Celebrating Imbolc + an Imbolc ritual from my personal grimoire!
From Celtic origins, Imbolc marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox on February 1st. This sabbat celebrates the first showing signs of the Spring season and the daylight's gradual return. Pending on your personal preference and climate, you can also choose to celebrate this when you start to notice the first signs of spring in your area! Here are a few simple ideas to celebrate Imbolc in your home:
Make and/or light candles
Imbolc is a holiday celebrating both the return of light and also creativity. You can make, dress or just light candles with the intention of bringing creative growth or just to honor the light and the coming season!
Create art or poetry for Brigid
Imbolc's origin celebrates the goddess Brigid, a fertility goddess and also the goddess of poetry and creativity. If you're crafty, artistic or a writer, now is a great time to draw from those creative energies and make something in honor of or in the spirit of Brigid.
Brigid dolls or Brigid crosses
Another Brigid-related craft, one tradition I've found in my research of this holiday is to craft dolls out of straw, corn or yarn to represent Brigid. This is to honor her and to celebrate creation and creativity.
When Imbolc and Brigid were adopted by Christianity (Brigid was turned into St. Brigid in Ireland and Imbolc into Candlemas). With this transformation, the tradition of making dolls morphed into "Brigid crosses." These are woven with reeds or straw.
Spring Cleaning/Cleansing
A lot of people get the "Spring cleaning" bug. This is our instinct to clear out any stagnant or negative energy that accumulated over the winter when our doors and windows are all closed everything gets trapped inside! It's still pretty cold most places around February, but we can still get a jump start by sweeping, dusting and starting to through closets or cupboards that need cleaned out. To spiritually cleanse without opening your windows to the cold, try cleansing with sound (such as bells, singing bowls or other cleansing frequencies) or try making an energy cleansing room spray recipe!
Plan your Spring Garden
If you're a gardener, you can get a jump start on planning your Spring garden! For example, make a list of seeds or supplies like rocks or dirt you need to acquire. Or start planning what you want to try growing and research what they'll need to thrive!
Do an Imbolc Ritual
You can create an Imbolc ritual of your own, or you can find one that resonates with you! Below is one from my personal grimoire:
Supplies Needed:
A vessel of dirt
Bay leaves
Milk (alternative milk is ok!!)
A candle (a taper, chime or tea light candle would all work. Even a birthday candle will do in a pinch!)
Additional Herbs with magickal properties that you wish to grow OR properties that you feel represent the season. Make sure these are all safe for the earth and environment that you will be returning it to!
OPTIONAL: Oil to dress the candle with (like jojoba or olive oil, or a mix with a similar carrier oil. Not straight essential oils! I used an anointing oil purchased from a witchcraft supply shop)
Gather your supplies together. Dressing your candle is an optional step but can help nicely meld the energies of your dirt and candle together. I chose to dress mine in a "harmony" oil and then a crushed version of the same ingredients I'm going to dress the soil with.
Place your candle in the center of the dirt. "Dress" the dirt around the candle by sprinkling or placing on the herbs/spices/ingredients you selected in a clockwise direction. The bay leaves will then stick partway in the soil, representing new growth. As you dress the soil, focus your thoughts and intentions on the things that you wish to grow with the coming season of growth.
To honor Brigid, goddess of poetry (or just the season of creative growth), write or recite an incantation or poem. Here's mine:
The wheel turns and seeds we sow.
The light returns and helps them grow.
Lightly sprinkle and nourish your soil with the milk, again in a clockwise motion. Visualize or (if you're not a visualizer) know and feel that the milk is growing the seeds of your intentions in the soil and helping them grow.
Finally, light the candle. You can sit with the candle and thank the Earth, thank the season or seasonally relevant deities, thank the growth that is coming to you. Or you can sit and reflect on the growth that you've already accomplished that you are grateful for. You can also just let it burn while you do other activities and just let it welcome the growing energies of the season into your home!
Let the candle burn down all the way down. Depending on your selected candle, this could be in one sitting or over the course of a few days or evenings!
To complete the ritual, return the soil and herbs to the earth. You can either immediately put the soil outside, or you can keep it in the original vessel or in a jar to use in your Spring garden.
