OK Ill try this

One Word Answers (For the Most Part)

This Moment: Peaceful
Your Shoes: Red (& muddy)
Craving: Kissing
The State of Your Home: Warm
Annoyed By: (currently) nothing
Noise In the Background: water dripping
Really Want To: Fly
Thinking About: Love
Your Keyboard: Useful
Smelling: Rose oil
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: colored markers
Don't Ever Want To: be beaten
Your Eye Color: hazel green
The Weather: snowy
Have Never Tried: horse drawn sleigh ride
Think Everyone Should Try: to be cool
Last Vacation Destination: Colorado
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: Water
Your Bad Habit: which one?
What You're Going To Do Now: read

Candlemas

Candlemas

February 2nd...Midpoint between Solstice & Equinox
Transition from Winter to Spring

Origins: In Ireland, where green first appears after the long winter, Candlemas, or Imbolc (from Oimelc, meaning “in the belly”) was a pastoralist's holiday celebrating the first new lambs, their nourishment and growth--with a thorough spring cleaning and rekindling of the hearth fires. Imbolc is especially sacred to Bridgid, the Goddess of healing, poetry, smithcraft, warmth, fire and the sun! Today, Imbolc, Candlemas or Groundhog Day is a welcome chance to call back the green of springtime in the darkest stretch of winter.

This is not a "spring celebration," but the celebration of the approach of Spring. At this time, the cows and ewes begin to bear their young and lactate, as the earth begins to awaken from her winter rest. Imbolc signals that soon the ground will thaw, spring flowers will begin to rise, and the time for planting will be upon us.

Ideas, Concepts, Meanings of Candlemas:

٭This is the Feast of waxing sunlight. What was conceived at Winter Solstice begins to manifest and we are midwives to the new Year, now set in motion and growing strong as the days grow longer.
٭This is a time of our uniqueness, where we each keep our own fires lit.
٭This is a time of contemplation and introspection. The Year is filled with possibilities and wonder. New opportunities await. What will you create? Time for planning and planting the seeds of intent for the coming cycle and kindling the flame of soul-filled creativity
٭As humans we have the choice to attune ourselves to the rhythms and cycles of the seasons and planetary motions. This is a time of inturning and gathering of energy. This gathering can take the form of ideas, projects, dreams, people, and resources. This is a time of reconnecting with the source of light within.
٭People light candles and great fires to call back the forces of light.
٭This is a good time to remember what we’ve learned and done over the last few months\cycle, to review the mysteries and lessons

Brighid

Bridget Bride Briganna
Triple Aspects

Celtic Goddess of Fire, Blacksmiths, Wells, Springs and Poets. A central goddess of Ireland and Wales. Brigid's feast, Candlemas or Imbolc, is celebrated on the first of February, the midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

The Celts held poetry in great reverence as it was the art of divination, the revelation of secrets, and preservation of history. In her three aspects Brigid represents the creatrix of smithcraft, the inspiration of poetry, healing and medicine at the hearth, all unified by fire.


Brigit was one of the great Triple Goddesses of the Celtic people. She appeared as Brigit to the Irish, Brigantia in Northern England, Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Brittany. Many legends are told about Brigit. Some say that there are three Brigits: one sister in charge of poetry and inspiration who invented the Ogham alphabet, one in charge of healing and midwifery, and the third in charge of the hearth fire, smithies and other crafts. This actually indicates the separate aspects of her Threefold nature and is a neat division of labor for a hard-working goddess.

The symbol of life and energy, also associated with abundance and prosperity, is carved inside the 5000 year-old Newgrange passage mound in County Meath, Ireland (above). Earth works such as Newgrange have been proven to be ancient solar observatories, whose construction can be said to symbolize the womb of the Goddess

Brighids Triple Aspects: The Hearth

The Hearth represents the magic of everyday life: our relationships with the people close to us, the sacredness of preparing foods and medicines, the utter miracle of childbirth, raising children, making our homes. The Hearth is our light, and warmth, the very center of our home. That Brighid is the patroness of the Hearth, brings to light an entirely holy way of viewing home life, family, and daily living. The mundane is valued and conscious intent is put into all that is done, as if everything matters and is part of this greater ritual of living our lives.

Brighid is midwife as well as herbalist and wise woman. As late as 100 years ago in the west Scottish Highlands, the Matthewses write, the midwife traditionally blessed a newborn with fire and water in Brighid's name. She passed the child across the fire three times, carried the baby around the fire three times deosil, then performed "the midwife's baptism" with water, saying:


A small wave for your form
A small wave for your voice
A small wave for your speech
A small wave for your means
A small wave for your generosity
A small wave for your appetite
A small wave for your wealth
A small wave for your life
A small wave for your health
Nine waves of grace upon you,
Waves of the Giver of Health.

Brighid also protects and heals adults. She is a goddess of healing wells and streams; in her honor, Bridewell is one of the two most common well-names in Ireland, the other being St. Anne's Well, remembering Anu, or Dana, the mother of the gods - a goddess sometimes conflated with Brighid. With Aengus Og, Brighid performs the role of soul-guardian, wrapping worshippers in her mantle of protection. ~ from M. Harline

Brighids Triple Aspects: The Well

THE EXALTED ONE…woman of wisdom…a goddess whom poets adored…
~ Cormac’s Glossary, 9th Century text

As a Goddess of herbalism, midwifery, healing, and poetry, She was presided over Water as well as Fire. I don't believe that anyone has ever counted all the vast number of sacred wells and springs named after or dedicated to this Goddess.
Offerings to the watery Brigit were cast into the well in the form of coins or, even more ancient, brass or gold rings. Other sacrifices were offered where three streams came together. Her cauldron of Inspiration connected her watery healing aspect with her fiery poetic aspect.

Brighids Triple Aspects: The Forge

Iron Forge 1772 Joseph Wright of Derby

SMITHCRAFT was highly regarded by the Celts, and a smith god is certainly known from various sources. The triple goddess Brighid was patroness of inspiration, therapy and smithing, and the craft of the smith or metal worker was developed to a high degree by the Celts. Romano-Celtic carvings of a smith god, sometimes bearing tongs and hammer, are known in Britain; he is also associated with Mars, or with Celtic gods similar to Mars such as Toutates.

THE SMITH was always associated with magical powers, for they mastered the primal element of fire and moulded the metals of the Underworld through skill and strength. There is a close connection between concepts of smithcraft and concepts of the creation of the world, in which the Elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth are fused together in a new shape. Smiths are frequently associated with supernatural powers, including therapy, in folklore, so it is no surprise that the ancient smith gods were credited with similar magical abilities.

Journal work

Candlemas Questions to ponder

1. Take a moment to look at your life. What changes will you support in the coming cycle?


2. Winter can be a time of endurance. How will you care for yourself through the remaining winter? What will comfort you?

3. Clarity, crispness, stirrings, are some words that describe this time of year. How does your life relate to these characteristics of the Earth right now?

Brighid for me

For me, Brighid represents the force that moves people towards greater wisdom and wildness. She represents an ancient spirit of human consciousness, where the powers of women and men are considered magical and everyday life is infused with meaning. This is the force that can inspire us to reach as far up into the Heavens as we can, and to spread our roots as deeply into the mysteries of the Earth. She represents the life energy that lives inside us and seeks expression through our greatest passions, whatever they may be. Brigid guides us to take the reins of our lives into our own hands, and helps us to steer through myriad possibilities toward living out whatever it is that we were born to do, our fullest expression of who we are. She is the support that happens when we let Life work with us and through us.
As Brigid is the goddess of both Smithcraft and Healing, she represents the mastery of the fires alive inside of us: our anger, sexual power, and creativity. Her alchemy is the blend of body, mind, and spirit, as well as of earth, air, fire, and water. Her own mastery of fire reminds us that we learn to know and respect the power of our sexuality, and to consciously work with our anger as a force for freedom and evolution. She reminds us to reexamine what it means to be “powerful “, to reexamine altogether what exactly power is and how to share it. She challenges us to grow past our own limitations as we sometimes feel “thrown into the fire”. We are asked to transform, again and again.
If we women in the western world spent even half as much time and energy as concerned with the well-being of the planet and people as we typically do on how sexy we look, the clothes we wear, or on watching TV, our culture and the world as we know it would literally transform. Imagine how much precious energy this would free up! While caring for our bodies, celebrating our sexuality, and even adorning ourselves is inherent in celebrating the Goddess, the obsession\ self-hatred of women’s bodies that permeates our culture must be changed for future generations. Brighid, by whatever name we call her, can remind us of what it is we truly value within ourseleves and with each other, and is an essential part of a force that can aid us in the desperately needed task of recreating authentic human culture.

Brighid bids us to be conscious and respectful of the sources of energy, electricity, and power in our world, to respect the source of Life. She is a force for healing our human communities and our relationship with the Earth.
Brigid is the beckoning of the living Earth, flame, wind, streams and springs to us for their protection, as well as for communion and reverence. She urges us to include a responsible stewardship of the planet among our passions and pursuits. She remembers a time of greater wholeness among people, and seeks to help us bring Heaven back to Earth, with our fiery wills, sharp minds, and skillfull means. She carries with her all of the knowledge and cries of the infinite ancestors who knew her. She can awaken inside of us the holy flame that finds expression through liberation and love. She can help give us courage to live our lives as powerful people in this insane time of near global disaster. Her flame has burned for centuries, in the homes, hearths, cathedrals, forges, and woodlands of those who have gone before. To name her and to acknowledge her presence and endurance is to replenish the fires of our own hearts, to drink from a precious well sourced very deeply inside the Earth, and to remember who we are.