By Cal Garrison a.k.a. Mother of the Skye
This week’s horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Pisces Moon, in the advent of the mid-winter cross-quarter. Otherwise known as Imbolc, Candlemas, or St. Brigid’s Day, in the Northern climes the night of Feb. 1 lies halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. A secondary cross-quarter, it is an entirely feminine event, that celebrates and invokes the invisible, female component.
If the seed atom that sparked up on the Winter Solstice is going to be ready to inseminate the planet with the patterns for the coming year, by the time the sun enters Aries on March 21, something has to come to life on the female end of the stick before any of that can happen and it is this realm of possibility and potential that we gather to celebrate on St. Brigid’s Day.
During the window that opens between the night of Jan. 31 and the 4th day of February, Mother Earth begins to respond to the frequencies that came pouring out of the heart of Creation on Dec. 21. The light from that explosion has come far enough to enter the heart of the Great Mother. As these energies penetrate her core, the juices that bring life to the planet begin to trickle into her veins, filling the world with the promise of a new dream.
Up north, her presence is felt as the sap begins to trickle, rising upward into the trees. In that very same moment the breeding patterns of all the warm blooded creatures go into high gear, and rivers of milk begin to flow out, ready to nourish the next generation of livestock. This is life opening its floodgates, opening in anticipation, waiting to embrace the first rush of Spring.
So what does this have to do with us now? Even if we have lost our connection to the old ways, the ways in which we are connected to nature have not changed. Those things are eternal and everlasting in spite of the fact that we have strayed so far from the path. For me The Candlemas Cross Quarter is more important than all of the others because it is where we get to enter the imaginal realm and dream up the vision for the coming year. At this moment the matrix is more receptive to the power of thought than at any other time.
This is easier to see if you live in the cold part of the world. The winter snows fill the air with crystals. Every single snowflake is a crystal, and all of them are there to be programmed with our dreams and intentions. As they touch the Earth, the wishes they contain plant themselves into the ground – and if we know about these things, we know that by the time the first day of Spring rolls around, our Imbolc dreams will be ready and waiting to be inseminated in the fires of transmutation that light up the sky when the sun arcs over the Aries Point.
That being said, the snowflakes may be falling elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, but here in the Southwestern part of the United States spring is already in the air. The birds are tweeting, the coyotes are howling, the quails are out and about, and there’s a warm wind riding over the desert, draping the earth with heat and light. I can see it, and hear it, and feel it every time I open my door. To those of you who live up North, who may be wondering how long the winter will last, trust me, no matter how things look, Spring is heading your way.
A month or three ahead of the curve, with this warmth to remind me that I am alive, I have already started to melt into the spirit of the season. Even if you’re still scraping the ice off your windshield, it’s safe to thaw out your dreams. No matter where you are open your heart and pour everything you’ve got into a new vision, one that serves the greater good, one that holds space for the possibility that maybe this will be the year that we stop the madness and get back in touch with who we really are, and what we’re really here for. Let me leave you with that, wish you a happy and light-filled Candlemas, and invite you to take what you can from this week’s ‘scopes.