The pagan goddess Oestre did not exist.
In a recent story in the Sunday Tasmanian academics declare that there was no such Anglo-Saxon goddess called Oestre. Seems it was all made up by some old monk in the 7oo's. Prior to this there was no mention of such a goddess anywhere.

In related news, it seems there is no easter bunny as well. Part of the made up story of the monk is that a magical bunny helped this goddess bring dying plants back to life by helping her put magical eggs under them, thus helping the return of spring.

What next? Spider man is a fake as well?

I`m not sure I get this one. Whether Eostre was first worshipped by the pagan Saxons or was made up by this monk she is still worshipped by latter day pagans and as such is a bona-fide deity. No one had heard of the Elder God Cthulhu before HP Lovecraft either for that matter. Whilst I myself believe in one Supreme Being like many I choose to acknowledge many aspects of him and invoke the appropriate "God form" for the forces of nature etc for their aid. These entities, whilst only being part of a united Godhead do come to inhabit the forms our minds have created for them. In essence Neil was right on the money in "Sandman" and "American Gods".

i was pretty sure that easter came from a persian goddess.

why?

Purim. the heroine of the jewish holiday of purim is Esther, which, we are told, is her persian name, not her hebrew one (hadassah). apparently, esther was a fairly common persian name because it had something to do with the goddess.

(found a sourcehere that says esther comes from Ishtar, which makes a certain amount of sense, since Ishtar was a fertility goddess...)

quote:

Originally posted by DHS - The Gay Necro Duck:
I`m not sure I get this one. Whether Eostre was first worshipped by the pagan Saxons or was made up by this monk she is still worshipped by latter day pagans and as such is a bona-fide deity. No one had heard of the Elder God Cthulhu before HP Lovecraft either for that matter.

...
'cause Lovecraft made him up, and geeks turned him into a joke? he isn't 'real' in any religious sense, though he makes a good reference

Nyah, he may have been invented by Lovecraft for a joke but the forms we conceive in our imaginations can be adopted by very powerful elemental forces on the astral plane. Therefore the more people pay tribute to Cthulhu, even if it`s not serious, the more he is empowered. Likewise if he receives no attention eventually he`ll revert to his elemental state within the collective unconcious.

Ashura/Asura, Ishtar, Anat and all her variations are real, or at least it'll be a shock to a lot of archaeologists to find out that they're not real. That Oestre isn't real isn't too surprising, really. There are so many names for the goddess, one of them being false is likely.

quote:

Originally posted by DHS - The Gay Necro Duck:
Nyah, he may have been invented by Lovecraft for a joke but the forms we conceive in our imaginations can be adopted by very powerful elemental forces on the astral plane. Therefore the more people pay tribute to Cthulhu, even if it`s not serious, the more he is empowered. Likewise if he receives no attention eventually he`ll revert to his elemental state within the collective unconcious.

...
right
thats not my metaphysics, and if it was it'd be friggin scary
every time somebody plays Call of Cthulhu or makes The Great Old Ones a bit in their book they're empowering things?

i guess we should all just think of Stay Puft the Marshmellow Man, then

quote:

Originally posted by Tlön:

quote:

Originally posted by DHS - The Gay Necro Duck:
Nyah, he may have been invented by Lovecraft for a joke but the forms we conceive in our imaginations can be adopted by very powerful elemental forces on the astral plane. Therefore the more people pay tribute to Cthulhu, even if it`s not serious, the more he is empowered. Likewise if he receives no attention eventually he`ll revert to his elemental state within the collective unconcious.

...
right
thats not my metaphysics, and if it was it'd be friggin scary
every time somebody plays Call of Cthulhu or makes The Great Old Ones a bit in their book they're empowering things?

i guess we should all just think of Stay Puft the Marshmellow Man, then

"Welcome to my world" Keanu Reeves as John Constantine

Actually if I remember the movie "Ghostbusters" the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man was an excellent example in that he was conceived as the most "innocuous" form they could imagine and yet provided a vehicle for a powerful elemental energy to manifest itself. That`s not to say all such forces are wilfully harmful ( Although they may be so simply because we don`t understand them or they us ) or that the intent of the magician has no impact on which "beings" are drawn to their "thought forms" but that it can be a dangerous thing to do with only a little knowledge. Fortunately most of our thoughts are only ephemeral and do not attract the attention of the unseen or the world would be an even more f****d up place than it already is. Thank heaven s we live in the era of the short attention span

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Schrödinger's Cat,

PS I apologize for spelling "unconscious" incorrectly in my earlier contribution

what if we jokingly worship someone who already exists? all the legions of people putting faith in David Bowie or Bob Dylan... what's that do?

(hopefully it lets them keep recording and touring way past the end of a normal lifespan, but in people like Hendrix it seemed to have bad effects)

My guess is that you`d be empowering certain forces or "qualities of divine energy" with the image of Bowie or Hendrix which possessed the traits you attribute to them, but that such astral beings would be quite distinct from the sources of their inspiration.

Primary source material on Eostre is scant. The only thing we have is St. Bede's De Temporum Ratione. Despite the Venerable Bede being Christian, he was paradoxically proud of his heathen forbears, and there is no reason to suspect him of misinformation.

For a summary of this lore on Eostre/Ostar/Easter/Ostara check out the info on this website:
http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/goddesses/eostre/index.html

And from my own experience I can confirm she is quite real, alive and well, and definitely not a thought form.

There are many gods forgotten by time and change so it is not suprising that there are those made up. In any case, she became real for some people and that is all that matters. Who knows what gods will be known and worshipped in the future, who and when those were created by men?

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. E. Train:
The pagan goddess Oestre did not exist.
In a recent story in the Sunday Tasmanian academics declare that there was no such Anglo-Saxon goddess called Oestre. Seems it was all made up by some old monk in the 7oo's. Prior to this there was no mention of such a goddess anywhere.

In related news, it seems there is no easter bunny as well. Part of the made up story of the monk is that a magical bunny helped this goddess bring dying plants back to life by helping her put magical eggs under them, thus helping the return of spring.

What next? Spider man is a fake as well?

Well, as much as I'm sure various Christian types are patting themselves on the back for this "discovery," the absence of proof isn't proof in itself.

It's entirely possible that records were lost pertaining to Ostara, or Eostre. But the fact remains that we have a major holiday named for her, with certain symbols long associated with her and her worship.