Emerging from the darkness

Early this morning, a little bleary-eyed, I led a meditation for a small group to mark the Celtic festival of Imbolc. This date, 1 February, was celebration of the first beginnings of the transition from the dark of winter into the brighter and more hopeful days of spring. Our predecessors on this land, would have gathered to light a fire and to acknowledge the budding of new life. At the heart of these celebrations was the goddess, Brigid, who was later incorporated into the Christian faith as St Brigid. In her original incarnation, she was dressed in green with flame-red hair and dancing, merry green eyes. She brought the energy of healing, fire, nature and hope.

This morning, I invited the group to connect with the energy of Brigid as she asked us to cast off anything that we no longer needed into her sacred bonfire that sparked and danced. She challenged us to shrug off the shrouds of winter, to emerge from our hibernation. She called upon us to allow the emerging light to fall on the places where we had been healing throughout the darkest months. Smilingly, she challenged us as she pressed her thumb, alight with symbolic flame, to our hearts. What would we like to spark within us?

I felt called to mark this occasion as it draws us closer to the land, to what sustains us. However spiritual or otherwise our path is, we are nothing without the foundation of the life-giving earth beneath our feet. When we connect to the seasons, the transitions between them, it reminds us of what it is we depend on. Most of us, most of the time, live quite separately from that.

Perhaps you too might feel called to acknowledge and mark this transition from winter towards spring by asking yourself the questions..

What have I been healing and protecting throughout the winter? Can I bring that forward into the light and allow myself to look at it anew?

What am I carrying with me that no longer serves me? What is weighing me down?

Is there something that sparks in my heart, a desire that I’d like to bring forward into the world? Can I nurture it? Do I dare?

As you ask yourself these questions, try if you can to bring forth the spirit of Brigid - the courageousness, the vigour and the vitality that resides in you too, even if it feels hidden.