Posted by: Lara | June 21, 2009

Planetary Energies Summer Solstice 2009

In brief: Summer Solstice, Two Eclipses, Two New Moons in Cancer, Jupiter Neptune conjunction, lots of stimulating aspects……

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE

It’s a beautiful time of year: the days are long and abundant, the air is warmed and clear, gardens begin to offer up food for body and soul, and the prospect of the summer holiday beckons. Our bodies relax in the sunshine, we smile at each other in the street, and optimistically buy garden furniture and skimpy summer dresses. In the Northern countries, the calendar is full with festivals and sporting events to make the most of the short summer months. It’s the time of most extraversion in terms of socializing, seeing and being seen, so it’s a great time for meeting new people, reconnecting with old friends, and having fun. 

The Longest Day

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year. Solstice means standstill, and this period is so-named because the sun appears to rise in the same place for three days running.

Midsummer

The period around the solstice is known as Midsummer and was believed to be a time for fairies and magic. In ancient pagan Solstice celebrations huge fires were lit on the hilltops. Livestock were driven through the fires to be purified, while the people danced around and leaped over the fires for the same reason.

Traditionally, June 24 is Midsummer  Day, and either Midsummer Day or Midsummer Eve (the evening of June 23) was celebrated in most European countries, and in some areas is still a time of festivity.

St. John

The pagan celebration of June 24 was adopted as St John’s birthday by the Christian Church. This practice seems to have developed gradually throughout Europe. We know that certainly in the seventh century Saint Eligius encouraged the celebration of St John’s birthday and warned against the customary pagan rites.

I’ve often been in Southwest France for the Summer Solstice, where there is an unbroken tradition of celebrating the longest day with a huge community bonfire, a party with live music, and as always, lots of food. The festival is called the Fete de St. Jean, the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist.

St. John is the polar opposite of the male archetype associated with Jesus, whose birthday was of course assigned to the Winter Solstice, exactly six months away. St. John was the wild, fiery counterpart to the calm, sacrificial Jesus of the winter. In his gospel, Luke notes that John was born six months before Christ, which was the reason the Catholic Church gave for John’s birthday occurring on June 24.

Matriarchal/Patriarchal Archetypes

The Summer Solstice begins when the Sun moves into Cancer, ruled by the Moon, significator of the matriarchal archetype. The Winter Solstice occurs when the Sun moves into the sign of Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, signifying the patriarchal archetype.

Over the past millennia, the shifting of celebratory emphasis in the year from Midsummer to the Winter Solstice reflects the accompanying dominance of the patriarchal model of social organization.

In most countries in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas/Winter Solstice is the dominant collective holiday, but in areas where the winter is particularly long and hard Midsummer is almost its equal, and is a national holiday in Sweden, Finland, and Latvia.

Summer and Love

Traditionally the Summer Solstice is the time of marriage, occurring at the juncture between the signs of Gemini (soul mates, twin souls, partnership) and Cancer (family, nurturing).

The solstice was also a time to wish for love: young men who succeeded in jumping over the Solstice bonfires were said to be going to find their true love in the coming year. This tradition continues today in parts of Europe including rural France.

The Marriage of the Sun and the Moon

The Summer Solstice occurs at 0 degrees of Cancer, the moment of the Sun’s entry into the sign that, since ancient times, people have considered “belongs” to the Moon. This means that at the peak of the Sun’s influence on the Earth, it is in the part of the sky ruled by the Moon. In archetypal terms, this means that masculine Sun power at its peak is filtered through the prism of feminine Moon energy, making for a symbolic marriage.

The Summer Solstice is energetically like a magnified Full Moon. The Moon is Full when the Sun and Moon oppose each other in the sky i.e. they are in opposite signs of the zodiac.

The Full Moon at any time of the year is also traditionally considered to be a good time for marriage, as well as for making love potions and invoking the help of the unseen in finding true love.

The Summer Solstice is the traditional time within the annual cycle for marriage, for the union of male and female. Each Full Moon evokes a similar version of this union, and is the best time within the monthly lunar cycle for marriage.

The Summer Solstice This Year

This year the Solstice occurs with a New Moon, making it a good time for forming new relationships. 

Supporting this is the conjunction of Venus and Mars at 15 Taurus, trine Saturn in Virgo. This suggests that partnerships formed at this time will be mature and have the possibility of lasting a long time. It’s an especially positive relationship time for Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) and for Cancerians. Scorpios may find that existing partners dominate. Maybe you should let them: the influence won’t last for long, and it’s probably good for you to let someone else be in charge once in a while! Pisceans are still under the influence of Uranus, so anything could happen!

The sign most impacted by the next few weeks is Cancer, with two New Moons in Cancer as well as a Full Moon, two eclipses, and some intense aspects forming around these Moons and during the month. Cancerians are stimulated to make necessary changes, with the New Moon (June 22) at 1:30 Cancer opposing Pluto at 2 Capricorn. These changes are responsible ones for the most part, as the Venus/Mars trine to Saturn is in effect. This theme continues with the next Full Moon which falls on July 7 at 16 Cancer/Capricorn. The Full Moon trines Saturn, so more opportunity for making long term, mature decisions. This bodes well in terms of residential matters, and especially for those influenced by the signs of Cancer and Virgo. These two signs are the ones most concerned with hearth and home, so a Full Moon in which the Sun in Cancer sextiles Saturn in Virgo makes this a great time to find a new home or making a good plan for sensibly rejuvenating your existing one. Then there is a further New Moon in Cancer on July 21, this time at 29 Cancer, still reverberating with the trine to Uranus of a few days before. 

Notable days 

June 20/21: Summer Solstice: Sun enters Cancer 10:46 pm Pacific on June 20, 6:46 am GMT, 1:46 am Eastern on June 21.

July 1/2: 6 planets at 26 degrees! Mercury at 26 Gemini trines Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron (26 Aquarius) while squaring Uranus (26 Pisces). Venus at 26 Taurus squares Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron while sextiling Uranus. Dream big, write/paint/design, try not to spend too much money, be alert to possible accidents, don’t drink too much coffee, or too much anything else for that matter. Mars is coming along to join the party (reaches 26 Taurus on July 7) so there is plenty of energy and drive in the mix. Depending on where all this falls in your chart, if you have anything significant at 26 degrees you could experience a life-changing event/meeting/thought/inner experience. 

Plus: Uranus stations retrograde at 26:37 Pisces.

July 7: a very intense day. Mars at 26 Taurus squares Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron while sextile Uranus. Shocks and surprises, especially involving politicians. More financial shenanigans likely to come to light. Explosions possible.

Plus: FULL MOON (Lunar) ECLIPSE AT 15:32 CANCER/CAPRICORN, 10:21 am GMT, 5:21 am Eastern, 2:21 am Pacific.  As mentioned above, this eclipse trines/sextiles Saturn, which should for all of us help to calm the craziness of the Eclipse/Mars aspects and hopefully generate some workable solutions to financial issues, and culling of what is unnecessary in the three months following this series of eclipses (there’s another one coming up on August 5 but I’ll talk about that next time. The July 21 one is the biggee). 

July 10: The Jupiter/Neptune conjunction recurs for the second of three occurrences this year, this time at 26:01 Aquarius (we get this aspect again on December 21). Signifying at best spiritual awakening, and at worst having the wool pulled over our eyes by unscrupulous politicians, this aspect sets the major tone of this year. Certainly in the UK the unmasking of former corruption at the political level is a big issue. What we have to also watch out for is what is happening in the present while we are focusing on the errors of the past. The Iran situation is also all about political manipulations and the desire of the public to be told the political truth. With the Uranus Pluto square gradually coming into orbs politicians had better watch out: rebellion is not far away in our collective consciousness.  

July 21/22: Total Solar Eclipse at 29 Cancer 7:35 pm Pacific and 10:35 pm Eastern on July 21, 3:35 am GMT on July 22. Another New Moon in Cancer. Jupiter is conjunct Chiron today, so with the New Moon and Eclipse this signals a good time for healing and new beginnings, for setting up new, healthier patterns, for moving to new, healthier environments. This eclipse is visible over China and the countries to its West and South-East suggesting that this part of the world will undergo some fundamental changes in the coming months. 

July 27: Venus at 26 Gemini trines Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron, while squaring Uranus. An interesting day for love!

So that’s the overview for the coming six weeks. Not a sleepy time, that’s for sure. Enjoy the vivacity of the air trines and the challenge of the fixed squares. Try and keep a sense of perspective when the eclipses throw a curve ball or two. Think about how you really want your life to be and don’t be afraid to dream big, with Jupiter and Neptune encouraging us to embrace possibilities we thought were for others, or simply not possible at all, and the Eclipses shaking up existing patterns and thus helping manifest those dreams. Our collective yearning for a better life for all is coming into center stage in public discussion. May this bear enlightening fruit. 

with love,

Lara

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Posted in Eclipses, Jupiter Neptune conjunction, Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron conjunction, Planetary Energies newsletter, Summer Solstice

Posted by: Lara | April 28, 2009

Planetary Energies Beltane 2009

Beltane: Symbolism & Rituals

Beltane, May Eve, is the most glorious of the ancient fire festivals and persists to the present day as May Day or the Spring Holiday. Historically the largest festival of the ceremonial year, Beltane was the time for celebrating the blossoming of spring, and the fertility of land and livestock. The name Beltane is thought to have meant bright or sacred fire, (bealltainn in Gaelic) and on this night the hilltops would have been ablaze with huge bonfires, and the woods and fields ablaze with the fires of love.

Beltane is usually celebrated on either April 30 (May Eve), or on May 1. Before there were calendars, Beltane was signaled by the blooming of the hawthorn (also known as the may). Beltane occurs exactly at the opposite end of the ceremonial year to Samhain/Hallowe’en, and celebrates life as Samhain honors death. Beltane is the time of conception, of the physical beginning of new life. It is the most physically passionate of the ancient festivals.

Beltane is one of the four cross-quarter days of the year, traditionally seen as the most potent moments for transformation. The cross-quarter days were celebrated when the Sun was at 15 degrees of the fixed signs. Beltane falls under the fixed sign of Taurus, ruled appropriately by Venus, the goddess of love, fertility, and abundance. At 15 degrees of Taurus this energy is ripe and charged for activation.

Like Mardi Gras, Beltane functioned as a ritualized antidote to the rules and laws of relationship and sexuality that keep society well-ordered. These rules, if adhered to rigidly, can cause depression, aggression, and general malaise. At Beltane the rules were lifted, in honor of the burgeoning, expansive energy of springtime, and the primitive need to ensure the fertility of the fields by sacrificing the individual personality to acts of sacred, impersonal sexuality. Children conceived at Beltane were considered to be special, produced from the union of two people meeting the god and goddess within each other, and not just the temporal man and woman.

Beltane is a time when new bonds can be formed as inhibitions loosen, inspired by the blossoming, heart-opening atmosphere of full spring. Beltane/May Day is the juncture of the year hardwired into our DNA as the strongest moment of life-giving lust.  The Maypole is more than just a phallic symbol: the twining of the ribbons around the pole evokes the DNA spiral, and symbolizes the eternal round of life.

May Day is still a festival in many countries in the world, and often associated with freedom and with labor (this was the time when hands would have been hired to work in the fields). Beltane coincided with the moving of livestock to summer grazing areas, an activity that took people out of their homes and into the woods and fields. Modern day equivalents for this include planting frost-sensitive flowering plants and crops, moving winter clothes to the back of the closet, buying new furnishings after the Equinoctial spring clean, and spending as much time as you can outside in the countryside.

Here are some ritual ideas for a modern day version of Beltane, taken from old ceremonies: Light a fire/candles, and let the smoke purify you, (you can also use sage or incense for this). Dance clockwise around the fire, praying for fertility (of body and/or mind). If you are attracted to someone, this might be a good time to talk to them about your feelings and see if they are reciprocated. Whether your relationship is new or old, it’s a great time to go with your beloved into the countryside for a day, or better still a camping trip that allows you to sleep outdoors and perhaps build a campfire. And this is an ideal time for a party and general merry-making.

Beltane This Year

This year the Beltane cross-quarter day falls on May 6, and this is an alternative to May 1 as a time to celebrate Beltane. The Moon is full the next day, on May 7. When the Sun is in Taurus, the Full Moon is in Scorpio, so this year the passionate and intense aspects of Beltane are more to the forefront. (Last year Beltane fell close to the New Moon so the emphasis was more on planting and beginning). This year’s Beltane is about intimacy big time, and having the courage to merge with another, to enter whole-heartedly into the sacred realm of courtship and union.

Venus and Mars

This year the mating, merging aspect of Beltane is emphasized by the current movements of the planets. Venus and Mars are doing a rare, closely-related, back and forth dance, being exactly conjunct on April 22 and June 21, and from April through August mostly in the same sign. Between April 12th and July 13th these two planets are never more than 8 degrees apart, the usual orb of a conjunction. So they are effectively conjunct for three months, which makes this a potent and relatively lengthy window for beginning and deepening sexual and romantic relationships and creative partnerships of all kinds.

Symbolically and probably energetically, Beltane is the high point of this three month period. At Beltane, Venus and Mars are at 2 and 6 degrees of Aries respectively, so for people born in the last week of March or with planets or angles at 0-8 degrees of Aries, this is an especially powerfully erotic and creative time. 

Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron

The other big astronomical event this spring is the upcoming Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron three-way conjunction on May 27. This lends the energy at this year’s Beltane a particularly spiritual and collectively transformative cast.

Jupiter conjunct Neptune is a time for dreaming big. Try to keep your feet on the ground nonetheless! Grounding practices (good diet, physical exercise, working with plants, with the land and with earthy materials, paying homage to common sense) help balance the intense spirituality and ethereal quality of Jupiter/Neptune. But don’t have feet of clay when there is a moment to fly! Let your imagination be influenced by the new sparks of inspiration being born by the uncertainty of our times.

With Chiron added into the mix there is an element of sacrifice and healing. The way forward is to let go of what we no longer need, to allow the purifying fire of transformation to proceed without sentimentality or holding on to what is past and no longer serves. Change always comes with a cost, and learning to let go and move forward is a primary life lesson. We’re living in a time in which collective attachment to a surface kind of security is being exposed as just that, only a surface. It’s time to talk about what real security means and how we develop it.

On the outer level real security comes from valuing and caring for each other and stewarding our environment responsibly, from paying attention the greater good. But where does an inner sense of security come from? All of the above, but with something else, something that is sometimes hard to pin down but everyone knows it when they connect with it. Crudely put, this inner sense of security and stability stems from living out our destiny whole-heartedly, through finding ways to express our inner soul dream. It’s an individual matter with universal ramifications.

I’ve been heartened by the number of programs in mainstream media lately about the topic of dreams and how to live them. We’re living through a collective shift to embrace the concept of destiny as opposed to fate; to examine what is truly possible when we apply our imagination and courage to life, rather than to accept closed doors that we never tried to open. This is why Susan Boyle has become such an instant hit — her courage to stand up there in front of millions of people and sing her heart out is a classic case of Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron inspiration.

And it’s an old myth: The Ugly Duckling, Cinderella and countless other tales describe the radical transformation that emerges from the unobstructed flow of nature aligned with the courage to believe in a new, as yet unseen, future, at certain magical times. We are living through one of those magical times right now.

Have a fabulous Beltane!

love and blessings,

Lara

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Posted in Beltane, Jupiter Neptune conjunction, Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron conjunction, Susan Boyle, Venus & Mars, cultural change

Posted by: Lara | March 19, 2009

Planetary Energies Spring Equinox 2009

This year, the Spring Equinox falls on March 20 at 4:44 am Pacific , 7:44 am Eastern, 11:48 am in London, 12:48 pm in mainland Europe. The Moon is in the third quarter, and last night was a perfect half moon, which to my sleepy mind, when I looked out the window at 3 am, seemed to perfectly match the equal nature of the equinox. 

Equinox Symbolism: Rebirth & Resurrection

In the ancient world, the Spring Equinox was a major juncture in the ritual year, and a joyous solar festival of resurrection and renewal after the trials of the winter. In Northern Europe this time was known as “The Month of the Greening of the Earth”. This is a time of fertility–of land, birds, animals, and humans–and thus its related symbols include eggs, and the rampant, super-fertile rabbit or Mad March (lunar) hare.

The correct title is the Vernal Equinox, from the Latin for “equal night of spring”. The Great Sphinx is aligned to meet the rising Sun on the vernal equinox, and the Kukulcan pyramid at Chichen Itza is aligned with the equinoctal sunset.  The vernal equinox, often also referred to as the first day of spring, marks the beginning of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, a celebration rooted in Zoroastrianism and lasting for 13 days. In the Southern Hemisphere, this date marks the Autumn Equinox rather than the Spring, and signals the onset of cooler weather.

Celebration of the Spring Equinox, the moment of magical equality of day and night, was replaced in the Christian tradition by Easter, which has the same magnitude in the ritual year, being the most important festival in the Christian liturgical calendar. Traditionally Easter was, and in some places still is, a deeply moving ritual of rebirth and resurrection, beginning on Holy Saturday in darkness with the Easter vigil, and continuing through the night and into the dawn of Easter Sunday with a ritualized acknowledgement of Christ’s sacrifice and the concomitant themes of death and resurrection, followed by mass baptisms and recommitment of faith, and concluding with a celebration of rich food replete with fertility symbols of new life. The Easter egg we eat today is a perfect symbolic food of this time, combining the fertility symbolism of the egg with the richness of chocolate, given as a reward after the Lenten fast.

In the Western Christian Church, Easter is calculated as the first Sunday after the Full Moon occurring after the Spring Equinox, and this year will be celebrated on April 12. The Jewish and Orthodox Christian rituals are calculated slightly differently, but this year all fall close together: Passover begins at sundown on April 9, and Easter in the Orthodox Church is on April 19.

Planting Seeds

The onset of full spring at the Vernal Equinox is the moment when agriculture goes into full activity. Animals are being born, the soil is warmed and ready for planting. One of the main actions of this time is seed planting.

The new growth window stretches out from the Equinox right through to Beltane on May 1. Just as we plant seeds in our gardens during this time, so we can plant the seeds of our creativity over this whole period, in whatever sphere of our lives requires them. 

The Spirit of the Equinox

At the Equinox, the Sun enters the first degree of the zodiacal constellation of Aries in the tropical calendar. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, and signifies birth, beginnings, zest, enthusiasm, passion, unequivocal desire, and action unfettered by inhibition or experience. It is the zero point, the place of all potential, with no baggage, no past, to weigh it down or tamper with its purity of intent. Thus Aries is associated with innocence and foolhardiness: the courage born of not knowing what can go wrong. It is symbolically related to the Fool card in the Tarot: full of potency and potential, but vulnerable to being tripped up by its own naivety.

We may, as we grow older, imagine ourselves to be immune to folly and to being taken over by enthusiasm, but we lock ourselves into certainty at our peril. Fully lived enthusiasm could be defined as  the willingness to commit to what enchants us, to be drawn towards that which has energy for us. Sometimes this may lead us down false paths, but sometimes it leads us to our own grail. The willingness to be transformed in the moment by the joy of living keeps us young and vital.

The Spring Equinox, our collective zero moment, is the best time in the year to connect with your own purity of enthusiasm, to transcend middle-aged caution, common sense, and fear of change. With this zest the heart is renewed, and we naturally access a bright and fresh impetus for living fully.

The Ingress Chart and the Shape of Things to Come

The moment of the Equinox gives us a chart showing the broad atmosphere of the following three months, the quarter of the year between now and the Summer Solstice. This year the ingress chart shows a waning Moon in Capricorn (the New Moon in Aries is coming up on March 26), Mercury moving close to conjunction with Uranus in Pisces, Venus retrograde in Aries, Mars in early Pisces, Jupiter in Aquarius inconjunct Saturn, Neptune conjunct Chiron in Aquarius, and Pluto stationing at 3 Capricorn getting ready to turn retrograde on April 4.

Pluto is square the Sun, which has just passed over Uranus, suggesting that the resonance of the forthcoming Uranus Pluto square is highlighted more in this quarter than in the rest of the year, and is a precursor to the Equinox charts of 2010 and 2011, which will be intense, to say the least. But it’s not quite time for the revolution, velvet or otherwise. We’re still shedding the fat of the past, with a waning Moon in Capricorn and Pluto stationary. Yes, there will be new impulses, there always are at this time of year, but there’s still a big clean-up happening, and it’s going to be a while longer before all the skeletons are out of the closets. The two planets that represent money are stationary (Pluto) and retrograde (Venus), plus Venus is in the sign of her detriment, where she is weakest. In addition, the Moon is in the sign of big business and squaring the Sun and Venus by sign. So not much in the way of good news coming on the collective financial front just yet, and we can expect more financial misdemeanors and outright fraud to come to the surface around the equinox and over the coming weeks. 

But as individuals, this is nonetheless the moment of renewal, and the time to burst forth with the plans we cooked up during the winter months. Caution is still a watchword, but not if it stops you doing something you really need to do. It’s not going to help anyone if we stop being creative and moving forwards. So while the banks and the financial markets do their dance of correction, the rest of us can get on with our lives. And maybe find that the new shape of things is to our advantage. 

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Posted in Easter, Financial astrology, Passover, Spring Equinox

Posted by: Lara | February 1, 2009

Planetary Energies Imbolc 2009

Early February has long been celebrated as a holiday in many cultures: in ancient Ireland it was Imbolc and Brigid’s Day, in the Mediterranean and later in all of Europe, Candlemas and St. Bridget’s Day. In the US Feb 2 is Groundhog Day, a celebration of the lengthening days causing small furry creatures to poke their noses out of their hibernation holes and sniff the warming air. The Chinese and Tibetan New Years also occur in this time period, usually falling somewhere in the late January, early February window.

At this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, the land, refreshed from the resting period of winter and purified by frosts, is getting ready for cultivation, for the renewal of the agricultural year. This is a moment of quickening, as the spark of life reappears, coming up from its deep underground slumber.

IMBOLC THIS YEAR

The year often doesn’t really get going until Imbolc, and this year is no exception. Mercury was retrograde through January, slowing things up, although the Inauguration and the lively New Moon/Solar Eclipse of January 25/26 caused flurries of activity within the slowdown. Now, as Mercury resumes forward motion on Feb 1, the year begins to move forward with more energy and commitment.

The Imbolc window lasts for around a week, and is a good time for inner work. This year this process is helped by the conjunction of the Sun with Chiron and Neptune, giving us a powerful time for healing and cleansing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. On the mundane level, we’ll see more bloated, inefficient parts of the economy get the chop. This is all emphasized by the Full Moon on Feb 9th, which brings us another eclipse, at 21 Leo/Aquarius, exactly conjunct Chiron and very close to Neptune. 

IMBOLC: RITUALS AND SIGNIFICANCE

The Celts celebrated the beginning of February with bonfires and feasts, believing that the year begins when the Sun reaches the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, (15 degrees of Aquarius), marking the return of warmth and light and fertility in the Northern Hemisphere. Although often cited as occurring on February 2, the exact time of Imbolc is a day or two later, and in 2009 Imbolc falls on February 3, at 5 pm GMT (12 noon Eastern, 9 am Pacific).

Like the other cross-quarter days (the festivals that fall midway between the solstices and equinoxes), Imbolc was a fire festival and a major holyday in the Celtic calendar. It was the festival of the lactation of the ewes: the word Imbolc is Gaelic for “in the belly” and referred to the pregnant ewes. Sheep were crucial providers of both food and clothing and the arrival of lambs was a time for celebration. The specific areas of dedication at Imbolc, associated with Brigit, the Irish virgin goddess, were virgins, healing, and poets. Imbolc is a virginal time: everything is new, purified by winter and becoming ready for impregnation, the sowing of the seed. It’s not clear how the association with poetry fits in here, but one can surmise that it’s because poetry is the purest of the creative forms and needs no tools other than the voice. (Extemporaneous poetry was the most highly esteemed of the Bardic arts, requiring purity of mind and clarity of intent in order to allow the voice of the divine to enter through the channel of the poet.)

Brigid/Brigit, also known as Brighid, Bride, Brighde, or Bridget, was a major goddess in the ancient Celtic pantheon. She was adopted by the early Christian Church as St Bridget and frequently associated with the Virgin Mary. She was sometimes a midwife to Mary and at other times conflated with her, as in medieval Ireland where she was known as Mary of the Gael and revered as a muse to poets. The Christians adopted the holiday of St. Brigit’s Day/Imbolc and called it Candlemas, integrating the old practice of lighting new candles on this day as symbolic of the new light, the new year, the new impetus for creativity. It is still the day of the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, as February 2 is forty days since December 25, the birthday of Jesus.

If you are ever in London, I recommend a visit to St. Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, one of the oldest churches in the city. There is an ancient crypt underground that one can visit and meditate in. Seven churches have been built on the site over the past two thousand years: this is an ancient place of worship, and has an palpable, deep, earth energy, very nourishing and feminine. Due to the proximity of the first printing press and the subsequent growth of the print trade, St Bride’s has long been associated with printing and journalism, and has a side-chapel with an altar dedicated to journalists imprisoned or killed in their line of work.

St Bride’s song

I long for a great lake of ale
I long for the meats of belief and pure piety
I long for flails of penance at my house
I long for them to have barrels full of peace
I long to give away jars full of love
I long for them to have cellars full or mercy
I long for cheerfulness to be in their drinking
I long for Jesus too to be there among them.

CELEBRATING IMBOLC TODAY

Simple things to do to honor Imbolc include praying to St Brigid, lighting new candles throughout the house, wearing new clothes, and making lists of intentions for the coming season. If you want to have a feast, the dish of choice is roast lamb. But don’t forget that Imbolc is also a good time for a detox or fast, as the watchwords for this phase are purification and cleansing.

The purity of the Imbolc symbolism is very much part of the newness of the year. Life is refreshed by cleansing, by letting go. This is a time to release attachment to past pain, to let go of whatever out-dated stories about yourself and your life you are hanging onto, to allow the healing of forgiveness and acceptance to soothe old injuries of heart and soul.

It is an excellent time to review what has and has not already been achieved, and to assess which of your dreams you still want to pursue and which ones you might as well let go of.

It’s a potent time to clear away past disappointments, to let go of old ideas about yourself, and step fully into the present. And on the mundane and physical level, it’s a great time to clear out and give away all that stuff you no longer need.

This year, with the influence of Chiron and Neptune and sandwiched by two eclipses, Imbolc is a particularly strong time for cleansing and clearing. Then you’ll be ready for the New Year to really get going, renewed and refreshed.

love and blessings,

Lara

February 1 2009

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Posted in Eclipses, Imbolc

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