You are cordially invited to join us Saturday, February 1st, for a sacred service and enchanting candle-making afternoon.
Imbolc marks the halfway point between winter solstice (Yule) and spring equinox (Ostara), and is celebrated in traditional agrarian (and pagan) communities as a Festival marking the ending of winter, the onset of spring and the returning of the light.
The word "Imbolc" means "in the belly of the Mother," because the seeds of spring are beginning to stir in the belly of Mother Earth. In traditions widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, the holiday is one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals, originally a pagan festival associated with the lambing season and the goddess Brigid or Brigit (meaning 'exalted one').
Historians suggest that the goddess Brigid was syncretized (integrated by merging of beliefs into a unified system) with the Christian saint of the same name. According to medievalist Pamela Berger, Christian monks "took the ancient figure of the mother goddess and grafted her name and functions onto her Christian counterpart," Brigid of Kildare, so much so that Brigit was considered the midwife of Christ and present at the birth.
February 2nd, is celebrated as Candlemas, when community would gather to make candles that would be used in lighting the services and sacred altars throughout the coming year. For Christians, the candles are symbolic of the incarnate Christ, the “anointed one”, a title representing the Light that enlightens every soul.
Before crafting, the priest blesses the candles, whose wax is the humming summer's work of countless bees. The flames of these candles will shed their light upon the altar in future days, and help us to realize, this day and every day, that our own daily work—if it is done for love, and in union with the benefit of our natural and kindred communities—will be a supernatural work, and will shine brightly for all eternity; a symbol of the Light shining in the darkness of this world.
Join us, and help us to live in that Light, to make it our own, and to kindle it in the souls of others, increasing the area of light and lessening the darkness in the World.
We invite you to join us in this sacred space to celebrate and create the light of the coming year.
The event will be hosted at Dawnstar Lodge, 9416 Miller Creel Rd, 59803, on February 1st, 2-6pm. Seats are $15 each, which covers the cost of materials, and each participant can take home a sacred candle