ASTRONOMY: The sun arrives at the moon's standstill.
Days are shorter than nights, days grow longer rapidly.
IMBOLC: The gates open between the worlds. This is the "quickening"
of the year, the time when a change happens in the spirit world.
We celebrate the time of new ideas and inspiration.
imbolc reading
this is the moment when we reach the end of our resources, the
last potato eaten, the last log burnt. the winter fat has melted
off our bodies; we are honed as thin as wine, as the crescent
moon. the weather is unsettled, light blooms and rain soaks. we
steal the swords, but don't know where to put them. the tents
are flapping in the wind, it is time to move camp. the one who
loves home is a danger to us now, holding us back from the unexplored
paths.
From The Feminine of History is Mystery, facing page 116
The name "Imbolc" comes from words meaning "Ewe's
milk" because this is the time when the ewes begin lactating
in preparation for giving birth. It's also known as the "Quickening"
of the year, when the seeds wake up under the frozen ground and
begin to get ready for spring. The Christian celebration of the
Purification of the Virgin, a Jewish ritual that takes place 40
days after the birth, is on February 2, which is 40 days after
Christmas. "Candlemas" refers to the church blessing
of the yearly supply of candles. This is a typical example of
a new religion taking over the holidays of an old one. Originally,
this was the feast day of the goddess Bride, a Celtic goddess
of poetry, fire, and healing. There are other Celtic traditions
in which an animal comes up from the ground to foretell spring.
I also suspect that the groundhog's shadow may be an ancient remembering
of telling the season by the shadow of a post or standing stone.
Imbolc, known at Neskaya as "Ground-Candle-Bolc", is
the most eclectic of our holidays, which probably reflects the
Aquarian energy of this time, and a lot of input from Synchronicity.
A friend brought me some armadillo candles, bought in the Dollar
Store, saying "you MUST have armadillo candles for Imbolc."
Someone else said they thought the dance "Hex" was perfect
for Imbolc. A person with a birthday August 1 asked about the
meaning of Lammas. In trying to explain, I found myself talking
about how the plant set the seed, how the dough is baked into
bread, how the pot is fired and the malleable clay becomes hard
as rock. That's a kind of change in the material world. So I thought
about Imbolc, when Spirit and matter are separate, what kind of
change in the Spirit world would continue the circle? It occurred
to me that this change is inspiration, a new idea to be given
material form at Beltane, and then to become fixed, or crystallized,
or solid at Lammas. At Samhain, the material form is broken to
free the Spirit once again for new creativity. The fire festivals
for me became the stages of creativity. Thinking about the dance
"Hex" created by June Watts to a song by Mari Boine,
I saw it as first breaking through a hard crust, then clearing
away obstacles, listening to the deeply buried new potential,
and clearing the way for its emergence. Perfect! And the armadillo,
the "Little Armored One"? I saw that armor was created
by a being that failed to let go at Samhain, and developed a hard
crust which must be broken with force, to free the trapped spirit.
Dances we do at this time include:
Lulla Loel - for the crystalline frost
Kitka - for winter's beauty
Hex - a dance for breaking through, clearing away obstacles, and listening for the new potential that has been hidden
Cantus Iteratus - This dance represents Aquarius: it has two parts - a stately dignified part for the Saturn rulership, and an ecstatic part for the Uranean rulership
Freedom Road - also for Aquarius
Bright Fire - we do the traditional dance "Sweet Girl" to music by a celtic group. "Bright Fire" is for Brigid, whose holiday this is
Shaman's Dance - for the thinning of the veil between the worlds
Bells of Norwich - for the daffodil that tells us "All shall be well."