NoJoMo – Imbolc

Spring. While still just a little ways off, you can smell it in the air around the first of February. I can remember around this time, every year, stepping outside and feeling that it wasn’t as cold although a glance at the thermometer told me that the temperature was still in the low digits. But, it didn’t feel as cold to me and, while playing with my friends during the course of the day, I would shed my jacket easily and to the astonishment of those friends. However, it wouldn’t take but a slight lull in the play for the thought of winter to chill me to the bone and be cold again. But I knew the promise of warmer days were coming soon.

The thought of warmer days is something we should all think of as we enter this cold season. While most people do not like the winter and it’s coldness, this time of the year is necessary for the plants to rejuvenate and the animals to procreate so that, come springtime, each of you has your favorite spring fruits and vegetables and, for those that are omnivorous, the young and tender lamb and veal that comes with the spring also.

Imbolc
February 1st

Imbolc (IM-bulk), also known as Oimelc (OY-melk) or Candlemas, celebrates youthful potential, with the Goddess being venerated in the Maiden guise, while the Horned God is still in his infancy and childhood. That the Goddess has returned to Earth from the Otherworld, and that nature is reawakening under her magical touch, may be evident in the tender green shoot of such spring-flowering pioneers as snowdrops, whose white blooms represent the Maiden’s purity.

Wiccans celebrate the sabbat of Imbolc on February 1st or 2nd, and the return of the Goddess from the underworld in her maiden or virginal form, as exemplified by the Celtic goddess Birgit (“High One”), Bride, or Brigid, the name under which the Christians sanctified her. In Ireland, Brigit was venerated as a protector of livestock, a bestower of fertility upon the natural world, a promoter of healing, and a patron of poetry, and the blacksmith’s art. Oimelc means “ewe’s milk,” for this was the day on which ewes usually began to lactate, and the Goddess’s association with milk was preserved in the notion of Saint Brigid of Kildare’s cows producing milk thrice daily.

The proceeding information was taken from The Wiccan Books of Days: Observances, Traditions, and Lore for Every Day of the Year by Selena Eilidh Ash.

There are many different ceremonies that people can do to celebrate Imbolc. Picking a posy and pouring a glass of cow’s milk on the ground is one way to honor the Goddess, or you can do anything that is on this website to honor the Goddess in her Maiden form and the return of spring in the making.

Blessings unto you all.