Ostava Ritual

The first ritual I want to talk first is the ritual associated with the Vernal Eqinox, most precisely the Ostava. The Ostava is considered by many Neo-Pagans as the celebration of the New Year. This celebration occurs on the beginning of spring, March 21. Just as much as things are changing in the nature in spring, the Ostava celebration is “seen as a time of new beginning for people, a time during which old ties are renewed and new ones established” (Berger, p.16). According to Berger, what is usually seen in the Ostava, at the end of the ritual, the participants plant seeds in order to symbolize their wishes for the coming year. However, the ritual that I will analyze is somewhat different ritual, as it comes from the coven The Circle

47-48). The participants were wearing ritual jewelry such as crystals, goddess symbols and pentagrams. As people were ready the responsible of the ritual, Gabriel, asked the participants to sit in circle and get their selves prepared psychologically. The room had the lights dimmed “everyone sat quietly concentrating on centering. After the room became silenced and “Arahne requested that [everybody] stand to add energy to the casting of the circle [that] was done by [Arachne] and Gabriel” (p. 48). The ritual really started when each direction of the quarters were called by different participants. However, according to Berger, the Ostava ritual of the Circle of Life coven was unique in the way they finished the ritual. Instead of ending the ritual with the participants planting a seed, this coven finished the celebration of Ostava with “each participants going through a long v-shaped human tunnel formed by the participants. For the responsible of the coven the tunnel formed by the participants represented “the birth canal, through which [the participants] would each pass to be reborn within the coven” (p. 49). Moreover, the process of the tunnel also represented the process of creating a group spirit and a long