It is Imbolc, as you may have noticed.
🕯️🌟🕯️🌟🕯️✨Blessed Imbolc to you.✨🕯️🌟🕯️🌟🕯️
(Er, it WAS Imbolc, last night, when I composed this post. I wasn't able to send it until this morning. I permit myself this, a reflection of this moment in time. Read on for more of my why.)
This Instagram post accompanied the first Imbolc community ritual space celebration that I helped co-facilitate in February 2022.
Whether you, dear reader, knew it was Imbolc, or you already practice honoring Imbolc yourselves, or, neither of these:
You have not heard anything from me lately about an upcoming Imbolc gathering, as you may have noticed.
Let's delve into this, the why, and the heart of this moment.
Riding Collective and Intuitive Rhythms
🌑🌓🌕 We are all riding these rhythms together. 🌕🌗🌑
The reliable rhythm defined by the major points in Earth's rotation invite us to greet the transitions endemic to life. Not only the Celts mark(ed) these significant dates. In fact, all of Earth, past and present, is tied together in these peak (extreme) and in-beween times, whether we are conscious of it or not. And many cultures mark these dates in ways meaningful and ancient to them.
The Celtic lineage involved in honoring these eight holidays is important to me, yes, and is an invitation to other socialized-white folks to engage in the process of reclaiming our actual specific heritages (a decolonizing act). ☘️
At least equally important to me, though, is simply the FACT of these eight dates having cosmic significance to our rotation throughout the universe. These moments AFFECT us all; whether we have intact cultural traditions that honor them or not, our ancestors, in our bones, absolutely would have known and measured these times. I've observed that non-white folks have attended almost every community ritual space that I hosted in 2022. These are open invitations (right there in the name, "community ritual space") for any and all of us to practice synchronizing ourselves with the shifts embedded and embodied in the greater world.
When we attune to the points on the "clock of the world," we sensitize ourselves and become more naturally "regulated" by the movements of the planet and the cosmos. This feels crucial to me for our collective "re-wilding" and liberation: no matter who or where we are right now, we can learn to re-attune to nature, outer and inner. And indeed, this is our birthright. To be shaped by the rhythms and emergent songs of mother Earth, by the wash of time like tides.
Rhythms That Skip a Beat
Then there's the reliable (or somewhat reliable) rhythm you perceive of my weekly newsletter coming out. Conscious or not, you may have intuited by the disrupted pattern of my newsletters that some larger changes are afoot for me. And you'd be correct.
I'm inclined to let this rhythm remain disrupted (or at least disputed), as I am reorganizing major pieces of my life currently. Maybe the newsletter comes out every two weeks from now on. Maybe it remains irregular, emerging only as conditions permit, like precipitation.
Anyhow: there are two specific reasons I've been mum on Imbolc.
One is: I am currently taking a hard stop in Mexico.
Two is:
I will no longer be personally running any Celtic Wheel of the Year community ritual spaces in 2023.
That is because, it is time to call together a collective, a coven perhaps, to run it.
Calling On a Collective to Caretake Regular Community Ritual Spaces
I will be calling in a convergence of community facilitators, priests and priestesses, medicine people, to steward the holding of dedicated community-accessible ritual spaces on the eight Celtic Wheel of the Year holidays.
Equally importantly, this collective will tend to our own spiritual needs in communion: sharing songs, prayers, stories, foods and medicines... possibly even sharing magic. By nourishing ourselves through our in-person gatherings, we naturally liberate the compassion and inspiration to extend our creative capacities into curating vibrant spaces that could uplift, ground, and delight the whole community. We would share the work and the power by working collaboratively and rotating who leads and designs each different holiday. And, we would support one another's offerings by driving our own connections to attend and engage in each holiday.
I am putting my faith in people showing up to maintain and honor these rhythms, like their ancestors did. I have trust that we can find our group rhythm together, and—after the essential phases of forming, norming and storming—begin undulating together like a collective mind, responding adeptly to what's needed and putting on the most magical and memorable of community ceremony spaces.
In short, I am calling in a collective synchronization—a vulnerable willingness to collaborate among the many creative, holy priest/esses I am blessed to know around me. I pray the time is right and ripe for this. We shall see.
Dearest reader: you may be the first to receive an invite to join this nascent group. Keep an eye peeled (and a newt pickled) for a message from me with a scheduling poll so we can get the first gathering afoot. 🧙♀🔥🍲
So as you move through this Imbolc, individually or collectively,
may you light up the night with recognition and enthusiasm of the waxing light to come.
This holiday coincides close to a full moon, so enjoy the extra amplification invoked by moon's feminine shining. I myself will be celebrating Imbolc this Saturday night, to make the most of the full moon's energy.
Create Your Own Ritual Space
Self-guided, solo ritual spaces are just as potent, if not even more so, than group rituals. I urge you to set aside some focused, centered time to allow your mind to soften into super-natural, numinous modes.
Here are some principles for self-guided ritual space creation.
- Attune. What is the nature of this moment in time? How are you aware of it? What energies are here? Slow down. Orient to what you are feeling. Maybe journal about what is happening in your life right now, and what you are feeling called to pay attention to. I also recommend performing pre-ritual cleansing actions like a bath, a walk, laying on the floor and "yielding" to the floor... and just attune with soft consciousness to what's here, now.
- Set Intention. What meaning are you wanting to make with this ritual space? What arisings and passings-away are you seeking to honor? Get clear on your purpose. The more authentic your intention for meaning-making, the more potent the ritual space.
- Design Container. A sacred space must have a distinct beginning middle and end: an opening, a "raising of energy," and a closing. At least, choose some distinct way of marking opening and closing. Choose ritual activities to perform that align with your intention. This can be as simple as dancing or moving in a circle, journaling, drawing, crafting, singing, or praying. As long as it is done with intention, the ritual will take effect. Draw upon traditions that are specific to you and your heritage when possible.
- Remember Integration. Because you have touched into the numinous fabric weaving together mind, life and time: after the ritual, you may feel the residue of an altered state, you may notice more synchronicities, or you may see an increase in perceived intensity of happenings in your personal life. Do remember that integration (aftermath) is an essential part of any ceremony. Give yourself space for self-reflection, rest, and refueling afterwards. Protect yourself as you may be increasingly sensitive afterwards. Above all, notice what may feel different afterwards. What is non-ordinary compared to before, after your ritual? Trust your body-mind to integrate, in the same way you can trust it to heal after it has been wounded.
May this simple guidance bless you in personal and collective turning points.
With love,
C.
