The Cosmic Story: The Wheel of the Year
Imbolc: The Season of Light Returning
The Seasons of the Earth
Now that Astrology is once again a hot topic, since its popularity does comes and goes through the centuries, most people identify themselves with an astrological sign and its characteristics – I’m a Taurus, you’re an Aquarian, he’s overemotional because he’s a Cancer, she scatters her energy like all Gemini’s.
And so they should. Signs tell us a lot about the character of a person: is he a fire sign like Aries, Leo or Sagittarius? There’s a lot of passion and creativity and energy there. And we all know about the empathic gifts of water signs, the practicality of earth signs and the social skills of air signs.
But most of us don’t think of ourselves in terms of the season of the year we were born into. While the astrological signs are part of the season, they are the heavenly part of the story. The actual Earth seasons, described by the Wheel of the Year, tell us about what’s going on down on Mother Earth – at least in the northern hemisphere – while the Sun moves through those tropical zodiac signs. The season tells us what our earthly energies will be like this lifetime. The Innocence of Spring, the Fertility of Summer, the Knowledge of Autumn, the Secret Wisdom of Winter.
Winter Solstice, the season of the rebirth of the Light, holds sway until Spring Equinox, the emergence of the Light. Along with Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, these are the major turning points of the seasons. In-between these annual changes of seasons are the cross-quarter holidays of Imbolc (February 2), Beltane (May 1), Lammas (August 1) and Samhain (November 1). They are all fire festivals and they illuminate the end game of the season.
Imbolc is the cross-quarter holiday of the Winter Solstice season. It is celebrated on February 2nd in the U.S. as Groundhog’s Day or St. Brigid’s Day in Ireland. Astrologically, because of precession, the date is now closer to February 4th, when the Sun hits the 15* Aquarius power gate. Each cross-quarter holiday occurs at the 15* of a fixed sign, because it is on those days that the shift in the seasons begin to occur.
The Sabian symbol for 15* Aquarius is: Two lovebirds sitting on a fence and singing happily. This power gate calls us to let our soul unite two complementary spiritual (birds) energies to achieve real happiness or bliss. One way to understand this is to let our imagination (right brain) show us our path and to use our rationality (left brain) to help us walk it.
The inner light of the unconscious unites with the heavenly light of consciousness to bless our lives. Love is what unites them.
Imbolc is the feast of the returning light. In Ireland, it occurs when the sheep are birthing their lambs and lactating, a sure sign of Spring. You’ll notice that the daylight begins to grow longer quickly now. The Sun has reached a point on its journey back North where it stays visible longer in the sky. And we begin to know that Spring will indeed come again.
Imbolc was called Candlemas by the Catholic Church, a time to bless the candles that the church would use during the coming year. In Ireland, they celebrate St. Brigid’s Day, as she is the Patron Saint of Ireland along with St. Patrick. But in reality, Brigid was a goddess before she was a saint. One of the most important Irish goddesses, such that the Church had to adopt her as their own, since the people would not give her up. We’ll talk more about her below, as she is the Goddess we look to in this later part of the Winter Solstice season.
All the Imbolc festivals are fire festivals. The fires are lit as sympathetic magic to help bring the sunlight back. And with the Light comes vision. So Imbolc is also a visioning timed: doesn’t the groundhog look for his shadow to forecast the return of Spring? Just as we look to see more light at Imbolc, it is also a time to envision the new life that will emerge in the Spring.
So if you are born into the Imbolc season of the year, your purpose is tied in with vision – envisioning the future, nurturing new life, finding your creative talents. These are the gifts of the season to you.
To honor the energy of Imbolc, light some candles and be present to the light. Gaze into the flames, and let images arise within you. Ask for a vision of what your inner child of light wants to do this year. How is the baby of Light growing? What does it need from you to grow strong enough to emerge in the Spring and root into the deep soil of your life?
If you need help, ask the Mother Goddess who helps us grow in this second part of the Winter Solstice season: Brigid, the Gaelic Mary and the foster-mother of Christ. (The Celts placed great value on fostering their children and one’s foster – mother was just as beloved and important as one’s birth mother.)
Brigid, Goddess of Imbolc: How do we work with the Light?
Since the Winter Solstice is about the re-birth of the Light, the purpose of that season is to nurture and grow that light until it is strong enough to stand on its own. The Goddess energy that works in the Winter Solstice season is the Divine Mother – the birthgiver, the nurturer, the bestower of gifts and talents.
At Winter Solstice, Mother Mary embodies the archetype of the Divine Mother who keeps her child nourished and safe and secure from death. At Imbolc, the Goddess form changes to one of Teacher, Healer and Inspirer. We look now to Brigid, whom the Irish call Muire na nGael or Mary of the Irish. She is called the foster Mother of Christ.
If we acknowledge that the Christ is the part of us that is the Eternal Spirit of the Creator, then Brigid is the Divine Feminine Mother who now takes that spirit and helps shape it into life-giving purpose.
Brigid (you can read about her here) is the Celtic goddess of the fires of the forge and the hearth, of poetry, healing and childbirth. The name Brigit itself means either ‘Fiery Arrow’, ‘Bright One’, or ‘High One’ in the ancient Celtic language, referring to her solar aspect, as she is a goddess of Light and Flame. She is an ancient image of the solar feminine – from a time before the masculine deities took over the rulership of the Sun and its gift of self-consciousness.
Brigid, Brigit or Brighid (pronounced Breed) is an important Celtic Triple goddess, changing form from Maiden to Mother to Crone. At Imbolc, she comes to us in her Crone aspect and leads us to the inner depths where the Cauldron of Inspiration waits for our gaze to seek a vision. When we emerge, Brigid comes with us as the Maiden, renewed once again. She is the Mother of our spiritual birth, when we recognize our soul’s gifts and potentials and purpose.
Brigid is the patroness of poetry, healing and smith craft, all different ways humans use the creative fires of life with practical and inspired wisdom. As a solar deity Her attributes are light, inspiration and all skills associated with the creative fire, especially the fiery power of inner healing and vital energy.
What area of life calls to you? Looking at the astrological houses and their meanings are a template, is it a year to concentrate on yourself, on your talents, on your family, on your work? Or perhaps it’s about friendships or partnerships, about deep intimacy or a time of silent reflection.
Let Brigid’s fire light your way through the remaining dark.
Astrological Happenings in Imbolc’s Season
Imbolc Chart
I heard a song the other day – it sang “the future ain't what we thought it was no more.” After a quiet laugh, I stopped and thought how true it is. Our future isn’t going to be what we thought it would be.
We all sense that our world is at a turning point in our history. Our technology has made us ONE World. Our next lesson, coming in the next two years as Saturn travels through Pisces, is to learn to be ONE heart that cares for all of us – people, animals and Mother Nature. The crisis and change of heart will most probably come through climate change, since it will be Mother Earth who has to set things back in balance. But She needs human beings to do our part in stopping the continued destruction of our environment, as well as helping Her heal. What can you offer to help heal?
A quick look at the chart for Imbolc (when the Sun gets to 15* Aquarius) tells us that this is going to be a busy six weeks, with all the angles in cardinal, initiating signs. With a Libra ascendant, it’s all about relationships and balance. Our society needs to learn courtesy again. Cancer on the mid-heaven tells us that our homes, our families, our soulful needs have to be foremost in our sights. With Aries on the descendant, we have to learn to be ourselves with others, to know our boundaries without shutting down to others.
The Aquarius Sun exactly squaring Uranus in Taurus is certainly another wake up call to us concerning the state of Mother Earth and our civilization. Why can’t we bring our collective awareness concerning Mother Earth to the forefront of our political awareness, instead of unjustified moral outrage at what … people being free to be who they are? Aquarius is the rebel, the freedom-fighter. Uranus is Prometheus, bringing fire from heaven to humans.
The Moon in Cancer is opposite Pluto in the last degrees of Capricorn before it enters Aquarius for the first time on March 23rd. Our emotional needs must be met – we have to stop the politics and get back to common sense and take care of our world and each other. Saturn in Aquarius is hidden from the Cancer Moon, so we have to make an effort to put those emotional needs in terms the collective can understand and accept.
Venus in Pisces squares Mars as he moves ahead again in Gemini. Since Venus is exalted in Pisces, she’s sure to charm Mars into slowing down and thinking about what she really wants him to do now. Jupiter is back in Aries, and is once again beginning his twelve years journey around the zodiac. Change is on the menu this year – or at least the beginnings of change – with both Saturn and Pluto moving into new signs this Spring.
There are astrological signs of real change coming over the course of the next few years. While we’ll be dealing with the dying rattles of patriarchy for a few more years as Pluto finishes up his business in Capricorn, we’ll also be honing our vision for the future: Pluto enters Aquarius for the first time since 1778-1798 CE on March 23, 2023 and will travel back and forth over the Capricorn/ Aquarius cusp from 2023-2024.
As an archetypal energy of the power of evolution, Pluto finally settles into the sign of Aquarius in 2025, hopefully signaling a renewed vision of the Age of Aquarius, rather than the End Times story of patriarchal religions (Capricorn) that is unconsciously feeding the crisis of our times. (See my book, Wisdom’s Daughters, for a summary of these End Times beliefs.)
Saturn is moving out of Aquarius and into Pisces on March 7, 2023, shifting our reality to the deep needs of the Collective Unconscious – the deep needs of Life. We have been exploring the deep divide over beliefs and mindsets on Planet Earth for the past five years during Saturn’s journey through both his homes in Capricorn and Aquarius. Saturn conjuncting Pluto in Capricorn in early 2020 set the stage for the massive change (or social experiment of Covid) the world went through in these past few years.
Saturn has been in Aquarius since December 2020 when it teamed up with Jupiter in early Aquarius. Aquarius is a fixed AIR sign, an energy which gathers together collective thoughts and beliefs, and as we have seen with Saturn there, makes everyone stubborn about seeing the other side of the story. Aquarius’ shadow is judgment, which is different from having a well thought-out opinion. So look to see if you’re judging or just expressing your opinion.
When Saturn moves into Pisces on March 7th, he will be staying in Jupiter/Neptune’s home waters until mid-February 2026. No longer in his own comfort zones (Saturn rules both Capricorn and Aquarius), Saturn, the reality principle and ruler of our Root Chakra, will have to ground us into those watery depths.
But what does it mean to us if our root chakra/reality is grounded in the watery depths of Pisces? It can be a time of inner turmoil and delusions, or it can be a time of great spiritual awakenings. It’s a question I’ll explore in my next newsletter on this big planetary move in the next month.
Pisces/ the Collective Unconscious/ the World Soul is a vast realm, a place that isn’t material like the Earth plane, but more like the Celtic Otherworld, a different dimension that holds the imaginal/emotional/spiritual energies of the Earth. This is where we all share in life. It’s where we are ONE.
Carl G. Jung call the Collective Unconscious a second psychic system within each of us, deeper than our personal unconscious which contains our personal (this lifetime’s) memories, experiences, complexes and trauma. The collective unconscious has a collective, universal and impersonal nature which all of us inherit. This is the realm of the archetypes, our psychic DNA, the pre-existent forms which make us human.
Jung also said that the Aquarian Age would be an age where the waters of the Unconscious will be poured out and renewed, a time when we make the archetypal energies of life conscious.
The Collective Unconscious could also be called the Anima Mundi, the World Soul of Mother Earth. It contains all human archetypes and experiences, most especially all those things which the collective society rejects and denies. It holds the fear and terror of war, rape, abuse, cruelty and domination, and it also holds their opposites – peace, love, concern, kindness and communal well being. So it holds humanity’s hope for a better world – a world in which we no longer go to war to settle arguments, where we care for our elders and children, for our mothers and fathers. Where all genders, races and beliefs are accepted and respected. Where human beings are allowed to BE themselves and do what they incarnated here to do – pursuing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We will probably experience the watery, mysterious powers of the unconscious in some form – psychic hits, telepathic communications, dreams, visions – as well as being imprisoned on our own worst paranoid delusions. We can get lost in the watery realm of the Collective Unconscious, so it is important to learn to understand what you are seeing and experiencing instead of putting a label on it right away. Carl Jung spent years trying to map this vast realm, and his theory of archetypes came from those explorations.
Neptune will be moving through the last degrees of Pisces while Saturn travels through it for the next two years. That will add some magic and mystery to the process, since Neptune is the ruler of Pisces, and the energy of the wild, erratic, powerful forces of the Deep. Neptune will leave Pisces for good (2012 - 2026) in early 2026, after moving back and forth over 0* Aries, the Alpha point of the Zodiac, through 2024-2025. (As you can see, these next few years will be unsettled in many ways.)
Neptune will settle into Aries and meet up with Saturn at 1* Aries in mid-February 2026, right after a total solar eclipse at 29* Aquarius. (Did our collective consciousness get the message?) These two very different energies will bring the dreams of the lost values and hopes of our collective unconscious into the beginning of manifestation.
While we wait, this is the time to ‘cry for a vision’. So hone your imagination (Neptune) and get disciplined (Saturn) concerning your work. The world of 2026 awaits us all!
Cause the future ain’t going to be what we thought no more!
Carl Jung says in the prologue of Memories, Dreams and Reflections, “My life is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious.” Each of us has that same ability to learn the symbolic language of the unconscious, which is the voice of the imagination. It’s time to listen to what wisdom it has to offer us. This is how we re-connect with Mother Earth’s inner-net. This is how to get through the hard times ahead for our world. Our rational minds have got us into this mess. We need our imaginal minds to give us the information that will heal us and heal Mother Earth.
What part of the collective dream are each of us called to bring forth? It’s not going to be tied to our patriarchal values of money, work and success. The new dream will be something else entirely.
This year as a great time to relate to the archetype of the Fool from Tarot. The Fool sets off on his life adventure with an innocent heart and a fearless attitude. He packs his tools (values, attitudes, beliefs) in his sack, brings his dog companion along for company and instincts, and is prepared to step off a cliff to find that new dream. But he’s so much more than that. He is our ability with dance with life, to see and experience what’s before him.
One of my favorite authors is Charles Williams, a friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote stories about supernatural powers breaking in on everyday life for good or evil. His book, The Greater Trumps, is about the original Tarot pack and a magical table with all the tarot figures moving with each other on invisible lines of energy. The mystery of the table is that the Fool is the only figure that doesn’t move. That is, until someone with spiritual vision sees the Fool dancing with all the figures. The Fool is immovable yet moving, the unseen cause of all the rest of life’s energies.
The Fool’s fluid state is probably the best one to emulate as we move through these next few transitional years. Keep an open mind, an innocent heart and a clear vision of how much better life can be when we change our collective values from individualism, consumerism and competition to community, creativity and happiness.
Buckle up, because the future ain’t gonna be what we thought it was no more.
Happy Imbolc. Life’s energies are rising again. May Brigid’s bright blessing shine to light your way.
Cathy
Prayer to Brigid on Imbolc
Sacred light in the darkest night
Our beacon in the cold of winter
Our guide to the dawning of spring
We hold vigil on this sacred day
Welcoming the Goddess Brigid
Welcoming the return of the sun
Asking for protection and abundance
To our hearth, our homes, our fields, and family
On this night and every night thereafter
Bless us Brigid, the keeper of the flame
