The Awakening

In my coven/magical order, we celebrate spring on several levels.

We have a Magical Equinox ritual, which takes advantage of the breaking and shifting of the tides, acknowledging the potent magic of the time. We do this on the day of the Equinox or as close as possible. This is also a rededication of our temple and our commitment to our order.

We also have a Wicca-based Festival celebration of Ostara, held on the Saturday closest to the equinox. This is a more traditional celebration akin to our other Wicca festivals. It includes the poem "The Immortal" by Cale Young Rice (found in his book of poetry Earth and New Earth, 1916):

Spring has come up from the South again,
With soft mists in her hair,
And a warm wind in her mouth again,
And budding everywhere.

Spring has come up from the South again,
And her skies are azure fire,
And around her is the awakening
Of all the world's desire.

Spring has come up from the South again,
And dreams are in her eyes,
And music is in her mouth again
Of love, the never-wise.

Spring has come up from the South again,
And bird and flower and bee
Know that she is their life and joy
And immortality!

We also celebrate the Day of the Awakening as part of the Provider Cycle rituals, a group of rituals that are mystery plays which follow an agrarian calendar, with text from many poems and a structure based somewhat on the days leading up to Harvest Home, in Tom Tryon's novel of the same name..

I have written two academic essays on this ritual cycle and am preparing one for The Pomegranate.

Here, it is very cold and windy, but sunny. There are daffodils, hyacinths and peonies poking their green shoots up through the semi-frozen ground. I raked the leaves off my flower beds last week, to give them some light and air, and they do seem to be growing slowly, despite some cold weather this past week, but some areas are still not getting enough sun to melt the frozen ground. I hope the bulbs did not freeze and will grow at some point. I bought some blue hyacinths at the grocery store yesterday and when the are done blooming will plant the bulbs in the ground.

I am so eager to see the colors of spring flowers and blossoms. It's been a tough winter. Hail, Spring!