Well here we are at February 14th. The day when the mundane finally catches up with the pagan. Early February is the time of the stirring, the awakening of the seeds that will create life in the cycle to come.

The ancient way is that of the youthful maiden, giggling joyously at the stirring in her heart and her loins. It is girls forgetting that boys have cooties and boys no longer feeling the urge to pull pigtails. It is the butterflies in one’s stomach. It is the first blush, the first kiss.

This is Imbolc, celebrated on February the 2nd each year by Pagans and Wiccans the world over. It is a day sacred to the goddess Bridget, hence the placement of St. Bridget’s Day close to it in the modern calendar. It is the festival of light when we begin to stretch our hope forward out of the darkness of winter and we feel youthful and alive once more.

We do not need to ship our local rodent out before a spray of cameras, for our connection the divine Earth will tell us in our true hearts when we may expect to see the young lady unfold her Spring beauty.

Valentine’s Day is the mundane answer to Imbolc, once a day designed to embrace the sweetness that is new love and to explore the concept of togetherness and joy while the world outside tends to still be cold and unwelcoming.

What has gotten lost in the conversion to Valentine’s Day is the innocence, for this is what the original rites of Imbolc were based upon. The only sweet left in it seems to be the strawberry-filled chocolates and the pink M&Ms that pop up at this time of year.

Imbolc is (more…)

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