{"id":760,"date":"2011-01-29T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/musings-on-the-meaning-of-brigid-or-imolc.html"},"modified":"2011-01-29T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-29T18:00:00","slug":"musings-on-the-meaning-of-brigid-or-imolc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/musings-on-the-meaning-of-brigid-or-imolc.html","title":{"rendered":"Musings On the Meaning of Brigid or Imbolc."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

While most of the country is still deep in snow, the days have grown
\nnoticeably longer since the depth of Winter’s darkness.  In California
\nalong with brighter days the first flowers of the year are already
\nblooming.  In this strange winter a few flowers never stopped blooming,
\nwith the domestic roses confused, trying to go dormant on one branch while
\ngamely blooming on another.  <\/span>A
\nstrange and up to now wet winter.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

But just in the past couple of weeks our ubiquitous wild mustard is
\nbeginning to cover fields in yellow.  During a walk I took this week I saw
\nthem really bursting forth.  <\/span>A few
\neager natives are beginning to add streaks of bright orange, a tiny hint of the
\nspectacle to come.   In most of the rest of the country longer days
\nare the major hint that change is in the air and winter’s end us at hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

My own bias is to try and link our cross quarter Sabbats with what is
\nhappening around us.  <\/span>The solar
\nones are universal (at least in each hemisphere) but the others carry a
\ndifferent meaning.  <\/span>To “make them
\noiurs” and root them in our place and time is a counterpoint to the
\nuniversalism of the solar Sabbats. 
\n<\/span>It is how we can become sensitive to the spirit of the land within which
\nwe dwell.  <\/span>In much of the country
\nthis time is characterized by the returning light, with snow everywhere.  <\/span>Here we can add flowers and green
\nhillsides.  <\/span>Florida will be
\ndifferent still.<\/span><\/p>\n

For these reasons I prefer the name Brigid (or some alternative
\nspelling) to Imbolc.  One of Imbolc’s major early meanings was to
\ncelebrate ewes’ beginning to lactate. 
\n<\/span>But for most of us this meaning and symbolism is far removed from our
\nexperience.  <\/span>There are sheep near
\nwhere I live, out closer to the coast, but I rarely see them. Perhaps the slow
\nswelling of the first buds are northern California’s equivalent to lactating
\newes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brigid is another matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brigid is a fire Goddess, and one of the very few with whom I have had
\na personal encounter.  <\/span>It was at a
\nReclaiming Brigid ritual some years ago. I’ve never forgotten that encounter.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems strange that a fire Goddess provides the alternative name for
\nImbolc.  Brigid is also closely associated with milk, the milk of cows and
\nin Her Christianized form, as Christ’s wet nurse. But this seems not one of Her
\nmain ancient attributes.  <\/span>According
\nto Ronald Hutton<\/a>,<\/span> <\/span>She is more closely connected to poetry, learning, healing, prophesy,
\nsmithcraft, and perhaps even war. 
\n<\/span>Given my own work in healing, love of writing and research, and felt calling
\nto be a kind of warrior against the forces of darkness around us, I guess it’s
\nfitting that She made contact. But I think She lends Her name to this time in
\nCalifornia for less personal reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking around at our rushing streams, growing moss, standing pools of water, and foggy, leaden skies, one could scarcely guess that much of California’s landscape is
\ndominated by fire, and has been for millennia.  <\/span>Fire is essential for the health of many of our forests.  <\/span>Some of our pines require fire for their
\ncones to open and scatter seeds, and even our giant sequoia only reproduce on mineral soil
\nsuch as has been burned.  <\/span>Our
\nchaparral evolved with fire, flourishes with it, and invites it. (Building a home in the middle of chaparral is like building a home surrounded by thousands of beautiful cans of kerosene.)  <\/span>California burns regularly, and dousing the burns simply
\nguarantees they will be worse and bigger when they come again.  And come they
\nwill. <\/span><\/p>\n

Left to its own devices, or employed carefully as the Indians used to,
\nin California fire is a force for life and renewal.  In its wake the seeds
\nof future growth are planted, and now, when fire seems farthest away, the
\ngrowth that will feed future blazes is stirring. No winter rains, no late summer
\nand fall fires, no fires and many forests decline, the land is over grown with
\nbrush, and vitality declines.  <\/span>We
\nowe the kind of spring we love out here to fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imbolc is not a solar Sabbat. 
\n<\/span>It is one of the cross quarter ones, and as such has its roots in the
\nCeltic agricultural and grazing cycle. This means the symbols of its meaning is
\nlocal, not universal.   <\/span>Any
\nreaders on the east coast will chuckle when they think of Brigid as the start
\nof spring.  <\/span>In most places the
\ncoming Spring Equinox, Ostara, is well suited to its symbolism of the triumph
\nof the sun and powers of growth and regeneration. Yule, our previous
\ncross-quarter Sabbat, celebrated the Winter Solstice, and the wealth of meaning
\nit carries symbolically and experientially.  Both are Solar, and the sun
\n‘s cycles are the same everywhere in this hemisphere.  Beltane to follow
\nis, well, it’s Beltane.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Brigid? Most of our country is not linked to fire as California
\nis.  <\/span>Most of our country does not
\nexperience February First as the beginning of Spring.  <\/span>Often for many Pagans Brigid is a time when we renew our
\nquarter candles and perhps altar candles as well.  <\/span>Like Mabon, it is a lightly thought about Sabbat.  <\/span>I think as we integrate ourselves and
\npur celebrations into the place we live, this may shift.  <\/span>On the other hand, in upstate New York,
\nmaybe another date is far more appropriate for what Brigid celebrates and
\nhonors.  <\/span>But at least out here I
\nthink its relative invisibility may be fitting.  The first sprouts of new
\ngrowth are invisible to those who do not look carefully, and sometimes even to
\nthose who do.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I am curious as to what readers who have striven to integrate this
\nSabbat with the place they live have done.  <\/span>If you want please share your experiences.  <\/span>And for all, <\/span><\/p>\n

May Brigid’s Blessings be Upon You.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While most of the country is still deep in snow, the days have grown noticeably longer since the depth of Winter’s darkness.  In California along with brighter days the first flowers of the year are already blooming.  In this strange winter a few flowers never stopped blooming, with the domestic roses confused, trying to go…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-holidays-and-sabbats","category-pagan-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nMusings On the Meaning of Brigid or Imbolc. - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/musings-on-the-meaning-of-brigid-or-imolc.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musings On the Meaning of Brigid or Imbolc. - 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