Hi Everyone,

      I have been trying to log on to Coven Space for quite some time now.  It seems the server is really slow.  Anyway I have 3 other blogs and well I guess I just decided to put this one on hold for a while.  Well I'm Back!  Happy Spring!  Please read my article below.  Below that is a blog about the big Beltane fest I and my coven host every year.  So if you are in the Long Island, NY area drop by for some great fun on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 11 Am to 6 PM.  Oh yes, we still are looking for vendors and readers so if  you would like to vend or read at Beltane In The Park 2008, please drop me a line at: NancyVenus@aol.com

Ostara Lore

by Nancy Venus )0(

Ostara Lore

by Nancy Venus )0(

Some history of the Vernal equinox: Eostre (Anglo-Saxon) Ostara (Germanic) is the Goddess of spring. She was often depicted with a hare, a symbol of fertility. Then there is the old Anglo-Saxon Goddess Eostre who, according to Bede*, was worshiped in the month of Eosturmónaþ or Eosturmonath (April), on the old Anglo-Saxon Calendar. This is where the Christen holiday of Easter takes its name. Eostre like Ostara was also associated with the hare. Both Ostara and Eostre are associated with fertility, spring, eggs and rabbits. There you have it! Christen Easter! So if you ever wondered why the resurrection of Jesus Christ was celebrated with colored eggs and bunnies, now you know. It was originally a pagan festival. When I was a child growing up Catholic in Brooklyn, I used to ask this question every Easter. Absolutely no one in my family knew the answer. I would just be sort of ignored and given some perfunctory non-answer like, colored eggs are nice, what's your problem! You see, they just didn't know. Well I like colored eggs too, but why do we celebrate the Resurrection with them? So I went to my local parish priest and I asked him. He said because a chick hatching from an egg represents the Resurrection. I replied, (being the difficult child that I was) with: "but Father the chick doesn't hatch from the egg, we cook, color and eat it". Of course by that time he was escorting me out the door, and telling me, I should go home and help my mother. Maybe he did really know the answer that the colored egg was a symbol of fertility and originally pagan and maybe he didn't. Either way he must have figured that was nothing for my virginal Catholic ears to hear. The coloring of eggs in spring dates back even further in time then Old Germanic. In ancient Persia and Egypt the coloring of eggs with onion skins was common for the Vernal Equinox. The fertility festival 0f Shamo which was later called Sham el Nessim (Sham el Nisseem) (after the Coptic age) which means sniffing the breeze. The Druids exchanged snake eggs dyed red symbolizing the sun. The snake itself has been the symbol of rejuvenation and fertility since the beginning of time. The Goddess was said to be impregnated by the world snake on each spring. The snake being a phallic symbol this makes good symbolic sense. The snake wrapped around an egg is an ancient symbol of fertility. The Easter egg evolved from this. Wicca and most Neo-pagan religions celebrate Spring Equinox by honoring the balance of light and dark. On actual Vernal Equinox you can balance an egg on its narrow tip. At the exact time of the Equinox you can literally stand an egg on it's narrow tip and it will stand straight. Ostara is about balance, the balance of male and female energy. It is the balance that brings forth life to the earth and to all of us. The balance also helps us balance our body and mind so we can grow. We also celebrate the old pagan way by coloring eggs, doing fertility Magick and honoring the active, life giving, and rejuvenate principle, when male and female energy is brought together. This is a wonderful time of year to do prosperity Magick, and of course it goes without saying fertility Magick. This is the time to shed what we do not want and bring fertility into our lives for the season a growth is upon us.

Things To Do For Ostara, Pagan Style

Color eggs; do egg rolling divination; paint pagan symbols on your eggs. Do a blessing of the seeds. Buy some seeds you would like to plant, put them on your altar and bless them in the four elements and in the names the God and Goddess. Then plant them as usual. You can also hold an Spring Equinox ritual of balancing the egg. Wear bright spring colors and go for a nature walk. See what the wildlife birds, squirrels etc. are doing. It is said that by their actions you can tell what the new season will be like for you. Also look for new growth and things greening up. Here is a simple spell you can do anytime in spring. Go for a walk and find a green area of grass, sit down on it, and while running your hand over the grass nine times say: Ostara springtime is your season; bring me wealth along with reason. Then pull up a few blades of grass. Take them home and put them in a red bag with some of your own hair or and nails. Carry this as an amulet for wealth in the spring.

 *Saint Bede, Historian, ca.672 or 674 - May 27, 735

BELTANE IN THE PARK 2008

When: May. 10th. 2008
Where: Wantagh, New York

COME DANCE THE MAYPOLE WITH US!

Event Details: 15TH ANNUAL
LONG ISLAND'S BELTANE IN THE PARK

Long Island's Beltane In The Park. Long Island's biggest Outdoor Wiccan/Pagan gathering and fest.

This Year our Our fest will be held on Saturday, May 10th
Raindate: Sunday, May 11th.

Special Guest: Author, High Priestess and Witch Extraordinaire, Lexa Rosean

Performers:
The Band, Karpathos,
Vocal Stylist , Jessie Haynes,
James Gilchirst and Julie Sherwood, folk duo.
Belly Dancing with Vorona

For the Kids:
How to Be a Faery, with Warren,
Dance of the Bubble Faeries, With the Green Faery
Medicine Rattle Workshop

Workshops: Lexa Rosean's Tarot Workshop
Merovingian Lore, Kabala and the tarot.with Chelsea Goodwin,
Kitchen Witchery with Dawn Hunt.
The Goddess Workout with Jessimina,
Herbs 101, with Melissa

COME DANCE THE MAYPOLE WITH US!

A wonderful day in the park for the whole family
Performers, vendors, readers, workhops and the Big Maypole dance. Be sure to bring 18 feet of ribbon if you would like to dance the Maypole or you can buy 18 feet of ribbon at the welcome table. Maypole Dance is followed by the big potluck feast and yes, we have useable grills. They will be fired up and ready to cook on. Please bring food to share!

We will also be collecting food for Island Harvest and food for homeless pets. So please help by bringing canned or boxed food to our shelter area.

Promotional tables are free. If you have a group that works for: animal rights, human rights, women's rights or the homeless and needy, then your spot is free!

If you are a Druid, Wiccan or any other type of pagan and want to spread the word about your group or coven. Your table is free.

Just contact me and let me know you would like a FREE spot at Long Island's Beltane In The Park 2008.

If you would like to volunteer to help set up, clean up, perform, speak or do a workshop on relative pagan subjects please contact me NancyVenus@aol.com.

All vending spaces are $50.00 and all reading spots $25.00. A bargain! We do draw a crowd, so you will make money. For all vending info write nancyvenus@aol.com

All non-profit non-political groups are welcome to a free spot to promote your cause.

COME OUT AND HELP SUPPORT LONG ISLAND'S PAGAN COMMUNITY.

Event Location: 1 Kings Road, Wantagh, NY in Wantagh
Event TIME Details: 11 AM to 6 PM

Directions: Take either the Expressway, Northern Parkway or Southern Parkway to Route 135 South

135 to exit 1W - Merrick Road westbound.

Take Merrick Road for one mile. When you see the bridge for Wantagh Parkway, get into the left lane. Make the first left after the parkway (the Causeway Delicatessen is on the corner) , and then immediately a left fork entrance into the park. The park entrance is clearly marked.

We will be in the picnic area that is in the middle of the park called "The Shelter." This is recognizable by the red shelter area that is over the picnic tables. We are near the restrooms which are housed in a red barn like structure not far from the shelter area.

Don't worry about the signs that say you need a Leisure Pass, or need to be a Nassau resident - our demographics have been explained to Nassau County and are acceptable.

Important Note
The Park entrance is so close to the Wantagh Parkway that the west bound exit from the parkway brings you too far west, and the east bound exit too far east, to enter the park. If you take the Wantagh Parkway, you'll have to turn around on Merrick Road to enter the park.

Alternate route - take Merrick Road until you get to the park entrance. 

  WELCOME

Our Wicca 101 Grove class 2007 schedule is below

Below are the scheduled dates of Copper Cauldron's Wicca 101 grove classes. All grove classes will be held on the fourth Saturday of the month unless otherwise stated.

These classes are designed for newbies, and those who might be interested in joining the Copper Cauldron. All classes will be given at my home in Valley Stream, NY. If you would like to attend email me at NancyVenus@aol.com and I will send you my address.


There will be request for a donation of $5.00 to cover our cost, but no one will be turned away. Most classes will last approximately 2 hours. Handouts will be given and refreshments served.

We give a class a month from May to November and then take a two month winter recess starting up again in February.


The Schedule below is for 2007 only. We have not yet scheduled the early 2008 classes.


Thank you and looking forward to meeting you.

BB
Lady Venus )0(, HPS, Copper Cauldron, Venusian Wicca

NOTE: BOTH JUNE AND SEPTEMBER GROVE CLASS WILL BE ON THE FIFTH SATURDAY.


Saturday, May 25th, class #1
The God and Goddess of the Witches


Saturday, June 30th, class #2
How to feel energy (fifth week due to Mid-Summer)


Saturday, July 28th, class #3
How to create sacred space

Saturday, August 25th Class #4
How to find a magickal name and tools of the craft

Saturday, September 29th class #5
The Dark Mothers (fifth Saturday due to Mabon)

Saturday, October 27th, class # 6
How to scry

Saturday, November 24th, class # 7
Hecate Goddess of the underworld

WINTER RECESS BEGINS!