01/30/2024
🐸🪷🌞
This Thursday is Imbolc, the sacred seasonal day that marks the mid-point in winter. In the Celtic Wheel of the Year, this is a really meaningful and magical time.
But why??? What makes Imbolc significant? WHY is this a sacred seasonal day that has been celebrated since ancient times?
The original word Imbolg means 'in the belly'. All is pregnant and expectant - and only just visible if at all, like the gentle curve of a 'just-showing' pregnancy. It is the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of earth awakening and life-force stirring. Here is hope. We welcome the growth of the returning light and witness Life's insatiable appetite for rebirth.
Imbolc is the midpoint of winter. It’s still very cold outside. The natural world is still dead and bare. Nature is continuing to rest. And yet … the Sun is slowly returning.
The Earth is continuing to shift back toward the Sun and the daylight is growing. We can already see the Sun is setting later than it did, only one month ago, at the Winter Solstice
As the daylight shifts so does the natural energy. As the daylight continues to grow, nature will slowly begin to return to outside world.
At Imbolc nature is in the earliest stages of making this shift: deep underground new life is beginning to buzz. There may not be any indication of this in the outside world, but deep down in the darkness nature is coming alive again.
I wanted to share the 4 invitations for growth Imbolc brings.
• Go slow. There’s no rush to get moving. These are still restful, sleepy days of stillness.
Make sure you continue to prioritize rest where you can. This is still your most important work.
• Dream.
In winter, you are dreaming up all the new dreams of things to come in the year ahead. This is where you discover exciting new ideas, new plans, new directions for your life – your winter dreams will become the seeds you will plant in the seasons ahead. And right now, your most vivid dreams are available to you. Make sure you give yourself meaningful time to explore them. What are your most vivid dreams for yourself? What do you want to dream up for life this year?
• Celebrate the tiniest sparks of new life waking up within you.
You cannot see it yet, but new life is buzzing deep within you. This new life holds within it, the potential to grow into anything you can dream for yourself. Even if you can’t see it or name it – and you probably can’t because it’s occurring deep in the dark – trust that the natural energy is at work within you. Trust that new life is brewing deep within you. Celebrate that new life. Honor it. Welcome it.
• Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable.
As new life grows, you’re forced to stretch and expand in ways that don’t always feel good. Meaningful change is hard. It requires you to leaves things that are familiar and comfortable, abandon ways of doing things that felt safe & easy. We have to feel the fear and uncertainty that comes with doing something new. We have to let ourselves sit in the discomfort. Do you have the strength and courage to leave what is comfortable and step into the new life you’re dreaming for yourself?
I love working with my essential oils, especially during all the seasonal events. For Imbolc you might enjoy diffusing Frankincense, Peppermint, Sage, Lavender, Sweet Birch, Bergamot, Melissa, Rose Geranium or Wintergreen. These are all “awakening” oils and also gentle calming oils, because we are still in the quiet phase of inner work.
If you are partial to crystals, you might consider Serpentine, Moss Agate, Jade, Selenite, Rose Quartz, Lepidolite, Sunstone and Green Aventurine.
Some questions you might journal:
* Where do you see yourself going this year?
* What new ways of being are you actively leaning into?
* What’s holding you back?
