Nerthus and Ostara: The Sheaf and the Basket
The constellation of Virgo is one of the largest in the sky, if we take it in the way that the Greeks delineated it. The constellation was usually pictured as a woman, laying sideways in the sky, a sheaf of wheat in her hand. Spica, the brightest star in the constellation, was the sheaf. The constellation was associated with mother goddesses of fertility from the Sumerian Ishtar to the Babylonian Shala to the Greek Demeter to the Roman Ceres to the medieval Virgin Mary. We tend to think of "virgin" as being pre-sexual, but its original meaning was something more along the lines of "not coupled", thus all the "virgin mothers". When I looked at Virgo in the sky, laying right below Frey's stars, I saw His mother Nerthus. Laying like the great Earth, She smiled at me from behind Her veil. Then She lifted her other hand and showed me what was in it - a second goddess.
The second brightest star in Virgo, actually a fair way above it was called Vindemiatrix by the Greeks, and was known as "the basket". I'd read that Virgo was also associated with Persephone as Goddess of Spring, and that Virgo shines brightest at the spring equinox. Then I saw it - Vindemiatrix, the Basket, is Ostara's star. And it hit me, and I heard the Gods laugh - never say They don't have a sense of humor - "Right! The Easter Basket!"
Bernadette Brady claims that Spica is the sign of being heavily gifted with inborn talents and brilliance, but of course whether those gifts are used or lay in waste is up to the individual. Traditionally, psychic and spiritual gifts are included along with intellectual and artistic ones. Nerthus's Sheaf gives renown and overcomes arguments. it is the star of the grain harvest, giving success in agriculture, but only if one puts in the work - again, nurturing the potential. The Chinese said that it marked the best days for buying land. All of this reverberates of Nerthus the goddess of the fertile (but devouring) earth and sovereignty of the land.
Vindemiatrix - Ostara's Basket - takes its Greek name from "Grape-Gatherer" as Spica is the grain harvest. It signifies a gatherer, a quiet collector, one who is skilled at knowing when and what to pick and choose. It bestows good mental concentration, but its negative side is being a harbinger of widowhood, or in milder cases someone who constantly fears that they will lose their spouse.