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reproducers, and in the spring their mating habits can become frenetic, which gives rise to the saying, "Mad as a March Hare," and why we have March Madness sales.

So what should pagans and Wiccans do about all this controversy? Do we really need to know whether Esotre or Ostara was a "real" goddess? The answer is, no.

Wicca, a neo-pagan religion, is based on a symbolic mythology. As we advance in our understanding of the Wiccan beliefs, we come to realize we are not worshipping a "real" deity, but an archetype. An archetype is a deep-seated, ancestral memory from the collective unconscious, which connects us to our own inner psyche. Unlike Christianity, whose followers believe that their god is real and walked the earth, a symbolic mythology helps us access our higher self, the goddess and god within.

Wicca is also an evolving religion. Its traditions are being created and re-created on a daily basis, as the participants contact and experience divine energy. Through repeated celebrations and rituals devoted to a goddess named Eostre, or Ostara, we have essentially re-created her. In the world of quantum physics and multiple universes, anything is possible. So by our action of focusing on Her, The Goddess Eostre, we are strengthening the energetic principle which feeds the archetype. Thus the essence of a spring goddess is continually with us.

So let us celebrate the "Sabbat with the Rabbit". Let's color some eggs, hide them under bushes, and send the children out to find them. Let's decorate our homes with images of the fertile rabbit. Let's embrace the season of Spring, when the days grow longer, the grass and trees turn green, and the earth starts bursting forth with abundance.

And somewhere, on some astral plane, I think Eostre is smiling and petting her friend, the hare.

Sources:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary
http://www.merriam-w ebster.com/dictionary/sabbat

Os tara, Customs, Spells, and Rituals for the Rites of Spring, by Edain McCoy.
published 2002 by Llewellyn Worldwide)

Wikipedia: Eostre
http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Eostre

Article "The Truth on Easter"
http://www.truthonthewe b.org/easter.htm, which sites as a its source,
[The Two Babylons (Or The Papal Worship), Alexander Hislop, 1916, Neptune, NJ, Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., pp.108-109]

Ostara - Overview by Christina
Author: Christina Aubin: March 17th. 2002
http://www.witchvox.com/va /dt_va.html?a=usma&c=holidays& id=4050

Learn more about this author, Diane Wallace.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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