Goddess of the Week

Well all right then. Something is definitely up. Last week was Danu, Mother of the Faeries; and just three weeks ago on January 4th we got Faerie for the first time. I admit I am a bit baffled, though the message looks to be urgent; and the sledgehammer approach is starting to make me a little nervous. The faeries have a reputation for tricksiness, after all, and for finding clever and ignominious ways to make us listen.

So, let's see. It could be as simple as urging us to be more playful, more creative, more silly. Good advice, especially given the political situation here in the US which has had me for one feeling pretty crummy all week. And it's true, I did a particularly silly bit of art the other night (this year's Groundhog Day card) and felt immensely better about things in general afterwards.

Imbolc, Brigit's Day, is nearly upon us. (Brigit, incidentally, Who is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, one of the People or Children of Danu, though Her mother is not usually named). Perhaps it is tied in to that. Imbolc is a marker of quickening, of sap rising and milk dropping, of the fire flaming within us in anticipation of spring. Daffodils are starting to poke through, even here in grey old New England, and the growing light is becoming apparent. The Wheel turns and we begin to noticeably ascend. How can we align ourselves onto that path, enter in with harmony and good timing, like joining a game of double dutch jump-rope?

Though I think 'anticipation' is not quite the right word. So much of the prepartory work of Spring goes on in the dark; those daffodil shoots have six or more inches of growth to put on before even breaking the surface. Perhaps it is about acknowledging the work done in the dark, and acknowledging and appreciating the hidden foundations of things.

Look into the dark this week. What work have you already begun? What is there in there that you aren't acknowledging or seeing as groundwork? Imbolc is all about the light at the end of the tunnel. Do you see it? Who is with you now, in that tunnel and the dark?

With this card it's always a plurality of voices, and They say:

OOOOOoooooo can't you feel it, the pull? We are being pulled out into the light, all of us more and more, yes we are here now, something is breaking through. Don't you know the veil has to thin a little to let the shoots out? They come from the dark, don't they? You think it is all metaphor. It is all real. Where does this idea come from anyway? What is resurrection but what seeds do? Does that not mean out of death comes life, and the veil must part? It is all around you, secrets hidden in plain sight. Look! Silly, stupid, humans. You are not outside of this!

We know this. We are telling you! Listen! Look! It is there in plain sight!

Yes, I'm silly and stupid. I'm not seeing it, plain sight or no. So I ask, What is it? Have I guessed already?

Yes! Feel the sap rise in your veins. Coax it out! Sing it into being! Celebrate! Dance with us, dance the flowers out of the earth. You can move this along, too. It is not just our job. Make it happen!

How?

Dance! Sing! Move! Breathe air! Make things, love and bread and pretty pictures! Clean the yard! Make room for Spring!

Really? The Faeries want me to clean? *That* doesn't sound right.

The way is blocked. Clear it!

I get an image of a river swollen and swirling with melted snow. But there is also a lot of debris that has washed into the river, sticks and branches and leaves; and they have piled up against the narrow opening of an old arched bridge, making it harder for the river to flow. It's that sort of thing that needs cleaning, I think.

How can you help this along? What needs to be cleared away, cleaned out, tidied up, to let things flow for you? How can you make room for Spring?