In many neo-pagan religions, today is Imbolc, which the Catholics have borrowed and now refer to as Candlemas. In Wicca, this day is dedicated to the Irish goddess Brigid, Goddess of Poetry, Smithcrafting, and Healing. There are many associations for today, and even now a fraction of these traditions have been passed down and changed into what Americans refer to as Groundhog Day.
What a crazy week it’s been! Regardless, I have finally managed to finish transcribing this year’s Imbolc ritual into electronic format, which I present here for you.
Well, tomorrow I start my new job. I’m very excited about it: new challenges, new people, and a second chance to do things right. I knew it was right for me for a number of reasons: more money, less stress, and I’m starting on exactly my sixth anniversary of when I started working for the company. I took it as a good omen, a sign that I was supposed to make the move. There were a few things about my old job I didn’t care for, which I won’t go into here.
Well, Lughnasad and Mabon have come and gone, but I want to take a few moments and talk about harvest time. This year’s harvest was more intense than in recent years. This year I have reclaimed my power, reclaimed myself, rediscovered things about myself, and also resulted in a divorce and some other less pleasant lessons as well - lessons that needed to be learned to enable me to move forward.
Here’s a wonderful Mabon ritual we did last night, written by two friends of mine that I do circle with.
Here’s a full moon ritual you can use, if this is your path. We used it last night.
In the interest of making my my sabbat rituals available online, here’s the one from Lughnasad, or Lammas. In the future, I hope to have these online prior to the sabbat, not after. Please feel free to copy and/or modify if you want to suit your own tradition. Note that I wrote this ritual to start in the North, rather than the East - the tradition I follow typically starts there, although there are times when I start in the East. I’m not a dogmatist, so if your tradition starts there, change the ritual. Also, I did not include a cakes an ale in this ritual, although most will have it. It’s more about available prep time and outside factors, rather than not wanting to do it.