Imbolc evening was celebrated with my Wiccan friend Lindsay, we got together for a warm midwinter dinner in honor of the maiden Goddess Brigid, who during Imbolc is in the form of the sun and starts to spread her green cloak across the land releasing it from winter. It is this time of year we start to see first glimpses of green and the days start to get longer, as a promise of spring. The dining area was webbed with green and white flowers, along glowing candles to celebrate this festival of light.
We both we in charge of cooking a few dishes for our celebration (see recipe links down below). We started our dinner with the Imbolc 'Friends Ritual' from the Llewellyn's 2018 Sabbats Almanac, which involved drinking a chalice of wine with wild roses in honor of our ancestors who have died. Dinner was splendid over friendship and filling our bellies with hope of Spring to come. I'm truly looking forward to the warmer weather and the Snow Drops that start popping up – they always remind me of my grandmother.
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Imbolc colors, candles, oils and Flowers
Recipes / Foods
Symbols for the Sabbat / Goddess Brigid
Imbolc & Brigid Customs / Offerings
IMBOLC SYMBOLS & COLORS:
Candles: white (represents the snowy winter) and green (future and land that will be), pink and blue
Flowers: snowdrops, willow tree leaves, floral fertility crowns
Oils: cinnamon, lavender, cedar wood, lemon, rose, jasmine, rosemary
Crystals: garnet, bloodstone, amethyst, sunstone
Incense: (fresher scents for Spring) basil, bay, wisteria, cinnamon, violet, vanilla, myrrh
BRIGID SYMBOLS & COLORS:
Aspects of Brigid: poetry, creativity, forge, blacksmiths, healing, medicine, home/hearth, fertility, Cailleach (divine hag, Goddess of Winter)
Symbols: Fire, cauldron, spring, well, Brigid wheels, Goddess effigy/dollies, the bride
Colors: red and white
Animals: white cow with red ears, ewe sheep, wolf, snake, swan (white feathers), phoenix, fox
Tea light candles from: Earth Goddess Body Shop - vegan, natural bath & body products
RECIPES:
Top left to right: wine with rose petals for our Friends Ritual, Baked Brie with Balsamic Rosemary Cranberry Sauce (we used raspberries instead!), Classic Shortbread Cookies, Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
Below: Lavender Tea Milk Punch (from Gather Victoria: Ancestral Food)
Other foods for this Sabbat: Dairy everything!!! Seeds, honey bars, seeded breads and cakes (represent new life), herbal teas like ginger, roasted vegetable soups, beer cheese soup, herb and honey butter
Pyramid Tri-pod Cauldron from GrayVervain: Magical Home
BRIGID CUSTOMS:
Custom for women to wear white
Brigid wheels, Brigid Cross: put above or on the door to bless your home (Celtic, Wiccan)
Remove Yuletide greens from home & burn them (Celtic)
OFFERINGS TO BRIGID:
Oatcakes or barmbrack bread
Sacred milk (ewe milk): pour it onto the earth to speed the return of fertility to the earth
Put out food and drink on her eve (Jan 31): buttered bread, milk, grains and seeds
SOURCES & SHOUTOUTS:
