Illuminate Your Life

And now we step into the light, as we do every year in our hemisphere. Now is a time to reflect and to recalibrate.The time of passivity is done, all the rest and introspection that we have allowed ourselves during the dark time is processed. We have taken in what we can from the lessons of life thus far, and now seek to learn more.

Ostara, also known as the Vernal equinox is one of the few times in our year cycle that there is true balance. The day itself is quite magickal and a perfect time for investing in the self. Ostara is a time when we open up, our thirst for knowledge and truth rekindles and with the light, we are shown new aspects of the world that we may not have seen before. In my tradition, this is a time when we take stock in what we know and prepare ourselves to build upon this knowledge.

This is a time when people often get stuck, usually due to fear. Because the sun is coming back and the days will be longer, technically, this means that there is more light. Esoterically, we view this to mean that there is less places to hide or less of a reason to go into the self. Of course, all of our lessons that we have in life, they are to be learned and to be processed. It is this time of year, specifically, that we look outward, with the focus on the world around us and beyond. More simply put, this is the time of year that we reach outside of the microcosm and aim for the macrocosm.

The Correspondences

Much like the second hermetic principle of _correspondence_ Ostara is a holiday that exemplifies both the within and the without, as well as the philosophy of "as above, so below", that many of us are quite familiar with.

The reflection of the self, naturally, will drift outward as the year becomes warmer, as the sun comes out and as people get out in the world more. Rather than during the colder months, especially in those areas like here in Idaho where there are actual changing of the seasons, where people tend to huddle indoors to keep warm, leaving them with little to do but to reflect and to think, this time of year invites humanity out to get warm, to see more and to do more.

For this reason, I do my vows of light during this time. This is when I proclaim what I plan on doing over the course of the next few months, vow for transparency and allow my work to be seen by others. I will open up about processes and talk about the concepts that I am working on, so that I may seek light and knowledge with others that may also be interested in the topics that I am venturing.

So far, I haven't fully decided but in the spirit to getting back to my basics and teaching through example, I am sure of at least one thing and that is that I am going to be working on my own accountability. Alas, this means more intentional journaling for this season.

How I Craft Vows for the Year

One of the things that I look at, when it comes to vows, is the way in which I am teaching. When I used to have more people and more organization to my life, I had more people to rely on that could help me with the influx of questions that comes with teaching.

Being that I am mostly solitary these days, there are not a lot of mentors or other people to verify my sources of truth. Because of this, I have been working on broadening my own practices and streamlining the dogmatic aspects. This year, I plan to keep on with that, perhaps even finally writing things down and getting my own current practices down on paper so that I can more accurately show people what I do. This will enable me, I hope, int h coming dark months towards the end of the year to apply precision to my processes or highlight where I may be missing something.

In any case, the process that I am working on is still me... (I mean, aren't we all usually working on the self?)

Greeting the Sun

Tonight, I will be awake all night and the morning will be for greeting the sun. I used to try to wake up before sunrise but I have found that staying up with the final moon of the dark time of the year as a beneficial process and witnessing the transition a true blessing.

So, yep, that is my plan. I will have recordings and more to say tomorrow about the whole thing I am sure. Especially as we work on crafting Ostara plans today and getting things together. I am excited to be able to share with you all. I hope you have a wonderful Ostara and please feel free to share your own holiday traditions!

Blessed Be!

References

Tabula Smaragdina from Wiki Commons

All other artwork is my own

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