Pre-Imbolc musings

Imbolc by Holly Bird

There are Groves in ADF that call upon the nine aspects of Brighid for Imbolc and we rather liked that idea, but me being me I wanted to tweak what the nine aspects were, as I felt some were more about the saint and not the Goddess and didn't fully encompass as Her aspects as a pan-Celtic deity. So (perhaps mostly to humor me) the Grove deliberated a bit and looked at several sources and came up with the following:
Sacred Arts - Bard, Healer, Smith
Sacred Duties - Warrior, Sovereignty, Mentor
Sacred Places - Sacred Wells, Hearth Fires, Skies/High Places
I thought of the having three divisions but Jack is the one that came up which ones and we all are really pleased with it. For our ritual take away I made candle holders painted with the colors representing the nine aspects. They didn't quite turn out the way I imagined, they are very bright and colorful, a little like a circus tent. I tried to make them more subtle but that failed so I decided to make them even more tacky, so now they are also slightly pearlized and iridescent. Go big or go home I guess ;)

Something that we have been trying to do for a while now is scrapbook our High Days so we have a really nice chronicle of our rites. I have been getting supplies from work and Jack and I sort of shifted some paper around and looked nervously at the cutting tool and photos. We realized we don't really know what we are doing so we have gotten a consultant. My friend Jen is going to be helping us get started. I think I got enough stuff to do the Autumn and Winter High Days so I will keep everyone posted on our progress! :)

By the way the fabulous image of Brighid above was my Artist Trading Card from the marvelously talented Holly Bird as part of ADF's Artisan Guild's Imbolc ATC swap. The guild does a swap every High Day and you can see more of them on our Facebook page

Happy Imbolc Everyone!
Caroline