This year, when I noticed that the Spring Equinox and Easter were almost a month apart. I found myself wondering, what is the difference between the Spring Equinox and Ostara? If there is, what is it? Are they the same thing, simply expressed in different languages? And is there a difference between the goddess Don and goddess Eostre (Ostara)?
At the Sheffield Goddess Temple, within the Northern Wheel of Brigantia, we celebrate Don as the Creatrix Maiden, whose energy rises at the Spring Equinox. She holds the balance between night and day; a sacred moment before the full bursting forth of spring. Don stands at the cusp of movement, of expansion, of light and activity. She holds that space with grace; she is presence, emergence, and equilibrium.
By contrast, Ostara is linked more specifically to fertility. Her symbols, the cosmic egg and the triple hare, evoke life, abundance, and the feminine principle in full flow. Her energy is vital; she is the carrier of new life, the embodiment of rebirth, the spark of the world truly waking up in this Northern Hemisphere.
As I began to research more about the goddess of the Spring Equinox and Ostara, I came across the old names of the months in the Anglo-Saxon calendar. March was called Hrethmonath, named after the goddess Rheda (also spelled Hretha), and April was Eosturmonath, named after the goddess Eostre, whose name would eventually echo into the word Easter.
Rheda is a little-known goddess, mentioned only once by the monk Bede in the 8th century in his book ‘The Reckoning of Time’. Her name translates as glory, victory, and dawn. These qualities immediately sparked a sense of familiarity in me; they brought to mind Brigantia, the Celtic goddess of these lands and the patron of our Northern Wheel.
Brigantia, She of sovereignty and light, of awakening, protection, and the fertile land; She of the landscape, the bright one of the high places. As I sat with this resonance, I began to wonder whether Rheda was a later name for Brigantia, localised within Anglo-Saxon tradition at a time when the months were still being named after goddesses. This connection between Rheda and Brigantia brought me closer to the goddess I have long followed.
Through researching Ostara and the Spring Equinox, I returned to Brigantia herself, meeting her in a new form: a long-forgotten goddess named Rheda, carrying the qualities of light, protection, and rebirth that Brigantia brings to the land at the Spring Equinox.
As for Ostara, her name is now used in modern Paganism to describe the festival of the Spring Equinox. Although coined in the 20th century, it draws upon older roots, particularly the goddess Eostre and her associations with fertility and the cycles of life. It has since become a widely adopted term to mark the Equinox within the Wheel of the Year for many Neo-Pagans.
Now, I hold a deeper connection with all of these goddesses in my heart: Don, She of the river, whose waters nourished and sustained our ancient ancestors; Eostre, who brings the full surge of spring through her fertility and the symbol of the cosmic egg; whose name lives on in both the Christian festival of Easter and Ostara, the modern Pagan celebration of the Spring Equinox; Rheda, whose name means glory, and who carries the torch of victory into the new light; And Brigantia, the sovereign presence who holds them all.