Tomorrow (Thursday 2/4/16) is Astrological Imbolc. Imbolc is a Cross-Quarter Day, which means that it’s one of the 4 celebrations that is halfway between Solstice and Equinox (or Equinox and Solstice). The other three are Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. Because it’s an astrologically-defined event, it doesn’t tend to match up with our calendar, so the “traditionally observed” dates are frequently off. Mind you, energy is energy and time is a collectively-defined illusion, so I think you can celebrate it whenever you want.
Imbolc is sacred to the Goddess Brigid of the Tuatha De Dannan. Brigid has a lot of aspects, and has the energy of both flame and water. She is said to have brought Man writing, so we could remember which herbs healed what, and she wrote poetry. Her sacred number is 19, and her energy has always been very protective to me.
I also like the fact that her energy is strong enough that she shows up, fairly unchanged, in a lot of different places in the world. The Catholics couldn’t get rid of her, so we have Saint Brigit. In Haiti, she’s Maman Brigitte, guardian of graveyards, and her invocation song says that she comes from England.
Her festival this year is very close to the New Moon that is also Chinese New Year. We move into the year of the Fire Monkey, which can be chaotic for those who take themselves to seriously. But I think the energies of Fire Monkey and Brigid work well together, so I’m looking forward to our celebration on Monday.
While I was waiting for students to show up for tonight’s meditation, I felt called to buy some candles from the venue. I picked out the ones I wanted, and Patti, who was ringing me up, said “You have 19, that’s an odd number. Was that what you intended?” and I just started laughing. Well played, Brigid, well played.