Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Ostara by Kerri Connor. Celebrate the season of returning sunlight and the bursting forth of the birds, bees, and trees Ostara—also known as the Spring Equinox—is a time of renewal, a time to plant seeds as the earth once again comes to life.
This guide to the history and modern celebrations of Ostara shows you how to perform rituals and work magic to renew your power and passion for living and gr Celebrate the season of returning sunlight and the bursting forth of the birds, bees, and trees Ostara—also known as the Spring Equinox—is a time of renewal, a time to plant seeds as the earth once again comes to life.
This guide to the history and modern celebrations of Ostara shows you how to perform rituals and work magic to renew your power and passion for living and growing.
Rituals Recipes Lore Spells Divination Crafts Correspondences Invocations Prayers Meditations Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials explore the old and new ways of celebrating the seasonal rites that are the cornerstones of the witch's year.
Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published January 8th by Llewellyn Publications first published January 1st More Details Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials. Other Editions 4.
Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Ostara , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Mar 20, Tyler J Gray rated it really liked it Shelves: religion , witchcraft , own-physical , holidays , nonfiction , s , spiritual , own , wiccan.
Another wonderful little book in the Sabbat series, this one focusing on Ostara! Simply a little over-view with something for everyone. It's not strictly Wiccan though Wiccans can certainly use it too. Wonderfully organized and easy to follow. I enjoy learning some stuff I hadn't known as well as annotating stuff I c Another wonderful little book in the Sabbat series, this one focusing on Ostara!
I enjoy learning some stuff I hadn't known as well as annotating stuff I can use in my own practice and spirituality. The truth is, our pagan ancestors likely didn't celebrate anything around Ostara, being busy getting agricultural stuff done, so there's objectively not much to say on the subject. This author chose two main themes to concentrate on: balance and new beginnings.
Now, I am weary of the neo-pagan tendency to imply new beginnings at every sabbat. It is, of course, appropriate at times, but how are we going to finish anything if we keep starting new things all the time? So, as I was planning around Y The truth is, our pagan ancestors likely didn't celebrate anything around Ostara, being busy getting agricultural stuff done, so there's objectively not much to say on the subject. So, as I was planning around Yule and starting stuff around Imbolc, I feel I need to go on with this to give it a chance, not meditate on the changes I want to invite etc.
I am not that sure about balance either, since of course, I prefer to have more of the good stuff over the bad stuff, - so the meditations and rituals were useless to me. As in a lot of books of this series, the activities vary between preposterous and insulting. Consider these examples: 'You may have people carry the egg between their thighs, where they have to be careful not to squeeze hard enough to break it, but they do have to squeeze hard enough not to drop it.
I particularly enjoyed this one: 'You may want to try a more traditional approach and use foods and plants to make your own natural colorings. You can find instructions on the Internet on how to do this. But this is the best: 'Pouring honey or syrup into the ground around gardening areas makes an excellent offering to the deities Why am I jeering?
Because if one wants to find something on neo-pagan Ostara, this is the book that pops up in the search first, Llewellyn being what it is.
And I do not want anybody non-pagan to read this book and imagine pagans as a bunch of idiots who are skipping on eggs with eggs between their thighs, too, probably. The editing, as usual, looks like it just wasn't done. The correspondences are quite adequate and useful, only very much available elsewhere, so they don't make this book worth buying.
Ok, now for the plus side: some of the recipes are vegan-friendly. View 2 comments. Shelves: need-to-buy-get , non-fiction , present-day , reference , ymmv , four-stars , ebook-free , recipes , neo-pagan , religious. I really liked the fact that this was not just a Wiccan book, and that it focused on Neo-Paganism views on the holiday as well.
I liked how some of the recipes were vegetarian friendly. There was a little bit of everything for everyone. I wish there was a bit more advanced information, I felt like I didn't learn anything I didn't read before or researched before.
I recommend this as a good starting place f Disclaimer: This ARC was given to me for free in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley. I recommend this as a good starting place for new neo-pagans, since it feels like a compilation of information in one book.
Also, the cover is cute. It really stands out among other witchy books. Nov 29, Jillyn rated it really liked it Shelves: requested , ebook.
Ostara is the first of the Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials that I received to review. The first section, "Old Ways", explains the historical context and more anciently tied traditions of the sabbat. The section of "New Ways" offers more modern day ways to connect to the holiday, like gardening or taking w Ostara is the first of the Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials that I received to review.
The section of "New Ways" offers more modern day ways to connect to the holiday, like gardening or taking walks or meditation. Things that you can do in your daily life, without a lot of difficulty or struggle.
It also suggests places to visit and places to go so you're out in the wonderful springtime. Some of these include a spell to assist in difficult changes, and a Spring is in the Air Love Attraction Spell. These are written in step by step format, and include lists of the things you will need to follow them. There are also prayers and words to say included.
These serve as good jumping off points for beginners to the path. This is expanded on within the "Prayers and Invocations" section as well.
The "Recipes and Crafts" section, again, includes just what you'd think. They're short and relatively simple recipes, with the steps written in more of a paragraph format as opposed to a step-by-step list. There are desserts, drinks, and meals for both vegetarians and meat eaters alike. These are largely family friendly and relatively easy crafts that are a fun way to spend the day. I'm not the craftiest person, so I was happy to see that these are things that I think I can actually do.
The last chapter, "Rituals of Celebration" includes a ritual for a solitary practitioner, one designed for two people, and one designed for a group. All in all, I think this is a great place to start as a beginner, or a relatively quick way to brush up on things if you're not in the regular study habit. Reading this book made me request the next book in the series.
I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This review can also be found on my blog, Bitches n Prose. Oct 27, MeriBeth rated it it was ok Shelves: netgalley , new-age , religion. First, however, you must slog your way through a general history of the wheel of the year and how this wheel effects modern neo-pagans throughout the year and the differences between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere versions of it. This information, very introductory and likely common knowledge to any neo-pagan reading the book, drags the text down right from the start.
I was bored with it before I even got to the paragraphs telling me what kind of information I would find in the book I was about to read. Ostara then proceeds to tell us the history of the holiday initially by repeating several paragraphs of material from the introduction before moving on into a scholarly discussion of the background and development of Ostara as a pagan holiday.
For a supposedly ancient holiday, the fact that this is an ancient celebration is repeated several times, it seems strange that all the written information or references to it begin in the 8th century in illuminated manuscripts with no references discovered in any ancient sites or more ancient texts of which we have fragments or whole manuscripts.
Three paragraphs later, once again Ostara is an ancient festival from Ireland. After the historic ramble comes a ramble on the status of the holiday among modern neo-pagan groups and, strangely enough, the general public. A long discourse follows basically connecting all sorts of modern events, holidays, illness and cures to the return of spring. After reading this book, I have to wonder if when they get around to a book on Lammas the eventual author will try to make football into a modern harvest rite!
In reading them, they seemed familiar and I wonder if they were adapted from something previously published elsewhere.
The best part was the recipes and crafts section. The recipes were healthy and sounded delicious though many of the ingredients were not available currently for me so I was unable to try them out. The crafts were simple for the most part and suitable for someone to do with their children. In the end, this book had its highs and lows for me. I believe it is best suited for someone new to the neo-pagan movement or who is just started to develop a library of material of their own.
It is very introductory, if lengthy and repetitive in many places. Much of the material could have been edited to eliminate the repetition and contradictions in the text.
Book received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Apr 11, Rae Sengele rated it really liked it Shelves: by-women , on-paganism. I love that the book isn't entirely wiccan and that the author addressed the whole Eostre problem from a historical stand point rather than stating it as fact. I also loved that she explained a lot of the correspondences, especially the deities, and why they correspond with the sabbat rather than just listing them and asking the reader to just take their word.
I will say, however, this book like t Of the Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials books that I've read so far, I liked the Ostara book the best.
I will say, however, this book like the rest in this series is geared towards beginners, so there won't be a lot of new information for more advanced practitioners, except maybe some new ideas for meals or meditations. I just think it's a missed opportunity. May 07, SA rated it liked it Shelves: , craft-and-practice. Another solid, basic introduction to Ostara in the Llewellyn Sabbat series. One thing bugged me though -- the author encourages the use of glitter in a few spells, and at one point advises the reader to "scoop up handfuls of petals glitter and throw them as high as you can into the air" while doing the spell outside.
Don't do this! This is littering! Glitter is often plastic or metallic and is not recycled or recyclable! If you throw a bunch of standard glitter from the craft store around a natu Another solid, basic introduction to Ostara in the Llewellyn Sabbat series. If you throw a bunch of standard glitter from the craft store around a natural place, you are introducing a pollutant into your natural place, and one that many a creature will consume to their detriment. It would have been one thing if Connor had explicitly said "use only biodegradable glitter for this, as most glitters are pollutants" -- biodegradable glitter exists, you can buy it off Amazon -- which would be appropriate not only for nature-based work, but particulalry for Ostara, which is a celebration of springtime returning to the natural world.
I can't believe this has to be called out. Don't litter. Don't throw glitter around outside like an asshole. Nov 13, Loran Inked with Curiosity rated it liked it Shelves: magick-studies. I feel very disappointed by this book. I picked it up hoping for a very detailed and rich book about the Ostara holiday with lots of crafts, recipes, spells, etc. There aren't many books solely dedicated to just Ostara so I thought this would be excellent.
It was however very small, lacked a lot of inspiration, and felt thrown together. I'm still giving this book 3 stars because the recipes and crafts included were very good and I enjoyed reading the book!
I just don't think there was enough I feel very disappointed by this book. I just don't think there was enough included and it was TOO short. For being a new series supposedly dedicated to the Sabbats I was disappointed and I'm left wondering if I should bother reading the rest of the series at this point. Mar 28, Kathe rated it it was ok. After starting with Imbolc in this series, I was disappointed by lax attitudes in this book.
In the previous book, we were taught not to blow out candles as that showed disrespect to the element of fire by overcoming it with the element of air; but in this book we're repeatedly told to "blow out the candle". Also I found too much preference for ecologically dangerous glitter in the crafts and rituals. I realize these may seem like minor problems, and I may have been less critical had I started w After starting with Imbolc in this series, I was disappointed by lax attitudes in this book.
I realize these may seem like minor problems, and I may have been less critical had I started with a different book in the series. Mar 11, Virginia Summers rated it did not like it. I never leave reviews but I have been buying each one and there is something so off about this author. Each book has a different one but this one made me feel so weird and that the holiday was actually dumb. I am returning it.
Apr 28, Sheri LaFay rated it it was amazing. Another great resource on the sabbats from the Llewelyn series. Janet Halfmann Goodreads Author. Elizabeth Rowan Keith. Ruth Heller. Stacy Evans Goodreads Author. Margaret Wise Brown. Leslie Carson. Rose Allister Goodreads Author. Janet Morgan Stoeke. Tasha Tudor. Jodi Lee Goodreads Author. DuBose Heyward.
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Jim Arnosky. Theresa Smythe. Miska Miles. Steven Kroll. Douglas Wood Goodreads Author. Abby Klein. Nancy Tafuri Goodreads Author. Stan Berenstain. Alvin Tresselt. Chris L. Eloise Wilkin. Annalise Bekkering. Lauren Thompson Goodreads Author. Stephanie F. Rachel Learnard. Colleen Dolphin. Gerald Cox. Dick McCue. Jennifer Marino Walters. Deanna Medearis. Janet Schulman.
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