Monday, March 14, 2016

Oschdre a.k.a. Ostara



^ Our Altar ^

Yesterday was the second public Urglaawe ritual that I participated in, I lead this one. I'm alive to write this, so the gods must not have been too displeased.

The rite we did was to the Oschdre, which for the practitioners of Urglaawe, is a triple goddess. The Oschdre consists of:
Helling: goddess of Daylight and the up springing light
Nacht: goddess of Darkness and the easingrest
Oschdra: She who stands between them

Here is a link to the lovely myth, involving the three goddesses, finches and the a hare.

While we did the rite, the children dyed eggs, that seemed to go over well. Next year we are thinking of having the children perform the myth, which I'm certain will be adorable! I'll have to get some fabric and make little cloaks!

I feel very honored because I was gifted a sickle at this rite. I hope I can uphold the traditions of Urglaawe and the Pennsylvania German Speaking people.

My Grove's standard practice is to have a Seer take an omen, basically what we need to do moving forward. I thought it was quite clever that my Grove mates came up with the idea to put runes inside plastic eggs. So during the offering portion of the ritual, the Seer presented a basket of eggs to different celebrants and the selected an egg. Then the Seer gathered them up, opened the eggs and interpreted the Omen.

I think the rite went well. The feed back I received was good, folks seemed to feel it was familiar or like "home." I think the Oschdre myth is the most beautiful Ostara tale I've heard.

Once the rite was over we had our shared meal (because we can't call it a "potluck" in Arizona anymore). Of course everyone brought something, some of us tried to come up with Deitch dishes. I had my room mate make soft pretzels and one of my Grove mates made Shoofly pie which is a traditional Deitch breakfast food, or so I am told. I gotta say that pie is to die for!

Quote of the day, "Yes, but that German is a different dalek than High German... I mean DIALECT"

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