Above and below, time is turning. The Celtic spring begins on February 1, on the festival known by names such as Imbolg, Oimelic, Candlemas and St. Brigid's Day. It is a season of seeds, of great beginnings deep in the underground.
Imbolg marks the fading of the winter hag Cailleach and her freezing clutch on the landscape. Her sister, Brigit, is the fair goddess of spring and although her influence is felt throughout the year, just like Cailleach, she will dissipate with her season, yielding to their third sister, Danu, goddess of the summer into autumn.
Imbolg, meaning "in the belly" is the time of first milk, of the birthing of spring lambs and the provision of milk and meat which meant survival to our forebears. To greet Imbolg was to notice the lengthening of days and the first visible signs that light and life were again returning to the land.
Deep in the earth, from deep "in the belly," Brigit is a "begoibne" or woman of the smithery. In a cloak of ashes she forges the pots whose contents nuture humanity. As the muse of poets, craftspeople, healers and the domestic hearth, Brigit is found in the everyday soot of life and in the soaring lyrics of song. She gifts us with her vessels and their contents - seeds of life, sparks of ideas that fuel the smallest and largest of our days.
As in life, not all seeds should be kept. Separated from chaff, the best ideas for the living and loving of life must be gathered at the right time, stored properly to preserve their freshness and brought from their storage for use when needed.
Throughout time Brigit's pots have stored and held these seeds, the creativity, the drama, the very essence of mankind. Without protection from her vessels, the seed is scattered, buffeted by the hard winds of life. The absence of her protection in any life is evident by the baleful moaning of wind whipping across a barren psychic landscape unprotected by vegetation of any kind - the seeds are lost.
Though her immediate presence dims with the onset of summer, Brigit is always present to those who keep her faith. Her "crosses" still hang in their rightful position above doorways, her belt or "crois bride" is still passed from hand to hand and just as Brigit has traversed time to become one of the better known Celtic goddesses, so her vessel reappeared in the later pagan/Christian lore as the grail of Arthur's search.
As above, so below - the days are lengthening above, the seeds are quickening below. Welcome Brid, welcome spring.