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A lot will no doubt have already been said about the festival of Imbolc, and the goddess Brigit, but what is often overlooked is how many prayers, blessings and charms there are in our traditional lore to honour and work with her.
At this time, a ritual 'saining' or blessing of yourself and your home is especially important and can bring a fresh, clearer energy into your psyche and your space.
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The name, Imbolc, comes from “i mbolg,” Old Gaelic for “in the belly.” What fertile seed is beginning to grow down in the belly of your deepest being? What’s shaking and quaking under the rich earth of You? This is the Holy Day for claiming the Light, the Life, the New that longs to grow from you and through you—claiming it, saying yes to it, honoring it with intention and blessing. We’ve been a thought thrumming in the hush of infinity, unnamed desire nestled in the dark swell of winter. It’s delicious riding the wave of infinite potentials, and then there comes a moment to shift out of the void, grab hold of your dream and leap with it into the Real. It’s time to Initiate. Time to place your bet on your own creative power. Time to let the Goddess of Light shine through you. Remember we are layered beings—animal, plant, crystal sleep in the secret strata of bone, blood, brain, aura. Draw on their dreams at this Imbolc Visioning Initiation time.
Miriam Dyak © Mother Tongue Ink 2015
The 2nd of February is of course, the Celtic festival of Imbolc, which means 'in the belly' referring to the pregnant ewes giving birth at this time. One of its other names, Oimelc meaning 'ewes milk', also referring to the birth of the lambs, and the return of milk to the household. Sacred to the goddess Brighid, who became St Brigit with the coming of Christianity this time is known as Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau in Wales, and more generally the Christian festival of Candlemass.
Brighid may well have given her name to Britannia the sovereign goddess of Britain, but she is best known as a goddess of the hearth and home, as well as milking, midwifery, healing, smithcraft and poetry. Brighid is a fiery goddess, connected to the rising Kundalini in the earth at this time, bringing the spring. She is said in Scottish folklore to have to defeat the Cailleach or goddess of winter each year to bring life back to the land.
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