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Sabbat Lore
Brighid - Candlemas - Corn Maiden - Imbolc - Oimelc
by
Maria Kay Simms
In alphabetical order above are various titles under which we
celebrate the Greater Sabbat that heralds the visibly waxing
sunlight of lengthening days, letting us know that winter is
drawing to a close and spring will be coming soon.
This traditional holiday will be listed on most calendars on February 2
as Candlemas or Groundhog Day.
The actual cross-quarter point of the 8-spoked Wheel of the Year
occurs when Sun comes to 15 degrees of Aquarius, usually about February 4.
Whether celebrated on February 2 or at the cross-quarter,
it is the Maiden Goddess of the triune Maiden-Mother-Crone
who reigns in Wiccan festivals of fire and light. Candles are
usually a major part of our celebrations, so our home page
illustration for this season is especially appropriate: Molly
Sullivan's painting of the Maiden bathed in candlelight.
In basic symbolism of visible waxing light, this Sabbat is
most akin to the Crescent phase of the 8-fold lunar cycle.
Born in the darkness of Yule or New Moon, an instinctive
impulse of new beginning can now be seen, struggling to
sprout and grow. Like the slender light of the Maiden
Crescent Moon, we see in February the tentative signs of a
spring that we know will come-lengthening days, and perhaps
even the sprouting of a few brave crocuses poking through the
snow. One day it may seem as though brighter and warmer days
are coming, and the next as though winter has returned. In
that we can see similarity to the early stages of commitment
to new plans and projects, when we experience the struggle to
get things going, one day being encouraged by seeing the light
of progress, but perhaps the next day running into a problem
that must be overcome. But we persist, for this is the season
of waxing light!
Of the most typical calendar listings, Candlemas is the
Christianized name for February 2, but it is the secular Groundhog
Day, that has become the most widely and popularly publicized
marking of this day in the United States. That is thanks to
Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvanian groundhog (and presumably his
successors) who since 1887 boasts a 90% accurate (so says his
official website www.groundhog.org) of
predicting how much longer winter will last. The groundhog
tradition stems from much older traditions of this day, long
considered a milestone in winter. Among many versions I've seen of
the old English song, all are similar to this one borrowed from
Phil's own site:
If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.
Phil's travails, including his retreat to his hole when he sees his
shadow, exemplify quite well the uncertainty and struggle of this
transitional season, when our own lethargy can become the obstacle
against moving forward. After all, shouldn't Phil be encouraged by
the sunlight? But no, it is his own shadow that causes his retreat.
Think about that, and look not at the shadows, but instead at the
promise of each new increase of light!
Traditions, Meanings and Lore
Candlemas is the name given by the Catholic Church to its
February 2 holiday at which candles for use during the year
to come are traditionally blessed. Though denied by the
church as such, timing of Candlemas, also called "Feast of the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin" and "Feast of the
Presentation of Christ in the Temple", appears to have been
chosen as a substitute for the popular Roman fertility
festival of Lupercalia, which was held in
mid-February and may be linked to our modern Valentine's Day.
Early century church processions held on February 14 were moved
to February 2 after the late 5th century decision to set the
nativity of Christ for December 25. The reason given, then, was
that February 2 was forty days after the birth, and according to
Mosaic law, this was the time needed for purification of a mother
who had given birth to a man-child. On the fortieth day the mother
could return to the temple and present her child.
In recent years Candlemas as a Christian holiday has faded to near
obscurity, such that it is currently as likely (or perhaps more
likely) to be celebrated by we who celebrate all eight Sabbats of
the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. As
an alternative to the names for this Sabbat that stem from specific
traditions, Candlemas has become a generic term by which we may
choose to refer to our candlelight ceremonies of rededication to
Spirit, the sweeping away of winter in promise of spring as that
relates to our own wishes to release and charge new plans, and
perhaps by chanting litanies to the many names by which the
Goddess is known throughout the world. This season of the year is
a popular one for Wiccan initiations.
Brighid of Celtic tradition is a highly
popular Goddess celebrated at this time of year, though rites of the Corn Maiden
also abound, and sometimes traditions of these two have been
combined. The Corn Maiden, a symbol of fertility, stands at the
opposite point on the 8-spoked Wheel from Lammas, when
she will become the Corn Mother at the first harvest of the grain. At Imbolc, a corn doll
fashioned of cornhusks is often dressed in white and placed in a lovely
bed as the Bride, with a phallic wand beside her. At Lammas, that
same corn doll may be dressed in the red of the Mother and
carried aloft in first harvest procession. In the photograph you
see the doll and bridal bed used in past years for rituals of
Circle of the Cosmic Muse. She was first fashioned several years
ago for a Starcrafts Imbolc. The month prior she was on the
store altar next to a container of flower petals and another with
small pieces of paper. Those who came in could leave a written
petition and place an offering of petals in the Bride's bed. The
petitions were sent into Spirit during the Imbolc ritual.
Brighid (variously spelled as Brigid, Brigit, Bridget or Bride)
is the Celtic Goddess of fire, inspiration, creativity, fertility
and healing. So important was she to the people of Ireland that
when the Catholic Church became dominant there, she could not
rightly be demonized and so was canonized as St. Bridget, patron
saint of the arts and healing over which her forerunner reigned. As
once Brigit's priestesses at Kildare kept her sacred fire burning,
so did the nuns maintain those fires for centuries afterward in
honor of St. Bridget.
Older Pagan names for this holiday are Imbolc which means "in the
belly" and Oimelc which means "in the milk,"
although some references state "in the milk" as being appropriate
for either. "In the belly" suggests a pregnant Goddess, while "in
the milk" refers to the milk of lambs, for this was the lambing
season and the onset lactation of their sheep told the people that
spring was approaching. Ancient Celts celebrated the four Greater
Sabbats (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain), and so the Goddess,
at this first festival of the year, was seen to be ripe with the
seed of the Sun and the promise of new life.
Modern Wiccans
celebrate eight Sabbats, combining the Celtic four with the Nordic
four that are the solstices and equinoxes popularly called Yule,
Ostara, Litha (Midsummer) and Mabon.
In a cycle of eight, it is
more sequential to celebrate birth at the birth of the Sun (Yule)
and think of the next holy day in sequence as "in the milk." In
this we can still celebrate the Maiden's heralding of the fire of
creativity, while also picturing the Mother Goddess with her strong
and growing young Sun King as a child still nursing at her breasts.
Copyright © 2003
Maria Kay Simms
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THE CRAFT
Facts about The Craft
What are Wicca and Witchcraft?
The Wiccan Rede
& the Law of Three
The Pentagram
The Elements
Air |
Fire |
Water |
Earth
The Wheel of the Year
The Timing of the Sabbats
Samhain |
Yule |
Imbolc |
Ostara
Beltane |
Litha |
Lughnasad |
Mabon
Magical Moon
Maria Kay Simms' monthly column on
lunar and astrological events to
help you plan your magickal calendar.
Recommended Reading
Moon Tides, Soul Passages,
The Witch's Circle,
A Time for Magick,
Future Signs, and
Your Magical Child
by
Maria Kay Simms
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