Happy Springtime, everyone! Here in Europe the wildflowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the warmth of the sun is increasing every day.

There are many stories associated with springtime. In Northern Europe there are still some people who tell the story of the rabbit who wakes up one spring morning to discover that she has laid an egg. And not just any egg! An egg of many colours; a beautiful rainbow. Confused, the rabbit goes to ask the springtime goddess, Ostara, what is happening. 

'Oh yes, don't you remember?' says Ostara; 

'Your spirit used to be a beautiful bird with feathers of all the colours of the rainbow. One winter it became too cold and you realised you were dying. Then you came to me and asked me to save you.'

'And then what happened?' asked the rabbit, 'I don't remember any of this'.

'I told you what I tell everyone whose time has come,' replied Ostara, 'that is, that everyone dies, and I cannot stop death when its time is here. But what I did do was allow your spirit to be reborn in this body as a rabbit.'

She looks and the egg and laughs. 

'I guess I forgot something when I allowed your spirit to be reborn as a rabbit,' she says. 'You still have the bird's power of laying eggs!'

After that time, the rabbit decided to leave her eggs as gifts every springtime, to celebrate the joy of new life after the winter, and the dedlight of rebirth.

This tale may seem an ancient children's story, irrelevant to our times, but it is clear that we can connect it still to the new life which appears every springtime. What is also interesting is how the story is connected to other tales of rebirth, told by cultures around the world.

The more common springtime story told in Europe nowadays is that of Jesus and how he, after suffering many trials, is hung up on a cross and dies. His followers take him away to a tomb, but after 3 days they notice that his body has disappeared...he has been reborn. 

Similar tales abound from cultures around the world. They have dfferent emphases, but can be seen to follow the same mythological themes. There is Odin of Norse mythology, who hangs himself from the World Tree for 9 days to be reborn on the tenth; Osiris from the Egyptian culture, who is cut into pieces and cast on the ground and then grows into a new person, or Amaterasu the sun goddess from the Shinto religion, who hides in a cave, plunging the world into darkness, after being offended by her brother, but is drawn out by the other gods and goddesses to bring new life and light to the world.   

We can see the similarities between these stories and that of Ostara, and in observing them, we can become aware of the similarities which run between all of our cultures, now matter where or when. There is a common humanity which we share, and we can encourage this through the stories we tell. 


Reference: 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' by Joseph Campbell (1949). 

If you too are interested in exploring stories from around the world and finding the similarities between them, please consider booking one of my classes. As Joseph Campbell says in 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces', 

"We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known ...
we have only to follow the thread of the hero path.”