SUGGESTED READING: Core Text
_To Ride A Silver Broomstick_ by Silver Ravenwolf
Chapter 5: Your Special Days of Celebration, pp 34-5
SUGGESTED READING: Supplemental Texts
_The Spiral Dance_ by StarHawk
Chapter 12: The Wheel of the Year, pp 186-87; notes, p. 246
_Wicca: A Guide For the Solitary Practitioner_ by Scott Cunningham
Chapter 8: Days of Power, pp. 65-6;
Section 3: The Standing Stones Book of Shadows, pp 130-31
_Living Wicca_ by Scott Cunningham
Chapter 16: Ritual Design Part I, pp. 117-23
_21st Century Wicca_ by Jennifer Hunter
Chapter 5: The Sabbats, pp. 64-5
_Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft_ by Raymond Buckland
Lesson 6: Sabbats, pp. 71-73
SUGGESTED READING: Additional Texts
_The Magical Household_ by Scott Cunningham
Chapter 16 : The Magical Year, pp. 137-138
_The Pagan Family: Handing the Old Ways Down_ by Ceisiwr Serith
Chapter 7: The Festivals, pp 113-21
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"Life is a process, not a state; and the
Witches Sabbats are essentially a means of
putting oneself in tune with that process."
- Stewart Farrar
Imbolc, known also as "Oimelic," "Candlemas," "St. Brigid's Day"
and in our culture "Groundhog Day," means "in the belly" and
signifies an end to the dark, hungry days of winter. With the
birthing of lambs and the lessening of winters frozen grip, the
pastoral Celts felt the stirrings of spring as Brigit again stood
watch over home and herd.
Imbolc is the domain of the ancient fire goddess Brigit (Bride,
Brigid, Brig). Like many prehistoric goddesses, Brigit is a triple
aspect goddess and, as such, serves as patroness of poetry, healing
and smithcraft. Traditionally, imbolc is a festival of lights to
herald the coming of spring and to banish the winter season.
Imbolc is a pastoral festival associated with the Sun's return,
spring births, and candle consecration. It marks the visible
lengthening of the days, and the time that villagers would check
their stores to be sure that they had enough food, both for
themselves and their livestock, to last the remainder of the
winter.
Silver Ravenwolf says:
"Candlemas is one of those holidays that creeps up on you
as you are finally breathing a sigh of relief from the
steady roll of celebration from October through
December."
With this in mind it is easy to let the Sabbat slide by without
marking it. In our modern lives the season has little impact on
our day to day life of getting up and going to work or classes, but
for our ancestors being tied to the land for their living would
have been largely confined. In the northern hemisphere the ground
is often covered with snow at this point, it is too hard to till
and prepare for spring planting... Our ancestors would be living
off their stores from the previous harvest and this would be a time
for review and reflection. A time of looking back, at the stores
you put back (Were they sufficient?) and at the resolutions you had
made (Am I on the right path?). Being mostly housebound this was
the best time for working on things for the house, sitting in front
of the cook fire while the stew simmered and working on a quilt,
dipping candles from the tallow in your stores, making the small
repairs which you were too busy for during the growing season.
As Silver Ravenwolf concludes:
"The Candlemas Sabbat marks the time to welcome the
spring. This festival is for fertility and to celebrate
the things that are yet to be born, just barely waking
under winter's cold shroud. This is also a time to look
over your magickal cabinet to determine what you are low
on and what you may need for the coming months."
In _The Spiral Dance_ Starhawk says:
"Each key event in the myth is linked to one of the
Sabbats. On Samhain, the Year Child of possibility is
conceived. On the Winter Solstice, the Child is born.
At the Feast of Brigid [Imbolc], the Child becomes the
Promise we make to the cauldron, which sets our challenge
for the year. At the spring Equinox, the Child of
Promise becomes the child of Balance, who grows at
Beltane to the Rising Desire that culminates at Summer
Solstice and passes over into its opposite, the One Who
Descends, who Gives Away, the Dreamer. At Lammas we hold
the wake of the dying sun, and by Fall equinox the
Dreamer becomes our Guide into the place where birth,
death, and regeneration are one. And so at Samhain the
cycle ends and begins anew."
Each Sabbat marks a critical point in the wheel of the year, by
honoring each of them we "put ourselves in tune with the process of
living" and celebrate that process. Each of the Sabbats is
important, each of them has a place, and whether you follow the
Wheel of the year as outlined above or define your own traditions
(as is essential if you are living in the Southern hemisphere where
the cycle of the year is such that it doesn't dovetail into the
Sabbats as they are outlined in most contemporary books) marking
each of the Sabbats can be a very important way of charting your
life and your spiritual development.
Speaking of myth cycles, I am always reminded of the
Persephone/Demeter myth during this time of year. I've come to
identify this Sabbat with Demeter, grieving for her lost child, her
sorrow blanketing her body with snow, her anguish causing the
plants themselves to wither. The power of her grief throws the
very earth into mourning. It is at this point that the Gods relent
and send for Persephone in the underworld. It is the nature of
Persephone's curse that she is bound to return to her husband in
the underworld, but for 6 months out of the year she returns to her
mother and the joy her mother experiences revives the earth.
According to some versions of the Demeter myth, in the depths of
her despair a clown-like figure comes to her and dances to revive
her spirit and bring her joy. This mythical figure, Baubo, has
always served to me as a reminder that although it is spring, with
the flowers and the births of the young animals, which is
associated with love and joy and renewed life, those animals are
conceived and the flowers sprout in the darkness of winter. This
is the role, for me, of Imbolc... It is a time for renewing joy,
for snuggling close under covers, for coupling and for a renewed
commitment to life.
Imbolc is also known as Lady Day because it celebrates the Goddess
in her Maiden form, usually as Brigit, or Bride. It is the time
that the Crone changes from her Crone aspect into the Maiden. (or,
going back to the Demeter/Persephone cycle, It is at this time that
Persephone begins her ascent from the underworld so that she may
rejoin her mother and share her renewed joy and the life emerging
from the Earth around them.) As part of this change, the
celebration usually focuses on the quickening of the Earth, Light
rather than Warmth.
Seasonal Ideas
* Make and bless candles for the year to come
+ Herbs are an extremely important part of candle-
crafting, for each herb possesses a different
magickal property
+ When preparing candles for spells, a small amount of
the appropriate powdered herb should be added to
the melted wax before pouring it into the candle
mold. This provides the candle with the proper
magickal energy needed for spell casting.
* Have an outdoor bonfire ritual.
+ you can build snow sculptures for quarters, have a
snowball fight or otherwise utilize the snow.
+ Use luminaries at the quarters (bags filled with sand
on the bottom to stand candles on.
* Do a canned goods and/or clothing drive for the less
fortunate.
* Modernize one of these traditional celebrations.
+ Corn dollies, traditionally portrayals of the Maiden,
are common symbols of Imbolc. In England and
Scotland today, "Bridesmen" still carry a corn
dolly or a representation of a young girl dressed
in wheat ("corn" in Britain) stalks and woven straw
from house to house asking for money and special
"St. Brigit's cakes."
+ Bread spread with butter was left on the sills on
Imbolc Eve as a gift for the Lady, who was thought
to visit each household that night. Butter and
butter churns are sacred to Brigit. Sometimes the
handle of the churn dash was turned upside-down and
stuck into the ground with a cake placed on the
flat top.
+ In Scotland, on the last day of January, the ladies of
the household would dress a corn dolly or a sheaf
of oats (fertility) in woman's clothes and lay it
in a basket or on a pile of reeds called a "Bride's
Bed" next to the fireplace. A club, rod, or wand
(often with a pine cone tip) was laid next to the
doll. The women would then call out three times
"Bride is come! Bride is welcome!" and discreetly
withdraw so that the phallic "God" would impregnate
the "Goddess." When the night was over, the women
returned and checked the ashes of the fireplace for
some type of sign. This could be the imprint of the
club in the ashes, a footprint or any other
mysterious symbol. If they find one, the coming
year will be fruitful.
Since the last lesson was on the framework for a Wiccan ritual I
will conclude this lesson with an outline which I hope will make
incorporating ritual into your celebration of imbolc easier. A
popular Imbolc activity is to prepare seeds, as in the ritual below,
for spring planting.
Lay out the altar with your regular altar tools and add these
extras:
a bowl of earth with a seed of some sort
as many white tapers on the altar as is safe
seasonal decorations, such as evergreens, sun wheels, or
a cup of melted snow.
An altar cloth in a light or ice blue would be appropriate and
candles in white and green (perhaps to symbolize the snow
which often covers the ground at this time and the green of
life just below the surface).
Cast a circle, and invoke the God and the Goddess, visualizing
both with as young and vibrant.
Then bring the seed and dish of earth or pot of soil to the
front of the altar. Hold the seed in your hand, knowing that
it is the beginnings of life. Bless it in this manner:
"In my hands I hold the seed of beginnings, of
life, wisdom, and of coming spring. I ask the
God and the Goddess to place a blessing on it
so that it may prosper in the coming season."
Then think of something you want. It could be a request of the
God and the Goddess, or something you want from yourself.
Concentrate on this as you hold the seed.
"With this seed I plant a request, and hope
that with careful nurturing and daily care, my
goals may come to fruition in time."
Having said this, place the seed in the soil and cover it.
What is to be done with it after this is up to you. Since the
planting of the seed was, for the most part, symbolic, you may
choose to discard it (a waste of a perfectly good seed, if you
ask me) but many find it useful to grow the seed and keep the
plant around as a reminder.
Hold the simple feast, and then you may do any magic or
seasonal activities that you had planned for this evening. One
Imbolc tradition is to weave corn dollies.
Thank the God and Goddess and close your circle.
I realize that this lesson has been heavily skewed in favor of the
Northern Hemisphere. Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere might wish
to keep some of these notes for use in their Sabbat Celebration in early
August. For now, since the world around you is preparing for harvest, you
might consider something which completes the cycle which this starts.
Think of this as a time to harvest the fruits of your year's labors,
reflect on the seeds which you have planted in your life in the past 6
months and how they have effected your life. Begin to consider what you
will plant when spring comes to you, are there areas of your life which
you would leave fallow? are there seeds which you planted this year which
you would plant again in the spring? I realize that the reversal of the
seasons presents some unique problems to the Pagan in the southern
hemisphere, at the same time, I see it as a unique opportunity to see how
the cycle continues and how it is at once beginning and ending, reaching
it's peaks and it's valleys all at the same time.
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Topics for Discussion/ Exercises:
1.) Share with the group how you plan to celebrate the upcoming Sabbat.
2.) In your reading, or your web searching, have you found other Imbolc
lore you would like to share?
3.) Add information on Imbolc to your notebook or your Book of Shadows to
go with the Yule info from the earlier Meta-Lessons (they're available on
the web page if you're new or if you would like to go back and look again)
4.) Start thinking about how you would keep and organize your magical
supplies. What do you feel that you need. Start a wish list for your
altar and circle supplies.
5.) Have a Blessed and Wonderful Imbolc.
Document Copyright (c) 1998 Andi Woods-Fasimpaur
This and all related documents can be re-published only as long as no information is changed, credit is given to the author, and is provided or used without cost to others.