Imbolc, Exploration & Experience
Since time immemorial, humans have intuitively known that the maxim "as above, so below" has rung true, landing with integrity in our bones.
Our very cells and the strands of our spiraling DNA resonate in response to this knowledge.
The magi, the priests, the prophets, and the shamans all studied the heavens and the earth, and by so doing, they gained wisdom.
Entire civilizations developed their spiritual practices around this idea. The Egyptians understood that the return of the star Sirius from below the horizon signaled the flooding of the Nile, bringing life-giving waters. From the pyramids of the Olmec, Aztecs, and Maya in Central and South America to the kivas of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico to the long barrows, burial chambers, and stone circles of Neolithic Europe, to the orientation and ornamentation of the great cathedrals of Europe, our ancestors understood the influence of the cosmos on the earth.
At each turn on The Wheel of the Year, you will have an opportunity to work with the energies, archetypes, and myths that pour down from above.
Late winter's stillness and solitude linger, offering a final opportunity to focus on inward pursuits before the energy of spring bursts forth.
What inner work, held over from winter, is still active within you?
To help you answer this important question, I suggest you use an oracle or tarot deck.
The cross-quarter season of Imbolc is one of motion and dynamic (though often unseen) change. Energies are shifting, and the more you know about what is stirring within you, the better prepared you will be to ride those waves of change and shape them for your highest good.
A look inward and ahead is a perfect way to move into the earth's energies at Imbolc.
Imbolc Divination Ritual
Ground and center yourself with slow, deep breaths and eyes closed. Invoke the Spirit of Truth and Divine Protection.
Call upon the wisdom of Brigid.
Shuffle, draw three cards and place them face down from left to right.
Card 1 - something you are aware of, that was a significant part of your inner life during the winter but now is dissolving. This may come as a relief, or you may experience resistance as this situation is familiar and may not yet feel resolved. Nonetheless, it is departing. Name this situation and let it go.
Card 2 - You're going a bit deeper now. The card will give you a clue to something in your unconscious that has been present throughout the winter. It is also departing, but it is important that you become consciously aware of it before it is released. This card is likely to give you insight into something that was puzzling you or was nagging at you under the surface.
Card 3 - This card will highlight something that has been present in your inner world, is active, and will continue to influence you and remain with you as you further identify it and work with it.
(If you need more help or would like to go deeper, contact me to book a $99 Imbolc Celtic Cross Tarot Reading - email Jan)
Follow up your card reading by journaling. Use this as an opportunity to take inventory of what is present now and continues in you from last year.
In the Realms Below, Imbolc is Brigid's Season
Imbolc ( pronounced IM-BOHLK or IM-BOHLG ) means "in the belly," a reference to the pregnant ewes who are readying to give birth to lambs, and from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning “milk” and “cleansing.”
Now, let's sink into a deeper connection with the earth's energies present in Imbolc.
Imbolc's opposite on the Wheel is Lammas/Lughnasadh, and this gives a clue to the liminal energies present in both seasons. They are both thresholds closely related to either entering or leaving the belly of Mother Earth.
Imbolc's energy is that of quickening, coming to life, and sensing the very first stirrings of that new life.
There is movement along the passage that leads out of the Earth Mother's womb.
In nature, look for melting snow and ice and that one warm day that heralds spring’s arrival.
Snowdrops, crocus, early narcissus, lenten rose (hellebore), winter aconite, scilla, and other early blooming flowers may begin appearing at the woodland edge, in meadows, and in gardens. Consider buying a small pot of crocus, tete-a-tete daffodils, or another offering at the florist or nursery and placing it where you can enjoy it, even as snow may be falling outside.
Grounding Yourself + Blessing the Earth (available as a download HERE)
On a sunny, warmish morning, listen for bird songs.
Go outside and find a patch of bare earth.
Bend down and touch the earth and offer a blessing.
Then, stand for a few moments and become aware of your feet upon the earth.
Sense the energy of the earth flowing up through your feet and legs, to your heart, and all the way to the crown of your head.
Let this sensation of moving energy fill you; this is the quickening of Imbolc.
Let your intention be to release the grip of winter's energy in your life and consciously shift into the season of Imbolc.
Invite in any of these qualities that the season holds...
Intuition
a free spirit
creativity
imagination
clairvoyance
trust
flow
vulnerability
simplicity
Offer thanks and carry with you a new sense of the season and how it is now living within your conscious awareness and your body.
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Brigid's Cross is an ancient sun symbol.
Imbolc is the quickening of the year.
This is the essential energy of Imbolc, a quickening or surge of new life and especially movement where before there was rest, stillness, and perhaps even stuckness.
Embodied practices are good ways to invite, channel, and move energy when winter can begin to feel stagnant outdoors and within your soul.
The Wheel of Imbolc Energies
Use a 10" (or larger) cake or pizza round or cut a circle from heavy-weight paper
Print the Brigid's Cross - download it Here
Create a simple background by painting or gluing solid or decorative paper to your circle.
The template above links the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul to the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
In this season of quickening in the belly, gather images that speak to you of what is beginning to stir within in each area of Self.
For the Body, consider...
what does your body need right now?
what needs support or tending in the body?
what is changing in your body as you enter this season?
what needs to be healed in your relationship with your body?
what is the relationship between the Body and the Earth?
For the Mind explore...
what new ideas are stirring that are not fully formed or understood?
what is stimulating you to consider new kinds of thoughts?
are there new patterns of thinking that feel possible?
do you sense new ways of knowing beginning to emerge?
what is the connection between Mind + Air?
For the Spirit seek...
movements of Spirit within you that feel new
new, but not fully understood, messages from Spirit
a piece of wisdom from the Spirit that moves something in you
an image of Spirit that captures a surge of excitement within you
what does the symbolism of Spirit + Fire mean to you?
For the Soul sense...
what your Soul needs to nourish it
what your Soul longs for that is stirring within you
something that only your Soul Knows
a new direction for your life that the Soul perceives but the Mind hasn't grasped yet
what the deep waters of the Soul are
Print, cut out, and glue down your Brigid's Cross, either first or last, depending on how you like to work, to define the quadrants.
Fill each quadrant of your wheel with images gathered from old books and magazines for Body, Mind, Spirit + Soul.
You may want to write the words for each part of being and each element on your wheel, or use found words cut from books or magazines, print them from the computer, or use letter stamps. Alternatively, you can write them on the back of your wheel for reference.
Your Wheel of Imbolc Energies will capture what is just beginning to stir and make itself known within you.
The Seasonal Key is Inner Worlds. This season is about what is just beginning to stir in your inner world and come into your inner knowing.
You may not have a clear vision of what this is yet; the images may only hint at a vague sense of something you cannot fully name or comprehend.
At Imbolc, as the Earth herself is still in the twilight space between sleeping and waking, you will find powerful (but hard to articulate) insights and pre-conscious knowings about what is just beginning to manifest, shape your inner journey, and emerge in your inner being.
This is a gentle and tender time of putting out tendrils and feelers, of sensing and seeking what the growing light is calling forth.
Poems for Imbolc
Seeds
I don't know
what this choice will lead to. Or the one
I made yesterday,
or even that one
five years ago,
when I walked away.
I don't know
how hardy this vine will be
how productive,
how sweet her fruit.
I only know that these seeds
are the ones in my hands
and this soil at my feet
is longing
to be the dark agent
of transformation
she was always meant to be.
What good gardener
would waste the gift of seed
for a sliver of doubt
wedged inside her mind?
I want dirt
under my
fingernails
and all my
seed packets
empty.
~ Emily Kedar
In Between Time, or Void of Course
Waking up, in that moment,
coming from the dream world,
the real world,
to this one,
before rolling over,
before feet touch the floor,
the feel of other places
still swimming around me,
I am in between time.
Sometimes lost,
sometimes found,
leaping from one world
to another,
carrying in my rucksack
more secrets
in the hidden pouch inside,
waiting
for just the right moment to
empty them onto the page.
~ Elise Stuart
Create an Imbolc Altar or sacred space...
Include a few things sacred to Brigid...
birch trees
snowdrops
swans
cow
ewe
cockerel
dawn
snakes
poets
healers
seers
blacksmiths
brewers + beer
metal craft
sun
fire
Brigid's Blessings
Once your Imbolc altar or sacred space is ready, use the audio of three prayers and a blessing to bless the space, to bless yourself, your family, pets, and all beings, as the power of the sun grows and life begins to be awakened in the earth and in our hearts and souls.
Nota Bene - Carmina Gadelica is a compendium of prayers, hymns, charms, incantations, blessings, literary-folkloric poems and songs, proverbs, lexical items, historical anecdotes, natural history observations, and miscellaneous lore gathered in the Gaelic-speaking regions of Scotland between 1860 and 1909.
I hope you have enjoyed this deeper exploration and experience of Imbolc. If you have enjoyed it, please consider pledging your support.
May the blessings of Brigid surround you during this season of new beginnings and transformation.
