14.2.13

Moonlight and Hares

The Hare was regarded as Eostre's sacred animal totem, and thus was a powerful symbol of the goddess in addition to eggs. Goddesses were once believed to shape-shift into hares, but nowadays the once powerful and magical hare has been reduced to the fluffy, cute Easter (Christianized) bunny (see Spring Equinox by Celtic Lady. There you will read about one delightful legend associated to Eostre was that she found an injured bird on the ground one winter. To safe its life, she transformed it into a hare. But "the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. Tha hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre." Many cultures see eggs as the symbol of new life or the home of the soul, and since the spring is a time to celebrate fertility, they would decorate eggs as part of spring celebrations for centuries. The egg would represent Eostre's wholeness and fertility --the female hormone estrogen is named after her--. The golden yolk represents the sun god; its white shell is seen as the white goddess. So eggs were offered to the earth to ensure a fecund future harvest). What I found was a beautiful article on magic hares here, with so wonderful illustrations (oh I love illustrations!, they are the perfect match of words) in this blog titled Moonlight and Hares, by Karen Davis, also kinda fey work like that of the Hare!



Wishing On A Blue Moon

March Moon




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