, cycles of the earth, death and life.
Another indication refers to Ishtar’s connection to Venus – known to be the brightest star in the east that shines the brightest at night, at dawn and at dusk- Eostre is also connected to that star- in fact a big shiny star symbolizes her essence in other holidays such as Yule (Star at the very top of the christmas tree, but that’s another story)
Ishtar – East Star – Eostre – Easter.
When the early Christians arrived to the pagan ancient lands of todays Europe they couldn’t just erase pagan traditions—so they had to absorbed and reframed them to ease conversion.
Ostara became the festival of Jesus Resurrection and the eggs and Hares (easter bunnies) part of the eater celebration traditions.
Ostara speaks to the body and the earth
Easter speaks to the soul and transcendence
But both are really about the same truth:
Life returns. Always. In some form.
For a ritual from my grimoire
write "renewal" in the comments.
Blessed Celebrations to all,
