Sacred Woman

  A Past Life Story - Confessions of a Roman Catholic Soldier I entered my Imbolc journey on the 1st of February with the intention to travel through forgiveness, and to seek more balance in my life. The forgiveness I sought was towards Christianity. By this I mean the leaders of the religion who decided to persecute anyone who had beliefs in conflict with their own. There has been endless violence throughout history. Recently, I was reminded of the murders of many shamans and witches and even now, the ongoing rhetoric of Christian missionaries who declare shamans to be “evil”. The reminder caught my heart and began to tear on it. Usually I have a balanced and embracing attitude towards all religions and I can see the truth and love at the core of them. However, on this occasion, I was triggered. I realised the ideas were touching some old wounds. I was experiencing feelings of anger, rage, devastation and grief. I knew I needed to honour, express and release these feelings

  We began our evening with a refreshing spritz of vetiver and lavender water for purification, one of the main themes of the season. Next, we awakened our senses. We took in the images on the altar, appreciated the aromatherapy scents in the air and each chose a feather to hold and touch with our hands. We spent a few minutes in a guided present awareness process, breathing and relaxing. We set our intentions for the evening to feel compassion and absolute kindness for ourselves, and to honour ourselves with the gift of time for inward connection and reflection. We listened to an introduction about Imbolc, learning that the festival’s name is derived from the Irish word “Imbolg” which means “in the belly”. The season is symbolic of our pregnant Mother Earth, not yet showing but with the promise of Spring to come.   We observed that this time is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, a “cross quarter” day. The quarter day festivals being the two sol