Imbolc falls around February 1st or 2nd, and is the predecessor to our modern Groundhog Day, when we divine whether we will have a quick end to winter or more cold days ahead.
The name Imbolc or “in the belly” comes from this time of year in Ireland when the ewes become pregnant. It is the promise of new life growing in the womb, the first signs that Spring is on the way. The Earth’s energy is waking up and the Sun’s power grows stronger as the days lengthen. It’s a time of new beginnings, of awakening, hope, and promise.
Like many of our Wiccan and neo-pagan traditions, this one comes from the Ancient Celts too! In the “Wheel of the Year” this is the mid-point between Yule at Winter Solstice and Ostara at Spring Equinox. Traditionally Imbolc was celebrated by the ancient Celts at the first signs of Spring, or on the Full Moon closest to this time. By this time folks have grown weary of the cold winter and developed “cabin fever” in the Northern-most parts of the world, so the idea that it will soon be over was certainly a reason to celebrate. Farmers would begin to plough the land, and fishermen return to sea.
Here in San Diego it’s difficult to appreciate the importance of those early signs that life is returning to the land after suffering through a cold winter, especially as we’ve been enjoying unusually warm and sunny weather this year! But by this time the days are noticeably longer and my neighborhood farmer’s market will reopen after a winter break.
Traditionally all the evergreens that decked the home at Yule were burned. In the morning after, if the ashes were found to have been disturbed overnight, it was a sign that Brigid had come by to purify and bestow her blessings on the household. Imbolc is a time to honor the Goddess Brigid (usually pronounced “Breed” or “Bride”) with feasting and bonfires. She is patroness of hearth and home, a Goddess of fire and alchemy, of smithcraft, healing, and poetry.
Today she is known as Saint Brigid as the Catholic Church canonized many pagan deities as a way of converting the people.
Our heart-center is the hearth of our “home,” our body, our internal flame—how brightly is yours burning? Perhaps it’s time to stoke the flames! Fire symbolizes inspiration, the spirit within, the breath of life. Imbolc is a time for kindling creativity, healing, and passion (sexual and otherwise), for rededications and initiations, it’s a good time for a little Fire magick!
Fire has the power to transmute energy. “Transformation” is about physical healing, it takes time to facilitate. “Transition” takes less time and is about shifting perspective, emotional and mental healing. “Transmutation” is spiritual and instantaneous, flipping energy in the moment. Fire creates change fast!
Imbolc is not about fulfillment, only the promise of fulfillment. For now all we can do is wait. We see signs that ourdreams and visions from Winter’s hybernation may in fact come to fruition this year, but we don’t yet know for sure and it’s too early to tell.
What we can do is continue to let go of the old, what no longer serves us, and prepare ourselves for the new, what is yet to come. In both the Apache and Incan traditions that I follow (both are related in ancestry) we use fire ceremony to help us with this task. We symbolically put what we are letting go of into the fire, and then pull the fire into our energy body—as a way to transmute the energy.
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