First Day of Spring (Southern Hemisphere)

(Do you live in the Northern Hemisphere? This post is about how our inner lives are entwined with the seasons of nature, and specifically spring since this is the first day of spring in the the Southern Hemisphere where I live. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you're entering autumn, which you can read about here.)

What is "Imbolc"?

Imbolc is the name given to the ancient Celtic festival that marks the beginning of spring. According to Jane Hardwicke Collings, whom I quoted above, in the Southern Hemisphere the traditional date for Imbolc is August 2 and the astrological/celestial date is August 7.

Are YOU important to you?

In the next section I'll get into why Imbolc is important, but before I do that, I need to first clarify something:

I need you to know that I'm writing this post with the assumption that you're interested in caring for your own personal self -- in your own growth/evolution/healing. If this doesn't apply, you may find that this post isn't very interesting. Or you may even find it annoying. Just sayin'...

So. Since you're still reading, I'll make the assumption that you understand or at least are open to the idea that paying attention to our own needs--both inner and outer--is fundamentally important.

It's the first and primary work that helps us become more effective in caring for ALL the things that are important to us -- whatever those might be for you individually. 

Our inner lives are inseparable from the greater whole we're embedded within.

Wanting to tend well to our inner selves, our literal physical gardens or other endeavors, and our beloved Earth, are all intentions that we hold along the same continuum.

So why is Imbolc important?

With the above in mind, here is the significance of Imbolc to our inner lives.

It's not the name that matters, so much as the opportunities for conscious, intentional growth that are welling up in our part of the World at this seasonal moment.  

The festival, Imbolc, is a way of bringing this to our attention and supporting us in accessing, tapping into, the energies available to us right now.

The Earth's seasonal energies where you live are as supportive of your growth and evolution as they are of any other living thing -- the veggies in your garden, or the trees where you love to walk or picnic, or the animals and birds that live near you.

So if its spring where you live, then this is the very best time for you to attend to the work of spring -- in your physical garden if you have one, but also in your inner garden of You.

Earth is not just expressing this spring energy through the new leaves on your blueberry bushes or your mulberry trees or your pepino plants (like in the image at the top of this post).

Earth is also flooding this energy through YOU. 

There is important work to be done in the season of spring. Growers of food (physical nourishment) know this. Growers of inner nourishment need to know it too.

What inner work can we do at this time?

Spring, especially the beginning of it, is the time for looking at the "seeds" or intentions we've been gestating over winter, choosing those that serve us best and have the best chances of surviving and thriving, and letting go of the rest of them. As in the garden, so in our inner lives.

What is popping its head up in your life right now? Will it serve you well in the growing season to come?

If yes, think about what you will need to do to nurture it.

If no, let it go. Put it on the compost heap, to be transmuted into nourishment for other things.

This principle applies whether you do this work consciously or not. As Jane Hardwicke Collings says, "If you don't do this work consciously and deliberately, then whatever you're doing unconsciously at this time becomes your intentions."

What that means is that if you don't look consciously at what's sprouting right now and choose only the strongest "seedlings" (ideas, projects) to nurture in your life, your coming "growing season" may be filled with too much stuff, or with stuff that isn't serving you.

And if it isn't serving you, then it also won't be serving your world, which is an extension of you.

Your offering will be enough; YOU are enough

To think of your actions or in-actions in this season of potential as your offering to your own Life and to all Life for the coming growing season might feel like this is a big responsibility.

It is. Don't shrink from it. Step up bravely, and explore how you can wield your power wisely. In small ways, in your own personal life, where all power¹ is born and nourished -- or not. 

But ALSO, please trust that what you can do now, to begin to bring consciousness to what you're offering to your own Life and to all Life, is enough. There is no need for more. 

You are enough, right now as you are, AND, you can let the energy of spring help you grow. 

Resources  

For more ideas on making the most of the energy of early spring (if you're a few days or weeks late, you can still do this work, and you should, before you move on to the work of other seasons) you can check out this post by Jane Hardwicke Collings and this one by Northern Hemisphere writer Erin at TheSeasonalSoul.com