Dave's Blog

Saturday, February 02, 2008
 
Imbolc

Imbolc is St. Brigid's Day, the Feast of the Purification, 
Candlemas, Groundhog Day. 

Brigid is the Bride, a cosmic Virgin, a goddess of infinitely 
flowing milk. Newborn lambs are honored on this day, and 
pilgrimages made to her many wells. She has been traced to 
Illyria, in the Balkans, and in her heyday she was the patron 
goddess of Brigantia, an empire that spanned Spain, France, and 
Britain. The Bride is welcomed in each household, bringing with 
her fertility (sometimes Celts seem to have a one-track mind), 
manifested in abundant crops, flocks, and family. 

"So when Christianity replaced the Old Religion, the gods simply 
took on fresh names, those of saints, and in this guise were 
worshiped at festivals which had gone on for centuries perhaps 
even before Celtic times." [1]

So St. Brigit, the Mary of the Gaels, lived on. But what's all 
this about the groundhog? 

Gods and Saints have their familiars. In the most primitive 
shamanism these are not pets, but rather alter-egos, personas 
that they may shape shift into during their most mystical and 
magical experiences. The Bride is bringing us a glimpse of the 
future. 

Punxsutawney Phil is not the only hedgehog to which we shall turn 
today. His brothers in Scotland have been foretelling weather at 
this time of year for centuries. Traditionally, if the hedgehog 
comes out of the ground and sees his shadow, he will start and 
dive back in. This means winter will last for six more weeks. If 
he comes out and sees no shadow, he will stay above ground, and 
winter is effectively over. 

"If Candlemass day be dry and fair, 
The half o' winter yet to come and mair; 
If Candlemass day be wet and foul, 
The half o' winter gane at Yule." [2] 

Actually, this makes some sense if you know how it works. If you 
look at a globe or a map, you can see that Scotland is pretty far 
north -- about the latitude of Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. 
This is the domain of the subarctic weather pattern, where storm 
fronts circle the North Pole like vanes on a pinwheel. The fronts 
pass through about every six weeks; the further north you go, the 
more regular the pattern becomes. So, with the Equinox about six 
weeks away, this is a chance to check the phase of the pattern. 
If it's sunny, there's another storm front due before the crops 
can be planted. If the storm is here now, the next clearing 
should be the all-clear for the season. 

Magick? Or just the collected wisdom of the ages? 

Don't you think the image of a furry rodent popping in and out of 
a hole in the ground somewhat naughty? [3] 

For the record, we have shadows in San Francisco this morning.  
---------------
[1] The Druids, by Ward Rutherford, p. 161. 
[2] The Magickal Year, by Diana Ferguson, p. 84. 
[3] What, you thought this was a scholarly work?

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