White Magic Studio

kfairx-blog:

Have a blessed Imbolc everyone ~

elen-amariel:

Imbolc blessings 🙂

cottagewitch:

Ritual Themes (and Ideas) for Imbolc

Quickening of the Earth

The earth is quickening. This means that deep within the soil, the stirring of life is beginning. Seeds are waking up, snowdrops begin to bloom, and hope reigns supreme through the last of winter.

• ·         Bless the seeds that you will later plant at Ostara
• ·         If you have no snow, begin preparing your garden bed, weeding out invasive plants and testing your soil
• ·         Meditate on the quiet potential that you have within yourself
• ·         Create goals for the year
• ·         Do divination for the year

  

Celebrating Brighid

Brighid is the Irish goddess of fire, forge and inspiration. She’s also known as a goddess of healing. Imbolc is her feast day.

• ·         Give creative offerings to Brighid
• ·         Create something – make some sort of craft
• ·         Craft a Brighid’s cross
• ·         Make a Bride doll, and lay a wand next to her in a Bride’s bed
• ·         Create a shrine dedicated to healing, and light candles for those in need
• ·         Ask for inspiration in an endeavor
• ·         Sing songs about Her
• ·         Any of the below fire festival ideas would also be appropriate, as Brighid is a fire goddess of the hearth

Fire Festival

Imbolc is one of the four Wiccan cross-quarter days or fire festivals. Some people like to focus on the fire aspect for Imbolc, especially when it’s obvious it’s still very much wintertime.

• ·         Light tons of candles representing hope for spring
• ·         Focus on firey foods
• ·         Ritually light your hearth fire from a blessed candle
• ·         Make candle lanterns
• ·         Make candles
• ·         Have a candlelight procession

Foods for Imbolc usually involve some sort of dairy component, as this is the time where sheep’s milk would begin to come in. 

themusewithinthemusewithout:

Celebrating the fire within and without.
February the second is the day of the celtic festival named Imbolc. Imbolc represents the lenghtening of days and the return of the sun as the winter starts to give way to the coming spring. This is a celebration of regeneration as the element of fire revered this day by lighting ritualistic fires and candles stands for the overcoming of obstacles and of old stagnant ways, this is an opportunity to purify old karma as we set forth towards new versions of ourselves. The first sprouting of leaves and of the Crocus flowers (symbolic of the sun element) make their appearance, mother earth is ready to give birth to new possibilities as the first lambs begin to lactate as well; Imbolc is also associated with milking so dairy products are consumed this day. This is a celebration of fertility and of the goddess Brighid, goddess of poetry, healing and patron of metaloworkers, we may imagine the baby sun nursing from the fiery goddess’s breast as he becomes more radiant each day. The inspirational goddess provides us with new ideas and the solar plexus chakra is being activated as we enforce ourselves with renewed stamina. The ancient goddess Semele, mother of Dionysus, is another version of Brighid. Semele gave birth to Dionysus surrounded by the ritualistic flames of change that remove any impurities so new ‘pathos’ can emerge.

Brighid painting by John Duncan.

petitepointplace:

“The symbolic awakening of hibernating snakes took place around February 1. In Scotland a serpent was supposed to emerge from the hills on Imbolc, The Day of Bride (Brigit) (”Today is the day of Bride; the serpent shall come from the hole”). On that day effigies of snakes were made.  Carmichael notes that one of the most curious customs of Bride’s Day was the pounding of the serpent effigy and records and occasion when an elderly woman put a piece of peat into a stocking and pounded it with fire-tongs while intoning:

This is the day of Bride,

The queen will come from the mound,

I will not touch the queen,

Nor will the Queen touch me.

In Lithuania, this is the “day of Serpents” (Kirmiai, Kirmeline from Kirmele, “serpent”) when “serpents come from the forest to the house.” On that day, whose present Christianized equivalent is called Krikstai and is celebrated on January 25, people would shake the apple trees in the orchard so they would be more fruitful and knock on beehives, waking the bees from the winter sleep.  The awakening of the snakes meant the awakening of all nature, the beginning of of the life of the new year.

There is a very interesting text from the 16th century by Maletius which relates to the ritual feast “at a certain time of the year”; probably the Day of Serpents.

Honoring them as deities, at a certain time oft he year they invite them to the table with seer’s prayers.  “Crawling out (from out of their sleep) they lie down  on the clean cloth and make themselves comfortable on the table.  There, tasting a little every dish, they slither (to the ground) and return to their hole.

With the retreat of the snakes the people happily eat the dishes that have been tasted by them confident that at that time (i.e., in the coming year) everything will go ell for them.  And if, in spite of the seer’s prayers, the snakes don’t break away (from their lair) or do not come to taste the laid-out dishes–then they believe that in those years a huge misfortune will befall them.

The tasting of the food by the serpents signified their blessing, which guaranteed the successful continuation of the year.  The significance of the beginning is a predestination: the success of the entire year depends on how it starts.

–Excerpted from “The Language of the Goddess” by Marija Gimbutas