Etain – Goddess Knowledge Cards

One of the ways in which we can mark the turning of the year is to see the shortening and lengthening of the hours of daylight. The Solstice and Equinox points help us to notice how much light and dark each day contains. In older traditions the seasonal changes in the amount of light are also marked by their association with Goddess energy. Ostara is a Germanic Goddess associated with the return of the Spring light. As the day grows longer in light the fertility of the plants and animals increases and it is time to plant ready for the longer hours of sunshine. In some traditions the festivals around the spring equinox have become known as Easter and the mythology is of the man who dies and rises again.

There are other Goddesses who predate or run alongside the God mythology of Spring Equinox. One of my favourite is Etain, the shining one, who was a Celtic moon Goddess. Though a series of misfortunes, including dying and being reborn, she is destined to spend half of her year underground and half above the surface. She is therefore, in her risen state, a symbol of fertility, of the vitality of all growing things. This echoes the myth of Persephone, the Greek Goddess who spent Winter in the underworld taking the life of the growing world with her. And even further back, for the Sumerian people the Goddess who spent half her time in the land of the dead was Inanna. She returned once again in the Spring to bring new life and a temporary triumph over death. So whether you favour Ostara, Etain, Persephone or Inanna, there is a tradition dating back many thousands of years that links the return of new life on the Earth with the Divine Goddess energy.

Spring is the signal to clear out the old energy of Winter, to emerge from the retreat into solitude around the hearth fire and to begin the work of manifesting the new growth in all areas of our life. If we attune to Nature we notice the buds on the trees, the frog spawn, the daffodils starting to open. Cautious at first, for a stray frost may still hold the warmth of the daytime sun back, the Northern Hemisphere awakens. In the Southern Hemisphere it is time to gather the harvest and prepare for Winter. And that is the most wonderful thing of all. We have two sides to our planet. We have a system where one side grows as the other rests. We need never be hungry as growth is always going on. A complete solution to all of our basic needs of only we realised and organised it to be so.

I always feel at my most creative in the Spring. My Guides bring me new ideas, challenges and opportunities. I love to grab all that is on offer even if it may be some time before I get the fruits from all of my work. I also enjoy acknowledging the return of the Divine Feminine energy as it flows back in to plain sight. No longer hidden inside (underneath or below) the emergence of my creative voice and action is a way of honouring the part of myself that is more visible in the world in Spring. It’s hard to step outside of the conditioning that women have faced, the casual but insidious pressure to be and behave in certain ways. Each Goddess reminds us that there is a trade off for being a creative force; that at times we have to withdraw and await the turning of the seasons.  Finally it is our season. It’s time to spring forward with all the positivity you can muster. Enjoy your opportunity to create the new, fresh, energy for the world. Share your inner Divine Goddess connections with everyone as you make, do, feel and think all of the newness into your life.

Day 125 of my blogging challenge.