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On The Eve Of Imbolccandlemas
Here we are on the eve of Candlemas (or Imbolc). Strange to relate, this festival day in the depths of winter celebrates light and warmth, the stirring of green things within the earth, the burgeoning of new life and the beginning of springtime. Once called "Bride's day", the day is consecrated to Brigid, a deity of fire, creativity, wisdom, eloquence and superb craftsmanship. She is patroness of the forge and smithy, poetry and the healing arts, particularly midwifery. Hers are the candle, the lantern, the hearth and the forge, and all light is her special province.

We are made of light ourselves, and that makes us Brigid's children - creatures forged from the dust of stars which once lighted the heavens and ceased to exist long ago. Within our cells are encoded the wisdoms of the ancient earth and all its cultures, the star knowledge of unknown constellations and "The Big Bang" which created not just our own precious world, but the whole cosmic sea in which it floats.

The stardust of which we are made has spontaneously assembled into diverse life forms over and over again, lived and expired, then dissolved back into the stream of being. In our time, "we" have been many things, worn many shapes and answered to many names. In this lifetime I exist as an eccentric, tatterdemalion, and perhaps unique collection of wandering molecules called Catherine or Cate, but in previous appearances I was someone or something completely different. Buddhist teacher, thinker, activist and deep ecologist Joanna Macy says that since every particle in our being goes back to the first flaring of space and time, we are as old as the universe itself, about fifteen billion years. In other words, we are the universe, and it is us.

Here is the light-filled Blessing for Hearth-Keepers from The Little Book of Celtic Blessings by Caitlin Matthews. I recite it every year on the eve of Imbolc as I light candles and will be doing it again in a few minutes. Merry Imbolc to you and your clan. Happy Candlemas and Happy Brigid's Day too. May the blessings of Light be yours.

Brighid of the Mantle, encompass us

Lady of the Lambs, protect us,

Keeper of the Hearth, kindle us

Beneath your mantle, gather us

And restore us to memory


Mothers of our mother

Foremothers strong


Guide our hands in yours

Remind us how


To kindle the hearth

To keep it bright


To preserve the flame

Your hands upon ours


Our hands within yours

To kindle the light


Both day and night

The Mantle of Brighid about us,

The Memory of Brighid within us


The Protection of Brighid keeping us

From harm, from ignorance, from heartlessness

This day and night,

From dawn till dark

From dark till dawn.


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