Setting the Year

Did you think about a new beginning as 2023 began? Did you make some resolutions, maybe? The desire to start afresh is as old as the first spring, eons and eons ago

​In the northern hemisphere, our ancestors celebrated a holiday during the time of year when the light begins to increase, before the energy of spring has really taken hold. This sacred day was, and still is, Imbolc, celebrated on the 1st of February in our modern calendar. In times of antiquity, this was a very difficult time in the year with food stores dwindling and people hanging on until the weather improved. Hope was present with the lengthening days, but that was about it. Today, with modern conveniences, I think of it as a gentle holiday to celebrate the growing season that is still a ways off, but assured. Our ancestors blessed the seeds that would be planted when the soil was warm enough to promote growth. They welcomed the goddess, Brigid, into their homes and hearths, reset the communal village fire, and brought coals into their own homes from the fire at the center of the village. They dreamed of the coming warmth, longer days, and the planting the year’s food. They harmonized with the season and anticipated the spring to come. (For more information about Brigid read my blog from January 31, 2015. Scroll down.)

Harmonizing with the Seasons

It nurtures our hearts and souls to harmonize with the seasons. This is the season for blessing seeds, the seed ideas of our lives that will grow into beautiful results. However, at this time of year I want us to take a moment and harken back to a celebration that happens in the darker days, but still after the winter solstice. That holiday is Wassail, when the apple trees are blessed in those parts of the northern hemisphere where there are apple orchards. This celebration involves pouring cider on the roots of the bare apple trees, putting toast in their branches, and singing to the trees. The intention is to encourage the apple trees to be what they are meant to be: bearers of a great quantity of delicious, nutritious, pest-free apples. Here is the refrain of an old song that was sung, this January, to the apple trees in the County of Devon, in England, where I live, “Old Apple Tree, we wassail thee, and hope that thou will bear hatfuls, capfuls, three bushel bagfulls and a little heap under the stair.”

I think Wassail is important for us to think about because our intentions, those that we bless at Imbolc, just like our ancestors blessed the crop seeds that they would plant, should reflect the real us; what we are meant to do and to be as our highest selves. What if, instead of asking ourselves how we want to be in the coming year, or what we want to accomplish or manifest, we asked, “What does my soul want to give?” How could we bear the most fruit that is ours alone to produce? After we answer this basic question, and the ones that follow, the inner responses are what we bless at Imbolc.

​Ritual to Bless My Life's Fruit that I am to Bear in 2023

Get  yourself something to write with and create a compass for yourself with the cardinal directions. You can either sit inside the circle of the compass and face each direction, in turn, or draw a compass on the paper with the directions indicated. You are going to ask yourself important questions having to do with the energy of each direction in order to ascertain what it is your soul wants to give. As you ask yourself the questions for each direction, write down what seems important. You may want to come back to this exercise before the actual day of Imbolc, so you are ready to bless your soul’s longings on the 1st of February, the old holy day of Imbolc.

East: Intellect and Wisdom

What is true, useful, kind, and unifying that I can give?
Does this gift want to be given through writing, speaking, behaving, or by example?

South: Life Force and Passion

What am I passionate about that I can give?
Is this gift one of service, advice, help, or something else?
Considering what I feel strongly about, does this gift need to be strengthened or tempered in order to be most effective?

West: Feelings and Emotions

What feelings in the world can I celebrate or help to heal?
How can I give the gift of empathy along with empowerment?

North: Form and Substance

What can I physically give that would be of use to others or the world?
What supply, goods, organizational skills, or physical gifts can I give to benefit others?
How can I practice generosity?

Consider your responses to these questions and any other notes that you were inspired to write. Formulate a few seed ideas about what your soul wants to give this year, for example:
   I want to give support to my children in terms of empowerment, self-fulfillment, courage, and sufficiency.
   I want to generate support for a foundation to help animals who are abandoned.
  I want to restructure my workplace relationships so that trust and peace are paramount for all.
   I want to create a bridge between politics and human kindness.

It doesn’t matter how these dreams are going to be fulfilled. The apple tree cannot describe how the sun, soil, pollinators, and rainfall go together to make the apples, but some wisdom in the universe does. This same wisdom will direct  you.

Write your seed idea two times. Plant one written dream in some soil near your home with words of blessing and put the other in some place of power that you can see each day. Notice when the universe offers you means to fulfill your seed-dream and follow through. 

May the  universe bless and magnify the gifts of your soul and may many, many beings benefit from your willingness to be all you are meant to be.