I had originally started writing a blog post on how to cast circle. I was nearly done, when I realized Imbolc is Saturday. I promised that I was going to write about each Sabbat, as they came up, so this is the second post I’ve written today. Seeing the positive in everything (because it is required for manifesting my desires) I have next week’s post already written.
Imbolc is the beginning of Spring. Nevermind what the calendar says, it was created by an old man with a funny hat, for his own political agenda. This is the actual beginning of Spring. I explain why, on my page about Imbolc.
In the U.S. most people know February 2nd as Groundhog Day. Not the movie, the celebration. It’s the day when Punxsutawney Phil, the “National Groundhog” forecasts the weather for the next six weeks. Phil is said to have been doing this since 1886. Yes, the groundhog is 133 years old, according to local lore. The lore around Phil is actually very interesting. If you have some spare time, you should take a look.
This tradition of a weather forecasting groundhog came to this country through the German immigrants. In Germany, the tradition is that if any hibernating animal casts a shadow on Imbolc, there will be cold and snow until May. In Germany, they used a hedgehog, when they came here, it became a groundhog, since we don’t have hedgehogs.
Older traditions.
The idea that Imbolc is a special day for determining what the weather will be like for the next few weeks, goes much farther back. The Celtic Scots had the legend of the Calliach, who gathered the last wood for her Winter fire on Imbolc. The legend says that if it’s a bright sunny day, she gets upset, and casts a weather spell to keep it cold.
The Calliach is a variation on the Winter Queen, who pounds the ground with her silver hammer, until it becomes ice. She does this until Beltane, when her son steals away his True Love from her dungeon, the pair leaving a trail of Spring flowers in their wake.
There are a lot of legends around Imbolc, but why? The simple answer is, by this point in the circle of the year, people are tired of Winter, snow and cold. They want Spring to come. Some years it does, other years it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, there must be a reason.
Of course, we understand how the orbit of the Earth around the sun, causes the seasons we experience. We have also learned that cold air is heavier than warm air, and that air currents flow across the planet. Science has provided most of the answers to why some years it’s sunny and 70 degrees in March, and other years we get three feet of snow.
Have you noticed?
By now, you should have noticed the change in sunlight. I told you back at Yule, that if you were observant, you would. Where I am, the sun was setting at around 4:30 back at Yule. Today, it sets around 5:20. That’s nearly an hour of extra sunlight during the day. Most people are too busy in their own daily lives to notice. They may not even notice when Summer gets here.
As a Witch, you should be paying attention. The changes may be subtle, but they accumulate. It’s these subtle changes in your life, that create the opportunities you can use to your advantage. If you are observant enough to notice the change in sunlight, you are observant enough to notice other subtle changes, and opportunities that come your way. One year, I saw the first robin of Spring, on Imbolc.
I’ve already heard a few birds. I won’t call them song birds, but their call was unmistakable. It was a sign of Spring, and it happened last week. I have been seeing Canadian geese flying East and North for a few weeks now. Another sure sign of Spring. Huge flocks are now heading back to their Summer nesting places in Canada.
We have been getting snow storm after snow storm, one or two a week. Nothing more than an inch or two, and it melts before the next storm. By March, we’ll all be waiting for that big storm, that dumps feet of heavy, wet snow. That too is a sign of Spring, here in the Rockies.
Every region has its own signs of Spring. Some have already happened, others are happening now, and still others are yet to happen. Some, like several feet of snow, are hard to miss. Most are subtle enough that most of the population never notices. The thing about Spring, is that it happens fast. One day everything is dead, the next, the world is full of new life.
A Witch notices these things as they happen. We are connected to the Earth in ways most people will never understand. The really sad part is, every person has this ability. All they have to do, is look around. If you are a person who notices one day that the trees are full of leaves, and wonders how that happened, you aren’t paying attention.
Learning to be observant.
Observation is a skill. That means it can be learned, and mastered. Go outside right now, and notice what has changed, since the last time you really looked around. I guarantee that you will amaze yourself, if you haven’t been practicing your observational skills. It won’t be the temperature, that swings too wildly to be a sure sign of anything. It’ll be things like the angle of the sun, or hearing birds.
Someone who has become adept at observation, can tell roughly what month it is, simply by looking around. Based on whether the world around them is coming to life or not, how much life there is in Nature, and the angle of the sun at a specific time, like noon. These are signs that repeat over and over, every year.
What plants are blooming, can tell you if it’s Ostara, or Beltane. The number of leaves left on a tree can tell you if it’s Mabon or Samhain. It doesn’t take intelligence to learn to read the signs. It just takes patience, and observation. Right now, if I had no calendar, I would be able to tell it’s Imbolc by the lack of green, and the time the sun sets. This is the only time of the year that looks like Winter, and the sun sets around 5:30.
If my lilac bushes are blooming, that’s all I need, to know it’s Beltane. Are the trees budding, or are the leaves falling? That tells me the season. What’s flowering, what time does the sun rise or set, how high is it at noon? These are the things a Witch uses to tell the season. The amount of snow, and what type, will tell me things as well. If it’s powder, it’s Winter. If it’s wet and heavy, it’s March or April. If everyone is amazed that it happened, it’s May or August.
Not all signs are the same.
Every area of the world is different, and has different, but specific signs. I know the signs for where I live, you have to figure out the signs for where you live. At lower latitudes, places like Texas, Alabama, and Florida, things are growing and turning green right now. Here, it’s all dead still, and won’t start changing until just before Ostara. If you know the signs for different areas, you can tell where you are. That’s more difficult, because a few hundred miles in any direction changes everything.
It’s Imbolc, the beginning of Spring. Start looking for the signs where you live. Listen for birds, watch squirrels. Any wild animal you see or hear, can tell you things about the season. This is stuff they don’t put into books. This is what living your Craft is all about. How can it help you? For one, being observant means, you’ll never be taken by surprise.
You’ll see trouble coming for miles. If a guy walks into the restaurant you’re in, with the intent of robbing it, you’ll know. You may not know what’s wrong, but you’ll know something is. That’s an extreme, but in a social situation, if you’re talking to a guy or girl you like, you’ll know if they’re interested too.
This is how Witches get a reputation for knowing things. When you can tell people things they are thinking, without them telling you first, you quickly get a reputation for knowing more than you should. It’s really hard to lie to someone who knows what you’re thinking. When you get really good, you don’t even have to be face to face, to know what they’re thinking.
I once met a woman online. We talked in an open chat group for several weeks. At one point, she said something to another woman about the second woman calling her, and that she had the first woman’s number. I quickly typed that I didn’t have her number. I said it jokingly, expecting her to brush me off. She said I’d never asked for it, then gave it to me in a private message.
When I called her up, we talked for maybe 30 minutes. She was much more reserved on the phone. It took me quite a bit of talking, to get her to say more than a few words. After one of these silent spells, I asked what she was thinking. She gave the usual answer, “Nothing”. At that point, I said, “You like me. You’re wondering how you can get me to call you again.” 10 seconds of dead silence, then, “How did you know that?!?”. The shock of being so transparent, was clear in her voice.
My reply was that I’m a Witch. The fact that we had been talking in a Pagan chat room online, and had talked about many things, then when we were on the phone, she couldn’t think of anything to say, told me all I needed to know. From that point on, we started talking daily, for hours at a time. I’m talking sometimes 10 or 12 hours at a time. If she had been willing to meet me, I would have married her.
The point is, observation is highly under rated. Simply being observant, will bring you opportunities you never expect. Or more precisely, the opportunities are already there, being observant, will allow you to notice them. Once you’ve noticed them, you can take advantage of them. If you don’t, they disappear. It all starts with you being observant of the world around you. Noticing the change in the seasons is easy. They’re always the same.
So what have you observed in the world around you? How can you tell the season is changing? Let me know in the comments below.
