WE'RE BACK!
And its a great time for looking ahead into the year as we approach Imbolc. We've got lots of plans for the year ahead and will be releasing new products along the way.
With the new moon in Aquarius the air element encourages us to “set intentions around social justice, community, visionary game plans, and reclaiming your inspiration. Work magic for resistance, anti-oppression, the collective, and creating new paradigms” (Danielle Blackwood - Working with the new Moon). At this time we have been called out to stand for our beliefs more than ever. The Aquarius new moon inspires to be true to ourselves even when it may prove difficult and not please others around us. It is a time to brave those tough conversations with authenticity and self belief.
“True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”
(Dr. Brene Brown’s book “Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and The Courage To Stand Alone”) ( Colin Bedell's article New Moon in Aquarius)
It is Feile Brighde, the 'quickening of the year'. The original word Imbolg means 'in the belly'. Imbolc signals the beginning of spring, the stirrings of new life.
Imbolc is the promise of renewal, of earth awakening with hidden potential and life force stirring.
Time to let go of the past and look to the future, clearing out the old, with spring cleaning the home heart and mind, removing obstacles and making space for new beginnings.
It is the beginning of lambing season, and we are reminded that we are actually still in mid winter as the hardy ewes giving birth in the cold snowy fields must nurture and keep their new born lambs alive.
Imbolc is dedicated to the Celtic Goddess Brigid. She is the Goddess of learning, prophecy, poetry, healing, metalwork, and domestic animals. She was so widely worshipped as a Pagan Goddess, that she was later named as St Brigid by the Christian church. A Goddess of Fire, the Sun, and the Hearth. It is she who brings fertility to the land and its people and is a close advisor to midwives and new-born babies. She is the Triple Goddess, and at Imbolc she is in her Maiden aspect.
Her plants are - Dandelion, snowdrops, crocus, trillium, acorns and oak tree, corn, oats, sage, pumpkin seeds, chamomile, broom, shamrock, rushes, straw, and all field flowers: heather, wisteria, violet, lavender, lemon verbena, and heliotrope.
The colours of Imbloc are white for purity and green for new growth.
Her symbol is Brigids cross, woven with reeds to symbolise the wheel of the year and the four directions, they are traditionally woven on the 1st February in Ireland and placed over the hearth for protection for the home and the protection and blessing of domestic animals. Some old Irish cottages have been seen to have over 200 crosses over the hearth, and they were sometimes seen with three spokes to represent the triple goddess.
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