Imbolc: We're Half-Way There

...to spring, we're half-way to spring.  Although you'd never know it here in New England today.

Another snow day.

Yet Imbolc marks the half-way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.  It originated as a Celtic fire festival celebrating the first stirrings of spring.*  Although we have no outward signs of these, perhaps we can feel something sprouting within.

These blooms were wrapped tight within their papery shells just three weeks ago, dormant bulbs.  Although the earth is resting now, deep within, seeds of life are stirring.  

In winter, we look for solace from the cold and bluster.  We find it in our friendships -- our circles of support and laughter.  We find it also in circles that can hold our pain and doubt, reminding us always that we are larger than these.  We find it in winter rituals like planting bulbs and feeding the foraging birds.

So, although my medicine wheel lies buried under snow, we find medicine for our souls in the long winter.  How do you soothe yourself?  How do you extend yourself to others who may be hibernating like the Great Bear constellation not in our winter skies?

Now is the time for cleaning out closets, desks and drawers, purging the old and making room for what's waiting to be born.  It's a time for dreaming, envisioning, planning.  As long as you're snowed in, go within.

I'm brewing a cup of tea and eyeing my meditation cushion.  The hush of the day is perfect for an inner sojourn.

Attune to your inner landscape.  May it radiate with the bright light of your awareness as you traverse the inner realms to unearth your buried treasures.


* Imbolc -- Starting Clean and Clear, Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook 2015, Deborah Blake, p. 37