Imbolc, anticipation and preparation

Imbolc, Bridget or Bride’s day, is coming, an important promise-of-spring date in the cold North lands. But we have been overlooked through the long, dark season by a Goddess/Saint bearing light, hovering protectively. From St Lucy’s day on the 13th December, through Solstice/Christmas Eve - the Anglo Saxon Modranicht “Mother’s Night’ - we come to the 2nd February and the last festival of light in darkness.

This year I’m anticipating Imbolc with a simple daily practice and paradoxically, I find doing that settles me firmly into the here and now and if you’d like to join me, you can find ideas at the bottom of this post.

A multi-faceted Goddess

Bride is and over-arching Goddess with too many associations to list, too many place names to recount; a tutelary Goddess of the Iron Age tribe the Brigantes* in the north of the UK, and holding a rich mythology rooted in Ireland at Kildare, where she transformed from a Pan-Celtic goddess to a pre-eminent Saint, hanging St Patrick’s cloak on a sunbeam to dry along the way! She was Mary’s helper/midwife, and in the Highlands and Islands she vied with Mary for precedence: she was called ‘The Mary of the Gael.’

A women’s mystery school

Bride’s association with Kildare (Cill Dara, the church of the Oak) postulates a female-only enclave. As with St Lucy, her festival focuses on girls and women as ritual holders.

Giraldus Cambrensis in the C11th says that nineteen nuns kept a perpetual fire burning at Kildare in her honour; a fire that had burned since Brigid's time. Each nun took a turn in guarding the fire overnight, but every twentieth night Brigid was said to return to keep the fire burning: "The nineteenth nun puts the logs beside the fire and says 'Brigid, guard your fire, this is your night'. And in this way the fire is left there, and in the morning the wood, as usual, has been burnt and the fire is still alight".

It’s a beautiful story, which echoes through modern Pagan practice. It’s the basis of what I’ll be doing – lighting a candle every day for 19 days until the weekend of Imbolc.

This perpetual fire may originally have been a temple of Brigit the goddess, and the beautiful practice of perpetual light and spreading candles from a holy flame has been revived in modern times, but it is as potent an act to dedicate our own candles to the Goddess and the season. We are the instigators of our own sacred practice.

Bride in Avalon

Bride also has her place in the Avalonian mysteries at Glastonbury. Bride’s Mound on the outskirts at Beckery was called ‘Little Ireland’ on old maps and holds the archaeology of one of the oldest monastic communities in our islands –perhaps a community of women, a folk memory which transformed into Arthur’s knights resting there overnight to vigil before continuing to the sacred enclave? Certainly, St. Bridget is said to have left a bell and comb in the Abbey as holy relics. Find these many associations in Dion Fortune's book of articles covering every aspect of the town, Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart.

The goddess’ gifts and how we might honour them

In February, the time of scarcity, stories of Bride’s abundance bring comfort. * Her myth is rich with imagery of fertility, similar to ancient Celtic Brigantia (meaning high, exalted) and other mother goddesses.

· Her cows could fill a lake with their milk three times a day
· Her larder would never empty no matter how much was taken from it
· She gave butter to the poor which was miraculously replaced.
· She became the patron saint of beer and cows

But we remember her chiefly as the Goddess of fire and water: of poetry, healing and smithcraft – that is, the air of inspiration, the fire of creativity and the healing waters of life.

There are 19 days to the feast of Imbolc, and here is a template to adjust as you wish, for 10 minutes practice on each of those 19 days.

· Look out first thing each day at the coming light.
· Make a note of its quality, the feeling it inspires within you
· Depressingly gloomy day? Reach beyond the clouds to imagine the strengthening sun
· Feel the light outside reaching in to connect to your inner light, wherever this is located - the head, the heart, the abdomen

· Feel the connection strengthening your psychic core
· Light a candle each day to honour that connection
· Either light the same candle, or a new tea light each day which will produce a circle of lights on the day of your ceremony
· Invoke light and plenty into your home and the world in Bride’s name each day
· Respect a traditional time of scarcity: prepare and eat good food lovingly, with awareness for all that we normally take for granted
· Emulate Bride, the giver: donate to a food bank

For Bride the Goddess of poetry, you might compose an invocation.

Example:

I arise to light Bride’s fire this day: the first candle for………. The sleeping oak (or what you observe in the real world – bulbs, a tree, a bird, a movement of branches) And a wish for……..strength through the coming year (a quality that observation can stand for, steadfastness, swiftness, dancing, beauty, delicacy, robustness & so on).

On the second day, compose your second line in the same way.

Then if you wish you can address the Goddess directly, make a form of words:

Example: Goddess of the promise of spring, who prepares to walk the winter land, breathe your rejuvenating breath through the landscape as I honour your arrival.

· Write each line down and recite the whole evocation at Imbolc
· If you miss a day, don’t get hung up – and don’t let it stop you. The higher powers understand our failings, and it’s intent that is the important thing.
· We can honour Bride, patron of water and fire, healing, smithcraft and poetry with all of the arts; draw, write, compose, dance, garden, sing, practice herb-craft and cook...
· Discover evidence of Bride as the promise of spring on your walks. Or if you can’t walk out, tune into current nature programmes each day. Even when the natural world seems deep in hibernation, there are plenty when we look keenly. Bring them into your daily evocation.

How to celebrate the actual day?

With joy, with the family, with a hearth fire - there are many ways and many good websites dedicated to this Goddess, so craft your own celebration from their ideas and share them with others. This blog has suggestions and its strapline, ‘Using creativity to rekindle a reverence for our precious planet’ surely strikes a chord with all of us. And, especially if you have children, find the instructions for making a Bride’s cross here – a beautiful family activity on an enchanted, candlelit, late winter evening.

With skills, crafts, quiet noticing and gentle observance of the growing light,

I wish you joy and the warmth of the hearth-season,

Penny /|\