CONNECTING WITH MID-WINTER 
& CELEBRATING IMBOLC (Feb. 1st)

Our backyard, 2-1-2014

Our backyard, 2-1-2014

An Imbolc altar full of candlelight to symbolize the sunlight we're craving at this time of year. Sheep are included because this is when lambs are born.

A Brigid's Cross (made of pipe cleaners), also symbolizing the Sun.

Imbolc Altar 2014

Bear makes a Brigid's Cross out of aluminimum foil to dedicate our wood stove to Her Fire aspect (see instructions below).

 Winter is Still Beautiful:

Our backyard, 2-1-2014

Our backyard, 2-1-2014

The garden is under three feet of snow.  In some places I can't even see the trimmed roses poking up out of the drifts.  
The taller raspberry canes and hydrangeas are like a man's two-day stubble on a white chin.

Near the house corner where it is warm, the clematis vine is a crumble of brown leaves and stems.  It looks like a heap of tea leaves someone spilled in great haste.

Everything is dormant in the cold.  My spirit, too, is spilled and scattered.  I seem to be at a standstill.

- Gunilla Norris
A Mystic Garden:  Working with Soil, Attending to Soul

Mid-Winter Thoughts from Theresa:

At this time of the year, I sometimes feel stuck between Winter and Spring.  The slower pace of the last few months has been rejuvenating and my Winter dreaming is becoming more concrete, so I begin looking ahead  and choosing specific goals for Spring.  I start working on garden plans and bury myself in project lists and plant catalogs. Although it is still firmly Winter outside, I become restless waiting for the early stirrings of Spring that will give me more energy to manifest my dreams.  

In late January, I notice myself getting cabin fever.  The snow storms have been numerous and I am getting bored of staying indoors.  The multiple layers of clothes that keep me warm feel confining.  I’m tired of walking with a short penguin waddle to be safe on the icy sidewalks.  I am longing for sunlight, because like millions of other Americans, there is no window in my office, and it is dark when I go to work in the morning and dark shortly after I get home.  I feel heavy, like I’m buried under the snow along with the plants.

When February comes, I begin to cheer up.  When others complain about the weather, I remind them that next month will be Spring, and I have a reasonable certainty of being right  (the Spring Equinox is around March 21st).  I go places that remind me that warm days are not far away.  The Garden Expo is held in early February in Madison, and after attending a day of gardening workshops and seeing the live plants set up in the exhibit room, I am much more able to deal with the remaining cold weather.  Or I go to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens Conservatory, which is a human size terrarium full of heat-loving plants and birds, to remind me what it's like to be surrounded by greenery. 

Celebrating Imbolc (February 1st)

In the beginning of February, I celebrate Imbolc, a Celtic festival. Imbolc is halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, much as I am caught between Winter’s rest and Spring’s excitement.  I think of it as the anti-cabin fever holiday.  I build an altar of candles, to give me a little of the light I’m craving.  I do a cleansing and blessing ritual, to free Winter’s now stagnant energy so that it can be replaced with something more positive.  I try to release the cabin fever and appreciate what is left of Winter, while preparing for Spring. 

Imbolc is traditionally a festival of the Celtic Goddess Brigit, who is still much beloved in Ireland today.  Britain is named after Her, and you can still find many of Her sacred healing wells there.  She has many aspects:  She is a healer, a poet, a blacksmith, a midwife, a keeper of hearth and home, and later a Catholic Saint.

She is a Goddess of Fire.  In Kildare, Ireland, Her sacred flame was recently relit in the town square.  It had burned in Her nearby Fire Temple continuously for 1000 years, until the 16th century, then was rekindled in 1993.

I begin my celebration in the morning by working with Brigid's Fire aspect.  I clean our wood stove, trying to remove the crusty bits of food that we’d spilled on the top of it over the Winter.  I do this with a toothbrush, since the top of our wood stove has an attractive but impractical raised waffle pattern. I then light the fire for the day, rededicating it to Brigid.

Later, Bear and I have an Imbolc feast of Irish food, perhaps lamb and colcannon (mashed potatoes with sauted kale stirred in).  We discuss the plans we’d like to manifest in the coming season, so that we can support each other in our efforts.  We might write down our dreams on a piece of paper and burn them in Brigid’s fire, sending our thoughts out to the universe with the smoke.

Or, we might mention our dreams when we do a water cleansing, working with Brigid's Water aspect.  We fill a chalice and add a little water we collected from one of Her sacred wells in Ireland.  While standing in front of Her fire, we dip a finger into the chalice and anoint parts of each other’s body, while speaking a blessing such as this:

Mid-Winter Purification Ritual

Bless your feet             
   that you may walk the path of the Goddess

Bless your womb
   that you will know the Goddess intends you to feel pleasure

Bless your belly
   that you will be grounded in the strength of the Goddess

Bless your heart
   that you will know the love of the Goddess

Bless your hands           
   that you may do the work of the Goddess

Bless your throat           
   that you may speak with the compassion of the Goddess

Bless your ears          
   that you may hear with the understanding of the Goddess

Bless your eyes             
   that you may see the beauty of the Goddess’ world

Bless your third eye (in the center of the forehead)
   that you may know the wisdom of the Goddess


I have seen many versions of a blessing like this.  It can be tailored to your specific situation, or to the plans that you wish to manifest (for example, if Bear wanted to start weight lifting, I could anoint his arm muscles and wish him strength).  If you don’t work with Brigid, you can call on a different Deity.  If you don’t work with a partner, it is equally powerful to do this as a self-blessing.

The blessing helps me feel lighter, less stuck in limbo between Winter and Spring.  I know that in a couple months I'll be working hard in the garden, and missing the quiet pace of Winter.  The cleansing helps me be more present, so I can appreciate the rest of Winter and notice how peaceful it still is, even as I look forward to the activity of Spring. 

Boots crunching on snow
moon rises over bare trees
silent shadows creep.

- Mary Ann Rasmussen

Mid-Winter Music:

Winter Into Spring, piano solos by George Winston, 1982, Windham Hill Records.

Mid-Winter Movie:

GroundHog Day  with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, 1993, Columbia Pictures.  A TV weatherman gets stuck repeating a cold, dreary Feb. 2nd, over and over again until he gets it right.

THE FURRY PROPHET
On Groundhog's Day He uses the crystal ball, acorn Staff of Wisdom, and solar cross to predict when sunny days will return.
(Art by Theresa)

A Groundhog Day Joke from Bear:

A long time ago when I spent the Winter in Florida, I heard about their version of Groundhog Day.  I can't remember what animal is was, so I'm going to call him Charlie the Chipmunk.  Charlie comes out of his hole on Groundhog's day and looks at a topless sun bather.  If she has a shadow, Charlie declares there will be six more weeks of tourists.

Snow falling gently
like stars in a midnight sky
on my navy coat

- Mary Ann Rasmussen

2-1-2014

A Brigid Story from Bear:

Here is a story about how Brigid affected a co-worker of mine.  When I worked at Albion (a sword making company), one of guys was working on cleaning a blade.  He was having trouble getting rid of lumps in the metal and making the blade smooth.  Even after weeks of work he couldn't get it right.  

He said he was an atheist, but he asked me who I go to for inspiration.  I told him the Goddess Brigid is a metal smith.  I suggested he ask Her for guidance in getting the blade done.  He said, "Yeah, sure, that will help," but a little while later he found me and said, "Damn, it worked."  He was shocked that within 10 minutes after he asked for Brigid's guidance the blade was done.  I reminded him to say thank you. He said he was going to keep talking to Brigid when he works on blades. 

From that time I've thought of making a metal Brigid's Cross for craftspeople, but I never found the right metal and didn't get around to making anything while I had the right tools at Albion.  When I came home this Imbolc and saw that Theresa had dedicated our wood stove to Brigid, I remembered this story and thought that it would be a good night to try making one with aluminum foil.  It would be fire proof, so we could hang it on our wood stove.  Theresa liked it, so it must have worked.  

HOW TO MAKE A BRGID'S CROSS

1.  Use aluminum foil to make pipe cleaner length strips.  Pull 6-9" out of the aluminum foil box, then fold it lengthwise multiple times until it's around 1/2" wide.  Rolling it might work too. Start with about a dozen pieces.

3.  Begin the cross by slipping 2 pieces together at a 90 degree angle.  Slip one through the other so they will be locked together.

5.   Continue by putting the 4th arm around the third.

7.  Keep going.

9.  Continue adding pieces until the center of the cross has reached the desired size (this one took 12 pieces).  Then take wire and wrap it around the end of each arm to hold the cross together.  

10. To hang, make a small wire loop on the back of one arm and put it around one of the screws on the chimney (we had to loosen the screw a bit).

2.  Fold each long strip in half.  Small cat not required.

4.  Going counter clockwise, begin the 3rd arm of the cross.  From here on, go around the previous arm  rather than through it.

6.  Continue adding one folded piece at a time, going counter clockwise. The piece you are adding should go around all the previous pieces/ arm sides.

8.  Note that Bear is slipping the new piece completely around the previous pieces.

11.  Ta daa...

Making the cross with pipe cleaners:  
You can use the same procedure to make the cross out of pipe cleaners (see photo near top).  Use two different colors of pipe cleaners.  When you add a new pipe cleaner, use the opposite color of the one that you're putting it next to, and that will make the spiral pattern in the center.  The arms can be tied off with yarn.