Come sit in the sunshine under the bright blue spring sky and I will tell you the story of Ostara and Easter.
A long, long time ago, people had different holidays then we do now. Many of them celebrated when the sky changed, when the trees blossomed or when their leaves fell. They celebrated the changing light or the way the stars moved. One of the holidays that the ancient people celebrated, and that some people still celebrate today was the first day of spring.
The first day of spring was called Ostara by the Germanic peoples of Europe. It was named for their Goddess Eostre who was the Goddess of bunnies, fertility, eggs, baby animals, new shoots, plants, birds and the spring time earth in general.
Many people in old Europe and around the world would have parties on the first day of spring. They would sing and dance, they would paint eggs as a symbol of fertility and they would celebrate fertile animals such as the bunny rabbit.
About 2,000 years ago there was prophet in Jerusalem. His name was Yeshua, but he is known now by his Greek name, Jesus. Jesus preached to people about love and tolerance. He taught everyone that we are all the divine children of the great Spirit, of the God and Goddess. He represented for people then and now, the holiness that everyone has inside of them. To many people, Jesus and his partner Mary Magdalene, known in Greek as Marimane, were their saviors and their most beloved teachers.
The people who ruled the lands where Jesus and Marimane preached did not like the message that they were teaching. The rulers thought that if everyone listened to Jesus and loved everyone and treated everyone with respect and kindness that the rulers would not be able to control the people any longer. The rulers did not want the people to know that they were the divine children of the great Spirit, of God, because if they knew that they would no longer pay the outrageous temples fees or go to the temple rabbis. The ruler would lose control and money and they did not like the idea of that.
So the rulers went and found Jesus and took him to a hill where they nailed him to a cross. This practice was called crucifixion and it was suppose to kill Jesus. What the rulers did not know was that in his life's teachings and traveling Jesus had spent time in the land of Kerela, which is in what we now call India. He knew some of the secret teachings of the yogis and of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. He knew how to live for a long time and how to pretend to be dead by making his breathing very faint and by slowing his heart beat.
He hung on the cross for many days. All those who loved Jesus grieved for him because they knew he was in a lot of pain. When he did not die fast enough the soldiers on the hill took a sword and stabbed him his side.
Jesus looked up at the heavens and said, "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." With his partner Marimane and his mother Mary crying at his feet Jesus meditated. He slowed his heart rate and made his breathing very faint. Everyone thought Jesus had died.
They took him off the cross and placed him in a tomb. While in the tomb the moon refused to shine. Every month we know that the moon goes dark for three days. The new moon we call it. The light and joy of Jesus is like that of the moon and for three days Jesus and the moon where dark.
On the third day Marimane went to Jesus’ tomb to tend to this body and she found he was not there! She was amazed and wondered what happened to him. Then he appeared to her. He had descended in trance to the underworld and had become an enlightened being. He was no longer bound by the forces of earth that we know. He could go anywhere in any moment with just a thought. And he told his beloved Marimane, the most loved of his disciples, that he was not dead, that he had risen and that in the name of the great Spirit, of God and Goddess, he would go and continue to teach their message of love, peace and inner divinity.
And so he did, traveling to the Americas and many other places. Jesus suffered on the cross and in so doing saved all of us. He freed us from the burden of death. He showed us that death was not the end. And just like many gods, known by many names, Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Kronos, Osiris, etc. He taught us that being kind and loving and declaring our inner divinity made death nothing more than a gateway we all pass through to come resurrected on the other side in a new form. Jesus returns to all of us the ancient mystery of rebirth celebrated at this time in early spring.
So now we can celebrate spring with fertility Goddesses like Eostre who bring the rain and sun to the earth to grow our food. We can celebrate with painted eggs, bunnies, chocolate and good food with our friends and family and we can also celebrate Easter as the day that we Jesus emerged, resurrected and enlightened from his tomb. The day he helped to restore to us old ancient truths.
