The Nudge - Dispatch 10 | Imbolc 🌱🌕

“With fire in our bellies
Kindled, kindred
We carry Her flame
Victorious, exalted
 
In mother tongue
Brigit Búadach
Whisper Her name
Búaid na fine”

“Imbolc i mbolg” by Kathy Scott

Welcome to The Nudge | Imbolc 2023
This seasonal care package has been prepared by the team at The Trailblazery.

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to prepare for you our monthly care package The Nudge, as we approach the festival of Imbolc on February 1st  - a pivotal point on the Medicine Wheel of the Year.

As the great wheel turns we find ourselves slowly re-emerging from the depths of winter into the portal of Imbolc. The season of Imbolc marks the very first signs of springtime. An older version of this name is ‘Imbolg’, which means “in the belly” was thought to refer to the arrival of the Ewe’s milk a month before the lambs are born - one of the first signs of Spring and new beginnings.

Something is rising…

There is a beautiful metaphor to describe this time as ‘winter pregnant with summer’. The seeds of summer are still hidden deep in the earth, in the womb of the Goddess and while the worst of the winter darkness is over, Spring has not fully arrived yet. It is however, a time of hope and possibility. The land is growing fertile again, the days are lengthening, and life is beginning to stir deep inside the earth. Life force is rising, the sun is strengthening.

Brigid

Imbolc is synonymous with Brigid, Celtic goddess and saint, who embodies the energy of new life and of new beginnings. She is the fertile aspect of the divine feminine energy, which emerges from the hag or cailleach, the dark barren aspect of the feminine energy. The dark Cailleach of winter shapeshifts into Brigid who embodies both the fecundity of feminine heart and fiery clarity, courage and conviction of the new rising masculine. In Ireland, the festival of Imbolc became known more commonly as Lá Fheile Bríde. 
The festival of Imbolc celebrates the re-awakening of the fertility of  the land and the inception of a new cycle of agricultural activity. The fire of Brigid was both the fire of fertility within the earth and the fire of the sun, now growing in strength each day. The elements of fire and water, which both play an essential role in the fertility of the land are associated with Brigid and her festivals.  
Brigid is very present in Ireland. She is present in the landscape, in the many churches dedicated to her, in her crosses hung in homes, schools and shops and in her sacred wells, which are all over Ireland.
This year in Ireland is particularly special, as the Irish government has finally declared Feb 1 a new public holiday, to honour the country’s female matron, Brigid of Kildare, who was said to be born on this day.
Imbolc gives us pause to notice the stirrings in our own internal landscape- what’s in our bellies and what wants to be kindled. It gives us an opportunity to ask ‘how can this fire be tended’ and ‘how can the inner creative stirrings be harnessed’?

credit: Wild Women Sisterhood

Journal Prompts to inspire you, as we approach Imbolc: 
 

🌱 What new beginnings are awakening within you at this time in your life?  
 
🌱 What image of Brigid resonates with you most - Goddess, Holy woman,
     Saint, Druid, Creatrix, Revolutionary?
 
🌱 What seeds have been held in the fecund Earth that you are now actively
      going to tend to?

🌱 How was it for you to stay inward and connected to your Soul since the
      Winter Solstice on December 21st? 

🌱 What fire in your belly wants to be kindled at this time? 

🌱 What creative life force (‘neart’) is stirring within you and around you in the
      natural world at this time?

 What’s coming up over the next
6 weeks at The Trailblazery:

As the Great Wheel turns we are invited to pause and remember what we have travelled through together. We are excited to let you know what the future holds for our community here at The Trailblazery.

Scoil Scairte Spiral 4 - Doors opening soon

We’re back! Scoil Scairte will be opening it’s doors soon for our 4th semester, starting in March 2023. Created by The Trailblazery in collaboration with Manchán Magan and supported by Foras na Gaeilge, Scoil Scairte is an immersive journey into the heart and soul of Irish culture and language.
It’s the Irish school you always dreamed of - guided by a host of inspiring bilingual multidisciplinary artists, activists, creatives, educators, culture makers and indigenous language keepers. This edition will spotlight the Galway (Gaillimh) region, culture and language.

We will start on Thursday March 3rd at 7pm and run for 9 consecutive weeks. All calls will be recorded and sent via email the next day if you can’t attend live.
If you feel called to join us,  you can sign up to our waitlist here to be notified as soon as tickets go on sale.

Tá sceitimíní áthais orainn.

January Moon Medicine on Mon 30th

“Wise Power - Menopause as Initiation” 
Moon Medicine presents:
featuring Red School’s Alexandra Pope, 

TOMORROW  Mon January 30 at 7pm Irish time

Alexandra is the co-founder of Red School, whose mission is to activate vitality, creativity and leadership through the magic of menstrual cycle awareness and a conscious menopause. In her conversation with Kathy, Alexandra will unpack the many gifts of menopause and how the preparation for this special time starts in our menstruating years. 

For more info and to book your ticket for tomorrow’s event, visit our website here .

Remember, if you can’t attend live, you will be sent the recording 24 hours after the event.

Recommended Resources

Here are a few reading, watching and listening pieces to nourish your senses in the days ahead:

'i mbolc - in the womb' a poem by Kathy Scott

✦ Smell & Taste: For your nose & lips 

Imbolc Anointing Oil using our favourite oil allies

·       1/2 oz. bottle.

·       6 drops Lavender Essential oil

·       3 drops Lemongrass Essential oil

·       fill to top of bottle with sweet almond oil

✯ Watch: For your eyes

MoLI and the Department of Foreign Affairs, have collaborated on ‘Three Poems for Brigid’, a series of three short online films. Each film showcases a poet and a spoken word performer, and is based around one of the three aspects of Brigid as the triple goddess of poetry, healing and craftwork.

 ❤ Read: For your heart

The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland by Mary Condren | Goodreads 

Kathy wrote this piece for Irish Central to mark Imbolc in 2022

✬ Connect: For your Soul 

 3 of our top picks for you to connect with over the days ahead:

 🌱
Brigid of Faughart Festival 2023 - a celebration of Brigid, Goddess and Saint
Jan 29 - Feb 6,  in Co.Louth, Ireland.

The Brigid of Faughart Festival was created to access the wisdom of Brigid (pre-Christian Goddess and Christian saint) in ways relevant to our contemporary society. Click here for more information

🌱
A piece about Siobhán McSweeney’s upcoming RTE  documentary on Brigid 
here 

🌱
Herstory Presents Brigid’s Day 2023

❤ Touch: For your pleasure

Visit here to see a stunning handmade Bhrat Bhríde, beautifully embroidered with the Goddess Brigid Cross entwined within a triquetra variant.

EnJOY these days - may the awakening  light be yours.
 
Thank you for walking this path with us,
 
Beannachtaí,
Kathy and all at The Trailblazery