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.

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.

Mythically, winter is the time of the wizened old woman and old man, the Grandmothers and Grandfathers - those who have lived fully and well. They are the old ones who have lived long before us and who now guard the gates of life and death. They are guides in the darkness, weavers of fate, and even glorious angels, whose reverence has endured for at least thousands of years. They speak to us to honor and listen to the stories of our elders as well as to connect with the places inside ourselves which are ancient and wise. Winter is an excellent time to remember and discover that which is truly most important to us and to our world, as though we were looking over our lives at their end. What might seem most essential to us then? The still darkness of winter invites us to enter into the timelessness of our own spirits and to connect with that which most truly nourishes our bodies and souls. While no doubt a supreme time to treasure and deepen bonds with loved ones, winter is also a time of great benefit from quiet reflection, from time spent in conscious self-discovery. Journaling, meditation, prayer, ritual, artwork, and creative expression of all kinds can emerge from the darkness of winter.

Winter’s promise is the rebirth of the sun at winter solstice as the daylight once again begins to grow and soon enough, the Earth will warm again. This time of sacred darkness can be well spent envisioning ideas and plans for our lives and for the year ahead as we rest and replenish our vital energies.

Traditional Story of First Man and First Woman

Selu the Corn Mother and Kanati the Hunter Father

A shortened version of a Cherokee tale with many woven spins

Selu lived with her husband, Kanati, and two grandsons. Everyday, she would go away from the house and return with a basket full of corn. The boys wondered where the corn came from, so they followed her one day. They saw her go into a storehouse, and they got where they could peek in and watch her.
There they saw her place her basket and shake herself. The corn started falling from her body into the basket. They saw that the grain was coming from her body. In this the boys lost their appetite and their gratitude for this life sustaining grain.
Selu could read the boys' thoughts. She told them that she must now die, and that after her death, they would need to follow her instructions so that they would continue to have corn for nourishment.
"After I am dead, you must clear some ground in front of our house. Then drag my body in a circle seven times. Then, you must stay up all night and watch."
The boys did this, but they got the instructions backwards. They cleared seven areas of ground, and drug her body twice in a circle. Where her blood dropped, corn began to grow.
Because the boys were careless in listening to the instructions, corn must now be planted and taken care of in order for it to grow. And to this day, it only grows in certain spots and not the entire earth.

Reflections on Selu

Mostly from the book Selu,
by Appalachian Cherokee storyteller Marilou Awiakta:

In all versions of the compass story respect between genders is an implicit wisdom. Humanity has two genders. To preserve the balance, the genders must cooperate and get along, for themselves, the sake of the community and the environment. Selu and Kanati model this harmony between genders. This wisdom begins in the tangible world with Mother Earth and the Corn Mother, she who sustains life for the people. Selu’s husband, Kanati the hunter, is the mythic father of humankind and the bringer of the equally essential hunting and woodlore to the people.

Strength and tenderness
Tenderness and strength
Balance
In the human dimension

…for the individual, regardless of gender. And for the community in all levels of society, from family ceremonies to government. Woman and man represent cardinal balances in nature.
Regardless of the era in which the ancient story of Selu is told, one of the unchanging elements is that a basic imbalance, a lack of respect, between genders disturbs the balance in the environment, just as such an imbalance in an individual invades the web of his or her life and affects all relationships.
In the spirit of survival, what is needed is a reweaving in consciousness

This is quite similar to some of the last written recent words of herbalist and midwife Jeannine Parvati Baker, a precious teacher now in the world beyond -

New body parables that express the creative power, the wilderness of woman's soul and the holy nature of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and child-rearing are sorely needed. Pleasure and pain must be revisioned through a metaethics of partnership, in light of the new gender complementariness rather than dominion and separation. Our fear of pain, the other gender and a punishing God are related- and traditionally the opiates of childbirth anesthesia, avoidance of conscious heterosexuality and religious dogma have been the strategies employed to distract us from realizing that, from the soul’s perspective, sexuality is spiritually.

A spirituality which recognizes that matter is holy, sexuality is life-force, and the genders are partners can bring ecstasy back to birth, not as hyperbolic possibility but actuality. Living ecstatically in the present moment can bring a greater ability to respond to what presents itself for healing. This is where spirituality, sexuality and ecology all converge.

And again, Awiakta -

Somewhere in the world
Selu is always singing


To my grandchildren Ill say “You aren’t supposed to spy on Selu or her daughters when they’re doing they’re doing their first private work – not even with your ears.” And Ill tell then the story of Little Deer, too, how he is connected to Kanati, the Lucky Hunter.

Without being mean spirited about it – even when the transgressors are bent on murdering her – the Corn mother calmly draws a line in her hearts sweet meal, reminding her sons that to cross it is to separate themselves from their sustainer. The line is the law. To break it will set inevitable consequences in motion. The sons remember the goodness of their own hearts. In a ceremony of sevens, they carry out the Corn mother’s injunctions and faithfully keep the watch. Only then does she return to bless them. Ginitsi Selu endures all things. But she does not put up with all things. If we are reverent toward her and take only what we need, she will sustain us. If we are irreverent and take too much, we separate ourselves from her power and we will die. Ignorance of this natural law is no excuse, because through Mother Earth the Creator reveals them continuously.

As I think of my grandchildren and their future I think of Selu story and that she knew she had sprung from the corn and that she needed to take something of her heritage with her.

These grandchildren have Celtic heritage also, through their fathers who are mountain men, and through part of my family. From what I see of this teetering world these children will need every root of their heritages to survive. Most of this knowledge will be passed through family.
From first contact centuries ago the Celt and the Cherokee got on well together because of what shared: devotion to family; love of the land; reverence for the Creator and natural law; the egalitarian relationship between men and woman; the sense of fierce independence and outrage at foreign invasions which both sexes would battle to repel; the love of ceremony and symbol. All of these combine in a quality of soul that relies on the inner life of the spirit to survive.

As American society searches for new life patterns for the future, it is sensible to study also those patterns that are indigenous to our country and that have proved reliable for the survival of the people. In this study we will undoubtedly find agreeable harmonies – perhaps moving in counterpoint, but harmonies nonetheless. If we listen to each other, many concepts which appear controversial may be rendered less divisive than we thought. When we look at the increasing role of women in the government of America today and the increasing participation of men in family life, we see it not so much as a new phenomenon, but as a resurgence of the indigenous roots of democracy.
When we turn to the Cherokee, who in the historical record appear to be separated from the Iroquoian people by thousands of years, we see links appearing in similarities of language constructs and customs but science and history can only go so far in establishing links

Song of the Grandmothers

I am Cherokee.
My people believe in the spirit that unites all things
I am woman. I am life-force. My word has great value. A man reveres me as he reveres Mother Earth and his own spirit.

The Beloved Woman is one of our principal chiefs. Through her the Spirit often speaks to the people. In the Great Council at the capital, she is a powerful voice. Concerning the fate of hostages, her word is absolute.

Women share in all life. We lead sacred dances. In the council we debate freely with men until an agreement is reached. When the nation considers war, we have a say, for we bear the warriors.
Sometimes I go into battle. I also plant and harvest.

I carry my own name and the name of my clan. If I accept a mate, he and our children take the name of my clan. If there is a deep trouble between us, I am free to tell him to go as he is to leave. Our children and our dwelling stay with me.
As long as I am treated with dignity, I am steadfast.
I love and work and sing.
I listen to the Spirit.
In all things I speak my mind. I walk without fear.
I am Cherokee

The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of the Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Cherokee women being as famous in war, as powerful in the council. – Henry Timberlake, Memoirs, 1765

Early Romans exposed to Celtic tribes were aghast to observe that these “barbarians” as a practice will consult their women in their decisions – even of government and military matters (!). Along with healers, witches, queens, and peasants were women as fierce warriors. According to Diodorus of Sicily, “Among the Gauls the women are nearly as tall as the men, whom they rival in courage.” Ammiamus Marcellinus observed that “the mood of the Gauls is quarrelsome and arrogant in the extreme. In a fight any one of them can resist several strangers at a time, with no other help than his wife’s, who is even more formidable.” From Women of the Celts.