Ostara and the hare
The Goddess Ostara was the divine maiden who brought forth the first light of day and springtime…
…she is responsible for resurrecting the world after winter’s frozen grip has been withdrawn.
She blows the warm winds of springtime over the lands. Fields and trees become green again, and flowers blossom.
However, one year, Ostara came a bit too late, and as we walked about the barely thawing woods she came upon a small bird. The bird was shivering and on the verge of death from the cold. She stopped and gently took the birds into her hands, trying to warm it and bring it back to life, but it was too late. The bird was frozen and so laden with frost that its wings did not open, meaning it could no longer fly and would soon perish. Desperate to help, Ostara transformed him into a hare – giving him strong legs to run from danger, and soft fur to warm him. Honouring his earlier life as a bird she also bestowed the ability to lay coloured eggs upon the hare, which he does every spring in gratitude towards Ostara for saving his life.
And yet, while Ostara is the emblem Spring, almost always timely, arriving when we need her…it is the transformation and the beguiling nature of the Hare that has endured.
The symbol of the hare appears in sacred sites across the world - from the Middle and Far East, to the churches of Devon – it spans diverse religions and cultures, including Buddhism, Islam, Celtic, Pagan, Christianity and Judaism. And hares appear in cultural legend and story across time and the globe. Norse love-goddess Freyja had hares as servants; rabbits are seen as good luck signs in China, representing peace and tranquillity; hares were often named as the animal familiars of witches, it was even thought that witches could turn into hares; in ancient Egyptian the hieroglyph for a hare literally means ‘existence’…
For women, they have a powerful resonance too - they are nocturnal and thus have a deep connection to the moon, lunar cycle, and fertility, but also to truth found in the darkness, as well as a strong connection to magic, rebirth, transformation, renewal…
They also encapsulate two sides of life – dark and light, clever and foolish, cowardice and courage, virginal and sexualised, revered and feared, playful and wise…
Remember - the shapeshifting hare was the result of not one, but two powerful and magical acts of renewal beyond the mundane sphere of possibility… and it gives us the idea that anything is possible….that our earlier lives do not have to define our future, but that we can take with us what we want…we can start a cycle of existence anew.