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Here we are in seed time, dream time, looking for the cracks of light that tell us to stretch out and grow. We are invited to consider this possibility: What if there is nothing wrong? What if there is no "too slow"?
As the first shoots of tentative growth begin to lift, and we sense the beginning sparks of possibility, of new ways of being, we may feel the itch to create a lengthy to-do list for a new year. Resist and sit, curled and waiting.
Not in the sense of playing too small, but the kind of enough that allows our hearts to expand and our shoulders to loosen, that allows creativity to blaze and joy to bloom, the kind of enough that opens space in our lives to hold ourselves and our seed dreams. Darkness and silence can hold both the sparks of our dreams and the embers of our hopes. We are our own seeds of promise.
-by Molly Remer © Mother Tongue Ink 2022
from We'Moon 2023 pg. 43
The seasonal cycle of the year is created by Earth’s annual orbit around the sun. Solstices are the extreme points as Earth’s axis tilts toward or away from the sun—when days and nights are longest or shortest.
On equinoxes, days and nights are equal in all parts of the world. Four cross-quarter days roughly mark the midpoints in between solstices and equinoxes. Imbolc is the milestone assuring us that we are halfway through winter, and reassures us that spring is indeed on her way. This is Brigid beckoning us to look toward the light, however faint. See her there? Her candle glows.
February 2 Imbolc/Mid-Winter: celebration, prophecy, purification, initiation—Candlemas (Christian), New Year (Tibetan, Chinese, Iroquois), Tu Bi-Shevat (Jewish). Goddess Festivals: Brigit, Brighid, Brigid (Celtic).
Opening © Jenny Hahn 2004
Fragile stirrings at the threshold of spring. The great snaking energy of life has hibernated, shed a skin, its strike-ready kinetic energy is slowly uncoiling.
We leave our caves for early signs of growth, a clear sighting of the crescent moon, first spring flowers spiking last year's leaves, new colours to live by as we turn towards fresh beginnings.
Holy fire, sacred hearth, keeping a perpetual fame on gentle burn, we 'see' her holding a wild swan onto her heart, lorica, not armour but prayer to keep her open to the flow of creative grace as we wait for the next thread of molten imagination, our visions to ignite.
They gather heady momentum as we work them in leather, hammer them in copper, fire them in heats that could raze the roof off. The ground warms. The cold sky opens.
—Debra Hall © Mother Tongue Ink 2021
from We'Moon 2021
Imbolc or Candlemas is a celebration of light and the first spark of spring. It is a whisper of warmer weather and an ember of hope in the darkness of winter.
Crocus' and perennial bulbs start to bloom and Hellebore, Snowdrops, Iris and Daffodils are often the first flowers of Spring to appear.
Each of the cross-quarter days (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain) have a bonus Lunar Holy Day to mark them. They coincide with the New and Full Moons in Aquarius and Scorpio:
These lunar holy days can fall either before or after their sister fire festival dates. Serious Moon devotees often honor the lunar holy day rather than, or in addition to, the more commonly celebrated days.
The images may be vague, because it is dark, after all, and the future is not set. Use the tools you have at hand (tarot, a scrying pool, your drawing pencils, firelight) to intuit what lies ahead, and set your sights on the path that brings the best outcome, for yourself, your family, your community. Your will is powerful.
"Because of their origin partially within the We’Moon community, the Lunar Sabbats are tied to womxn's culture and feminist spirituality, connecting to a powerful thread of revolutionary and transformative magick. For me, I love celebrating the Lunar Sabbats as a more quiet, more intense, and more personal Sabbat celebration. When I’m able to, after attending a public and community-oriented Sabbat celebration, I love being able to gather together with close witch kin for a Lunar Sabbat celebration. If the Sabbats are a bright mirror reflecting the energy of the season in our lives, the Lunar Sabbats are the black mirror of scrying, where we draw energy up from our depths and are guided by the turning of our inner compass."
For a deeper dive into the lunar holy days, read Spiraling Into the Center: The Wheel of the Year & Lunar Sabbats
Imbolc is often celebrated with fire rituals, bonfires or gatherings. It is also known as an inward holiday. Solitude in nature or quiet walks are a great way to welcome Imbolc in.
A Christian holiday celebrating the presentation of Jesus at the temple. This is often a time when folks clear house and remove all the decorations from Christmas or bring candles to places of worship.
France and Belgium: Traditionally celebrate candlemas with crepes or pancakes and candles adorning the entire household.
Luxembourg's celebration centers around children. Children parade through the streets with lanterns and sing to their communities in exchange for treats and sweets.
Puerto Rico celebrates with a procession to the statue of the "Virgen de la Candelaria" with candles. Others celebrate with bonfires or the burning of their Christmas trees.
North America: Much of North America celebrates Groundhog day which falls on February 2nd. This holiday entails weather-lore concerning a badger or groundhog, a germanic weather predictive animal, predicting how many more weeks of winter occur before spring. This tradition says that if a groundhog emerges from his hollow or nest on February 2nd, and the animal saw its shadow, six more weeks of winter weather remained. If, however, the day was cloudy and the groundhog didn't see its shadow, it was a sign that the weather during the following weeks would lead to an early spring.
Brighid's Altar © Beth Lenco 2017
Celtic goddess of fertility and motherhood. She is also a creative goddess holding favor for skilled crafts folk, passion, poetry, creativity and invention.
Like her season, she is a goddess of multitudes and contradictions. She is a goddess of healing, fertility, and motherhood, but also of passion and fire. This season reflects the dichotomy, the promise of spring and the continuing brutality of winter.
Brigid is often portrayed as a fire goddess
with a cauldron or vessel near her.
She has a strong connection with the sun, and Imbolc itself is reflected in the sun's return to the world, as winter’s lessens on the earth come to their culmination. The sun gets brighter and the nights grow shorter.
In ireland, Brigid is a queen of keening at death rituals. Like many mother goddesses she can preside over both life and death. She often resides in and protects cemeteries.
There are many ways to celebrate Imbolc. We hope these ideas inspire you to create your own and share them with us!
Head in the Clouds © Corinne "Bee Bop" Trujillo 2019
Prayer for Sacred Pauses
Goddess of the sacred pause
please grant me the courage
to lay aside swiftness
and take up slowness,
to embrace limitations as learning,
silence as stabilizing,
waiting as worthy,
and sitting as divine.
Goddess of the sacred pause
help me to know stillness as strength,
patience as powerful,
and healing time
as holy necessity.
© Molly Remer 2019
Winter Ritual
The pile of sticks has grown all winter—
Sticks like witches' wands, weathered prayer sticks
picked-up sticks, built into a woody tent,
a grey and brown latticed cone.
Yesterday it snowed
and now I strike a match
to papers torn and pushed
under damp kindling.
I sit by the crackle,
am smudged
in silver smoke.
I am burning the past
on its last remaining day:
Unsent letters
in unaddressed envelopes
Old journals,
pain pressed between pages
like dried flowers
Outdated bills, lists, memos
emptied from their files—
Time's linearity seared.
Flickers of orange curl back black edges,
thin and ephemeral as shed skin.
Words are lifted from their page,
carried off and transliterated
into the primal language of combustion.
Surrounding snow melt
trickles toward the wane of flames.
The day's final blaze flares
from mottled afternoon clouds behind me,
and warms my back
like a brief blessing.
© Jenna Weston 2011
These, and many more articles come from our best selling Moon phase planner, and astrological calendar: We'Moon: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn.
Highlights of our desk top date book include information for every day:
Poised in the season's symmetry, ask: what does another world look like? The anxieties hover—climate change, nuclear holocaust, environmental devastation—but let us not stress only existential apocalyptic tales. How de we stop devouring the planet and instead energize stories of plenty and repair?
In simpler times, communities gathered to jump over fires in the fields and participate in the great round of fertility. Listen to the voices of the universe saying YES—the sun shines, the birds sing, the flowers bloom. The purpose of the universe is to celebrate the delight of its existence. May that inspiration hot-wire us into the living voltage of the Mother. Renew your life with others.
The triumph of light peaks, slides slowly to dissolve. This is the tipping point for everything: democracy, misogyny, racism, climate, freedom. All are on a cliff edge. We've reached the neon-bright entrance to The Great Turning. Change is the only thing that doesn't change. Are we ready?
A Prayer © Lupen Grainne 2009
