The following is a Culture Essay for the People of caucus99percent.com, and is presented here by direct request of several of the same..

The Vernal Equinox took me by surprise this year!

The earliest arrival of celestial Spring since 1896 certainly gave me a surprise this year (see my essay here). I promised some of us to write a somewhat more detailed essay on the Equinox and what it means to the Pagan folks among us. Although I can't really comment for any of the others, I can comment on what it means for me.

First, a bit of background.

First, my userID here on c99p (and "that other place" as well) is pidgin Greek for "Dead Head" (as in Grateful). I am a long-term Grateful Dead afficionado and have garnered not just pleasure but also wisdom from listening to their music. I am also a practicing Pagan/Wiccan High Priest, and therefore am a member of a religious faith to which the movements of Our Mother Earth among her neighbors bears significant importance.

Now, to the matter at hand.

Ostara is named for the German-language (Old Frankish) expression of the Name of the Babylonian Goddess Astarte, Whose return to the Lands of the Northern Hemisphere as the Patron Goddess of the green, growing, living Earth is celebrated at this time. It is traditionally the time when farmers begin their preparation for plowing their fields and sowing their summer crops. In addition, as an Equinox, it is a time to balance oneself, bringing the various extremes in, adding to that which is too light, and removing from that which is too heavy, so one can move with ease through one's life.

With that, please allow me to embed a very nice (and appropriate!) piece of Grateful Dead music: the Weather Report Suite, which I call "Ostara in three movements"!

[video:https://youtu.be/T7dMWZZ010E width:560 height:315]

As the Suite opens, the song asks:

Winter rain, now tell me why,
Summers fade, and roses die.
The answer came; the wind and rain.
Golden hills, now veiled in grey,
Summer leaves have blown away
Now what remains? The wind and rain.

Here, there is considerable wisdom. Whether we like it or not, the Mother Earth and Her habits will ever go onward. In very deed, summers fade, and roses die", but She remains. The song itself says as much:

Circle songs and sands of time, and seasons will end in tumbled rhyme, and little change, the wind and rain.

Later, we encounter words of solace and encouragement:

Winter grey and falling rain, we'll see summer come again,
Darkness falls and seasons change (gonna happen every time).
Same old friends the wind and rain, Summers fade and roses die,
You'll see summer come again, Like a song that's born to soar the sky.

The image is that of the Living time of the year rising from the bitter, cold, wet Winter "like a song that's born to soar the sky". The Alchemical Tradition has similar ideology; the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus says:

It rises from Earth to Heaven and descends again to Earth, combining within Itself the powers of both the Above and the Below.

When the Emerald Tablet says "It", what we're talking about is The Philiosophers' Stone, also known as the Medicine of Medicines (in both the traditional European and Native American senses!). "It" is the Life Force Itself, That which returns to the Northern Earth at Ostara after the long, cold, grey Winter. This brings into play the other stanza of the Part One lyrics:

And like a desert spring,
my lover comes and spreads her wings,
Knowing,
Like a song that's born to soar the sky,
Flowing,
Flowing 'til the waters all are dry,
Growing,
the loving in her eyes.

At least to me, it is clear that our lyricist feels that the love of a woman for her man is very similar indeed to the Living Power returning to the Earth, and can be as powerful and durable -- as remaining -- as the very Earth, Wind and Rain the song starts out with.

Let It Grow!

The Weather Report Suite concludes with a third movement entitled Let It Grow. The piece begins:

Morning comes, she follows the path to the river shore
Lightly sung, her song is the latch on the morning's door
See the sun sparkle in the reeds; silver beads pass into the sea

She comes from a town where they call her the woodcutter's daughter
She's brown as the bank where she kneels down to gather her water
And she bears it away with a love that the river has taught her
Let it flow, greatly flow, wide and clear

Now we begin to discuss the lives of those for whom the return of Life to the local Earth is quite literally everything. This stanza treats both the young Lady (who makes Her mythological appearance at Ostara) and the River with which She interacts with the greatest of veneration, love, and respect.

Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field
Seasons round, the bushels of corn and the barley meal
Broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring; black dirt live again!

The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing
As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing
That the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing
Let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield

The four words "black dirt live again" say it all here. (The music also makes that clear.)

Chorus
What shall we say, shall we call it by a name
As well to count the angels dancing on a pin
Water bright as the sky from which it came
And the name is on the earth that takes it in
We will not speak but stand inside the rain
And listen to the thunder shout
I am, I am, I am, I am

Here is our lyricist's admission of utter awe with respect to the Mysteries involved here. Indeed, "As well to count the angels dancing on a pin"! And the voice of the thunder shouting the very thing that numerous religions, both Abrahamic and otherwise, recognize as the human-comprehendable Name of the Ultimate is not lost on me, either! We are unquestionably in the presence of great and powerful Mysteries. Mysteries upon which our immediate and longer-term survival depend. And which Pagan-kind celebrate on this Spring Equinox, this Ostara, this Holy Day.

I wish each and every one of you a happy Ostara 2016!

Appendix I: Ostara and Christian Easter

The "Calculus of Easter" was established by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. The formula is: Easter falls on the Sunday following the full moon that follows the northern spring equinox (the paschal full moon). Therefore, the earliest and latest dates for Easter are 22 March and 25 April. The Western Churches use a fixed date of 21 March for the Equinox; it appears that this may need to be addressed moderately soon, as "leaks" in the leap year system will continue to drive the actual day of Ostara earlier and earlier!

Appendix 2: Credits!

Many thanks to:

The lyrics to Weather Report Suite were written by John Perry Barlow and Bob Weir. The lyrics I used were derived from user-posted lyrics from this YouTube page and from The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics by David Dodd. Copyright IceNine Publishing, Inc. Used here for non-profit discussions about the music and lyrics only. Every effort was made to remain in "fair use" guidelines. Any failure in this regard is mine alone, and unintentional.

The article from the Old Farmer's Almanac located at http://www.almanac.com/blog/astronomy/astronomy/earliest-spring-our-lives, written by Bob Berman.

This Wikipedia Article on the Easter Computus.

Dennis William Hauck's website at http://www.alchemylab.com ! (Materials from there used by his explicit gracious permission!)

And, of course, to all of you for reading this!