I recently looked up “rabbit vs hare” cuz I thought they were just two names for the same creature. I was wrong.
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Hare_vs_Rabbit
This link lays out all the differences between hares and rabbits even though they look very alike. Andred Herself seems not to mind that I’ve gotten the two mixed up, but I wanted to make this post to alleviate any confusion going forward.
A ritual is supposed to be about connection.
Every month, when I notice the first hints of the crescent moon in the sky lagging behind the sun, I feel it. I feel Her. She is there, watching me and smiling. I like to think that the crescent itself is her smile.
She protected me once, in the cold winter as I tried to make it home from a test. I thanked Her. She has probably always protected me. She has guided me toward Her, at least, and has probably done a bunch of other things to look out for me.
She is the Goddess of Victory, after all.
It is Easter, a holiday often compared to Ostara, and I’m aware of about a dozen and a half different pagans at any one time claiming that the Christians stole it. I’m not here for that debate. I’m here to offer a reflection (one of many I had today).
I celebrated Ostara weeks ago, when the first rain fell where I live (and, I should add, unusually early, see Some Thoughts…). So I have no worries about Easter vs Ostara. The energy of spring had bloomed weeks ago and been growing ever since, as far as I’ve been able to tell.
But that isn’t the reflection. The reflection is this: I have felt Andred’s influence most strongly in new and growing things: the first early days of spring, the newest of new crescent moons, and so forth. And then it wanes and yields to other influences. Spring will soon give way to summer, a reflection of the power of other gods. And this is completely OK. Each god has his or her time. No god can be powerful all the time (unless you believe in such a being, but that’s for another day). Energies change on all kinds of scales. And so it is here. Andred’s influence has waned, but that’s OK. Spring is blooming and Summer is coming.
Andred first revealed herself to me in the waxing crescent moon that led me home after work (as it was setting), coupled with, interestingly enough, a country song. Now, I listen to a lot of country, but something about this particular song just added to the moment, and made everything feel right. That’s been key for me, the idea that everything feels right in a given moment, and that’s how I discern, in part, a god’s presence or my connection with nature.
As I said previously, it took me quite a long while to determine the nature of the divine being contacting me, and while I describe it in fairly brief terms it really took months, perhaps a year at least, from the first sign to the true understanding of Her nature. Since then, I have come to understand Her symbols, and I still learn them to this day. They are:
Chràbhaidh a Andred 