February 2016 meeting for reverence

Today’s theme was the Pagan festival of Imbolc.  Imbolc is usually celebrated on 2 February, and is the first festival of Spring.  Unlike the later festival of Beltane at the beginning of May, Imbolc is more tentative – a mixture of hope and uncertainty, as winter may not have delivered its full impact by 2 February.

Imbolc is a Spring festival centred on the livestock rather than plants and flowers.  At the beginning of February, the first lambs are being born, and the name may be an old form of the words “in milk”, referring to the ewe’s milk first becoming available to the lambs.  Lambs born this early in the year may yet die of cold; food and firewood stocks can be running very low; and the full flood of Spring may yet be many weeks off.  Not all animals or indeed people may survive to see the Spring.

Imbolc marks the birth of the sun-child in the depths of winter, and it is a festival of innocence.  In Druidic circles it is often the only festival of the year solely focused on the feminine deity, gently though powerfully woven into the fabric of the season.

At our meeting for reverence today, we heard a number of meditations on the theme of Imbolc and a lovely poem which spoke of the fragility of the ice crystals of the frost being destroyed by the strengthening sunlight, which promised so much for us while destroying the beauty of the frost.  We learned some chants to centre our breathing and to lead us into our period of meditation.  A musical interlude and our candles of joys and concerns followed.

After that we moved onto a discussion of our business, the outcomes of recent business meetings, and our programme for the year ahead.