wicca201

What a wonderful Valentine gift – a snow day!  From my second floor perch, I’ve watched cars wipe out on the road in front of my house all day, and I know that staying home was the right choice all around.  Getting beat up by ice pellets this morning while walking the dog was my first indicator, and whatever is falling from the sky now – is it snow, sleet, ice, or just something cold and icky? – has sealed it. 

So, from the depths of Winter Storm Shelter 2007, I would like to write about spring!  Am I just the crazy optimistic fool that most of you take me for?  Probably, but I have a point here. 

I love celebrating the Sabbats.  In my community, they are a huge party.  The ritual celebrations go on for hours, with elaborate drama and beautiful traditions.  Everyone dresses in their finest ritual gear, the kids have a blast, and we always have a huge power-raising, facilitated by wild dancing and drumming.  And when that is over, the party really kicks off into high gear with more dancing and drumming, and lots of eating, drinking, and catching up.  It’s a like a family reunion eight times a year. 

And even this past Imbolc, when I was unable to get up to PA for the community ritual, I still felt a part of something much bigger when I did my own private ritual.  It is a powerful thing to raise energy on one’s own, and then even more so to realize that many, many others are raising this same energy at the same time and have for many years.  I know there a lot of solitaries out there who might disagree, but I crave community and even when I purposefully do a ritual on my own, I like the idea of participating in something much larger than myself.  (I know, it’s my tendency toward that Jungian, collective unconscious crap I’m always yammering about, but it’s true!)

So, where does spring come into this?  As I said, I love the Sabbats and the connections they can build within communities.  I’m certainly never one to miss a dance nor do I need an excuse to party it up, but Sabbats are the high points of seasons, and this is where I’m afraid that I and other Wiccans get hung up.  Recently, I’ve heard a lot of folks complaining about how Imbolc can’t possibly be a new beginning or the beginning of the return of warmth and springtime.  Taken as one day out of the year, Imbolc is not any of these things.  I’d like to start looking at Imbolc (or any of the Sabbats) as a season.  The “beginning” of anything is not just one day.  If it is, the plans you have laid on this one day are not likely to come to fruition.  If taken as a season, Imbolc becomes the hibernating part of your plan for the projects of the coming year. 

Last night I went to bed about an hour earlier than I usually do, and today I bounced out of bed to see the snow.  I’ve accomplished more today than I have in a long time, and that “long winter’s nap” was certainly a precipitating factor in that.  If we can take the long meditative nap of Imbolc seriously, or at least take the time to observe the small, quiet steps in our plans for the planting and harvesting of our dreams come summer and fall, the celebration becomes a season long event.  Sometimes the best planning takes place by getting enough sleep, and paying attention to those dreams.  Spring is coming, and we have to get ready.  Go take a nap!