Imbolc and the Corners of the Year
Traditional cultures saw the natural interplay of light and darkness throughout the seasons as a function of divinity on Earth.
This is particularly true in the Northern hemisphere with the solstices and equinoxes. Certain pagan traditions also attributed significance to the cross quarters of the year, the mid-points between solstices and equinoxes.
Imbolc is the cross quarter between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and falls on February 1st or 2nd.
This was considered the first day of spring in parts of northern Europe, and celebrated as St Bridgid’s Day, a time to honor the fertility of the land and the people.
As Christianity spread, the pagan traditions were encorporated into the Christian feasts and holy days. This phenomenon was a process of revivifying, or Christifying, ancient pagan traditions, and allowing the natural rhythms of the year to support the possibility of Christic processes unfolding on Earth.
Imbolc then became Candlemas, the feast of the presentation of the Christ child at the Temple of Jerusalem.
Candlemas
The feast of Candlemas takes place February 2nd, which is 40 days after December 25th, the birth of Christ.
40 days was traditionally and symbolically the period of time for cleansing and purification. After being exposed to the edges of life- death and birth- it was necessary to enter into a purification process before being able to present or make an offering at the temple.
This time frame is also seen in the 40 days Christ prayed in the wilderness, and the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the desert to purify through repentance and sacrifice.
When Mary and Joseph presented the Christ child at the temple they encounter the elder Simeon who recognizes him as the savior.
Simeon is said to be “of a great age” and the Lord had promised him he would not die until he had seen the messiah. Because of his longevity Simeon is thought to be an Old Testament prophet who draws a link between the Old and New Testaments.
Candlemas is the moment halfway between the birth of Christ on Christmas, and the death and resurrection of Christ on Easter, when the glimmers of light of the season are starting but have not gained their full strength.
Candlemas is about bringing the light. In the medieval tradition people would make or buy quantities of candles, which would have been expensive and relatively hard to come by at that time, to donate to the church. Some groups made it their particular project to bring light to the church and called themselves “illumination guilds”.
Calling back to the pagan roots and ties to the land, there was a folk tradition on Candlemas of weather lore or weathermancy to predict the weather for farming purposes. People would use a badger as an indicator of when spring would arrive, based on when it came out of hibernation.
When norther European immigrants came to America they used groundhogs instead as they also hibernate underground.
Light and Darkness
If the groundhog sees its shadow it means that it is a sunny day, so it can see the light but goes back into the darkness, into the shadows.
Spring will not come early because the groundhog, as a bellweather for all of us, is not ready to face the light. It takes a miracle for the groundhog to not get identified with its shadow and for the redemption of spring and renewal to come early.
In the beloved 1993 film Groundhog Day, Phil, who shares a name with the prognosticating groundhog, is someone who cannot face his own shadow. Through mysterious reasons he becomes stuck in a time loop, which is the reality that we are all in, until eventually he learns he needs to radically change himself in order to break free.
Everyday he wakes up and it is the same day, Groundhog Day, Imbolc, the day where it is unclear if the redemption of Easter will arrive and if we can move out of the darkness.
At first he embraces the darkness with indulging desires of the senses, then moves to the inevitable nihilism, and tries to end it all with suicide.
Yet he always comes back to start over on the same day with everything as it was. This is our predicament as the essence moves through countless lifetimes, living and dying. If we do not learn the lessons of internal transformation we will continue in the same loop. If we transform ourselves and awaken we can be liberated.
Phil gradually transforms himself through humility, serving others, first in small ways and then with greater sacrifices. He discovers beauty, moments of peace, interconnection with the people he previously looked down upon with contempt, and eventually discovers what it means to love and the spell of sleep is lifted.
We can be like the groundhog that goes down into the Earth, not wanting or ready to see the Sun, the light, scared by our own shadow, the false personality of sin and ego.
Or we can face the shadow, transform ourselves through works and sacrifices, great and small, and resurrect as fully developed souls in the light.