It’s time for the spring solstice blog hop! (Scroll down if you just want the list and not a lot of extraneous exposition.)
The details
DATE: March 20, 15:33 UTC (trying for the exact moment of the equinox, found at earthsky.org)
TIME: 3:33 p.m. London time (see https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone/utc to determine the time where you are!)
WHERE: Your blog!
WRANGLER: Me! For the very first time! (So if things seem a little disorganized…)
The topic
SHORT VERSION: What if you, an adult, were hunting for “Easter eggs,” in real life? What eggs would you like to find? What eggs are out there waiting for you that you haven’t even thought to look for? As you unpack this metaphor, consider as well the “Easter eggs” that developers put into computer code. And/or, consider: What eggs are you called to develop and place for others to find? Answer via a tarot spread, of course, or in some other cartomancy-related way. Be creative! Get messy! More below!
LONGER VERSION:
If you look into the history of Ostara, the name we have often used for the spring solstice holiday, based on the little I can find, it seems pretty sketchy. Ostara, as a goddess, is an obscure one who may or may not have existed historically. Additionally, when preparing this document, I searched Google Scholar using the terms, “Ostara history religion,” and a startling number of hits came up (maybe as many as 1/3 of the total) connected historically with Nazism. That being so, I have hesitated to use the name “Ostara” in the name of this hop, particularly in these times when we’re seeing a rise in racist ideologies.
So, I proposed to the group that we sidestep the sketchy history, FOR NOW, although it SHOULD be examined closely and we SHOULD be very alert to the appropriation of religious traditions, in general, and particularly when those traditions are getting redeployed for purposes of hate. I would love to see the tarot community critically examining the use of the occult by Nazism and explicitly repudiating it. I just don’t know that history well enough or have the time to research it before the solstice (I am barely keeping up with my duties as wrangler!).
Instead, for now, I proposed that the blog hop focus on the tradition that many people follow of coloring and hiding eggs for children to find–or, if you’re a software developer, of putting “Easter eggs” in your code as a surprise for those who can find them. No matter how dubious the Easter egg tradition may be (even on the level of basic logic: bunnies laying eggs? bunnies delivering eggs to children? what? why would they? who thought of this?), it IS fun to hide things and look for them. It’s a variation on hide and seek, which itself is perhaps a variation on peek-a-boo.
And it also invites us to notice changes in our environment–if some tiny detail in your world changed, if an egg appeared on your windowsill, how long would it take you to notice? If you were to find an unexpected surprise somewhere, what would you like it to be? If you were to find an unexpected surprise, for the collective, what would you like it to be? What unexpected surprises would you like to offer to the collective? (I don’t know if people still do this, but there was a movement at one time of people leaving books in public places for others to randomly find.) You may think of other variations on this theme, too, of course. For example, what stories contain “Easter eggs” that we often don’t think about but that are, in fact, just sitting there for us to notice?
Our Hoppers!
(That seems so appropriate for those who are thinking along the lines of bunnies…)
You can start anywhere, and hop around in a circle, using the links each blogger has included at the beginning and end of their post.
At the moment, as I prepare this post, I don’t have all the exact URLs, but I included everyone’s blog URL–hopefully you can find your way to the hop posts. All bunnies must hop off the trail now and then.
Bonnie | https://quietbonnie.com/?p=5567
Joy | https://joyvernon.com/tarot-easter-egg-hunt/
Raine | http://www.tarot-of-change.com/…/tarot-blog-hop-easter…
Jay | jcassels.co.uk/tbh42
Louise | https://priestesstarot.co.uk/2022/03/19/tbh-ostara/
Quiet Mystic 
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