Marsden Imbolc 7th February

A Time of Rededication

A time when the manifesting energy begins to change, a new cycle of life is beginning, the birth of new life. Prepare inwardly for the changes that will come. Plant your visions and ideas and leave them to germinate. Reclaim what was forgotten, this time will inspire leaps of faith, express your deepest feelings and understand your inner wisdom.

We stand like the first flowers or new born lambs in the field, with vast and confusing world around us, who knows what the universe will bring to us this year. See the year as an adventure and with our Gods/Spirits/Guides to accompany us whatever challenges we need to face.

The monthly Full Moon (9nth Feb) is the Storm moon - a time for purification, spring cleaning, looking into our home and space and remove the clutter that we have gathered around us to protect and collect us over the winter months, let the fresh spring air in.
Banish the negative energy and bring in the sunlight and and fresh air to the dank dark corners. The sun is bringing life and warmth and fertility to the land.
If you are moving house or just cleaning you can declutter.

H/T Hedgewytch

Solmonath- The Month of Cakes

Awakening the Ground

In Western Europe, this was the time for preparing the fields for the first planting. You can begin turning over and enriching the soil in anticipation of the first sowing in March. Pamela Berger has written a book, The Goodess Obscured: Transformation of the Grain Protectress from Goddess to Saint, about the rituals celebrated at this time of year, when the ground is first awakened and the seed placed in the belly of the earth. This is a significant moment in a community which depends on the earth for sustenance. The fields were purified and offerings were made to the goddess.

This medieval Anglo-Saxon plowing charm, recorded by Berger, was said by the farmer while cutting the first furrow.

Whole be thou Earth
Mother of men.
In the lap of God,
Be thous as-growing.
Be filled with fodder
For fare-need of men.

The farmer then took a loaf of bread, kneaded it with milk and holy water and laid it under the first furrow, saying:

Acre full fed,
Bring forth fodder for men!
Blossoming brightly,
Blessed become;
And the God who wrought the ground,
Grant us the gifts of growing,
That the corn, all the corn,
may come unto our need.

The promises of the return of the light and the renewal of life which were made at the winter solstice are now becoming manifest. It's the dawn of the year. It's the time when a woman who is pregnant begins showing. It's time to creep out of the hibernation of winter, cautiously, like the Ground Hog who supposedly emerges on this day to check his shadow. It's the time of germination. This is a traditional time for new beginnings.