Author's Note:
[Written 14-15 February to 11 March 2002;
published 3/11/02, 6 months after 9/11]

In his book, Secrets from the Lives of Trees (Planetary Publications, 1991), American nature mystic, former athlete, and business executive, Jeffrey Goelitz, speaks with a two thousand year old Pacific Northwest redwood tree called the Mother of the Forest and listens as she tells him:

...I am an essence spirit that is very old.  I hold the standing wave for the entire surrounding forest. Trees are gravity centers for light and water.  We pull in with tremendous force energies that influence the entire earth.  Great forests of the world are linked by networks of energy that help sustain and balance the earth's ecosphere.  Forests have a special rhythm of existence.... There are powerful energies that pour through me as I am a conduit for heavenly light.  Its flow varies with climatic and environmental conditions"  [Goelitz:71;72].

The nearby Father of the Forest tells him:

...The purest essence comes from the oldest trees who have peaked developmentally in their beingness.  Older trees communicate to younger trees a vibrancy which supports and encourages their growth....There is an intelligence on the other side from which life springs.  A tree is a form created by that intelligence.  The form arose out of a design which gave purpose to a tree's existence.  The form embodies a tree and is one of the many multifaceted manifestations of creation.  Within the form is a foundational energy with an inherent design that makes a tree what it is.  The energy body is sustained by light-giving properties coming from the other side....The force of gravity helps us to live.  Through gravity we receive light from the sky....Gravity is the bridge to the other world where earth connects to the sky.  Trees act like magnetic funnels.  Through their centers they draw heavily on the light.  As a result trees cushion the light's entrance into the planet and make light more accessible   [Goelitz:75-76].

As spring 2002 approaches, like many of us, I am often overwhelmed with rage and sadness over the shortsighted policies of the West's male leaders, especially those in the United States.  To indulge in the fantasy that we are the bold, shining, altruistic ones, struggling against an "axis of evil," is to fracture the collective psyche and drag us all into nightmares.   Marion Zimmer Bradley (author of The Mists of Avalon) warns:

... And, I think, there is no one more dangerous than a man with power who does not realize he is capable of real evil.
[From The Shadow Matrix:326]

The danger, of course, is that such leaders will fool people into approving their tunnel-vision, their twisted nationalism.  Such leaders are "young souls" in the grim bodies of wrinkled puers. They don't see that other ways exist.  New York Times writer, Robert F. Worth, cites Attorney General John Ashcroft, for example, who insists that "A calculated, malignant, devastating evil has arisen in our world.  Civilization cannot afford to ignore the wrongs that have been done" [from "A Nation Defines Itself By Its Evil Enemies" by Robert F. Worth, The New York Times "Week in Review," Sunday, February 24, 2002]. While not denying the tragic magnitude of worldwide terrorism, Worth points out that:

...when the nation's enemies are used as highly emotional political symbols, it becomes easy to lose touch with the reality of their acts and motives -- and thus fail to better understand how to defeat or influence them.... And to the extent that those enemies are seen as evil, America can regard itself as good, a desire rooted in the Puritan vision of establishing a new Eden in a fallen world....

After exploring the dark history of how Americans have, over time, reduced Catholics, the French, immigrants in general, and Communists in particular to "moral monsters," Worth concludes:

Ultimately, of course, terrorism does present a real threat, just as cold-blooded killing presents a moral outrage.  But the history of American crusading, even against unmistakable evil, suggests that it can be more effective to start from a position of humility.  Righteousness easily becomes self-righteousness, and it can be hard for crusaders to distinguish between the two.

This focus on starting from a position of humility also resonates with the insights of Simone Weil, writing in France during World War II, who looked at the continual escalation of violence and argued that the only way out of the endless feedback loop was to "learn not to admire force, not to hate the enemy, nor to scorn the unfortunate" [from The Illiad, or the Poem of Force; see my Kosovo e-mails for more quotes from this out-of-print work].

Today's self-righteous leaders are strangers to humility, revere force and high tech weapons, have little regard for their unfortunate victims, and clearly hate the enemy.  They are quick to dehumanize their enemies as "moral monsters" while at the same time seeing themselves as shining knights of freedom.  Many of them claim to be Christian, which reminds me poignantly of words from Jungian analysts, Marion Woodman and Elinor Dickson:

...It became fashionable in the post-War years to say that we were living in a post-Christian era.  However, it could equally be argued that we are living in a pre-Christian era, in that the revolutionary message of Christ, though preserved over the years among a few, has never been widely put into practice under the power-as-strength mindset of the patriarchal paradigm.  The basic principles of Christianity -- compassion, forgiveness, repentance, love for one's enemies, tolerance, meekness -- are a leap beyond what patriarchy stands for.... [Dancing in the Flames, Shambhala, 1997, pp.208-209]

I am further reminded of the words of Jewish theologian and philosopher, Martin Buber:

War has always had an adversary who almost never comes forward as such, but does his work in the stillness.  This adversary is speech, fulfilled speech, the speech of genuine conversation in which men understand one another and come to a mutual understanding.
[From a 1953 address, "Genuine Dialogue and the Possibilities of Speech," in Buber's 1957 collection, Pointing the Way.]

Today's leaders have forgotten what "fulfilled speech" and "genuine conversation" mean.  They are too busy with their agendas, power-plays, strategies, and rhetoric of brinkmanship.  There's no room for the "stillness" in which "mutual understanding" ripens.  When you're hellbent on vengeance, stillness is taken as a sign of weakness.  Despite their grey hair and wrinkles, these are, as I have said, "young souls."  They do not know any better and those multitudes of us who do know better, and yet feel confused, diminished and powerless before their arrogance, probably yearn, as I do, to bash together a few heads here and there out of sheer exasperation.  But, of course, that would be to play their game.  When I feel such desires, I then have to look within myself and recognize that I too, like them, have a patriarchal-bred predisposition to use head-bashing or bomb-dropping as a first response to a complex, intricately layered situation.

I tend to look at the world through the lenses of mythology and depth psychology.  Often, the insights of astrologers are also rich and fruitful.  Astrologer, Melissa Stratton, for example, cautions us to be aware of our own inner "terrorists" when she writes about Chiron's astrological role in this spring of 2002 [Note: Melissa Stratton's copyrighted work comes from her on-line e-list: Heavenly Messages for March 2002.  Click on the link if you wish to contact her directly]:

....Chiron represents old, festering wounds that need healing and attention. Capricorn, the sign in which Chiron is traveling, rules authority structures and specifically indicates, in our era, the patriarchy and all rigid bureaucratic institutions - governments, and large corporations for example. So on the outer world's screen, we see the Taliban and Enron gutted and toppling.  In our own internal lives, we all have hidden Taliban sentiments - "I am right, everyone else is wrong," and secret Enron desires - "I can be selfish and greedy, as long as no one else notices."  So even as we applaud the exposure of those outward wrongs, let us not be in denial about our own inner hypocrisy, least it expand outward to explode on us!

Melissa also takes a sobering look at dark, eerie, secretive patterns being launched by those in power and affecting us between now and late August:

The Spring Equinox occurs on March 20th this year. The chart for  the Equinox (cast for 2:20 p.m. in New York City) has a mixture of both the lion and the lamb. Leo, the lion, is the rising sign, which works beautifully with Sun just entering fiery Aries, Venus in Aries, and Pluto in Sagittarius. Together they create a pyramid of fire power.  Mercury, Jupiter and Mars are in water and earth signs of soft, lamb-like energy. Should be a nice balanced combination.

The rub is that Pluto, a few short hours before the Equinox, goes retrograde where it will remain through August 26. Pluto, god of the underworld, represents deeply hidden (karmic) patterns. It also rules the eighth house in the zodiac wheel, which is the house of unexposed secrets. When Pluto goes retrograde, old devils come back to leer in our faces! In the Equinox chart, both the Sun and Mercury appear in the eighth house.  Mercury the messenger squares off with Pluto on one end, and Moon on the other end in Gemini, the sign of the common people.  This is a classic indicator of covert powers hiding and manipulating information to fool the masses, in very creative ways! Structured Saturn, also in Gemini, and warrior Mars, in the steadfast sign of Taurus, both appear in the tenth house of worldly power. All this points to a recipe of outward optimism - about the economy for example, while behind-the-scenes forces are mobilizing for their own ends.

I am increasingly distressed by my country's political greed, lies, whitewashes, rampant power-mongering, massive pollution, widespread denial of our criminally wasteful use of global resources to which we have no ethical right, perverse governmental educational policies (test-coaching is not education), and the ruthless, cynical manipulation of a huge, deliberately uneducated populace.

America the beautiful?  Yes, she still shimmers in isolated pockets as yet undiscovered by land-developers or exploiters of mineral and water rights; many of us still hold her dear in our sorrowing psyches.   But her wealthy and irresponsible "young soul" leaders have left her a wasteland, gutted environmentally, spiritually, and psychologically.  To conceal the damage, she has been tightly wrapped in the bandages of patriotism but the reality is that she is a wounded Grail Maiden, broken, her vitality in shreds, her honor for sale to the highest oil-baron bidder, homegrown, or foreign-born.

Carl Jung writes about neti...neti, Sanskrit for "neither this...nor that."  He argues that if we can hold the tension long enough between two unacceptable alternatives (the neti...neti), a third direction will eventually emerge -- something totally unexpected and fresh.  The difficulty, of course, is in having the patience to contain the two opposites long enough for this painful alchemy to occur.

On the one hand, I feel a fine Irish rage over the shortsighted idiocy I see in our leaders and media -- this is my head-bashing side; on the other hand, I waver between exhaustion, depression, sorrow, despair, powerlessness -- sometimes all I can do is to light candles, grieve, and pray that we do no more harm to the world than we already have, until the nightly news reports again push me over the edge into more fury.

Then the first week of March, in working with Sandra Stanton's amazing new "Mother of the Forest" painting for another web-project, I was unexpectedly, forcefully reminded of the words of Goelitz' Mother of the Forest about the "standing-wave": I hold the standing wave for the entire surrounding forest.... We pull in with tremendous force energies that influence the entire earth....

And to this the Father of the Forest adds: ...The purest essence comes from the oldest trees who have peaked developmentally in their beingness.  Older trees communicate to younger trees a vibrancy which supports and encourages their growth....There is an intelligence on the other side from which life springs.... Trees act like magnetic funnels.  Through their centers they draw heavily on the light.  As a result trees cushion the light's entrance into the planet and make light more accessible....

......Jeffrey Goelitz doesn't define "standing wave" -- it's more a "felt-sense" of the forest-elders safely holding immense waves of energy, of life-force, of electro-magnetic leylines (i.e., dragon-paths, as some cultures know them), of protecting the saplings from an inrush of forces that might prove dangerous, even malignant.  It's a towering, calm presence that allows the young ones to know that life can be trusted, that elders are watchful and caring and won't let things get too far out-of-phase, if it can help it (humans notwithstanding).  Scientists might object to Goelitz' use of scientific terms like gravity, ecosphere, climatic and environmental conditions, energy, magnetic funnels -- but mystics have always used cutting-edge scientific metaphors to express their own insights (see, for example, the 12th century Hildegard of Bingen's "contagion" model for Eve's fall; or the 16th century Teresa of Avila on watering hilltop gardens; or the 16th-17th century John Donne writing on "The Flea"; or George Herbert's 17th century poem, "The Pulley").

For humans, like the trees, to join in holding the standing-wave is similar to holding it in the forest but, for us, it's holding the standing-wave of humanity's highest potential.  That's what we hold: the human-forest, not the tree-forest.  The two seem to occupy contiguous planes however, invisible but real.  When we're in that place, it means not to get angry with malignant young souls, but to try to direct calming, ancient, steadying energy their way in an attempt to help them mature.  Thus, when I see Bush spouting off on TV, I curb my desire to berate Barbara Bush for raising such a pompous son -- and instead I "see" him as a stunted little bush, his roots trying to strangle life around him, and then I "feel" the standing-wave trying to calm him, to isolate the toxicity, to clear new paths through the windblown pines so that more sunlight can reach that thorny bush and draw out the poisons and stuntedness.  This means that I can finally wish him well, which I (and we) must do, for the sake of us all.

To hold the standing wave: this has now become my "third thing," my third direction, my third place, lying beyond Jung's neti...neti of rage and despair, of critical thinking and New Age "Pollyannaism."  To join the forest's Grandmothers and Grandfathers in holding the standing wave is something I can do -- and I can also invite countless others to become such serenely active holders-of-energy as well.  If we are indeed "old souls," or, at least, "older souls," then continued anger against those younger souls is self-indulgent and counterproductive.

To think of holding a standing wave of hope allows me to pull away from the emotional storms and quietly shift to that forest realm.  I "feel" this forest as a multidimensional physical place in my own cells, in my mind, in my soul's magic, but simultaneously, it is also a very real place out there, physically, as well as in what some of my colleagues at Pacifica Graduate Institute call "the intersubjective imaginal field."

This spring, therefore, I am making a conscious decision to set aside my own desire to do some head-bashing.  My body, multi-dimensional though she is, just as all our bodies are, is too tired to keep this up.  She needs to pull away, enter the ancient forests, and hold the energies from a quieter perspective.  I want to join the Mother of the Forest in holding the standing wave for all of us.  My wish is that many others will do this too, helping to seed a new and more caring civilization.  Now, whenever I feel myself starting to waver, to feel despairing and angry, I find myself remembering the serene Crone-Mother in Sandra's painting, holding young, little trees in her hands, standing there, strong, confident, gentle.  That steadies me -- and I'm there once more, with her, holding the wave.

May we become wiser and more humane than we ever thought we could be. May we stand for what is sane, wise, and healthy for our young ones, for our elders, for ourselves.

May springtide bring you and your kith and kin abundantly kind blessings.

Warmly,

David Paladin on Openness to ever-changing realities

[Added 23 February 2001; annotation updated 11 March 2002]: This is a brief channeled passage from Navajo shamanic-artist, David Paladin.  After I read it in 2001, I received permission from his widow to put it on a Myth*ing Links page. Paladin looks at what it is that stops us from greater openness to the realm of mystery and creativity -- he says thatit's when we become frozen in our myths, when we stagnate, or when we dry up.  Spring is a wonderful time to be reminded of the deeper wonders of life that shimmer beyond, around, and through the limiting constraints provided by our religious and political leaders.

This is an essay on the Celtic view of the vernal equinox, "Song of the Otherworld is Heard In the Balance of Spring," by C. Austin from the always-excellent Celtic Connection.  One image especially struck me: "...the Goddess, wrapped in her verdant cloak of Spring."[7 March 2002 Note: Austin's topic changes each year but it's always worth reading.]

From Rae Beth comes this lovely little page on Ostara, or spring equinox.  She wisely points out how stressful this period is:

...The two weeks before and after both equinoxes are often times of stress and great tension. This is because all the elements of life are being brought into new balance, psychically, as day and night attain equal length....

She also explores the beauty of the season as it shows its face in the Spring Maiden Goddess, the young God, and so many fertile eggs.

[Added 12 March 2002]: This is "Heritage of Eostar" by Lark, a member of Web of Oz, a pagan group in Kansas.  It's a wide-ranging essay on cross-cultural spring ["Eostar"] celebrations across Europe and the Near East.  I especially like her concluding words on the Green Men of Europe:

...In the woods, the Green Man puts forth sprouts from every root and branch. Even in churches, he flowers in carvings of wood and stone, on arches above doorways or hidden beneath benches. "Here, a throat come aleaf, there a branch held aloft," his green fire races through the woodlands and pulses in our blood: "this green source, this welling-forth in ever-widening circles, this 'spring'."*
                                 (*from "The Book of the Green Man" by Ronald Johnson)

Note: the essay isn't footnoted but Lark offers a separate page with a lengthy and useful bibliography at: http://www.webofoz.org/heritage/bibliography.shtml

This wonderful page covers the month of March from Waverly Fitzgerald's School of the Seasons, one of my favorite sites. [Note: for a spectacular photo of a Baba Marta, "Grandmother March,"  celebration, go here: http://www.bulgaria.com/photos/.] Waverly is thorough, wide-ranging, and has a superb eye for lore & rituals.  Click on any calendar day and you'll go to a great page filled with further details, rituals, and ancient customs (Note: she's a careful researcher & her sources are listed at the bottom).  For additional monthly updates, go to her "School of the Seasons" Home Page, where you'll also find great special feature articles on this spring holiday season -- for example....

....this is Waverly's impressively rich page on "Celebrating Spring Equinox".......

......and this is her exquisitely balanced page on "Pagan Lent," wherein she looks at fasting from foods but also from processes, habits (e.g., "artistic anorexia"), and behaviors (e.g., nagging). I love the way she discusses the paucity of foods available in early spring for peoples who lived close to the earth in earlier times.  I also love her emphasis on the healing power of this season:

...But it's not just the number of days [40] that are significant but their conjunction with the season. In Chinese medicine, spring is the time of the liver, whose energy is change.  Haragano, who teaches Wheel of the Year classes in Seattle, says that treatment centers experience higher success rates in spring than at any other time of the year. She attributes this to the incredible energy for change which courses through the earth at this time, the force that through the green fuse drives the flower, as Dylan Thomas put it.  The sap is rising in the trees, which are budding; the green stalks of crocuses and snowdrops are pushing through the frozen ground. There's an incredible shift happening which -- in those parts of the world which are frozen -- manifests in the spring thaw, the breaking up of the contraction of winter....

[Added 12 March 2002]: From religioustolerance.org in Canada comes a lengthy, well organized overview on spring equinox celebrations in monotheistic, pagan, and indigenous traditions worldwide.  It is both humane and informative, with footnoting that combines books with websites (of varying quality).  Here are some passages:

The Spring Equinox is also known as: Alban Eilir, Alban Elfed, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, Rites of Spring, and the Vernal Equinox....

....Christianity and other religious associate three themes with the vernal equinox:

* Conception and pregnancy leading to birth on the winter solstice.
*Victory of a god of light (or life, rebirth, resurrection) over the powers of darkness (death).
*The descent of the goddess or god into the underworld for a period of three days. This is such a popular theme among religions that mythologists refer to it as "the harrowing of Hell." ....

...Monotheistic religions, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, tend to view time as linear.  It started with creation; the world as we know it will end at some time in the future. Aboriginal and Neopagan religions see time as circular and repetitive, with lunar (monthly) and solar (yearly) cycles. Their "...rituals guarantee the continuity of nature's cycles, which traditional human societies depend on for their sustenance."

(Note: It might be my old browser, but I found that the page loaded very slowly -- you might need to be extra-patient on this one.)

[Added 12 March 2002]: This is "Ostara" by Anna Franklin, a rich excursion into springtide lore.  I especially liked her passages on the ram (Aries, the astrological sign for March) and serpent eggs, although I wish she had provided footnotes for her data, or at least a bibliography.  Regardless, for non-specialists, there is much of interest here.

"Spring is always young, even though we aren't...."
[Poignant words from Kathleen McCormick: see her site below]
Dandelion Spring courtesy of Russian Sunbirds

From the Alpine Shaman comes another lore-calendar, not nearly as rich or complete as Waverly's but nevertheless a pleasure in its own right.  His are lunar-based and done by weeks, not months.  He gives succinct data on holidays, ancient lore, gardening/householding do's and dont's, moon phases, astrological signs where the moon is, etc.  He also includes his own links to the Runes and Celtic trees associated with each week.  [7 March 2002: currently, this site only covers the first 19 weeks of the year and hasn't been updated in 2 years; still, there is material of value here -- and spring does fall within those first 19 weeks <smile>]

This page begins with Strinennia on March 9th and looks at a whole series of traditional Slavic springtide celebrations (concluding with Rusal'naia Week in early May) -- there's wonderfully rich lore and tradition here.

I "lurk"on a Slavic pagan discussion list where a beautiful ritual for Strinennia (March 9th) recently appeared.  I knew at once that I would use it to celebrate privately on the eve prior to the 9th, but I also wanted to share it with others who visit my Springtide Greetings page.  With the author's permission, it now has its own special page on my website.  Garnet's ritual was written for a specific date, but its timeless quality makes it appropriate for any springtide ritual. (See immediately below on grounding & centering prior to any ritual.)

Regardless of your path, whether in daily life or ritual-space, this little page on "Grounding & Centering" from Robin Wood (of tarot fame) is highly recommended.  In addition to a simple but crucial exercise, there is a remarkable image of a human body shimmering with 7 glowing chakras (I use it as a screen saver to remind me to stay grounded among all the pixels <smile>).

This is a tranquil little site with a brief essay on spring by Kathleen ("Mac") McCormick, a woman with a poet's sensibilities:

...We cannot escape the messy rhythm of life, and it's a small, bright mercy that we don't want to. A hundred Springs may come and go, but each lifts the heart without effort.  Spring is always young, even though we aren't....

(She also includes several seasonal recipes and a handful of well chosen links.)

From Keith Heidorn, the "Weather Doctor," comes The Elders Speak: About Spring, a great collection of quotations on spring.  For example:

But it [the weather] gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. [Mark Twain on New England weather]

Like a sound spring spreads and spreads until it is swallowed up in space. Like the wind, it moves across the map invisible; we see it only in its effects. It appears like the track of the breeze on a field of wheat, like shadows of wind-blown clouds, like tossing branches that reveal the presence of the invisible, the passing of the unseen. [Edwin Way Teale]

Heidorn, whose huge site is one of my favorites, has many essays combining weather science with the arts and humanities.  Try his site map if you wish to explore:  http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/general/site_map.htm

This is the second chapter in a book entitled Secrets of the Sphinx by Andrew Raymond.  It looks at the Platonic Year, Dragon Star, the Age of Aquarius, and an amazing sweep of timespans relating to the vernal equinox.

Cosmic Eggs

This is a page on decorated "Easter eggs" with a beautiful title: Pisanki: Icons of the Universe.  It comes from Okana's Web.  Okana writes knowledgeably of Polish Pisanki -- their traditions and symbolism of color and design.

One of the prime icons and symbols of Spring, of birth and rebirth and fertility, is the egg, and Poles have made decorating and sanctifying them an art form. The perfect icon of the universe, decorated eggs were taken out into the fields as the grains were sown, along with a candle blessed at Gromniczne (Imbolc), in order to bring life back into the warming soil. Eggs were also buried at the base of fruit trees to make them bear in abundance. Even the water in which boiled-style eggs were prepared is sacred; used to wash in, bless with, poured along the property lines to protect against lightening and thunder and the ravages of weather, and annointing bee hives to bring plenty of sweet tasting honey. A bowl of decorated eggs was kept in the homes at all times, to ensure good health and prosperity....

Okana also creates her own pisanki for her online webstore -- here are five exquisite examples (if you place an order, allow at least 2 weeks for custom designs):  http://www.okana.org/webstore.html#eggs: [Updated 2/19/02]

[Added 4/12/01]:This is another page on Polish Easter traditions, lore, and special regional foods.

This is "Easter in Hungary," by Emese Kerkay, an intriguing folkloric site about ancient Hungarian fertility traditions involving decorated eggs as well as water-dowsing:

...When one handles somebody or something like a himestojás[Easter egg] it means that the person takes absolutely good care of that somebody or something....

...The decorated egg is knowingly connected with the custom of water plunging on Easter Monday. LOCSOLÁS - dousing with water - is a very old custom. In pagan times dousing girls with water was a magical fertility act....

Linked pages will take you to the art of these eggs -- they have wonderful designs and symbolism:

...The cult of the decorated egg is one of the most ancient religious customs of humanity, and goes back thousands of years. The egg plays a significant role in the story of creation for many people. It represents the secret of eternal life condensed in a small enclosed and perfect geometrical form. Inside of the protective white mass is the mysterious gold, the Secret of secrets....

...Over the centuries the meaning of some of the cultic drawings were forgotten, but Hungarian women still write the same symbols onto the eggs as did their ancestors more than a thousand years ago....

...The color most frequently used in decorating eggs is red. This is the reason for the other popular Hungarian name for the decorated egg: red egg (piros tojás). The magical red is the color of blood, which is the "residence of life" according to the belief of ancient people. Asian horsemen-cultures - the ancestors of the Hungarians included - often put a decorated red egg in the hand of the deceased. The color red also symbolizes eternal life, renewal, love, spring, joy, freedom, new life, resurrection....

Woman in Poppy Fields, a flower sacred to the ancients

This is an intriguing site on Bulgarian folk traditions concerning specially decorated Easter breads and red-dyed Easter eggs.  There are many rich details.  For example, families painted their eggs red on Holy Thursday and one of these eggs would be taken to services in the local church; immediately afterwards, this egg would be buried in the family's vineyard to protect against hailstorms and to ensure a good crop [Note: since Holy Thursday celebrates the Last Supper, when wine was changed into blood, perhaps it's not really far-fetched that the consecrated "wine"-red egg should protect vineyards].  Later, 10-15 of these red eggs would be sent to the family's Turkish friends along with a loaf of Easter bread -- these Moslem friends would be hurt if their Christian friends neglected to do this [Note: one can't help but be struck by the implications of friendship in earlier years between Christian and Moslem here].

Customs not involving eggs are also touched upon: e.g., in one region, pumpkins were planted on the Feast of the Annunciation because it was believed that these would be especially sweet [as was the "fruit" of the Virgin's womb].   The site also offers links to more "orthodox" Easter traditions.  (Note: this site is also listed on the second of my two Bulgarian pages.)

From Sacred Serpent comes a great page on the Baltic spring feast of Velykos:

...The week before Equinox, called the Velykos of Veles (souls), concludes the annual cycle of commemorations of the dead. As during Kucios (Winter Solstice Eve), families remember their dead and leave their dinners on the tables overnight for the veles to eat.

The verba, principally made of juniper, birch and willow twigs interwoven with colored papers and flowers, symbolizes the force of life, the birth of new life, and rebirth of nature. It also improves
health. Before or on the Equinox, people whip each other with verbas, wishing each other well....

Here, the cosmic eggs are those of harmless grass-serpents:

...Breaking eggs re-enacts the breakage of the cosmic egg, from which the snake, called 'gyvate,' comes to grant life and fertility. The zaltys, the sacred zigzagged garden snake of the Lithuanians, also wakes from hibernation at this time.

Also from Sacred Serpent comes this page on the springtide merriment associated with the Lithuanian fertility celebration of Uzgavenes:

Uzgavenes (uhzh-gah-VAY-nays), or the Escort of Winter, essentially waits for Spring and helps prepare for the new season. A.J. Greimas writes: "Under Christian influence Uzgavenes became a movable day, while earlier it was celebrated at the time of the Spring Equinox," usually during the weekend closest to the beginning of March.

The holiday consists of processions, costumes, tom foolery, games, and plays....

From Lulea University in Sweden comes an interesting page on rural Swedish Easter customs, including decorated eggs, fertility games, and several odd stories about Easter "hags" (i.e., witches) and their broomsticks.

[Added 4/12/01]: This is "Finnish Easter Traditions," a charming page by Sirpa Karjalainen, Assistant of Ethnology, University of Helsinki.  Subtopics include: The Catholic Medieval Inheritance; The Silent Week; The Dancing Sun; Oven-baked Malt Porridge, a Finnish Easter Treat; Witches Fly at Easter; Witches Wishing You Luck Blend the Eastern and Western Traditions; and Easter cards from a century ago.  Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

...Well before Easter, children plant rye-grass seeds in little pots.  Green grass is a sure sign of spring, even if it only grows on the windowsill. Pussy willows are ancient Easter decorations, and birch twigs are placed in vases, where they soon start budding. Nowadays tulips, lilies and daffodils are flown in from the Continent, but that doesn't mean Finns didn't always have Easter 'flowers'. These were made by hand, out of tissue paper and dyed feathers....

This about.com site on Ostara from Frances (Okelle) Donovan (whose reliable and witty wiccan pages appear frequently on my site), offers well chosen links on the Spring Goddess Ostara, Easter eggs, rabbits, and traditional pagan springtide rituals.  Among the links you shouldn't miss on Okelle's page is Professor D. L. Ashliman's page on Ostara.

From Von Del Chamberlain at Utah's Hansen Planetarium comes this witty essay on the spring equinox and the "mystery" of balancing eggs at the exact moment of the equinox.  You'll learn some fascinating information along the way.

[Added 4/12/01]: For more fascinating approaches to the season, try Edhelper's great page of Easter celebration lesson plans for teachers and home schoolers. [3/8/02: note, Edhelper, strangely, has disabled this Easter category -- if enough of you write and complain, perhaps it will reappear <smile>.]

"Lady Day"
Russian Lacquer Box
[Author's Collection]

Lady Day: from Mike Nichols comes this literate and enjoyable essay on "Lady Day," which may be celebrated either on the Vernal Equinox or on 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation:

...the old and accepted folk name for the Vernal Equinox is 'Lady Day'. Christians sometimes insist that the title is in honor of Mary and her Annunciation, but Pagans will smile knowingly....

Nichols brings in lunar and solar deities, Welsh myth, King Arthur, the Goddess' Descent into the Underworld for three days, Easter, and much more.

From the Celtic world comes Herne's brief page on Lady Day:

March 21 -- Ostara -- Spring or The Vernal Equinox.  Also known as: Lady Day or Alban Eiler (Druidic):

As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with light on the increase.  The young Sun God now celebrates a hierogamy (sacred marriage) with the young Maiden
Goddess, who conceives. In nine months, she will again become the Great Mother. It is a time of  great fertility, new growth, and newborn animals....

Herne lists the day's traditional foods, herbs & flowers, incense & gemstone.

Iranian Norooz Troubadour

[Added 19 March 2001]:  This is a refreshing site on Persian New Year, Norooz, which is celebrated at spring equinox and lasts for two weeks beyond that date.  If you scroll down this page, you'll find excellent data on lore and traditions -- also many illustrations.  Click on the illustrations and you'll get additional data and sometimes further illustrations on the theme.  About the troubadours:

...Troubadours, referred to as Haji Firuz, disguise themselves with makeup and wear brightly colored outfits of satin. These Haji Firuz, singing and dancing, parade as a carnival through the streets with tambourines, kettle drums, and trumpets to spread good cheer and the news of the coming new year....

Detail of Palm Sunday Celebration in Mexico
Photography by Geri Anderson at Mexico Connect [see below]

From Jody Miller, the about.com guide to Mexico and Central America, comes this interesting 2-part essay on Holy Week, Semana Santa, in Mexico.  She looks at Christian customs as well as prehispanic indigenous traditions among the Tarahumara (she has several additional -- and very moving -- links on Tarahumara).

From Mexico Connect comes a lavishly illustrated website on Holy Week and Easter in Mexico.  The connecting pages are rich with firsthand descriptions and photos (including the one of the little girls above).

Fragrant Japanese Plum Blossoms
[See directly below...]

Finally, I couldn't do a springtide page and leave out Japanese blossoms, soybean celebrations, and ancient doll festivals.  This site, which covers February to early May, has many fine photos (clickable) and good lore on spring festivals and traditions in Japan.  (For a brilliant, powerful depiction of the Doll Festival, try to rent a video of Kurosawa's "The Peach Orchard," one of several stories in his film, DREAMS.)

links to May Day
(Beltane):

I have created a special page for this May Day celebration:

Beltane

To the Wheel of the Year

To European Earth-Based Ways

To Earth Day

To archived Springtide 2001

To archived Springtide 2000

To archived Springtide 1999

My complete Site Map will be found on the Home Page --
also my e-mail address (near the bottom of the page).

The small morphing Green Man comes from Jay Williams at Green Man Graphics

Unless noted, all links are from 1999 & 2000.
***New page for 2002 designed & text written 14-15 February 2002, 12:40am;
revisions wee hours of 17-18 February 2002;
discarded, re-thought, & re-written 1& 8-10 March 2002.
Published: 4:51pm, 11 March 2002, six months after 9/11.
Updates: 12-13 March 2002 (small tweekings + annotated 3 new links + deleted music -- too distracting for long essay).
13-14 June 2002: upgraded Sandra's opening images & made clarifying additions to opening essay (prompted by Keith H's comments back in March); needed to make these revisions prior to excerpting the essay for my new "Crone Papers" section.
6 March 2003, 3:10am: archived prior to launching page for 2003.