imbolg healing ritual postImbolg this Weekend! Witchy Alert! Time to get planning our Imbolg Ritual!

This Sunday February 1st, pagan and witchy types all around the northern hemisphere celebrate Imbolg, or Candlemas, the start of Spring! Hurrah!

Well, sort of. It’s still pretty wintery here in England. In the Avalonian Goddess Tradition, at this time of the year we celebrate the Maiden Goddess.

We celebrate the goddess as a little girl, full of love and trust and wonder for the world. We call in her qualities of trust, innocence, healing and new beginnings. Part of that is honouring the Maiden Goddess in ourselves, the inner child that lives within us.

I remember going for a tarot reading a few months ago with the brilliant Sally Bryant in Glastonbury and one thing she touched on was having issues with the maiden part of myself that needed healing. Interestingly when working really closely with the wheel of the year in my Spiral 1 Priestess Training last year, I found it really hard to connect with the Maiden Archetype and the Goddesses on this part of the wheel, Bridie and Brighid. It just wasn’t clicking for me. What Sally said in my reading really struck home.

I’m the kind of person that gets embarrassed about what I did when I was younger, simply because I can do stuff better now because I am older and more experienced, and I cringe that I was even less perfect than I am now. I’m a total perfectionist through and through, it’s pretty rubbish. I don’t like looking at old art, remembering old friendships, old successes and interests, because they remind me of a time when I knew less than I do now, and they remind me that ultimately, I still don’t know or do “enough” and somehow I should have done better.

Last year I didn’t twig that maybe this was why I had so much trouble with this aspect of the wheel. I feel a lot of shame about who I was in the past – not because I was bad, or because I did anything wrong or reckless or especially stupid, just because I can’t forgive myself for not being perfect. And carrying all that past shame around for no good reason does no good and makes no sense.

This Imbolg, my ritual and practice is a Forgiveness ritual, inspired by my favourite author Denise Duffield-Thomas. Here it is.

Forgiving your Inner Maiden Ritual

You need:

  • Paper
  • Pen
  • Some quiet time
  • A white candle, incense, or whatever you like to make your space sacred.

Find yourself a nice, quiet, safe corner of your home to snuggle up in for an hour or so. Make it sacred in any way you wish – your intention is to announce to yourself, the universe and the Divine that you are doing something sacred and special.

Say a prayer to the Goddess, clearly stating your intention for your ritual and asking for her assistance. Something simple and obvious like this would be wonderful:

swan goddess“Goddess Bridget, Mistress of Healing, Wolf Mother, Swan Maiden, Lady of the Snow,

Be with me today and help me in my healing. 

Today I release all shame, pain, hurt and anguish from my childhood,

I choose to forgive myself and love my Maiden self and move forward with light and love.

Blessed be.”

 

Start writing your forgiveness list. Fill it with situations, actions, and people from your childhood that you still feel pain, shame, hurt or upset over. Everything, even if it seems silly or unimportant. For example, here are a few of mine:

  • Katie, for dumping me as best friend for Natalie in year 6, and telling me it doesn’t matter because when she goes to big school she’ll get new friends anyway. Betrayed!
  • For drawing pictures on that postcard in Italy and then being told off for it.
  • For being too scared to tell Ben who fancied me that I fancied him too and then see him going out with my friend Bryony when I was 12
  • For not doing better than the girls on TV on GCSE results day who all got 12 A*’s.
  • For not telling your best friend that you were moving schools when you were 13, at all, ever. Just letting her come back to School and find out then.

They could be epic, life-shattering events, or just funny little things that only mattered to you. For me, the most painful ones are from exams and school achievements, as even though I know I did really well in theory, I still felt like I was never good enough and no matter how well I did, I always, always felt like I had failed.

Write your list till you can’t think of any more – fill up a page, at least.

Next, we are going to go through it, and for each thing on your list, you are going to read it, feel it, and think about what that experience meant to you.

Then say “I forgive you. I’m sorry, and I love you.”

It’s super simple, but super magical. Make sure you say the whole mantra, even if you don’t think you really believe it or that you want to forgive what happened – just say it anyway, and don’t skip bits. It’s about releasing you from the past, not telling the peeps who messed up they did a good job. It’s about letting go.

It’s probably going to get a bit emotional so have tissues handy.

When you get to the end of the list, you are done! Say a little prayer to the Goddess, maybe something like:

“Blessed Goddess, thank you for holding me in your arms today as I released the ties of the past.

Help me move forward, carried forever by your love and guide me to love and cherish myself and my past, exactly as I am.”

Snuff out your candles or incense or whatever.

*****

Come back to your list in a week or two’s time – see what still has an emotional charge for you. Some things will have faded away completely already, some bigger things may need a few more goes to truly be released. Repeat the Forgiveness process again – the reading, the feeling, and the mantra – and repeat the checking your list thing until you no longer feel a charge from the experiences on your list.

*****

I hope you have a snuggly, wonderful Imbolg celebration this weekend!

P.S. – Remember, it’s not about being perfect – you can celebrate the season of Imbolg a few days later if you are all booked up on Sunday. Goddess doesn’t mind. She just loves to see you, and it’s so much better to indulge in your spirituality a few days (or weeks!) late than feel guilty and not do anything at all. Do what you can when you can if you like :D.