by Mary Winter As a pagan woman, I love this time of year. The stores filled with images of chicks, bunnies, and brightly colored eggs which correspond to the Wiccan festival of Ostara. This holiday traditionally occurs on the Equinox. I love the peeps (though still believe that sugar free peeps are an abomination), dying eggs, planning my garden and everything that comes with the springtime of the year. In fact, the modern belief that a rabbit delivers Easter eggs comes from a legend of the goddess Eostre. A rabbit wanted to please her so much that he laid sacred eggs in her honor. Not only was she pleased with this, but she wanted to share the joy, so she had the rabbit go through the world, distributing his precious gifts.

Though I enjoy the trappings of the holiday, the part I really connect with is the joy. As much as I love winter, about this time of year, I start to get very tired of the snow and the cold. I want to get out in the garden and feel sun-warmed dirt on my hands. I feel a need for long walks in parks and to reconnect with nature. I need some joy in my dreary winter life!

It is said that this is the time of year when the Goddess reconnects with her consort-lover (after he is reborn at Yule) and others say that this time is when the Goddess returns to her maiden aspect before flouring with the bounty that the change in seasons bring. Either way, this March, there's a goddess lurking inside of you. It doesn't matter if you associate more with the lover (and the fun that the spring fertility festivals can bring) or the maiden. The time to take stock of your "eggs" is now!

If we follow the pagan wheel of the year, the fall and winter months of the year are a time for reflection. The harvest has been brought in, it's time to see the benefits of what you had sown early in the year. So now that we're sitting in March, and the gardens are about to be planted both physically and spiritually, it's time to determine what "eggs" we have just waiting to be hatched. What do we want to accomplish this year? What fruits do we want to harvest six or eight months down the road? Your inner goddess will tell you.

And, like Eostre enjoyed the rabbit's offerings so much that she wanted them shared with the world, your inner goddess will encourage you to take these eggs and share them. It may be with yourself, maybe in a journal, at first. But you may also find you're sharing your ideas and hopes with your friends and family. Your "eggs" are different from everyone else's. They're uniquely yours and they're beautiful. You can put them all in one basket to enjoy them, but then spread them out. Because when the divinity in you recognizes the divinity in others, beautiful things can happen.

And that, my friends, is the story of the Goddess and the bunny. Happy spring!

Bio

Mary Winter lives with a split creative personality. As Mary Winter she writes erotic romance. Her latest work for Changeling Press, her Last Action Hero series, started when she purchased "wounded" action figures off of ebay with the hopes of repairing them. You can read more about Mary Winter at her website, http://www.marywinter.com.