Author: A Solitary Pagan

After the rise of Christianity in Britain, the custom of lighting candles at Imbolc was taken up by the Roman Catholic Church and renamed Candlemas. On the eve of Candlemas, candles would be lit all around the church in a Festival of Light. After a service to honour the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, all candles to be used in the church during the following year would then be blessed and...

The use of candles in a Festival of Light never died out however and has returned to pagan practice. Today in contemporary witchcraft, one of the main features of many traditional covens is the initiation ritual. At Imbolc, members of traditional covens will form a procession of candlelight leading initiates into a circle, and from this circle, their new beginnings as Witches will take place.

Imbolc then is the time to spring clean both your mental and physical abilities, to take stock of your life and make a fresh start. By planning ahead and planting new seeds (ideas) for the future, who knows what new opportunities will grow from them. As the Sun grows stronger in the sky and the new buds of Spring appear, so too should you look forward with optimism, and as your seeds (ideas) matur...

The making a Brighid’s crosses was a tradition started in Ireland to honour one of pagan Ireland’s most important Goddesses Brighid. Brighid who is associated with fire, healing and holy wells, is celebrated during the pagan sabbat festival of Imbolc marking the earliest stirrings of Spring. Traditionally the crosses were made from rushes, but today wheat stalks, straw or other synthetic materials...

By February, most of us are tired of the cold, snowy season. Imbolc reminds us that spring is coming soon, and that we only have a few more weeks of winter to go. The sun gets a little brighter, the earth gets a little warmer, and we know that life is quickening within the soil. There are a number of different ways to celebrate this Sabbat. Rituals and Ceremonies Depending on your particular tradi...

Imbolc is an old festival connected with the coming of spring and the growing warmth of the sun. In some areas of Europe, this day marked the emergence of a few brave plants from beneath the snow. As such, Imbolc was an occasion for feasting. Because the sun was usually seen as the source of the earth’s fertility, Imbolc (known in Catholicism as Candlemas) was a solar festival. Practitioners of pr...

Imbolc is a gentle festival, where we honor the first signs of spring after a long winter. It has long been dedicated to the goddess Brighid who has associations with fire and water. Allow this time of year to fill your soul, the air is still cold but the warmth of the light from the strengthening sun inspires you to go out into the worlds (this world and the Otherworld) and do the work that you h...