Ostara, Bunnies, and Our Responsibilities to Animals & Nature

Picture this….

You’re at your favorite local Witch shop or Pagan festival basking in the joy of sharing good vibes with your community, pentacle proudly out.

You can relax and talk about your favorite pagan authors, Tarot decks and rituals.

Then, you see a fellow pagan representing the God and Goddess from head to toe…..until they dump their trash on the ground.

Buzz kill.

You would probably have no problem at all confronting them. After all, they worship the Earth as the Goddess.

Once the shock of their disregard for the Earth and nature subsides you would probably have quite a bit to say without fearing that you are infringing on their right to follow their free will.

Because everything you hold sacred has been trashed by that careless gesture.

Now imagine a different scenario.

You are celebrating Ostara in your community. Images of flowers and bunnies abound. You are reminded that the rabbit is a symbol of the Goddess and on many levels a symbol of springtime.

Yet it is also a symbolic reminder of the atrocities committed every day against the non-human animals, by pagans and non-pagans alike.

Their docile nature makes rabbits and guinea pigs ‘ideal’ test subjects for medical and cosmetic industries, cleaning supplies and chemical tests.

Yet why is it that we in the Pagan community are not responding to the atrocities of animal abuse, testing, agriculture and exploitation with the same determination that we would no doubt show if confronted by our fellow Pagans trashing the earth?

Why have we decided that animal abuse is a ‘personal choice’ while environmental conservation is an urgent issue that our collective survival depends on and a natural extension of our beliefs in the spirits of nature?

Why have we continued the practice of animal sacrifice, not directly in ritual, but in our complicity, our negligence in addressing the systems that abuse and degrade our fellow beings who are as much the embodiment of the Goddess as the forests we fight to save?

This Ostara, as you like and share the images of rabbits on your newsfeed, reflect on your own practices and routines. In what ways have you been ignoring or supporting industries that deliberately torture and kill animals in the name of beauty and consumerism? In what ways can you integrate your Pagan path with practices that protect all of nature and the many guises of the Goddess for the sake of sentient beings, and not just when it is convenient?

Perhaps the truth you discover makes you uncomfortable. Fortunately, Spring is the season of new beginnings. You may choose to change your shopping habits. To not patronize industries that experiment on animals, to no longer contribute to their suffering. You may choose to no longer remain silent as others degrade the extensions of our Goddess as She manifests in the natural world.

Happy Spring Equinox.