This is a very belated Imbolc post. As I said in my previous post, although I do not always get time to blog I do try hard to find time to observe the sacred days.
I was not at home on the day but I went around my surroundings taking photos of “the first signs of spring”. Considering the sunny weather that we were having at the time most of the plants were convinced that we were well into spring. I found some information that talks about Imbolc being a time for divining the weather.
Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore. Even our American folk calendar keeps the tradition of “Groundhog Day”, a day to predict the coming weather, telling us that if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be “six more weeks” of bad weather (i.e., until the next Old Holiday, Lady Day). This custom is ancient. An old British rhyme tells us that “if Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year”. Actually, all of the cross-quarter days can be used as inverse weather predictors, whereas the quarter days are used as direct weather predictors. – witchessabbats.com
Although I myself do not usually place much faith in practices such as weather divining I thought that it was a fun idea… and true to the lore, Imbolc being a lovely sunny warm day… we are now having some more winter. Lots of hard driving rain and the temperatures are down to about 10 degrees centigrade again!
I also did some gardening on the day. I had been sprouting some beans for about a week before hand and so I chose Imbolc to plant them. My garden is being renovated and so I can’t plant things directly into the ground at the moment, that is why you see everything in pots and tins. The rustic look of the tins is actually beginning to grow on me. I have the beans and the an onion which sprouted in my kitchen, two ferns and two slips of jasmine. I really hope that the jasmine takes root! I steal my slips and cuttings from my mother’s already very established garden. 🙂
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Imbolc!
Blessed Be,
)O(
Aureliana Phile 