Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

Festival of Lights at the 2nd February

The Spring Of The Year Feast - The
Beginnings of New Life
The purpose of the Wheel Of The Year
Celebrations
Each of the Festivities of the Year's Wheel
is dynamically placed so as to take full
advantage of powerful surges in energy,
both upon the Earth and in the Heavens,
and it is the varying energies which each
Festival presents, that enables conscious
renewal of participants in ceremony in
honour of these times:
Human actions are best when they
reflect the actions of Nature - nowadays,
this feeling to get increasing popular as
it may dignify Life, provides spirit and
purpose.
Every Festival has its own spirit, brings within us certain parts of the soul to resonate.
And the most important thing is to let the soul resonate, to reach us and to touch.
To remember, to remind deeply.
Then healing can take place, solution and salvation !
The point of it is with all all these Ceremonies, in all great Myths, the SALVATION.
Each of these Feats in the Year's Circle are connected with these Myths, these Heroes, Gods, and
Goddesses.
And through the identification and merging with these beings accrues healing and salvation.
They set us an example.
It is important that we reclaim these Celebrations in our lives, and connect with our lives.
No set-up rituals !
Quite simply: pay attention to what you experience and perceive.
And if there is a ray of Sunshine.

Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

In the night of 1st to 2nd February is celebrated Candlemas, the Celtic Imbolc [Im-olc], or the
Feast of Brigid, a Lunar-Fire Festival.
(or August 1st for Neopagans in the Southern
Hemisphere)
Although Nature remains in wintry rigidity, the Days
are already noticeably longer, and imperceptibly, the
juice is already rising in the trees.
The Sun rises every day a little earlier and comes
back over some of the mountain peaks.
In the evening, it is longer bright.
The Wheel has reached a crossroads between Dark
and Light.
'I am older than Brighid of the Mantle*...
I put songs and music on the wind before ever
the bells of the chapels were rung in the West or
heard in the East. ...
And I have been a breath in your heart.
And the day has its feet to it that will see me
coming into the hearts of men and women like a
flame upon dry grass, like a flame of wind in a great wood...'
- Winged Destiny by Fiona MacLeod

*: ie, the 'St. Brigid' of the church

The Light-Virgin Brigid

(To the Celts, the Sun was feminine, and Light was masculine)
In this new Light, the Goddess appears as a beautiful Light-Virgin;
Brighid - 'surrounded by the aureole' and replaces the dark, black
Goddess, who ruled in the Winter as Percht, Cerridwen, or
Morrigane.
With her, the elementary Nature -and Fertility- Spirits dawn from
the Earth, with the rising bear leading the way !
The thick fur, still quite stiff and sleep-drunk, on this day, allegedly
for the first time, puts his nose out of the cave to see how far the spring is gone.
The bear is none other than the re-born, still veiled young Sun-God.
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Still he is wild, 'b(e)aresark-ish'.

Parsifalrain, January 30, 2016
Brigid (or Imbolc) is the Festival halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox, so
the real middle in the Winter.
Throughout the Year we are in the time in which the days are getting noticeably longer, the Sun
gains considerable force, and Nature is slowly re-awakened.
It is the time in which the first animals awaken from winter dormancy, and the first plants sprout
out of the ground.
Life in the Winter-cold, limitedness, tightness and darkness is drawing recognizable to a close now,
new Life begins.
It is the time of the first shooting and sprouting.
For the Celts, this Festival was called 'Imbolc', which means 'in the womb'.
To the Midwinter, the new Light (the new Life, the new Child) was born, up to Imbolc - Season, it
was allowed to ripen in the dark womb of the Mother.
Now, however, the time has come, in which the New shows recognizable for the first time.
Also at the outside.
Brighid the Goddess-Patroness, Benefactress and Guardiness
The Festival is dedicated to the Bride of Earth, the Goddess Brigid
and the many aspects of the Deity i.e. the three stages of
Womanhood: Maiden, Matron, Crone - Cycle ... considered a form
of the Triple Goddess ('triune' Goddess, meaning that she is one
and three simultaneously)
However, Imbolc is a Feast dedicated to the Goddess in her
Maiden appearance.
She is ... the beloved Goddess of the Celts of Muse - creative
activities such as of the poets, the musicians (songs), the artists,
History (she reminds us to keep our Traditions alive and whole),
the (Fire of) Inspiration, learning, the Guardieness of Cultures,
Healers, Herbalists, Agriculture and Patroness of the Druids.
This brings consideration of the role Brigid plays with regard to all
the Arts associated with language in general, including speech, the
magick of invocations and words of evocation, spell-crafting and oath-taking.
Certainly, she's the Benefactress of Inner Healing and Vital Energy.
Often, she is seen as the Overseer of all things domestic, including cooking and kitchen-magic.
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Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

Manyfold linked to a 'fiery arrow', she also stands for Divine justice, law and order.
She's the Goddess of the crossroads which is often symbolized by the Brigit-Cross
click image to enlarge tutorial
which unites the Four Elements, and creates Paths which travel in the
Four Directions (a good time to re-align which path to walk this Year because of this, Imbolc is an ideal time for divination)
Brigid is often seen as being of both worlds; a Bridge between the
old ways and the new.
She is also a Goddess of Healing in general, prophesying and the Art
of the Smithery; (the ashless) 'Fire of the Forge' and is, therefore,
close to the Fire.
The Goddess-related Art of Smithcraft, is the outer and secular form
of the ancient Alchemical Art.
Furthermore she has the role as Patroness for Fertility, Family,
Childbirth, the Midwives and is Patron-Goddess of the Parturient.
As a Solar-Deity her main-attributes are Light and the (alchemic) Skills
with Fire.
The power of Brigid keeps the Fire burning
Therewith, she supplies the people with Vivacity and Courage.
In her honor will be lit at Imbolc-Night candles which are placed
inside the window to burn the whole Night.
To make wishes for your family and friends - the simplest form of
candle magic !
In the Christian sense became from Imbolc a Candlemas Day, a
Marian festival, where the candle-consecration is an important
element.
The early Celts celebrated a Purification Festival by honoring Brigid.
Imbolc is absolutely considered a Traditional Healing time and it is a good time to consider ways
to improve Health.
Hence, the most important aspect of this Festival is the Cleaning.
The Old must be released so that something New can arise.
Earlier, stables and housing rooms were cleaned.
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Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

Humans and cattle have been grazed with brushwood and tufts of hazel and birch branches
wipped off gently.
The rooms have been fumigated with purifying herbs such as juniper.
When we are liberated from the old burdens, then the New may grow in us.
The time around Imbolc is the time to forge resolutions and the realisation of new desires and
goals.
The seed in us may start to grow, so that it can later bloom and carry fruit.

Imbolc and the power of Vitality

Imbolc is a Celebration where we ough to bethink the yet
Unbroken, all through Vivid, the wild Energy of Spring, which
manages to bring everything back to Life.
Visualize how it feels to be a child or youngster.
Just to look at Children, as they are brimming with Life, alive up
to the stop, is ... botening.
Or youths, whose erotism buds, where the whole sense of Life is
permeated by erotic feelings, in Love ... with amorousnesses.
This is all part of this Festival, and is supposed to make our crusts
bursting like by a wild storm from the South.
You just have to imagine how much energy it takes, that our trees start to sprout, or the
flowers to break through the blanket of snow.
How much DESIRE TO LIVE, how much Pleasure !
Spring is Coming !
Snow White and Rose Red
Each of us still knows the fairy tale 'Snow White and
Rose Red'.
Hidden under his fur, lights gold, and puts a young
Prince, the young Sun King.
And the two girls 'Snow White' and 'Rose Red'
embody, such as their symbolic name suggests, the
young Goddess Brigid.
Yes, and the old Mother, who had provided refuge to
the bear in the Winter, is none other than the old

Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

Earth Mother, the Frau Holle or Frau Percht.

Once again, you can see what wonderful fairy tales we have that have, in a very hidden way,
carried further the old Cultural Assets.
The White Goddess and the Wheel Of The Year
The accession to power of the White Goddess and the Bear-God was the end of the Christmas
season.
Their reign lasted until May.
One should also know that the Wheel Of The Year was stopped from November 25, so from the
Katharine-Day until Candlemas.
There is still today the saying: 'Kathrein to cease the Dance'.
The Wheel - in the highest North also the Sun Wheel - stood idle in this time, and thus 'dancerotation' had to cease.
Less surprising is it then, that from Imbolc on particularly dancing was celebrated.
Brigid, the Queen of the Heavens and 'Mary Candlemas'
The Celtic Festival welcomed their Hearth Goddess Brigid with a Feast of Fire, and consulted the
Oracle.
Also trial marriages for a year were contracted on this
day.
So popular was the Fair who equally inspired the Poet,
Healer and Magician, that even the catholic church could
not dispense her Sabbat.
They but remaned the Imbolc Festival in 'Mary
Candlemas'.
The Name 'Imbolc' means - depending on the region it is
celebrated - 'Put the sheep on to suckle', (or 'ewe's milk',
or 'in the belly') because it was the time where the first
sheep were born.

Brigid and the Fire

Brigid, the Guardian of the Fire, guarded on this Day, or
rather in this Night, the Sacred Fire itself, while it was
otherwise kept by 19 priestesses.
Why 19 ?

Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

Because in 19 Years, a Sarosperiod (a large moon's orbit cycle) is completed and the Sun and the
Moon align again (are in the same relation to each other).
It was a cosmically aligned Celebration which acclaimed the position of the Sun and of the Moon.
Apparently was responsible for each Year a separate Priestess.
Interestingly, many of the Stone Circles in England and Ireland have exactly 19 stones.
The connection of the Goddess Brigid with the Fire accrues from her Sun-nature.
Pillars of Light and flames to accompany her as she stepped into Life from 'between the worlds so neither in the house nor out of the house' - but on the doorstep.
And these flames continue to accompany her.
As a small child she slept in a sea of Fire...
Her attribute, Briganti's fiery arrow, was proverbial: the long awaited first Spring Ray Of Sunshine
that struck the Earth warming.
But it is also to be seen in a metaphorical sense: the Fire arrow that hits the Heart.
The Spark of the first Spring Feelings, the Love, the Eroticism ....
Therefore, in the course of the Festival must have been welcomes in any case, the return of the
Sun and symbolically celebrated by the lighting of a Fire.
Because Imbolc was associated with the sacred flame, which brought the Sun from the Wintersleep.
Lisa Thiel - Imbolc
video

Another attribute is the multiannual primrose [Primula veris], one of the first flowers of
Spring.
The Celts and notably the Celtic-Nordic druids applied the prim(e)rose for the Spring Feasts,
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because she is one of the first flowers in the Spring and so herald Springtide.
Hildegard of Bingen says of this plant:
'The "sky-key" has the power of the Sun, and if someone is sad, he should bind the herb over
his heart, so that the sadness will pass away'

Name affinities with Brigid (St. Bridget, Brigindo, Briggidda, Bridey, Bride, Bricta,
Brigantia, Brixia or Brid, whose name meant 'bright one' by the early Celts)
According to her, rivers and towns were named: Bregenz, Brigantia, Braganca in Italy,
Brig in Valais, the plain of Brega in Ireland.
Old Candlemas-Customs
The re-igniting of the young Light, and the consecration of light at the
Lichtmetag (Candlemas Day) is anchored in the whole of Europe and
still in customs.
The catholic church has made of it the candle-blessing as a small
remnant of the consecrated Virgin Light.
Therein, of course, fits then also the new name of 'Mary Candlemas'.
in the Alpine regions,
in Styria (Austria), for example, is then the consecrated Candlemas
Fire carried from house to house, and kindled the hearth fire, or a
candle on the home altar.
It is the custom to carry the burning candles through the whole house
and the stables to share the blessings everywhere.
In Carinthia (Austria), was added dropwise three drops of wax on a
loaf of bread as a protection for a Year.
The bread is then kept.
Nice is also a camp-fire which is lit by fire-arrows.
It is always very exciting, because you never know
exactly whether and where your burning arrow hits.
Torchlight processions in the Night are also nice,
because it brings to mind the allegory of the Light in
the Darkness.
And if you have a river or lake in the vicinity, you can
put for example a light-boat on the water.
Small boards with floating candles, which ride down
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the river and wear the light through the Night.

according to wiki, Brigid was said to visit one's home at Imbolc
To receive her blessings, people would make a bed for Brigid and leave her food and drink, while
items of clothing would be left outside for her to bless.
Brigid was also invoked to protect homes and livestock.
Special Feasts were held, holy Wells were visited and it was also a time for divination.
A shake-up of trees and plants
Who was clear-sighted enough, could see Brigid ride on a deer
and how it woke the seeds and shook the trees awake, so that
the juices began to flow again.
She embodies the forces of the East and of the New in the
Morning.
the shaman speaks:
'There are still old countrymen who shake at Candlemas
their fruit trees to awake and announce the bees in the
hive the happy news.
In many places, the threshing and spinning should be
completed on this day, because now the peas or cornbear, which, as we have seen, brings the new fertility.
Also the day it is still considered as magical day.
Oracles are consulted, who's getting married, who
needs to die and how the harvest will be.
To learn how long the Winter will last, one turns to
those animals who in burrows have their winter sleep.
From the badger and the fox is the talk, but they only serve as a replacement for the bear.
It is to Candlemas nice and warm, must remain the bear six weeks in his cave, it is said in
many places.
Sees the bear at Candlemas his shadow, he must yet forty days stay in the burrows, is the rule
in England and France.
Six weeks or forty days it will take until the Spring Equinox.
Then Master Bruin has finally shaken off his hibernation, and the spell of Winter is broken.

Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

The bear who brings the fertility, and from the honeycombs of the bees are made candles of
gold, are the favorite animals of the white Brigid.
As opposites, they belong together: the hulking, horny, lazy Petz and the tiny, chaste, diligent
bees.
Mainly because of the honey that they suck from the flowers without destroying them, are
venerated and worshipped the bees.
For the ancient Europeans, the honey was the only sweetener until in the 17th century was
replaced by the cane sugar.
Honey was so sacred that it was used as an offering to the Gods and Ancestors, and only in
the Excellent Nights of the Midwinter honey cake as blessing-giving cultic dish was allowed to
eat.
The Indogermanic, saw the honey is a remnant of a distant, Golden Age, as the dew dripping
down from the World Tree.
Truly a royal dish, best suited for the elect of the white Goddess, the honey eating king of the
animals, as well as the king of the people.
Who drank with his Nobles the honey-brewed Mead, while peasants, servants and hands had
to be content with barley beer'
Valentine and carnival
Since the domination of the white Goddess lasted until the month of May - her climax is not until
the Spring Equinox, falls in this period also, 'Valentine' and 'carnival'.
One can easily understand.
The Goddess who puts all the waters in motion, brings the ice to melt, stimulates the juices in the
trees and brings the plants to sprout, of course also moves the
life-juices in people.
She inspired not only poets and singers, but she also prompts the
hormonal rush of amorous couples.
And as the Lovers are always a bit crazy, foolish, easy to be
reckless - so also is this time.
This also includes carnival or the Mardi Gras (Fastnacht) time.
The church never welcomed this 'offensive feast' and even strictly
forbade in 762.
worth knowing
There goes a story, coming from the 12th century, in which Merlin
is inspired by a feminine figure who represents the sovereignty of
the Land of Britain.
She causes his visions to reach through British history, on, so it is
said, to the end of the Solar System !
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Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

King Arthur's sword, Excalibur was forged by the Lady of the Lake, a figure sometimes associated
with Brighid because of her fire and forgery aspect.
Brigid is Goddess of both Sun and Moon, action and inspiration, achievement and creativity.
She has been worshiped by the Celtic people as a Saint for over fifteen-hundred years, and as a
Goddess long before the Roman invasion of Britain and the alleged birth of Jesus-Christ took
place.
topics for the Feast ... i.e.
- What I would like to cleanse from me ?
- What must I let go ?
- Which new bud wants to grow in me ?
- Visions and goals for the New Year
- What gives me strength and energy for the coming Year ?
items for the Celebration (be creative)
- a berg crystal or a white stone
- a white piece of clothing
- an object from Nature
- a candle in a color of Brigid (best might be a white and/or a green candle)
plant seeds
Seeds are sublime and magical - pure potential !
Plant each one as representing your hopes,
ideas and dreams
colors
Traditionally, the colors of red and white are
associated with Brigid.
White is the color of the blanket of snow and
purity (also silver) and red symbolizes the rising
sun.
In some traditions, red is connected with the
blood of Life.
Brigid is also tied to green, both for the green
mantle she wears and for the (fresh burst of) Life ... growing beneath the Earth.
other colors associated with Imbolc:
Pink, yellow, light-blue
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Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

herbs
Angelica [Angelica archangelica], Basil [Acinos arvensis], Blackberry [Rubus allegheniensis],
Celandine [Chelidonium majus], Coltsfoot [Tussilago farfara], Ginger [Zingiber], Heather [Calluna
vulgaris], Myrrhe [Myrrha], Primrose [Primula veris]
trees Rowan and Willow
stones Amethyst, Berg crystal, Bloodstone, Garnet, Onyx, Turquoise
element
Imbolc is a Fire Festival and fire of all kinds is associated with Brigid - the Fire of creativity, the
protective Hearth Fire, and her Fire Wheel - the Brigid Cross, which heralds her as a Sun Goddess.
Zodiac Aquarius
altar
After all, Brigid is a Goddess of the Celtic peoples, so it's always appropriate to add some sort of
Celtic design to your altar.
As Brigid is the Goddess of hearth and home simply decorate your home with symbols of the
Imbolc Season.
informative video (-: may answer further questions on your
Imbolc ritualsBlessed Imbolc!
video

two Imbolc-prayers
'Bright and fiery arrow
blaze kindly into my life.
Sainted bringer of Spring
grow evermore verdant and lush.
Mistress of poetry and craft,
dance on my tongue and in my hands.
Guardian of the wells and waters and herbs,
warm my heart and open the doors to compassion.
Thank you exalted One for the nourishment
of milk and words.
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Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas

For the protection of Your threadbare cloak,

for the peace that abides in Your care.
Bless You for the four Fires
and the thawing Earth.
Brigid, I promise my best effort
and lightest laugh in Your name'

'Bride of the Earth,

sister of the Faeries,
daughter of the Tuatha de Danaan,
keeper of the eternal Flame.
In Autumn, the Nights began to lengthen,
and the Days grew shorter,
as the Earth went to sleep.
Now, Brigid stokes her Fire,
burning flames in the hearth,
bringing Light back to us once more.
Winter is brief, but Life is forever.
Brigid makes it so'

what to wish for ?

'There's magic in the fairy flight
See the woman at the well
Listen to what she will tell
The fairies flutter with delight
The ewes give milk and all is right
Blessed be this Imbolg Night
Springtime is now near at sight'

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Happy Imbolc !
related
Everything is Born out of Darkness
earlier
Yule - Midwinter - Winter Solstice - 'Christmas Eve'
source
http://www.lovingenergies.net/pt/Festival-Of-Lights---Brigid---Imbolc---Candlemas/blog.htm

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Festival Of Lights - Brigid - Imbolc - Candlemas