2/2/2022 Wednesday during the Day of Mercury
7:41 PM Hour of Venus
Waxing Crescent Moon
Imbolctide

Friends,

               Happy Imbolc!  You will note above I say Imbolc-tide, this is my own coinage based on the phrase Yuletide, in that each of the Sabbats is often a period of days a small season of their own.  Calendrical Imbolc is the 1^st & 2^nd of February, this years astronomical Imbolc happens on the 3^rd or 4^th depending upon which resource I am consulting.

               I will confess I am not enough of an Astronomy or Astrology Witch to pinpoint the Astronomical moment on my own, but I suspect one of the reputable Almanac’s would know for sure.

               Imbolc, for me, is powerfully connected with the idea of new beginnings and first stirrings.  I spent 35 years of life and 18 years as a Witch (mostly) in my home town of Anchorage Alaska, where the Winter Solstice saw 4 hours of daylight, and by the time Imbolc rolled around the days were noticeably longer and on some years even a bit warmer!  Late February and Early March always saw the Fur Rendevouz festival going on in Anchorage.  One of the 10 Largest Winter Events in the world, various Costume balls and parties and events would happen, a carnival of sorts would appear downtown, there was a World Championship Ice and Snow Carving Competition, the World Championship Sled Dog Races and the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  Arts and Crafts fairs.  A returning to socialization and community coming out of the darkest depths of Winter.

               I am feeling a sense of renewal and rebirth myself after several weary weeks.

               The week following my last post saw me going to an oral surgeon to have a broken upper molar and the roots of a long gone lower molar on the other side removed.  I took a few days off work and a good friend agreed to take me there, and wait to take me home.  I opted to go under anesthesia for the procedure.  They could have done it with a local, but I opted to get knocked out for this.  Some memories and sensations don’t need to lurk in my sense memory or subconscious.

               They sent me home with some antibiotics and narcotics, and I napped for the next 24 hours with brief breaks for soft foods and bathroom breaks.  Actually it’s probably the most, and some of the best, sleep I have had in AGES.

               As if this was some precursor, the following weeks found the Orlando area bitterly cold with night time temperatures in the low 40’s and upper 30’s (Fahrenheit).  I found myself falling into a very hibernation like mode, wanting to do little else in my time off than sleep.  My sinuses and eyes acting up because of the dust stirred up with the heat being on for the first time all year pretty much everywhere.  There were a number of scheduling snafu’s between turn around shifts at work and various medical appointments for either myself or my darling.  I fear I fell back into the old unhealthy trio of Caffeine, Nicotine, and Stress.

               At the same time, I’ve been able to hold on to some of my goals mentioned last time I corresponded with you here.  I’ve been reading or re-reading from my piles of Craft related books.  I’ve also been able to do some creative work on Tiktock.  Today I even managed a few different posts across social media.

               I was off work yesterday and today.  Yesterday morning I left work around 7am, got home in time to take my Bear (we are, the both of us, homosexuals of the husky and hirsute persuasion) to a doctor’s appointment and got home around 11am to fall asleep for a few hours, then some food and scrolling and more sleep until the early hours of this morning.

               I spent the early part of the day at my kitchen windowsill altar.  I poured moldering wine out of a couple of the offering cups and replenished the Dead and the Spirits with freshly brewed coffee, and some for myself, before setting about washing dishes and doing some much needed cleaning and reorganizing.  The floors are still a bit of a caution, but as I reminded myself today…

Renewal and rebirth and the return to life and activity are not the work of a single day or moment, they are things of ebb and flow and time and tide and season.

Happy Imbolc to you all,
Bliss and Blessed Be,
Pax / Geoffrey