Hey Witches,
At Ostara and throughout the Spring, one of my favourite Witchy things to do is planting rituals. I personally love short, simple rituals and although long, formal ceremonies can be nice sometimes, most of the time, I prefer my rituals short and snappy. Maybe it’s an ADHD thing.
One of the things I love most about this time of year is that the plants on my balcony begin to spring back to life. The jasmine buds are swelling, the first ones preparing to open just after the equinox. The citronella geranium that suffered in last summer’s heat is sprouting giant green leaves. Tiny green strawberries are starting to form. Bees buzz territorially around bright violet lavender flowers, sticky and heavy with fragrance. The lettuces have had a growth spurt and the basil seeds I planted under the Pisces New Moon are poking their heads out of their seedling pots.
The pagan festival of Ostara falls on March 20th in the northern hemisphere, coinciding with the Spring Equinox, when night and day are equal in length. The Equinox has been considered a sacred time for thousands of years, and ancient cultures all over the world built monuments that mark this mysterious event — from Stonehenge in England to Chichen Itza in Mexico.
At the equinox, the themes of balance, light and dark, masculine and feminine, growth, creativity, and new beginnings are strong. This is when the intentions we set at Imbolc begin to unfold, and it’s time to decide which of those intentions we’ll continue nurturing and which may no longer align with our truest desires and highest good.
Ostara also coincides with the start of Aries season, and the Aries New Moon (which is my astrological birthday, as I was born on the Aries New Moon) will peak the same day. As the first sign of the zodiac, fiery Aries is all about new beginnings, passion, and creativity — so this New Moon is going to usher in new energies, people, situations, and opportunities and feel like a real fresh start.
Ostara and the Aries New Moon bring with them the promise of hope, new life, and warmer, lighter days ahead. Plus, there will be a second Aries New Moon and solar eclipse at the end of Aries season, intensifying the Aries energy and encouraging us to make bold moves and take charge of our lives.
All this fresh new energy will be very supportive of any intentions and new beginnings you want to manifest in your life and for the greater good. Ostara is a perfect time to sow the seeds of that which you hope to harvest later in the year, and the first week after the New Moon is the best time of the month to plant literal seeds.
All of which makes the days from March 20th-26th the perfect time for a cheeky little planting ritual. You can perform this ritual any time you plant seeds, but it will be particularly powerful under this Aries New Moon.
Whether you should sow on the New Moon or in the days just after is up for debate — a Lithuanian friend swears that her grandmother always planted on the day of the New Moon, whereas my partner’s Italian mother, Silvana, says you should wait until a day or two later. So pick your folk tradition, I guess.
I will probably follow the Lithuanian tradition this time around because Aries is a fire sign and I want to plant chillies (after all, I am @thechilliwitch) while the Moon is in this sign. I love chillies for both cooking and spellwork — and of course combining both in kitchen Witchery.
I use them to make chilli sauce, spicy chutney, chilli oil, and chilli powder. In spellwork, chillies are great for protection, fertility, creativity, and even love spells, and can add extra power to almost any type of magickal work.
I don’t actually know what type of chillies I have as Silvana gave them to me from her plant, and she just calls them “peperoncini,” which is kind of an umbrella term for chilli peppers in Italy. Since I don’t know what they are, I call them “peperoncini Silvana” in her honour.
Anyway, let’s dive into the ritual.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Coven to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.