Starweaver's Online Book Of Shadows: Imbolc Ritual

Imbolc Ritual

From: Ahneke For Imbolc I focus on the return of Spring. The vitality just beneath the earth about to bud and burst forth. I cover my altar in white. Use white flowers and many white candles and crystal (my grandmother's cut crystal bowls with white flowers floating in them). The candles are to represent the torches used in traditional ceremonies to welcome back the warmth of the Sun and the growing strength of the God. I place a cauldron on my altar filled with earth. And follow a ritual where I place one white candle in the earth and focus on the aspects of physical rebirth as Winter begins to change and to warm.

The power that I draw down during ritual is grounded into that cauldron. I use that earth in the pottings I will make in the next couple of weeks to start my seedlings for the garden. And I keep one small jar of it to remind me of the rebirth within the soil and the continuation of the cycle from emptiness into inspiration. It will sit on my bookshelf for the rest of the year (I return it to the ground in October). I meditate on the candlelight as the source for the sustenance of life - the Sun. And then begin to focus on the candlelight as the light of intellectual growth and inspiration. I then focus on the season as one of personal empowerment.

This is the season where all that is within begins to sprout and in that growth is found our individuality. The moment where, as we utilize the power of the Divine, we begin to "become" our self. Begin to exist as an individual, separate from while still connected to the Divine. My meditations also focus on my empowerment as a woman. As Diane Stein writes, "Every woman has consequence, and is who she chooses herself to be." This is the season to remind ourselves that we become what we choose. That it is a matter of intent and focus. A conscious decision must be made to decide the nature of our consequence. I utilize a visualization from the Faery Tradition where one imagines the Fiery Arrow (Breo-saighit) shooting from the stars into one's heart. And thereby we are faced with deciding on physical, mental and emotional goals. (I have written this up, if anyone would like me to post it - it is taken mostly from one of Kisma Stepanich's "faery" books and purports to be an ancient Celtic tradition.)

In a more mundane celebration, we light a candle in each room of the house on the even of the holiday (to symbolize the return of the light/God). We don't live where we can put out a red light as is traditional, but we do burn a large red, bayberry candle in our living room for the evening. We have certain foods we eat to celebrate the return of the warmth. I also have a habit of doing a total housecleaning the weekend before or after the holiday, which symbolizes the banishment of the past and a refreshing in preparation for the new.

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