Imbolc

Imbolc was once marked by “rushlight processions to sacred springs and fires on the hills, whilst nature contributed the appearance of virgin-white snowdrops, symbolising the maidenly aspect of the land.” Mythical white hinds were once said to appear at this time of year beneath apple trees, while for us, purple buds appear on alder trees, the goldfinch roams the barren fields, and thistles, rose-bay and willowherb emerge from the earth. In the calendar of the Catholic Church, the time around February 1st is marked by the festival of Candlemas, where a candlelit procession precedes mass where candles are blessed by a priest and then taken home where they offered protection against demons and storms. The illumination of this day is fitting, as it was once, and is still for many, the feast day of the goddess Brigid (Brigit, Brig), as well as being one of the four major Celtic festivals of the year. It marks the turning of the wheel of the year, and the return of light and new growth. Interestingly, Brigid is associated with poetry, fire, and inspiration, while at her shrine in Kildare, Ireland, a perpetual flame once burned. Later on, she appears as St Brigid, who according to legend, was transported by two angels over the sea to attend the nativity of Christ.

In Scottish folklore, she appears under the guise of Bride, and in a tradition found in the Highlands, and in Ireland, strips of cloth or ribbon were placed outside doors on Imbolc Eve (January 31st) for Brigit to bless. “This cloth represents her mantle and can be used for healing throughout the year.” In Donald Mackenzie’s Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend, a seasonal tale of renewal known as Biera and the Well of Youth, tells of how on the eve of Imbolc, Biera, most often thought to be a later incarnation of the Gaelic Cailleach, a creatrix and crone figure whose name means the Veiled One, and like Biera, is associated with Winter, of the time of stag and wolf. Donald Mackenzie explains that “Biera lived for centuries, and that the reason she did not die of old age, was because “at the beginning of every spring, she drank the magic waters of the Well of Youth which bubbles up on the Green Island of the West. This was a floating island where summer was the only season, and the trees were always bright with blossom and laden with fruit. It drifted about on the silver tides of the blue Atlantic, and sometimes appeared off the western coasts of Ireland and sometimes close to the Hebrides.” He continues, “as soon as Biera had tasted the magic water, in silence and alone, she began to grow young again. She left the island and, returning to Scotland, fell into a magic sleep. When, at length, she awoke, in bright sunshine, she rose up as a beautiful girl with long hair as yellow as buds of broom, cheeks red as rowan berries, and blue eyes that sparkled like the summer sea in sunshine. Then she went to and fro through Scotland, clad in a robe of green and crowned with a chaplet of bright flowers of many hues. No fairer goddess was to be found in all the land, save Bride, the peerless Queen of Summer…. As each month went past, however, Beira aged quickly. She reached full womanhood in midsummer, and when autumn came on her brows wrinkled and her beauty began to fade. When the season of winter returned once again, she became an old and withered hag, and began to reign as the fierce Queen Beira.”

Bride was also often described as a milkmaid, and whose cow was white and with red ears, a nice nod to the otherworldly hounds and cattle of Celtic mythology who also have red ears. “According to folk tradition, this connection is related to Olmelg (or Imbolc), the name given to her feast day. It translates as ‘ewe’s milk’, signifying the flow of milk that heralds the return of the life-giving forces of spring, causing the animals to bring forth milk.” In Irish mythology, the white cow is most often synonymous with the goddess Boann (Bóinne.) Married to Nechtan (or Elcmar in some stories whose home is the Brú na Bóinne, or Newgrange). Nechtan and his three cupbearers Flesc, Luam and Lam guard a well of wisdom, whose powers were so potent that anyone who looked into the well, save for Nechtan and his cupbearers, would be disfigured, and would cause “every secret or mysterious evil to burst forth from the well.” So the story goes, Boann walked around the well three times ‘widdershins’, or against the course of the sun, and this caused the well to overflow. The surging waters broke over her, as disfigured, Boann ran away towards the sea where she drowned at the mouth of the river, and so became the eponymous spirit of the river Boyne. Curiously, one of the Irish names for The Milky Way was Bealach/Bóthar na Bó Finne, the Way or Road of the White Cow. In England, the Milky Way was thought to mark the path to Heaven, while in the Baltic lands, it is the road of birds, and in particular, of the swan who is also closely associated with Brigit, and with Boann’s son Oengus and his otherworldly love Caer Ibormeith. Elsewhere, most notably in Greece and among the Sami people of the frozen north, the Milky Way was seen as breast milk, splashed across the heavens.

Returning to Imbolc, we find that it was known in Gaelic as Óimelc (Olmelg) and which translates as ‘ewe’s milk’, signifying the flow of milk that heralds the return of the life-giving forces of spring, causing the animals to bring forth milk. Another connected name is “Là Fhéill Bhrìghde, was a festival of the original herding culture – where lambs are born and ewes are in milk. The milk provided drink, butter, cheese, and whey after a long, hard winter when the stocks of food were low – a matter of life and death to early Celtic people.”

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Quotes & Sources:

Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie 

My book The Silver Bough

Tintagel by Paul Broadhurst

Bride on Druidy.org by Susa Morgan Black