Sometimes I talk about how this farm, and the way Donald and I work it together, has healed me. Brought an earlier version of myself back to me again. One of the ways it’s done that – for both of us, actually – is to reconnect us to the cycle of the year, the cycle of life.

We are in the daylight of Imbolc, which holyday continues through to this evening. I hope the renewing of the year will bring you health and joy, and your own kind of cleansings and rebirths, whatever path you follow. Love to you all…

“Imbolc/Candlemas February 1-2. Imbolc, in the Celtic seasonal calendar marks the beginning of the lambing season and signals the beginning of Spring and the stirrings of new life. It is Feile Brighde, the ‘quickening of the year’. The original word Imbolg means ‘in the belly’. All is pregnant and expectant – and only just visible if at all, like the gentle curve of a ‘just-showing’ pregnancy. It is the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of earth awakening and life-force stirring. Here is hope.

We welcome the growth of the returning light and witness Life’s insatiable appetite for rebirth.It is time to let go of the past and to look to the future, clearing out the old, making both outer and inner space for new beginnings. This can be done in numerous ways, from spring cleaning your home to clearing the mind and heart to allow inspiration to enter for the new cycle. (‘Spring cleaning was originally a nature ritual’ – Doreen Valiente). It’s a good time for wish-making or making a dedication.Imbolc is traditionally the great festival and honouring of Brigid (Brighid, Bride, Brigit), so loved as a pagan Goddess that her worship was woven into the Christian church as St Bridget. She is a Goddess of healing, poetry and smithcraft. She is a Goddess of Fire, of the Sun and of the Hearth. She brings fertility to the land and its people and is closely connected to midwives and new-born babies. She is the Triple Goddess, but at Imbolc she is in her Maiden aspect. “
(Reprinted from https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/imbolc-candlemas/)

And this I share with you, on this day of renewal: the poem that D shared with me in our earliest days, the days which birthed what we are now, together.

“Give thou thine heart to the wild magic,
To the Lord and the Lady of Nature,
Beyond any consideration of this world.
Do not covet large or small,
Do not despise weakling or poor,
Semblance of evil allow not near thee,
Never give nor earn thou shame.
The Ancient Harmonies are given thee,
Understand them early and prove,
Be one with the power of the elements,
Put behind thee dishonour and lies.
Be loyal to the Lord of the Wild Wood,
Be true to the Lady of the Stars,
Be true to thine own self besides,
True to the magic of Nature above all else.
Do not thou curse anyone,
Lest thou threefold cursed shouldst be,
And shouldst thou travel ocean and earth,
Follow the very step of the ancient trackways.”

(carmina gadelica – ancient celtic oral tradition, reprinted from https://www.worldprayers.org/)