Month: January 2026

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Imbolc and Transformation

We are entering the season of Imbolc, a liminal time of year in which we turn the Wheel from winter to spring. Depending on where you live, it can be very difficult to see this change. In colder climates, winter is not over. Here in South Central Texas we can have snow and ice as late as the end of February! I have memories of living in cold climates where winter often continued on into May. What triggered me into an awareness of the coming spring were the beautiful crocus blooms peeking up out of the snow! Seeing that filled my heart with joy and the promise of spring.

Traditionally, Imbolc is associated with many customs. In old Ireland it was a celebration of the first signs of spring. It was a festival of purification often celebrated as a festival of the hearth. It was a time to sweep out the old and prepare the home for the coming spring. In these modern times it is often the time when pagan groups hold their initiation ceremonies. The name Imbolc comes from the word Oimelc which refers to the lactation of ewes; their flow of milk that heralds the return of the life-giving forces of spring. It comes just before the birth of the new lambs, hence the udders filling with milk. It was a time for preparing the fields for spring sowing as well as when they gathered in extra help for the coming growing season.

To me, it is when the Earth, in Her stillness, quickens. When the unborn child in the womb first moves, it is called quickening. I love to think of the pregnant possibilities coming to us soon in this quickening.

In Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man, the mythological story behind this liminal time is the story of the Cailleach and Brigit. The Cailleach is an ancient Winter Hag, clearly a giantess, as her apron held the rocks that when dropped, became the mountains. It is the Cailleach who stirs the clouds and dumps the snow, who whips up the storms and the strong winds of winter. As the Winter Hag, she contains the seed of promise. While she is clearly a dark goddess of destruction, at Imbolc she returns to us as Brigid, the Goddess of Spring.

Many Imbolc customs center on Brigid such as the making of the Brigid doll and Bride’s bed. One thing I do every year is to create my own Brigid’s Mantle, by hanging a piece of cloth outside on the Eve of Imbolc (Feb. 1st) and leaving it there overnight. It is said that in the night Brigid blesses your cloth as she passes by. This piece of cloth is now imbued with the healing power of Brigid. This was a favorite of the midwives of old and still is for many who use alternative healing modalities today.

This is an opportunity for transformation in our own lives. As the earth begins its own transformation, we too, can change our lives. Brigid offers us the opportunity to drink from her Sacred Well. In the drinking of her Sacred Waters, we may choose how we wish to transform our lives.

Sanctuary Fountain at The Crossings

No matter what path we walk, whether we honor the Cailleach and Brigid or not, we can all drink from Sacred Waters. Water is made sacred by our own intent. Should you wish to do this yourself, first you must prepare. We have one week to be ready by February 1st. It is good to first clean and prepare a sacred place in your home – preferably the area you feel is the “heart” of your home. Sometime between now and February 1st, sit within this space and write down all of the ways in which you wish to transform your life. Write these changes down with positive statements, as if these changes already exist. You don’t want to say, “Abundance is going to come to me.” You want to say instead, “Abundance flows in my life.”

So make your list. Then create a ceremony in whatever way feels right to you. It is up to you who you invite to your party! You might want to light a candle to set the mood. Fill a glass with water and sit in your sacred space, thinking about how your life looks with all of these changes in place. Really try to see yourself transformed! Take time to be still and quiet with your thoughts. Then, when you are ready, read your statements out loud. You can even shout them if you feel like it! Sometimes when I do this I feel like a cheerleader – cheering myself on! When you are finished, pick up your glass of water and drink it – all of it! Your positive statements have transformed this water and it is sacred. You are now taking that sacred intention and making it a part of you. Step into your own transformation with the Birth of Spring.

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Fire, Her Bright Spirit

In Celtic Tradition our world is composed of Three Realms, those of Land, Sea and Sky. In the midst of these Realms we find the Sacred Grove, the place of flowing together. There the Sacred Fire burns, by the Well of Wisdom, beneath the World Tree. Sacred Fire is that which weaves itself throughout the Three Realms.  It connects us and all of life to the Realms as well as to our gods and goddesses.  Fire is Sacred Spirit, Sacred Inspiration, without which life would have no meaning.

Let uslook at Fire as most pagans believe.  It is the spark, the flame, the heat of passion.  It is what ignites our creativity, fuels our passion and fires our hearts to love.  It is the Dance of Life, the joy found in movement, sexual energy and the warmth that germinates new life in seeds. It is the warmth of sunlight on our skin and the ecstatic pleasure of orgasm.

Fire is that which transforms fuel to light and heat as it can transform anything we feed it to pure energy.  We associate Fire with the Sun which provides all living beings on Earth with warmth and light. Without it, life as we know it would be impossible.  The Sun burns above us…and its energy supports life.

In magical traditions, we associate Fire with noon, when the sun is at its peak in the sky. We also associate it with summer, that time when the Sun is with us for longest days in the year.  It is associated with the active phase of our adult lives, the time we expend the most energy.  It is the time of creating families and careers. Clearly, sex and passion are all about Fire.

Fire also heals by stirring things up and getting them moving. It overcomes the stagnation of apathy, the heaviness of depression, or the distant coldness of always living in one’s head. Fire corresponds to our will.  It is our power to choose, to make and keep goals and to take care of any obstacles that prevent forward movement.  We use fire to remove anything in our way. Fire is what gives us courage. Fire is our independent spirit. We can use the magic of fire to face fears and overcome them.

We must also look at the destructive side of Fire.  The consuming hunger of fire is what strikes fear in our hearts. Magically, then, fire is about transformation.  Changing what no longer serves us and fueling what does.  And as with any burning fire, we must carefully contain and direct it lest it burn out of control. We see Fire within us, when it is out of control, as destructive tendencies, aggressiveness, jealousy, hatred, resentment and vindictiveness.

For Druids and the Celtic people, Fire is at Center of the World. If asked the question, “where is the center of the world,” I have three answers. When speaking for myself, my answer is “where I stand.” To someone else in my family, it would be wherever we gather at the center of the home. In ancient cultures, that would have been the hearth or the center pole.  Today, it may be at the kitchen table.  And if you were to ask a Druid of her clan, it would be the sacred Bíle or sacred tree of the Gods. As one who practices, Celtic based spirituality, the Goddess Brighid connects all of these “centers” for She is the Goddess of Fire. She is Fire in the head and the heart, the Fire in the home and hearth and the Fire of smiths and poets. She is the magic that connects the Three Realms of Land, Sea and Sky. She is the Fire that transforms. She is the Fire that opens the way into the Otherworld, into Inspiration.  For, it is Fire that gives inspiration to all creativity.

Author Tom Cowan introduced many to the term, “Fire in the Head”  which he described as meaning to be called to another world, that which carries one who can travel to realms unseen by others and return with special knowledge.

Words, written a certain way, in their finest expression can set us fire. The Celtic expression “Fire in the Head” also makes reference to the passionate inspiration that leads us to our finest work, our most beautiful creations, our poetry, songs and written words.

Amergin, a great Druid whose name means “Birth of Song” said as he stepped ashore in Ireland, “I am a god who sets the head afire with smoke.” It was this “Fire in the Head” that fueled Amergin’s ability to “be” all he claimed to be and thus use that power to claim the land for his people, the Gaels.

Fire is most celebrated at the time of Midsummer – the height of the Season of the Sun; the longest day of the year.  This is the time when the fullness of the Mother is evident in the lushness of growth around us.  It is when the crops are ripening in the sun; the time the honey bee gathers in sweetness.  We celebrate this season with dance, bonfires, and yes, sexual pleasure. This is the revelry of Midsummer and the Dance of Fire…

midsummer brings a craziness of spirit,
a wild urging to break loose and soar.
the drones impregnate the queen
and fall to death’s door.

my longing and lustful heart
seeks this ecstatic trance.
is it the horned Sun King
drawing me into the dance?

seeking the company of wild youth
to dance at revel fires,
drumming out nature’s rhythms
triggers my inner desire.

heat caught from the Solstice fire
and the sun on its longest day
arose this sleeping woman
now ready for sacred play.

I dance bare breasted in the sun
seeking the fire and the flame
my heart opens to all that is
my spirit wild and untamed.

All words by Deanne Quarrie – Aine Bandraoi

Musical accompaniment created at suno.com

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Becoming

If there were one thing I would say that needs to be given the most attention in one’s magical practice is the Art of Becoming.

When we cast our Circle and invite the Elements, in truth, they are already there. It is within ourselves that we must become those Elements to feel their presence in our Circle.

Because of this, we need to spend time studying them.

They sit with plants. The sit under trees and ask the trees to share their stories. They hold stones. They burn herbs to learn how those herbs affect them.

They journey with them to learn what they are willing to share.

And they record all of this in the journals.

Once this is done, they then learn to project these energies out to others.

It is the same when you are aspecting a Goddess or a God – you must become Them.

The only way to do that is to first know Them, not just from books and other references, but from your own personal experience as you embody Them.

When a member of a Native American tribe dances an animal, he is not just imitating that animal he is becoming the animal in the dance.

When a dancer wishes to portray an image in her dance, she must become that image.

When an artist paints, he first learns what it is he wishes to paint.

He learns so well that what he wants to paint becomes a part of him and then it is moved onto the paper.

When an actor portrays a character on the stage or on film, she must first become that character.

So it is in a magical practice.

When we have a desire, when we wish something to be in our lives, we must feel it, we must see it we must be in that state to manifest it in the world of form.

We must become our desire.

If you are familiar with the stories of how the Gaels settled Ireland, you will have heard of Amergin, Amergin, son of Mile, the great Druid of the Milesians.

One of the ways that Druids worked their Magic was by “becoming”, or by actually changing reality.

A classic example of this ability is found within “The Song of Amergin”, by the Druid who led the Gaels in defeating the Tuatha de Danann.

Hear now his song, called The Mystery,

I am a stag of seven tines,
I am a wide flood on a plain,
I am a wind on the deep waters,
I am a shining tear of the sun,
I am a hawk on a cliff,

I am fair among the flowers,
I am a god who sets the head afire with smoke,
I am a battle-waging spear,
I am a salmon in the pool,

I am a hill of poetry,
I am a ruthless boar,
I am a threatening noise of the sea,
I am a wave of the sea,

Who but I know the secrets of the unhewn dolmen?

I am the womb of every holt,
I am the blaze on every hill,
I am the queen of every hive,
I am the shield for every head,
I am the tomb of every hope.

Amergin was not just speaking of these experiences. He knew what they were for he had “become” each of them. He had embodied them. By having embodied them, he could harness the powers of the land of Ireland, and claim it for the Gaels.

Here is some more mythology that we can learn from.

Let me quote……

“I am Manannan, son of Ler, King of the Land of Promise; and to see the Land of Promise was the reason I brought thee hither …

The fountain which thou sawest, with the five streams out of it, is the Fountain of Knowledge, and the streams are the five senses through which knowledge is obtained.

And no one will have knowledge who drinketh not a draught out of the fountain itself and out of the streams.”

“The Salmon of Knowledge is also the Salmon of Wisdom whose home is the Well of Segais. (Shigish)

The Well of Segais is the Otherworld source of the Boyne. (Boy-na)

It is a deep pool, surrounded by the Nine Hazels of Inspiration.

The Hazel nuts ripen and fall into the pool where the Salmon eats them.

She cracks their shells, which stain the waters of the well purple.

The empty shells float off, down the five streams that flow from the Well of Segais.  (Shi-Gish)

The five streams are the five senses through which we perceive the world.

It is said that one may never be wise until one has drunk from the Well of Segais (Shi-Gish) and from each of the five streams.”

So, from this, I know that I must experience through all of who I am, through all my senses which must be open.

These are the Five Senses …

Seeing
Hearing
Touching
Feeling
Smelling

There is another pool called the Well of Conla. It is much like the Well of Segais (Shi-Gish) except that seven streams flow from the Well of Conla.

Celtic traditions sometimes speak of humans as having seven senses:

seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, speaking, and thinking.

As with the Well of Segais (Shi-Gish), none may become wise until one has drunk deeply from the Well of Conla and the seven streams.

These words became from Amergin’s “imbas” as he stepped upon the shores of Ireland after the Gaels had overcome the winds raised by the De Danann.

They mark the beginnings of the battle for the sovereignty of the Land. Amergin has claimed the elements of Ireland for himself and his people.

It is an example of the way a Druid would work.

It smacks of Otherworldly wisdom and power over the elements, in much the same way that a Shaman would work.

Amergin is “becoming” … these elements. As a Druid poet, he is one with the elements. He is synchronizing himself with the spirit that controls these items. It is a series of symbols. It can be viewed metaphorically. But the fact is, it got results!

The wind died and the Gaels landed on Ireland to claim its sovereignty. The lesson in all of this and my message to you, is this…

While it is important to read, study and to learn all you can, it is also vitally important that you spend as much time as you can be learning how to “be” those things that are around you.

You can do magic, you can do ritual all day long and unless you “become” those things you wish to invite in your Circle, or those things you wish to manifest in your magic, or those gods and goddesses you wish to work with, you must first, become them.

Deanne Quarrie – Aine Bandraoi