Happy Imbolc!

by | 25 Jan 2018

Happy Imbolc and Happy Valentine’s Day! This is the month of love! What better time to get inspired and start planning your Sacred Wedding in Avalon? This season we have lots of exciting things happening in the Temple. Priestess Sharlea Sparrow will be running a Hoop Making Workshop for brides. We also have lots of Imbolc events happening, including our Imbolc Retreat Days at the Goddess House. This is a time when you can immerse yourself in Her energy and be pampered and nurtured. The Temple has also has been redressed in white, and Bridie, the maiden Goddess Temple heads the altar. It’s beautiful.

Happy Imbolc

Return of the light

Imbolc has arrived! That fresh energy of waking up as we notice the days staying lighter a little longer, lambs in the fields frolicking and the first of the snowdrops emerging their pearly heads through the frost to gladden the heart. How glorious to see flowers again! It seems so long since we were blessed with stem and petal growing randomly in their clumps amongst the bare trees. Mother Earth begins to hear the heart song of the sun like a lover kissing the beloved so she may join him and languidly uncurl from winter’s sleep.

This is the time of Bridie, Maiden Goddess in her seasonal aspect of the land awakening. She strikes the land with her fiery staff, creating a shout in nature..’wake up, wake up!’ The promise of spring is still a distant echo clinging to winter’s chill, but we are feeling the awakening even so… This is the time of Imbolc, a fire season on the great wheel, when the year is as young as a maiden and awakening. Imbolc means ‘ewes’ milk’ and in ancient times our ancestors would bless the land with the first of the ewes’ milk, asking the Mother Goddess for a fertile crop for the coming year. It is a time for all things beginning anew. Growth, manifestations and projects begin to take on the energy of form.  All things can begin again.

Imbolc Facts

  • One of Bridie’s totems is the swan, a symbol synonymous with love and which forms the classic image of devotion, with their curved necks entwined in a perfect love heart. It’s part of a courtship ritual, in which pairs face each other and, with a ruffle of feathers and lifted wings, bow gracefully. They also mate for life.
  • It is fabled that St Brigid has connections to Leap Year proposals! She petitioned St Patrick to grant women the opportunity to propose to men of their choosing. Originally, he granted permission for this to happen every seven years but was persuaded by Her to change it to every four years, hence we have Leap Year proposals on the 29th of February.
  • The tiered wedding cake is believed to have been inspired by William Rich, an apprentice baker. He had fallen in love with his boss’ daughter and wanted to impress him by making an elaborate wedding cake. The bakery was close to St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street and Rich looked to the steeple of Her church which is elaborately tiered.  The rest is history.
  • Which leads onto Bridie being the Goddess/Saint of poetry (St Brigid is the Saint of journalists in Fleet Street). Our couples look to Bridie for inspiration and support for the sacred vows they speak to each other, the story of how they met and their love for each other. Beautiful and moving poems/readings are read after each elemental blessing of their choosing.
  • Bridie is known as the Mystress of the Forge and so far all of our couples have exchanged rings. All base metals are heated to high temperatures in a forge, Again, She is a part of the symbols used/exchanged in bridal ceremonies.

Imbolc Retreat Days

Would you like some pampering this Imbolc? Click on the poster below….

Imbolc Retreat Days

 Goddess Temple Imbolc Events

Swan

Wednesday 31 January

1pm: Priestess-led Guided Bridie Visualisation – Goddess House
7pm: Bright Shiny Soul Healing Circle with Rachel Harris – Goddess House
7pm: Red Tent – Goddess House

Thursday 1 February
1pm: Priestess-led Guided Bridie Visualisation – Goddess House
1-4pm: Healing – Goddess House
7.30pm: Imbolc Ceremony – Goddess Hall

Friday 2 February
10am – 1pm: Bridie Doll Making with Mandie Thorne – Goddess House
1pm: Priestess-led Guided Bridie Visualisation – Goddess House
7.30pm: Imbolc Goddess Embodiment Evening – Goddess Temple

Saturday 3 February
1pm: Priestess-led Guided Bridie Visualisation
6pm: Sacred Sound Bath with Dawn Kinsella – Goddess Temple