This is my personal Imbolc altar.
Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, is the Celtic celebration that took place this year on February 2. The Imbolc time of year is about looking at what “seeds” you are planting in your Life. It is the time of inceiving and conceiving of what you want to create in your year ahead with the Intention of nurturing and sustaining these plans in the garden of your own life. This celebration is also about the returning rays of the Sun and that now is the time to nourish and give fuel to the unique light that you are in the world.
This was also the first ceremony of my practicum this year and with the snowstorm going on outside, we had a cozy group of 6 participants! In part of the ceremony, we did a ritual where we literally planted seeds in the pot of Earth in the center of the altar, speaking aloud that which we are Intending to sustain as commitments in our lives this year. The pot and the candles surrounding it were all in white, like the snowy outdoors. I had a picture of the ceremonial altar, but the photo didn’t turn out!
Instead, I offer you a look at my own. I use my personal altar to align to looking at my life symbolically. In this case, the eight candles around the center symbolize the eight turns of the Celtic Year Wheel at the same time as each of the directions (North, South, East, West) and the cardinal points in between. I already have committed to co-creating ceremonies at each of these times in the year. The candle in the center is a symbol of me. The “altar jewelry” is for the seeds of Intention and the fun to be had, and the artwork on the upper part is about the Cycle of Life. (It is also a photo of the quilting extravaganza of a local fabric artist and teacher, Liane Thiry-Smith.) Isn’t it beautiful?
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