Coven of the Burning Waters
3 February 2001

by Weekah Riverwolf

• Fireplace or bonfire
• Yule log and/or evergreen trimmings
• Sage or smudge wand
• Water and ocher/salt for purification
• Torch for each celebrant (long, wooden matches work well here)
• Candle for each celebrant
• Offerings of bread and milk/wine

We encourage all participants to take a few moments to meditate alone. Think about personal and family needs between now and the Spring Equinox. Pay particular attention to one's needs for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. What will your flame of growth be during the next wheel of the year? What skills will you use in the coming year?

At this time all who wish to celebrate should be purified in each of the three worlds of the physical plane: smudged for sky, anointed with water for sea, and anointed with ocher (or salt) for land. You are entering a hallowed place…leave all your worries and troubles behind you for it is time to celebrate. Think not about your job, or school, or your loved ones…they will soon be a world apart from you…be true to yourself this night. Be willing to enter this circle with perfect love and perfect trust in your heart. So mote it be!

It is at this time of the year that the signs of winter were begun to be swept away, and that all things that have lain stagnant through the snow be purified. In honor of this custom, we will burn this years Yule log, that winter leave us and spring return, with all its warmth and its beauty. Think about all those things that need cleaning in your life…unfinished business, guilt, anxiety, financial strife. Let this be a time to remove those things from your life, and let the hearth flame burn them away as the wheel turns. So let us each take our turn in welcoming the signs of spring by helping to light the sacred fire.

Opening Prayer [1]

We open our hearts to the worlds on Imbolc,
may these words stir ancient memories in our souls,
may these offerings lend strength to our gods,
may these deeds bring honor to our ancestors,
may this love heal our mother, the earth.

Seasonal Meditation [1]

Settle yourself. Close your eyes. Feel your body relax. Feel as the tensions drain away from your face, your neck, your shoulders, your arms, your torso, your legs. Sense the whole of your body, calm, heavy in its relaxation.

Center yourself. Feel for that calm, comfortable center in which you are whole. Ground yourself. Extend yourself into the Earth, your mother. Feel as your roots grow into the ground, as you find your connectedness with her again.

This time is the time of Imbolc, the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. The sun has begun his journey back to full strength. He was born at Yule, and progresses through his transformation from infant to young man. He is potential, waiting to be realized. The days are lengthening as the nights shorten. Each day the sun brings a little more warmth, foretelling the thaw to come. For now, however, the Earth remains in slumber, Spring still only a faint whisper.

Extend your senses beyond the walls, to the world outside. Smell in the crisp air the hard frosts that grip the land. The cold grabs the inside of your nose, and every breath is a gasp. See the dark grey skies. Sharp ice crystals bite into your cheeks as the wind whips the tops off the snow drifts. A branch breaks with a loud snap as cracks caused by summer storms finally lose their battle with the weight of heavy snows.

Foxes sleep, snug in their dens, as sparrows fight for a chance at the feeder, not always refilled. The bright flash of a cardinal contrasts starkly with the sullen white snow, a bloody gash across a barren landscape. Ice coats the twigs and chimes in the breezes. Rebirth seems remote - even the call of the goose is a distant memory.

But look into the barns and the fields and watch the teats of the cows and the ewes begin to swell. The milk is beginning to flow. Old loin-fires of bulls and rams are soon to burst forth as the first new calves and lambs. They will struggle up on unsteady limbs, symbols of the green waiting impatiently to explode from the as yet quiescent soil.

This is the time of metamorphosis, of the promise of fruition of seeds sown in seasons past. Brigid stokes these fires, inspiring the bard, the smith, the healer. Fertility and creativity begin to flow in this dormant season, as small things born at the solstice begin to manifest, heralding the full flowering to arrive when the sun reconquers his throne.

Fire. The fires in our hearths. Feel the warmth, smell the food cooking. The fires in our smithies. The clang of hammer striking anvil, shaping raw metal into tools. The fire of desire. The climax which joins cell with cell in the creation of life. The fires of creativity. Music rings and voices flow as living beauty is sculpted from idle words and actions. The fire of transformation. The season of transformation from the depths of Winter into the rebirth of Spring.

Now, slowly, gradually, come back inside. Come back to us. Begin to sense the world inside. Prepare yourself to celebrate this season of Brigid, this season of fire, this season of changes. Rouse yourself. Be ready to grab the spoke and turn the wheel past the numbing cold of winter to the seductive promise of Spring, as we join together in the celebration of Imbolc!

We will now cast the circle. As you take the hand of the person next to you, please say "Hand in hand, the circle is cast", and imagine a bright light extending from your body, down your arm, and up into the body of the person to your left. Do this until the ends meet. We are a circle. Now envision that energy reaching up, high above us like a great silvery dome to cover and shield us from forces unseen. Imagine that energy going down beneath our feet, drawing strength from the earth, in touch with the roots and buds which are beginning to reawaken. The circle is cast!

Invocation of the Elements [2]

I call upon the powers of the east. The divine breath blowing upon the embers to light the spark of creativity.

I call upon the powers of the south. The flaming force of desire that transforms our inspirations into dreams.

I call upon the powers of the west. The sacred wells of tradition which give form to our dreams.

I call upon the powers of the north. The sacred space where the distant dreams of our innermost souls can manifest.

I call upon the powers of the center. The divine spirit manifest in the physical world. May our dreams so manifest.

Statement of Ritual Purpose [1]

We have gathered to celebrate Imbolc, the welcoming of the first signs of spring. The wombs of livestock grow heavy as the first births of the year begin. This is the time of the year when we honor Brigid (Breed), triple goddess of smithery, healing and bardic arts. We also remember the young Sun whose birth we witnessed at Yule, as he rises higher in the sky each day, bringing warmth to our world.

The word Imbolc means literally "in the belly". The belly in question is that of the Great Mother, as we recognize the first stirrings of the Earth's womb under our feet, and the growing light shines upon us every more brightly each day. This is the time that we feel a new quickening of both life and spirit around us. Many animals have already given birth to their first offspring of the season, or their udders are filling with milk in anticipation. The Druid's called this time of the year Oimealg (IM-mol'g), which means "ewes milk", for to them this was the festival of the lactating sheep. This was also the Roman celebration of Lupercalia, in which the priests of Faunnus (or Pan) would run through the town dressed in goatskins, striking women with leather thongs to increase their fertility. This marks the center point of the dark half of the year, and we celebrate the coming of the Maiden and the Irish Goddess Brigid, the fertility-bringer.

Brigid's holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred fires, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires were lighted on the beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated this as their special holiday. Even the Catholic Church was quick to adopt this symbolism, and so they created Candlemas as the day to bless all the church candles that would be used for the coming liturgical year. So it is at this time that we welcome you to bless the candles that you have brought with you, that they might keep you warm and remind you that spring is returning. Anoint your candle with the oils here, and light it on the center candle. Take into that flame all those thoughts on which you meditated earlier tonight…remember those desires and needs for the coming year….remember the skills that you might put to use in the days ahead. When you are ready, place your lit candle back on the altar

Consecration Agreement [1]

May the spirits assembled bless this bread and wine, the fruits of the harvest, and this milk, the sustenance of new life, that they will provide strength and health, to help us through the last lean months of winter.

Thanking of the Elements [2]

I thank the powers of the center. We step back from the sacred space into the physical world but we are spirits manifesting in the physical world and so carry the mystery within ourselves.

I thank the powers of the north. We root our dreams in the physical world so they will have strength.

I thank the powers of the west. We nurture our dreams from the wellsprings of our souls.

I thank the powers of the south. The force that causes us to manifest our dreams in the physical world.

I thank the powers of the air. The wisdom to know when to let go of our dreams so they may become shining beacons to inspire others.

Grounding Meditation [1]

The time has now come to complete the circle of our celebration. Close your eyes, and find once more your center. Ground yourself, and link with the Earth beneath you. Gather close any stray energy left from our celebration, and return it to the earth. Hold with you the sense of the season, the bare cold earth, the sleeping creatures, the empty fields, but with it the coming of mothers' milk, the dropping of young, and the whisper of the promise of spring.

Walk with wisdom from this hallowed place.

Walk not in sorrow, our roots shall e'er embrace.

May truth be your brother, and honor be your friend,
and luck by your lover until we meet again. [1]

This circle is open,
but never broken.

Merry we met,
merry we part,
and merry we meet again!

Blessed Be!

1. Adapted from SLG Imbolc Ritual - http://www.msen.com/~robh/slg/imbrit.html
2. Adapted from Sisters of the Silver Branch - http://patriot.net/~nachtanz/SSB/imbolc98.html