{"id":8265,"date":"2023-02-01T09:37:59","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8265"},"modified":"2023-02-01T09:38:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:38:59","slug":"happy-imbolc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2023\/02\/01\/happy-imbolc\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Imbolc"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the first significant day of 2023, in Earth terms at least. \u00a0It is Imbloc, or St Brigit's Day. \u00a0The mid-point between the Winter Solstice (when the new year really begins) and the Spring Equinox.<\/p>\n

In our book, Learning, Environment and Sustainable Development<\/a>, Paul Vare and I write this:<\/p>\n

\"Brigit ... originally was goddess of the ancient British Kingdom of Brigantia.\u00a0 Brigit regenerates the forces of nature at the end of each winter.\u00a0 As Kathy Jones notes, Imbolc (half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox) is Brigit\u2019s festival, \u201cin which the Light of Illumination from Her perpetual flame is brought into a darkened room, heralding the coming of spring.\u00a0 Small honey and barley cakes are eaten and milk drunk in Her honour. \u00a0On the first day, the ears of corn from the Lammas Corn Doll are planted in the ground and the dried stalks are burned, the flame releasing the life back into the earth. \u00a0The ashes are spread upon the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Happy Imbolc. \u00a0I should really be in Ynys Avalon to celebrate this, but West Wilts will have to do this year.<\/p>\n

...................................<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Birgit is pronounced Breed, and Imbolc is pronounced emolc.<\/p>\n

\u2018Priestess of Avalon<\/a>\u2019, Kathy Jones describes Glastonbury thus: \u201cGlastonbury is a small eccentric country town where many people come to live an internalised womb-like life for a time. \u00a0It may be nine or eighteen months or more, before they are reborn, sometimes spewed out from the body of the Great Mother. As the Goddess in the landscape is ever-pregnant and continuously giving Birth, this process is repeated in the many different areas of life for those who live here. \u00a0Visitors too are catalysed into new ways of living by the touch of Her Life-Giving Body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the first significant day of 2023, in Earth terms at least. \u00a0It is Imbloc, or St Brigit's Day. \u00a0The mid-point between the Winter Solstice (when the new year really begins) and the Spring Equinox. In our book, Learning,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}