Home for the (February) Holidays: Imbolc, Brigid, and the Union of Opposites

Fire and water and the tendrils of spring

These symbols and their life-giving, life-sustaining nature are essential to Imbolc. We are tired of the cold. Tired of the dark. And Imbolc is when we really start to see the renewal of the Light, the hope of spring. At Yule, we have asserted that hope; at Imbolc we begin to feel it in the hills and the sweet sap that is just beginning to rise in the maple trees and their sisters.

Coming six weeks after the winter solstice, Imbolc is a holiday of yearning. We have passed the most difficult holidays, the times when we perceive hope—if we perceive it—only by virtue of twilight vision or shared festivity. It is dark outside. And in much of the Northern Hemisphere, it is cold, so cold.

But now, on the threshold of February, water returns from ice. The light of the sun’s fire is emerging from the dark of shorter days.

My family’s Imbolc observance

In my household, we build an altar all in red for this yearning time. Red candles, red garland, a red runner on the white mantle above our own hearth fire.

And in the center of our mantle altar, an iron cauldron, beaten out by a smith, marked with the triskele—symbol of the triple nature of deity—with a candle inside. To either side of the cauldron, clear bowls of water with three red candles floating in each.

We crown the altar with an image of St. Bridget holding Her equal-armed, solar cross woven of rushes in one hand and a bowl of fire in the other. A bowl/cauldron, symbol of the waters of rebirth, yet filled with fire.

There are other aspects of Imbolc to celebrate—the lambing season, the melting season, the season of mud and the first spikes of snowdrops and some crocuses. For me, though, it is the union of fire and water and Brigid’s complicate, beautiful power that catch my heart.

Fire and water. The union of opposites that is life-giving, practical, and poetic.

Life-giving, practical, and poetic. Midwifery/healing, smithcraft, and the artistry of the bard, the skills of Brigid and those devoted to Her. All born from the fire and water of our bodies, the fire and water of the forge, the fire and water of inspiration.

May the union of opposites give you life and newness of life. May the union of opposites bring skill and craft to your house. May the union of opposites bring the Spirit of inspiration to your heart.

Blessings of the season upon you. Blessings on you and on your house.