Invocation to Ostara

- Angela "Ember" Cooke, 2004

The year yearns listlessly for light

Now warmth returns relieving night

Ostara brings Her fertile fare

The precious egg, the wild hare

To start again the song of Spring

And to our hearts fair blessings bring.

Old Winter now retires to rest

The passion of His storms attest

The floods that fuel fresh buds' renew

To Winter's effort Spring gives due

So now He slumbers, satisfied

With what His watchful works provide.

In This Issue

Introductions

Event Updates

Spring Recipes

A piece by Katherine

Vanover

A story about Ostara by

John T. Mainer, co-

author of Kindertales.

Information on FWH

programs

Local Business List

Waes thu Hael, Good Health!

Winter was a time for getting together with our

kith and kin to exchange memories, laughs, and

gifts. For a moment we were able to forget the bleak

weather and simply enjoy the holiday that it provid-

ed. Many of us celebrated Yule and all the pleasant-

ries and spiritual revelations that time presented to

us.

Now Spring, the rebirth of the land, looms just

around the corner! Fort Wayne Heathens is also ex-

periencing that renewed vigor and sense of direc-

tion. There are many important updates within this

issue on event schedules. There are also many enter-

taining and well written stories, recipes, and more.

So enjoy the issue and have a wonderful Spring!

Fort Wayne Heathens Quarterly Newsletter Spring 2015

Rune Night

Yule 2014

Lore Night

Lore Night at Bon Bons Coffee House

Upcoming Events for Fort Wayne Heathens

Lore Night - February 14th Rune Night - February 28th Lore Night - March 14th Ostara Rune Night - March 28th Lore Night - April 11th Rune Night April 25th

More Information: http://www.fortwayneheathens.org/apps/calendar/

Norwegian Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients:

8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

1/4 cup chopped smoked salmon

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 tablespoon sour cream

3 tablespoons grated swiss cheese

1/2 teaspoon dill

Directions:

1. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise.

2. Remove the yolks and set egg whites aside.

3. In a bowl, mash the yolks. Add in the

chopped smoked salmon, butter, sour cream,

cheese and dill; mix together well.

4. Stuff the egg whites with this mixture.

From food.com

Lamb Shepherds Pie

(Gluten and Dairy Free)

Ingredients:

Mark Pope, 2015

Ready the Field

Sunna stirs on these cold mornings, illuminating a slumbering winter earth.

Jords sleep is restless, limbs yearn to stretch, to release.

Jord, Nerthus, Earth Mother prepares her body for spring.

We measure our plots, plan our crops, we ponder Fehu and our ability to bring our winter ideas into the

light of spring, into the harvest of late summer. We plan, we work, we reap.

The earth lies verdant and ambivalent, containing both the potential for growth and for decay. Planted and

ignored, our crops wither and rot, taken back into the churning void of potential. But, with work, with

care, we tease form from the formless. Our plans become produce and we pluck fruit from the vines of our

labors. With right action comes Wunjo not the boon of luck but the blessings of earned favor. We take

our bounty we can, we dry, we preserve, we savor our Wunjo that it may last us again through the long

darkness of winter and the cycle continues.

As we prepare for spring, we reappraise our fences. Have we enclosed enough space to grow? Have we

built them strong enough to protect? It is a time for considering the Utangard, the Innangard, the inside

and the outside, the kin and the outsider, the domestic and the wild. Now is the time to reinforce your

fence, before tender shoots emerge, vulnerable and weak, before lambs wobble forth on legs unsteady. Be

prepared to protect. We do not deserve what we are not willing to defend. In the sharp light of the return-

ing sun, take measure of your friends and foes. You are preparing for growth.

Ready your land. Break down the hard soil. Wrestle stones from the dirt. Remove the impediments. Dig

deep, plunge your fingers into the loam, the roots will only reach as far as you till. We can only welcome

into our lives that for which we make room. Clear the space, it will be filled. You are preparing for growth.

Are we prepared to water the seeds we want to plant? When Sunna reaches her peak and the view

of our works is clear to all to our gods, to ourselves, our community, our family, our innangard

will we stand proud of our labor, or shrink away, ashamed of our negligence?

What you plant will sprout. What you water will grow. What you grow will be harvested. There

is work to be done. The earth is awakening. Examine your fence, clear your stones, plant your

crop. You are preparing for growth.

Katherine Vanover, 2015

Ostara, and the Dance of the Bunnies

John T Mainer of The Heathen Freehold Society of B.C and The Troth, 07

In the dawn of the age of man, when the tribes of men were new formed, and taking their first halting steps upon Midgard, Ostara was often seen bringing the springtime to field, forest and fen. The tribes of men watched with amazement as Ostara would walk upon the earth, and it would rouse to wakefulness behind her. As she walked did the first shoots push aside the snowmelt rubble and greet sweet Sunnas sunshine, as she smiled the first flowers would blossom, and the air turn sweet and fresh. At her side flew a white bird, graceful and joyous. Always the song of her companion bird would call the spring birds from the far south, to return again to the northlands, and with them bring the ocean breez-es that fire the hearts of young men.

The tribes of men were thankful to Ostara, and wished to give thanks to her in a way that was pleasing to her, and for this, they watched the rabbits. All winter long, Ostara sleeps, for she cannot abide the touch of Ymirs get, and flees the coming of the snow. When Sunna turns her face again to the world, and the snows and Frost Giants retreat back to their mountain fastness, the rabbits call Ostara to wake. In the spring, the rabbits dance. Upon the earth in wild abandon, the rabbits was-sail hard, and in their joyous measure stir the sleeping Ostara, for her return brings the spring.

Year on year Ostara waked to the dancing of the rabbits, year on year her graceful companion bird would watch the dancing rabbits, and hunger to join their measure. In a year known only in song as the year of the rabbit, came the great change. In that year was grown a rabbit of hero-ic proportions, a champion of his breed who scoffed at foxes, and defied falcons in his strength. His eye was tak-en with the gentle bird of Ostara, for her grace and beau-ty called to him as no she rabbits could. Come the spring in the year of change, he danced for her. He danced with the wild abandon of his breed, he danced with the fire that Freya grants to lovers, and the rage Odin grants the doomed.

It was a dance of dances, from a champion fired by a love that could not be, and it cast a spell more powerful than any spaewitchs rune. While Ostara laughed at the display, her companion watched transfixed; her bird eyes fixed like a hunting falcons, her head bobbing with the measure. No longer able to contain herself, she flew from Ostaras shoulder and lit upon the ground. At first stately in feathered grace, then swiftly in wing fluffing abandon she danced with her feathered suitor. Round and round they danced, as wild as any Alfar circle, as lit by Freyas fire.

Artwork by Amanda Clark

No longer smiling, Ostara watched her companion dance with her furred lord. It was clear her bird had lost its heart to this rabbit prince. Striding forward to the circle, Ostara halted the dancers with a glance. The rabbits trembled before the gaze of the goddess, but the champion stood forth fearless in his love, the white bird at his side. Ostara smiled softly, and the bird bowed deeply and sang a song of love; love for a friend of long centuries, love of a woman for a man; love that would trade eternity for fulfillment. Ostara heard the song, and her heart was moved. She knelt and kissed her companion, and when she rose again, there was only a shin-ing she-rabbit in a pile of soft feathers.

When Ostara walked away, the rabbit champion took his new won love into the warren, and her new home.

As the snow retreated, the rabbits began to dance again, to wake Ostara. In the wake of the Year of Change, Ostara woke sadly. She walked upon the world alone, and her coming brought no life; for her heart was heavy. The tribes of man were worried, for the spring brought no life, and the priests and wise woman said to watch the rabbits, for they held the secret of this dire spring. The fastest and best hunters coursed the land, not to kill, but to watch the rabbits for the secret of the dire spring.

When Ostara reached the lands of the champion, and her lost companion, she beheld all of the rabbits in a dancing circle, and in the center two rabbits stood before a mound of feathers. As Ostara neared, the dancing rabbits parted, bowing her in. As she gazed with sadness on the aging of her now mortal former companion, the two rabbits stood aside showing Ostara the secret they concealed. Inside the nest of feathers were a dozen eggs, one of which was busy trying to hatch a wiggling little bunny.

As the bunny burst forth with a triumphant cheep! Ostaras heart melted like the departing snow, and she began to laugh, picking up this flop eared chick, she danced a merry measure with her rabbit folk. As she danced the spring burst forth, the field erupted with flowers, the trees grew bright with new growth, and the sky full of song from the returning birds.

The hunters carried word of this back to the several tribes of men, and it was whispered amongst the wise how not only the dance, but an offering of eggs won Ostaras heart and brought forth the spring.

Henceforth Ostara was honoured by the tribes of man with offerings of eggs in spring time. Here ends our tale for today. The story of her new companion, Ostaras Bunny, is one for an-other day, but a tale worthy of singing none the less.

John T Mainer, March 08 2007

Kindertales: Stories Old and New for

the Children of the Folk Paperback

June 25, 2008

by Freydis Heimdallson (Author), John

Mainer (Contributor)

Contact Information

Contact us for more infor-

mation regarding these pro-

grams. We are always looking

for people to help, and for peo-

ple to help us.

Email us at:

fortwayneheathens@gmail.com

Visit us on the web at:

fortwayneheathens.org

Find us on Facebook at:

www.facebook.com/groups/

fortwayneheathens/

Fort Wayne Heathens Programs

Hoosier Heathen Veterans

This program helps veteran Heathens in Indiana get free resources on VA

information, satr information, networking assistance with local sa-

trars and heathens, and a free Mjlnir pendant. All you have to do is fill

out the form, verify that you have served in the US armed forces, and we'll

mail you a package via the USPS. Veterans have earned this when they

chose to risk their lives defending and insuring this country's freedom.

http://www.fortwayneheathens.org/hoosier-heathen-veterans

Indiana Kindred Registrar Project

The project is meant to ensure that there is an up to date and reliable list

of Indiana Kindreds. This was done in the hopes that satrar who have

thought they were alone in their beliefs, can come together and forge

bonds of kinship with other Hoosiers who are true to the sir and the Va-

nir.

http://www.fortwayneheathens.org/indiana-kindred-registrar

Breldiar Shoppe

201 Grandstand Way

Fort Wayne, Indiana

(260) 210-2374

http://www.breldiarshoppe.com/

Caltapa Tree Shops

13405 Main St

Grabill, Indiana 46741

(260) 627-3012

http://www.catalpatreeshops.com/

Elderberry Tree House Shoppe

7714 Lima Rd

Fort Wayne, Indiana 46818

(260) 489-6707

http://elderberryths.com/

Or Contact the Fort Wayne Heathens Facebook

group for local artisans who do leather working,

bone, wood, and stone working, woodburnings,

weaving, sewing, blacksmithing, jewelry making

and more!