Good legal advice
can make all the difference.

V

Langrock Sperry & Wool offers the services
of 22 lawyers with over 300 years combined experience
V in all areas of the law — including two lesbian attorneys
with special expertise serving the legal needs
of the g/l/b/t/q community.

SUSAN MURRAY & BETH ROBINSON

With offices in Middlebury and Burlington
Middlebury (802) 388-6356
Burlington (802) 864-0217
smurray@langrock.<:om brobinson@langrock.com

Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP

ATTORNEYS AT LAW

 

P.O. Box 1455
Rutland, Vermont 05701
Phone & Fax: 802-786-2251

Laurie S. Rosenzweig :
Attorney at Law 3 .

Real Estate Law, Wills,
Family & Civil Union Issues
General Practice A

Free initial consultations 3

Sabu234@AOL.COM , . ;

  

Cathedral Church of St. Paul
2 Cherry Street, Burlington - 802.864.0471
www.stpaulscathedralvt.org
Sunday Service: . Gl.I'l' Group
8.-00 Holy Eucharist 8: sermon Monthly gatherings combine potluck
9:15 Holy Eucharist & semion supper, fellowship, program, and
with children's choir lnfomial worship opportunities.
10:15 Education for All Ages All are welcome.
11:15 Holy Eucharist 8: sermon March gathering: Friday.
with full choir March l9. 6:30 to 9:00pm
The Episcopal Church Welcomes Vou

www.c0ndoguy.Coni

_  \'oi'th l’mfcs.s‘ionals 802) 655-3333 EXT. l7

    

(800) 639-4520 EXT. l7

Yu Say Easter, l§ay

Estrogen

‘ ‘ Here comes Peter
Cottontail, hopping
down the bunny

trail...” Why is that so many of our

modern holidays are associated with
animals? Reindeer at Christmas,

Turkeys at Thanksgiving, and don’t

forget the briefly ubiquitous ground-

hog who sends us scurrying back
into our burrows for six more weeks
every February.

Animals have long been
symbolic of greater anthropomorphic
concepts in world religions. Br’er
Rabbit is an example of African reli-

_ gion coming down to the modern

world. The Trickster Coyote is of
Native American origin. And Peter
Cottontail, the infamous Easter
Bunny? Well, before he made mil-
lions for Russell Stover every year,
he (or perhaps I should say she) was
a harbinger of spring devoted to the
Germanic goddess Ostara, from
whom we now take the words
Easter, East and Estrogen. She was
a goddess of spring and of the dawn
(hence the name of the direction
East). Her symbols were rabbits and
eggs. As a young catholic lad, I
remember being told that the Easter
Eggs‘ were symbolic of the resurrec-
tion of Christ, the bright yellow yolk

inside the egg representing the Sun 3

or Son of God.

The Spring Equinox is a
time of hope and renewal for
pagans. The lambs born at
Candlemas (February 2), are now
romping playfully through newly
green fields in England if not New
England. In many parts of the Old
World, though sadly not here in New
England, the Spring Equinox on
March 21st is meteorologically con-
sistent with the arrival of Spring.
Here in Vermont we might do a bit
better to have a walking Maple Tree
serve as our Equinox symbol, rather
than the bunnies and chicks of
Ostara. Both the rabbit and the eggs
that are so common at Easter cele-
brations around the United States are
actually symbols of that ancient
pagan goddess and her fertility
rights, co-opted into the Christian
system of holy-days to serve as sym-
bols of the resurrection of Christ.

But Easter is an amalga-
mation of a number of different
ancient religious traditions. The date
of Easter, the first Sunday after the
first full moon on or after the Spring
Equinox, is taken from the ancient
celebration of the resurrection of
Adonis, a Greek Sun God. The name
and symbols of Easter are from the
Germanic Goddess Ostara. The con-
cept of the celebration, resurrection

 

from death and the change from the
dark to the light, reflects the dualism
of Gnosticism and harkens back to
the cult of Mithras. There are other
Greek associations with the Spring
Equinox as well: the Lesser
Eluessinian mysteries are celebrated
near the time of the equinox. They
commemorate the return of
Persephone from the underworld of

    

northern reaches of Vermont, meet-
ing in Windham County is often our
first taste of spring. We sometimes
arrive to find crocuses peering out of
the mud at us. Almost always, the
meeting will encompass at least one
sunny day and we are able to walk
through the village to the music of
sap dripping into traditional buckets
hanging from the trees.

The Equinoxes and _
Solstices really are universal spiritu-
al days from which modern people
draw from many different traditions.
Easter draws on Middle-Eastern,
Roman, Greek and Teutonic tradi-
tion. Neo-pagan celebrations of the‘
other four sabbats (Beltaine,
Lammas, Samhain and Imbolc) are
Celtic in origin and show little incur-
sion from other spiritual traditions.
This is likely due to the fact that
Equinoxes and Solstices are solar
holidays and have been marked with

Before Peter Cottontail made

millions for Russell Stover,

every year, he (or perhaps I
should say she?) was a
harbinger of spring devoted to
the Germanic goddess Ostara.

Hades and her reunification with her
mother, Demeter, goddess of
agriculture.
Here in Vermont, the

Spring Equinox is celebrated by the
Radical Faeries as the beginning (or
dawn or spring) of our year together.
Our annual business meeting to set-
tle our calendar of events, work
through our land-use plan and figure
out how to pay for it all happens at

the Spring Equinox. We spend our

first time of the year together at the
Eastern Star Grange Hall in
Dummlerston, Vermont. It is an
appropriate place to begin our stew-
ardship each year because it brings
us back to the agricultural tradition
of our state.

We say we do this simply
because it is still too cold to meet on
our land at Faerie Camp Destiny, but
it is a lovely continuation of the long
tradition of the Grange supporting
thoughtful stewardship of the land.
And for those of us from the frozen

precision in almost all cultures giv-
ing modem people a much wider
spiritual range to choose from.

In any case, the coming -of
spring, the Equinox and the celebra-
tion of Ostara is the time when the
world is balanced for a moment. As
is also true during the fall equinox
(or Mabon), the Equinox is an excel-
lent time for reflection on the dark
days just past and a moment to look
over the horizon and see what is
coming in the light days that are just
around the comer. Because, if noth-
ing else is certain, change is. Pagans
use the opportunity of the Equinox
to chant in honor of Persephone’s
return from the dark, reminding us,
“She changes everything she touch-
es, everything she touches changes.”

Spring is here, the snow
gives way to mud, the mud gives
way to green. Get out your chocolate
bunnies, your bonnets and your col-
ored eggs. Tip your Easter
bonnet to an ancient goddess >>