IMBOLC FIRE FESTIVAL - the spring season
_______________________________________________________________
2010 - Samhain Brigid arrives at Fourknocks to find the door closed
Are you dancing? ...... Are you asking?
Oh, the uncertainty of the dance! Our dance of life is familiar in the turning seasons as the year does its own circle dance. But we feel that the energies of this year seem to be stirring with an air of the unknown, a certain amount of uncertainty, a belief we see reflected in the massive challenges courting our country and our world. The shifting magnetic poles, the earthquake in Haiti, the confusion of traditional seasonal boundaries.
We now enter the season of Imbolc, Spring. Leaving behind the Samhain period of death, mourning and conception, we are at the threshold of promised things to come. And yet... when will winter end? This year it has been a hard, ice-cold time, maybe it is not finished yet? Maybe we should not go into the garden and sow just yet, maybe we should keep those packets of seed unopened a little longer? Maybe the earth is not quite ready?
And in our own lives it is time to put plans into action, to catch the fresh energy of Spring or should we wait a little longer? As the sun climbs higher in the sky and the days lengthen we long to get going, to change job, move house, our thoughts and desires are stirring, and yet we are not sure whether to cross the threshold into our futures... Life seems to be changing and yet there are delays, uncertainty and confusions. Brigid, nature personified at this time, is the Goddess of Smithcraft. She shows us that, in the warmth of Spring, as we melt down to our component parts, we can be reshaped and redefined into new patterns. We have choices. We now have to decide how we want to shape the base metal of our lives and personalities for the coming year.
Order of the Day
There will be lunch in Maguires followed by last minute directions to the place of ceremony. When we arrive we will create sacred space by smudging misqualified energies from ourselves and also the surrounding atmosphere. Then we orient ourselves in our environment by being mindful of the different types of sponsoring energies we wish to align with for the ceremony. Participants will be challenged with a riddle and blessed with a spiral of water on the third eye, with water from the 'Well of the Dark Eye of Tara'.
-
After creating a sacred space, we will stand in silence, actively listening to the earth. Starting with silence, with listening, we are responding to the quietness of this time of year.
-
Then we will breath; inspiration, warmth and energy into the earth, through a candle, in order to 'breathe life' into Gaia. To wake her up from her winter hibernation.
Candle light symbolically warming up the earth and ourselves
|
|
|
-
We return into the silent void. Listening intently.
-
A heartbeat is the most physical indentifiable statement of intangible life. We will have a heartbeat drum beat to help shift the energies from hibernation to wakefulness and listen with our whole bodies to the waking energy.
-
We return to the silent void. Listening intently.
-
Societies the world over have encoded deep seated spiritual beliefs into dance and so we will be using rhythmic rattling and simple movements to help externalise the deeper rhythm of life. We will dance with the earth and with each other.
-
Following that we will have an open heart contribution where participants are invited to support the energy with a song, poem or other meaningful thought, act or deed.
-
This will be a magical, mystery tour of uncertainty. We are not revealing where the ceremony will be held until the day. Numbers are limited so please get in touch now if you want to be part of the Imbolc gathering, celebrating the intrepid returning life force to earth.
Weaving the new Brigid's crosses
Imbolc - preparing for Spring and Summer abundance -
Native red deer shed their antlers and Samhain Brigid casts off her winter darkness
The door is opened... but how did Samhain Brigid transform?
with a little help from her friends....
Brigid's cloak was made with intuition and instinct. It is veil like. Coincidentally, the gathering was held on St. Mels day and it was St. Mel that 'veiled' Brigid when she was ordained. The sheep's wool was gathered from Tara and Loughcrew - Sliabh na Callaigh - and this is, of course, lambing time.
Woven in the veil fabric is birch bark. This came from a birch tree in RTE grounds in Dublin - RTE has Brigid's cross as a logo. Traditions suggest that birch bark represents new beginnings, poetry and inspiration. The red felt pieces symbolise Brigid in her smith aspect, representing the red hot hearth and the perpetual sacred flame at Kildare. Strips of red felt from Kildare were gifted at the opening of Sil and Chroi (Way of the Heart) and was put out on Brigid's Eve as a Bhrat Bhride.
The blue tie reminds us of St. Brigid's well, and the healing waters of purification.
One small swan's feather represents the connections suggested between Fourknocks and the constellation of the Swan, that travels on the Milky Way. Swan is said to be the dreamkeeper.Waiting for Brigid - 31 January / 1 February 2010
Bhrat Og cloth is blessed by the moon whilst waiting for dawn on Tara - we shall be sharing pieces with everyone at the Imbolc gathering
Frogs are a powerful symbol for this time of year. They suddenly emerge from their sleeping darkness, croaking loudly, laying spawn and jumping into new life.
They are at home equally on land and in water suggestive of mediumship and they jump from one state of consciousness to another easily.
Their spawn is a very obvious sign of spring and its appearance reminds us to be preparing for new growth in the future.
There is lore which states frogs can predict the summer weather by the position of their spawning clumps. If the clumps are found in deep water the frogs are expecting a dry summer so move to deeper water to ensure supplies for the tadpoles. If they expect wet weather they will spawn close to the edge of the pool ! Apparently!
This shy bullfinch is waiting for Spring 2010 in a garden in Peak District, Derbyshire, England
Snowdrops the victory of Brigid and the return of life/light over darkness/death
Below are a selection of rush crosses and 2 different coloured Bhrat Bríde as well as the tri spiral
Imbolc-St. Bridgits day 2009....
... saw us journey to the ancient site of the Fourknocks with invited guests. This was a stunningly beautiful ceremony based on Irish traditions which saw the crone of winter / caileach circle the monument three times before entering as Bridgit (one of her alter egos) with the light to represent the return of the sun.
The old dross of negativity and all that no longer serves was transformed by the Crone bringing it to the light. The assembled crowd chanted Ohm, the primordial sound of creation to invigorate the imbolc energies in the land at this ancient power spot criss crosed with ley lines, water lines and blind springs. Bridgits healing mantle (Bhrat Bríde), candles and warm soup were then shared to bring our ritual to a close. All this in the ancient magical chamber of the Fourknocks.
Imbolc is often referred to in Irish as the stirring in the belly. It is a way of describing the fertility process of pregnancy. Imbolc is a fire festival that recognises that after the darkness and void that is Samhain comes the dynamism of Yin and Yang, female and male. The polarisation of these two opposites creates a third dynamic, that of the child.
Imbolc is thus associated within the human as the first invisible trimester of pregnancy or in the greater world as fecundity in general. On a personal or spiritual level it reminds us to link in with our inspiration and ideas as these have the potential to grow to maturity and change our world for ever.
The Irish deity associated with this is the Shela na gig who emphasises the dark opening of the womb from which all life comes.
This has been sanitised somewhat and St. Brigid is our modern day Christian counterpart of the yin energy of Imbolc, whilst St. Patrick represents the Yang at the other end of the season of Imbolc.
These two forces come together to give us the overt fertility of Bealtaine.
Treasured memories of Tara on a winter's day 2008
Jackie Queally recorded the events of a cold, but enjoyable, February afternoon
During part of our Ritual Meditation the old winter crone dressed in black took off her cloak to reveal the young and virginal Bridgit, following the ancient tradition of an Brídóg.
The Brídóg sits under the St. bridgits cross made on the hill during the meditation and also the Blue Cloth to her right is another ancient tradition of the Bhrat Bríde.
The Bhrat was left out on the eve of St. bridgit where tradition says she passes over the country leaving her healing essence behind in the dew. The Bhrat is then used to treat illness over the following year.
Our Bhrat is surrounding our healing box with the intentions placed there by the meditation group.
Imbolc
Feathers ruffled to keep warm
when icy winds blow,
The birds wait patiently
to pick the crumbs we throw.
Thanks to Beth Kirkham for this lovely verse... she celebrated Imbolc in Derbyshire, England
...we managed to celebrate Imbolc,the snow came and covered the snowdrops in our garden, but they poked through again to catch the light,,,the birds have started to collect twigs already...
Brigids cross travels from the Hill of Tara to Roslin in Scotland
Jackie Queally, who joined in the Imbolc celebration on Sunday, returned home and placed her cross outside the crypt window of Roslin Chapel. Thanks Jackie for your presence and for these photos of the cross in situ and the view it has looking out over Roslin Glen.
Brigits Cross travels across the Atlantic to Asheville, North Carolina
I was inspired to bring one of the St. Brigids crosses on a surprise holiday to America. (I was going on holiday, not the cross).
When I reached Asheville the energies seemed incredibly disturbed as the land which was important to the Cherokee had been "developed". There were many troubled souls in the area with the near by hotel famous for its ghosts. The energy of the land was trí na céile so I was inspired to put the cross here for the native americans who were killed in this area. We will be linking in with this area to calm the land using the cross as an anchor and a focus for the Brigidine healing energies.
The Dísablót is held in the Nordic Countries around the time of the Celtic Imbolc.
Picture by August Malmström
Many thanks to Thomas Eriksson, Motala, Östergötland, Sweden for this article. Thomas participated in the Tara celebrations/ritual meditations whilst living in Ireland. He liked what he saw, made a connection with his homeland in Sweden and has drawn parallels between the two cultures.
What I do know is that the Dísablót was celebrated in honor of the Dísir, which translates into "ladies", and were the Norse goddesses. Also the valkyries and norns were Dísir. I assume you know of the valkyries, who were responisble for bringing fallen warriors to Valhalla. The norns were goddesses of fate, the most famous being Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld. Who you might known as "The Wyrd Sisters" or "The Weird Sisters", "Wyrd" being an old English word for Urðr, meaning "Fate".
The Three Norns The Goddesses Urth, Verthandi and Skuld. The Norns stand at the base of the World Tree.
The main goddess for the Dísablót was Freyja (some times known as Vanadís), who was the leader of the dísir and the goddess of fertility. The blót was mainly held to insure a good harves for the coming year.
The symbols for Freyja include: the falcon (which was her shape-shifted form), the boar (she and her twin brother/husband Freyr both owned a magical boar), her necklace (made of golden and amber and forged by the three most skilled dwarven smiths and traded to her with a night in bed for each of them), her cloak (made of falcon feathers and allowed her to change into any kind of bird) and a chariot pulled by cats.
One source (Hervarar saga) leads us to belive that the Dísablót was held solemny by women, but another one (Heimskringla) says that it was led by the high priest of Uppsala, who was also the king of Sweden.
The first of these sources say that the doughter of the elven king was kidnapped while preparing the hörgr (an altar made with piled stones) with blood. The second one tells us that the king Aðils, who supposedly ruled Sweden during the 6th century, died when falling of his horse and splitting his skull while riding around the shrine.
The Disting, or "Disæþing" as it was called in the old nordic tongue, was a big fair held in Uppsala in conjunction with the Dísablót. It was sometime called the "Ting of all Swedes" (ting being an political assembly), because so many people assembled from all around Sweden (or what was Sweden at the time), or at least Svealand, to meet and trade with each other. The fair lasted for about a week and was abolished in 1895. This is from Snorri Sturlusons saga Heimskringla:
"In Svithjod it was the old custom, as long as heathenism prevailed, that the chief sacrifice took place in Goe month at Upsala. Then sacrifice was offered for peace, and victory to the king; and thither came people from all parts of Svithjod. All the Things of the Swedes, also, were held there, and markets, and meetings for buying, which continued for a week: and after Christianity was introduced into Svithjod, the Things and fairs were held there as before. After Christianity had taken root in Svithjod, and the kings would no longer dwell in Upsala, the market-time was moved to Candlemas, and it has since continued so, and it lasts only three days."
Goe month means February and Svithjod is Svealand (which I have mentioned earlier) and that was the northenmost part of Sweden at the time, before the big part in the north was incorporated (parts of which was stolen from Norway and Finland). Svealand is the part of Sweden that actually gave it its current name.
Some more Imbolc photographs and.....
Some strange Brigit Facts
I bet you didnt know Brigit was an Ice queen six feet tall with a magic snow leopard cat thing and that she frequently is fond of a few stiff bevys and has just come out of rehab!
Thats Brigit the 6 foot ice queen and her magic ice panther type dog type thingy.
And Below you see the mysterious brigit writing .... answers on the back of a post card please.
And yes Snuggles the cat does know a magic snow panther dog type thingy and looks suitably shocked. Snuggles is recovering with TLC next door.
And this is Brigid before Rehab.......................................................................................and Brigid after Rehab
Little robin red breast said he was delighted about Brigits recovery.
But later that night...... It wasnt long before brigit was back to her old ways and getting down to Limbo
This can only end in one way..............
Brigid continues to defy the law of gravity
Page last updated: 16th Apr 2010
