Imbolg
1 February Fight
Here in Scotland, the first of February is Imbolg (pronounced like im-bol-log). This is the day that Brìde (pronounced Brid-gey), the goddess/witch of Summer, escapes from her prison in Ben Nevis.
It’s the Cailleach (pronounced kal-yak), the goddess/witch of Winter, who has been holding her captive since Samhuinn at the end of October. Not only is the Cailleach the Winter Witch, but she’s also Scotland’s Mother Goddess and the one who created and shaped each mountain and loch and everything that sustains us.
Just because Brìde is able to escape her prison today doesn’t mean she gets to rule the land quite yet. The Cailleach finds her gone, chases after her, and the two go to war during the months we call Spring.
Each day from the first of February to the first of May these two fierce women will fight for the right to rule, and we get the battle report by checking the weather. If it still feels like winter, the Cailleach has had a victory. If it feels less like winter, then we know Brìde has gained ground.
Now it is commonly said that snowdrops - the first flowers to bloom - are the footprints of Brìde as she makes her escape, but snowdrops aren’t native to Scotland. Back in the ‘before’ time - before Brìde was St Bride or Brigid and before Brigid became St Brigid and the world thought that the Irish were the only Celts and that all the Celts believed all the same things - and before dandelions became lawn/garden pests, it was the the arrival of the dandelion that gave away Brìde’s footpaths.
As the Dark Mother, the Creator Goddess, the Cailleach is usually depicted as crone, or hag. An old woman swinging a hammer to create mountains, churning up storms by doing her laundry in the sea, and covering us in snow as she spreads her skirts out to dry. She is the Lifeforce that works in the dark; the unseen, and seemingly fallow. She restrains the bright light of wild abundance and perpetual growth to allow for decomposition and rest. Under her reign, we are forced into stillness, and imprisoned inside - inside the womb of short days and long nights, inside our homes for shelter, inside our minds and hearts and guts.
The Cailleach and Brìde aren’t the only two forces at war right now. There are wars on many fronts, internal and external, and there is not yet an end in sight to being in the deep, dark, harsh, cold. The rest is over, the dormancy is done. It’s time to leave the prison of inaction and head out into the tussle. It’s time for the push-pull, one step forward two steps back dance between where we’re going and where we’ve been. It’s the in-between time, where the signs of change may be few and far between but what does bloom is real.
I’m not about weather or mythology. It’s time to fight.
I'm looking for the dandelions. An old poem:
Faith (or Weeds)
--- Cat Charissage
I believe in weeds.
I know, heresy!
But really, look at them:
no matter how you cut them down, dig them up, or try to kill them,
you still get ---
weeds!
Ya’ gotta’ love that tenacity, that resilience.
I know I do.
Take crabgrass, hated by homeowners everywhere.
Well, I’ll take it!
First up in spring, first up after a mowing,
so bright green and luscious, screaming “Here I am!”
Or the chickweed growing in the cracks of my driveway.
Little green leaves like a natural carpet ---
Drive-in food --- I pull into my driveway, lean over, and pick my salad greens for dinner.
Even the price is right.
It was a long winter this year.
It was hard to believe that spring would ever return.
But finally, in May, Mother Earth resurrected
And right after the grass came up green, we had:
Dandelions!
I love dandelions.
You can eat their leaves and their flowers;
and their roots can cure just about anything that ails you.
They’re the first bouquet given by little boys to grateful mothers,
their bright yellow smiling out from the green grass.
When my boy was little, I showed him how
to blow the seeds as we ambled down the sidewalk,
so that everyone could have such beautiful dandelions
right in their front yards!
Well, not really --- but I sure wanted to!
Mother Earth, carrier of the life, death, life cycle,
You did it again this year.
May I learn from your ways and rise again, and again,
and again when I’m cut down by the world.
Our Lady of the Resurrections,
I have faith that you bring life
even after the longest winter.
I’ve seen it.
Our Lady of the Resurrections,
I believe in weeds.