Julie Loar

“MARCH 22 Eostre RENEWAL Eostre (YO-ster) is the Germanic goddess of spring. She is also called Ostara or Eastre, and her name is the origin of the word Easter, the name of the only feast day in the Christian calendar that is still tied to the moon. Eostre is a goddess of dawn, rebirth, and new beginnings. Her festival is celebrated on the first day of spring, when she is invoked at dawn with ritual fire, quickening the land, while the full moon symbolically sets behind her. Eostre’s return each spring warms the ground, preparing for a new cycle of growth. One year the goddess was late, and a little girl found a bird near death from the cold. The child turned to Eostre for help. In response a rainbow bridge appeared and Eostre came, clothed in her red robe of vibrant sunlight, melting the snows. Because the creature was wounded beyond repair, Eostre changed it into a snow hare, who then brought gifts of rainbow eggs. Hares and rainbows are sacred to her, as is the full moon, since the ancients saw the image of a hare in its markings. CONTEMPLATION Sometimes, old forms must be surrendered gracefully in order for life to be reborn in new and higher forms.”
― Julie Loar, Goddesses for Every Day: Exploring the Wisdom and Power of the Divine Feminine around the World

“In more ancient times, both the goddess and the constellation of Virgo were known as Astraea, the Starry One. Astraea was a goddess of justice and was identified with this constellation because of its proximity to the adjacent scales of Libra, which may have been part of the Virgo constellation thousands of years ago. She ruled the world with her wise ways until humanity became so callous that she returned to the skies, disgusted.”
― Julie Loar, Goddesses for Every Day: Exploring the Wisdom and Power of the Divine Feminine around the World