Ostara begins with a hunt.

On the Eve of the Equinox, we gather in the temple, but (O and woe!) the Goddess is gone; so we kindle lights and seek Her throughout the house. She Herself is nowhere to be found, but signs of Her presence are everywhere.

Well, it's a fortnight and odd days till we seek (and eventually, nether-faring to the Underworld, find) Her; meanwhile, the winter-scouring, the spring lustrations have begun. The sanctuary must be clean to welcome its Goddess's Return.

Only now I'm seeing ghost eggs everywhere, eggs that aren't there.

There's one, I'll think, reaching under the radiator, only to find that there isn't.

Finding eggs out of season happens often enough around here to be only mildly (if always pleasantly) surprising. (That's why we don't hide the real eggs, though.) The last turned up in December during the Yule cleaning. How has that managed to be there all these months without my ever seeing it? I always wonder, unwrapping and eating the oxydized (but still sweet: spring is always sweet, no matter when you find it) chocolate.

But now I'm finding ghost eggs, and nothing's there.

Is this Ostara past that I'm seeing, or Ostara future?