In the Belly
RITUAL: Reawakening | SEASON: Winter-Spring | HOLIDAY: Imbolc
February is a transitional time of year, between the end of Winter and the beginning to Spring. Over the millennia, various cultures celebrated the new year in their own unique ways. While billions are celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year, millions of others are celebrating the end of the year and the beginning of a new one with Imbolc in the West and Li Chun in the East.
February 1-2
Those who honor the cycles of the season, celebrate a Celtic holiday called Imbolc. Also called Saint Brigid’s Day, this traditional Gaelic festival is celebrated by Celts, Scots and modern pagans. Imbolc is one of four seasonal Gaelic fire festivals; the others being Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.
Beginning this year, St. Brigid's Day will be an official annual holiday of Ireland. Brigid is a Celtic fertility goddess and the mother saint of Ireland associated with wisdom, poetry, healing, protection, blacksmithing and domesticated animals, specifically lambing. She represents the powerful energy that brings people out of the cold and dark of Winter and into the warmth and light of Spring.
The holiday is celebrated by visiting holy wells, weaving Brigid crosses and making dolls and fire rituals. Special foods like braided breads, butters and cheeses and warm drinks made with milk were prepared. Traditionally, families would gather to eat a meal together on the eve of St. Brigid's Day to celebrate the last night of winter.
The festival is also associated with weather lore, the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers emerged from their winter dens, a forerunner of Groundhog Day on February 1st.
Similarly, Imbolc was also believed to be the day Cailleach, the Queen of Winter, gathered firewood for the rest of the winter. According to the legend, if the wise woman wished for winter last longer, Imbolc would be a bright and sunny day to allow her to gather plenty of firewood. And if Imbolc was dark, cold or stormy, it meant Cailleach was still asleep and winter would soon be over.
The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bríde,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.
Imbolc means “in the belly”. Historically, this referred to the pregnancy of ewes at this time of year or when the ewes are milked for the first time at Spring's beginning. Imbolc marked the arrival of lambs and therefore the availability of sheep's milk. Since sheep could survive better than cows on the sparse vegetation during the winter months, lambs were born before calves and farmers were able to resume their milking, replenishing their stores.
It symbolizes the beginning of the return of Spring, when there is a glimmer of light shining through frosty darkness, glistening on the melting snow. When the the light at dawn and dusk shines through the stone sites in Ireland and Scotland. When the earth starts becoming more soft and fertile, receptive to the plough and planting of seed and the conception and germinating of new life begins. When the first signs of new life is seen in the flora and fauna of nature.
HER Rituals
Imbolc is at the midpoint between Winter Solstice at the end of December and Spring Equinox in March. It’s the first festival on the Wheel of the Year, the Earth’s journey around the sun. As such, it’s associated with a “reawakening” after hibernating through the Winter.
All of the energy you’ve conserved within your winter hibernation and all the wisdom you’ve acquired through the long, dark months of reflection and introspection can now be used to give birth new life.
In this cycle of womanhood, the wise crone becomes the youthful maiden once again. Embrace this turn of the wheel each year to grow and develop, blossom and bloom and gently age gracefully through the years.
Do things that renew your energy, restore your beauty and regain your vitality so you can match the frequency of Mother Nature’s renewal of life.
Spring clean. Clear out the old to create the space to welcome in the new.
Sit in the morning sunlight. Put your hands and feet in the soil. Plant seeds and nurture their growth. Drink pure water charged with crystals, essential oils and your own intentions.
What ideas have you conceived? What desires are you gestating? What dreams are you holding space for in your sacred womb? Journal about them. Meditate on them. Visualize them. Create a vision board featuring them.
It’s customary to eat bread and drink milk on Imbolc. If you have a favorite family recipe, bake some homemade bread or a festive pastry. Consider making a braided bread served with herb butter, cheese danish or cheesy scones, buttermilk biscuits or a Irish soda bread.
Prepare a hot drink to enjoy with your bread or sweet or savory baked goods. Mulled wine or an herbal infused alcohol beverage, like dandelion wine are traditional options. If you like cocktails, make yourself a White Russian with cream. Other options are: a golden milk or spiced chai latte, hot chocolate, a cappuccino or hot tea served with milk.
Imbolc is said to be a powerful day for manifestation. Take a moment to set some intentions. Make yourself a drink. Write down your intentions and goals, dreams and desires for the year ahead on a piece of paper. Light a candle and read your intentions out loud. Then, bury it in the earth pouring the last sip of your festive beverage over the soil.
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Dara Eden is the author of HER Rituals for the Divine Feminine, a periodical guide created in December of 2021. The 8 Elements, her life’s work, provides guidance about how to honor the essential needs and highest values of your personal feng shui element. Inspired by an Internet challenge designed for men, she created 365WISE, a daily self-care practice that supports women in honoring their needs and listening to their inner wisdom.
In HER Rituals, she offers insights, ideas and intuitive guidance about ways to honor your needs, values and unique expression of the divine feminine.
HER Rituals is a Womb Wisdom KeepHER’s guide to cyclical rituals for sovereign women. It provides insightful information, inspirational ideas and intuitive guidance on daily and seasonal rituals you can practice as a form of self-care. Read about ancient wisdom and philosophical principles, holistic approaches and traditional skills, slow work and intentional living, embodiment practices and immersive experiences.
