Women Transcending Boundaries invited the Circle of the Rising Phoenix to share with us their celebration of Ostara, the Spring Equinox, led by Terra Harmatuk on March 24 at Jowonio School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone who attended our meeting experienced something special. As we entered the meeting space at Jowonio, chairs were arranged in a circle surrounding a special Spring altar filled with candles, flowers, and statues. A wicker basket decorated with flowers and filled with red eggs sat beside on the floor. The members of The Circle of the Rising Phoenix, some wearing capes and flowers garlands, gathered to include us in a pagan Ostara ritual welcoming Spring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Circle of the Rising Phoenix is a closed Wiccan coven that celebrates pagan traditions of oneness with Nature and seeing the Life Force in every aspect of our world. Pagans celebrate the eight Sabbats; Ostara is the ritual of the Spring Equinox, a time of balance, rebirth and renewal. Persephone, Daughter of Demeter (the Earth Goddess), who has been dwelling with her husband, Lord Hades in the underworld, returns to her mother the Earth Goddess each Spring as maiden Goddess Kore,\u00a0 bringing new life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the ritual began, the circle was cleansed. The area\noutside the circle was gently swept, circled by a bell, circled by incense\n(though this was not used today). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each of the four Elements\u2014Incense\/Air, Candle\/Fire, Water, Salt\/Earth\u2014was blessed and consecrated. Air and Fire, Water and Soil were combined and honored as sacred and holy onto itself, and asked to bless this circle and all within, Terra circled with a bronze incense censer, sweeping air toward each woman with a feather; another woman circled blessed with salt and water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We \u201ccast\u201d the circle\u2014one by one we joined hands with the\nperson next to us and stated an intention (in the name of kindness,\nunderstanding, peace…). A chant sealed the circle: \u201cHand to hand the circle\nis cast\/Joining present, future, past.\u201d Candles on the altar representing the\nFour Directions and the Center were lit. Different members of the coven called\nupon the energy of each of each element to assist in our ritual. Separate\nmembers of the coven invited the Goddess Demeter, Goddess Persephone\/Kore, and Lord\nHades. The Ground\/Center was invoked in the center of our circle and as the\ncenter of the Earth, and of our bodies. We breathed deeply and chanted\ntogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the Charge of the Goddess, coven members took on the\nroles of Demeter, Persephone\/Kore and Lord Hades\u2014the sadness of Demeter missing\nher daughter, the parting of Hades and Persephone, the reunion of Demeter and Kore\u2014as\nthey reenacted Persephone\u2019s yearly return from the land of shadows, bringing\nlife back to the earth and balance into our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each Element and Direction speaks to a different kind of balance (East \u2013 knowledge and intellect, South – passion, spirit of change, West – emotional healing, North – family, prosperity and social action).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Equinox is a time of balance and most of us need to change to bring balance back into our lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eggs are sacred to the Goddess who split open the Cosmic Egg to give us the gift of life. A Sister passed the basket of red eggs to each in the circle; we were invited to choose an egg and write a wish for the year upon it. What do you most need for balance in your life? We each placed our egg in the basket in the center of the circle. We raised energy as we circled around the eggs rattling shakers and chanting the Equinox chant\u2014\u201cOnward we go round the spiral\/Touching darkness, touching light\/Twice each turn we rest in Balance\/Make choices on this night\/Make choices on this night\u201d\u2014circling faster and faster and ending by touching the egg basket and saying \u201cSo Mote it Be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we sat in the circle, we were invited to share what we\nhad written on our eggs; it was a quiet, accepting, reflective time of\nsupportive sharing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us joined in as coven members circled again chanting\nof the Goddess \u201cShe changes everything she touches, and everything she touches\nchanges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cup was blessed as the holy grail of immortality, the\nwork of the Goddess in the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Small cups of\ngrape juice were passed to all around the circle and each toasted. Then the\nBread was blessed: the fruit of the Earth–seeds sprout, grow and are harvested.\nA basket of bread was passed around the circle in Gratitude for all that comes\nfrom the Earth. \u201cBlessed Be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each of the Guardians, Elements and Center were thanked and\nreleased. The Goddess Demeter and Kore and Lord Hades were thanked and\nreleased. We closed the circle by holding hands chanting: \u201cBy the Earth that is\nher Body\/By the Waters of her Living Womb\/By the Fire of her Bright Spirit\/By\nthe Air that is Her Breath\/May the Circle by Open.\u201d At the end of the final\nchant: \u201cMay the Circle be open, but unbroken\/May the Love of the Goddess be\never in your heart\/Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet Again\u201d we unclasped\nhands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a break for snacks, Terra and the coven sisters\ngraciously answered many questions about Pagan faiths and their individual\npaths to this tradition. Among points raised: There is a stigma to being Wiccan\nin many areas and among many people, partially related to the mistaken<\/em><\/strong>\nbelief that Wiccans practice animal sacrifice. Wiccans honor the seasons and\nthe earth, honoring different Goddesses and Gods depending on the season; it is\nnature-based and eco-friendly. Wiccan is a fairly new pagan tradition: Paganism\nis an ancient belief system and runs the gamut from ancient to more\nexpansionist practices. Many other faiths have incorporated pagan traditions:\nsome we mentioned were egg symbolism, the cup and bread, solstice celebrations.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience was special \u2014as evidenced by the fact that so many women lingered reflecting together and sharing impressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE: Women brought donations of baby supplies in response to a call from Eastern Farmworkers on behalf of a young disabled woman who is about to give birth but has few necessities for her newborn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Circle of the Rising Phoenix led us in a celebration of Ostara, the spring equinox, on March 24 at Jowonio School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[41,31],"class_list":["post-9343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-spiritual-practices","tag-wicca",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9343"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9470,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9343\/revisions\/9470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}