What Are You Planning To Do Over Easter?

So the Easter holidays are here at last – four days of doing what I want. What I usually like at this time are country walks or going to the seaside and perhaps beachcombing for things washed up or revealed by the spring tides.

However, the weather forecast looks as though it won’t exactly be conducive to that. I’m more likely to be indoors out of the rain.

So, I’ve turned to a book I edited – Every Day Magic – A Pagan Book of Days – to get some inspiration for indoor activities.

One of the suggestions for early April is an entry I wrote myself on creating a mandala:

Create a Mandala: Traditional mandalas were originally works of art containing symbols from Hindu and Buddhist spirituality, used for meditation. They were often circular. Create a modern, personal mandala. Get out paper, pencils, paints and pens. Draw a circle and fill it with symbols, shapes and patterns that are meaningful to you and colour it in, then meditate on it.

I actually created mandalas each month last year as observations of the cycle of the seasons. You can see one in the photo to the right. I really enjoyed it too. Mine did involve a little going outdoors, as I included flowers from my own garden in each of the patterns but, as the entry above says, you can just use pens, pencils and paint.

Another idea appropriate for the festival of Easter is to do a meditation on the symbolism of eggs:

Egg Lore: Eggs are symbols of birth, resurrection and creation in cultures worldwide. In India, China, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, Gods, Goddesses – even life itself – were said to have hatched from eggs. In alchemy, the egg represents the four elements vital for life. The shell represents earth, the membrane represents air, the white represents water and the yolk represents fire. The crucible in which alchemists attempt to make the philosopher’s stone is called the philosopher’s egg. Meditate and visualise new life hatching. Consider what it means to you.

March 31 is also when the moon is full – and it is a blue moon as it is the second in the month. The Every Day Magic entry for March 31, by Mélusine Draco, says this:

Lunae in Aventino: Festival of Luna, Goddess of the Moon, who later became identified with Diana. Go outside tonight, observe the Moon and pour a libation in honour of the Goddess Luna.

If it is really wet, you could observe the moon through a window, do an indoor ritual to honour Luna, then pop on your wellies and raincoat just to go out and pour the libation. It doesn’t have to be a large libation – you can always enjoy the rest of the bottle yourself in the warm and dry.

Easter Monday is on April 2, which is also International Children’s Book Day and Hans Christian Andersen’s Birthday. The entry for the day in Every Day Magic offers this idea:

Try fairytale bibliomancy – pick a book of fairy tales, open it at random and read that story. What divinatory message does it have for you?

Staying indoors and curling up reading a good book is always something I enjoy when the weather is grim. I suspect I’ll be doing quite a bit of it over the Easter holidays – nothing wrong with that.

But what are you planning to do over Easter?  Whatever it is, I hope you have a lovely holiday.

You can order Every Day Magic – A Pagan Book of Days via Amazon.

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