Imbolc Greetings Card by Elaine Sheldrake

Imbolc is a festival of waxing light and purification, heralding the potential of spring. It is associated with the Celtic goddess Brid (also called Bride, Bridhe, Brigid or Bridget). In terms of the Goddess cycle, Imbolc is the point at which the old, winter aspect of the Goddess, the Crone, is transformed into the Maiden, the Virgin Goddess, Brid).

Colours associated with Imbolc are white, silver, lilac and pale yellow. Appropriate herbs are basil, bay, celandine and benzoin. Yellow and white flowers may be used as altar decorations or offerings.

Brid was the Goddess of poetry, healing (particularly midwifery) and smithcraft. Imbolc traditions center around light and purification. Candles may be lit in each room of a house to honor the returning sun, or in each window from sundown on Candlemas Eve (February 1st) until dawn. This is an appropriate time to cleanse or bless your house, to seek inspiration, and to purify yourself of limiting thoughts and negative attitudes. Dairy foods are particular appropriate to eat on this festival of calving and lambing. Imbolc is thought to mean 'in the belly', a reference to the seeds of life ready to stir again in the cold earth, and to the purification of the Maiden so that she may conceive the divine child at the following festival, Ostara.