The Goddess Eostre

The Goddess Eostre

Eostre has been variously described as a Pan-Germanic goddess of light and dawn, as an extension of the ancestral Matronae (via Austriahenae), a fiction of Bede’s endeavours in Old English etymology, and an embellishment of Jacob Grimm’s mythological reconstructions.

In Pagan Goddesses in the Early Germanic World, Philip Shaw proposes that Eostre was a local goddess of Anglo-Saxon Kent who harbored no associations with dawn or spring, and perhaps held no specializations at all. Her primary importance was that she was local to them.

If anyone has any experience (magical, devotional, etc.) with Eostre, please share. I would be very keen to read about your experiences.

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Advisory: there’s some UPG in my reply.

No experience but I recall reading someone’s UPG (in a book I think) that she was the goddess of the east and dawn/sunrise. East does seem possible since the word east seems derived from it (but I can’t verify that information. It also says hey that person might’ve been onto something.

My own UPG sorta says Hey! here’s something interesting about the word east in European languages. (I’m linking it below) and it’s potential link to the goddess mentioned .

Surprisingly enough, most European words for east seem derived from it too or it’s a really odd coincidence.

Look for a couple examples and a link below this sentence

Ooste Africans (the language is derived from Dutch)

Est Catalan

holdrehevel est Welsh (note the est)

østen Danish

And the link to the webpage to browse at your leisure…