🕯️ Imbolc Correspondences 🕯️
Imbolc is one of the sabbats of the Wheel of the Year celebrated from February 1st to February 2nd. Imbolc is also known as Candlemas and Brighid’s Day.
Imbolc is one of the four fire festivals. The other fire festivals are: Beltaine, Litha, and Samhain. For Celtic pagans, Imbolc is a celebration that honours the deity, Brighid/Brigid, but for non-Celtic pagans, Imbolc is a response to Yule. Where Yule was the darkest day of the year, Imbolc is the celebration of light and the darker days of the year coming to an end. It’s the welcoming of spring.
Other names for Imbolc include Brighid’s Day, Oimelc, and Candlemas. In Norse paganism/heathenry, you can celebrate Imbolc as Disablót, which thewitchofthenorse talks about in this post.
Note: In the Catholic tradition, Imbolc is called Candlemas and honours the St. Bridget. I am not Catholic and this is the sum of my Catholic knowledge. I’m sure there are other resources on Catholicism’s take on Imbolc on Google and I don’t want to do a disservice to Catholocism by claiming to know information I don’t.
Now with that disclaimer, Imbolc is a sabbat about renewal and cleansing, bringing the light back in our lives as we turn to spring. Imbolc was traditionally a festival surrounding fertility and livestock breeding.
In Celtic polytheism, Brigid is a goddess who we saw in fertility rites and oversaw poetry, childbirth, healing, crafts, and prophecy. She was the daughter of the Dagda and the oldest god in the Tuatha du Danaan. She also had two sisters named Brigid. Sources that Brigid appears in are the Cath Maige Tuired and the Lebor Gabála Érenn. Brigid is associated with fire, milk, and grain.
🧹 Spring cleaning!
🔥 Fire scrying!
🧶 Make a Brigid’s Cross! You can hang the cross above your front door! I know Pagans who have used the cross as a form of protection!
🍳 Cook a meal with foods associated with Imbolc! Milk and breads are two of those. I’ll be posting an Imbolc pancake mix in the coming days as well which I’ll link to after I do some recipe testing!
🎆 Set up an Imbolc altar! Use colours like green, red, white, gold! You could also print off some poetry (maybe Gaelic?) or write a poem that you can dedicate to Brigid! You could also decorate with some flowers, like crocuses, daffodils, and snowdrops. I also read an article where someone crafted a small flower crown that imitates Brigid’s crown and combine it with fireless candles or some fairy lights!
🍞 Bake some bread! I personally practice a lot of kitchen witchcraft and baking bread is one of the ways that I celebrate sabbats.
Correspondences of Imbolc
Animals: Bears, deer, groundhogs, sheep and lambs.
Colours: White, green, red, gold, blue.
Herbs and Spices: Chamomile, lavender, poppyseed, acorns, rosemary, frankincense, jasmine, cinnamon, nutmeg.
Other Deities: Demeter, Gaia, Hestia, Vesta. I’ve also seen sources say Persephone, Proserpina, Cerridwen, Cernunnos, Eros, Osiris, and Pan.
Foods: Eggs, milk, grains and breads, white meats, cheese, oats, honey, brandy or whiskey (or other liquors), spiced wine, spicy foods, scones.
Crystals: Fluorite, Tiger’s Eye, Black Tourmaline, Sodalite, Citrine, Amethyst, Onyx, Bloodstone, Icelandic Feldspar.