imbolg_2026

Feb 2 2026

I count this as my first Sabbat on the wheel of the year. The time when the roots and bulbs in the earth are starting to gather their energy and their sap to make the push for spring blooms.

The first thing I did for Imbolg was make Brigid’s cross with my wife and hang it on our front door so we could see it. Finally a use for the pipe cleaner I’ve kept all these years!

When night fell, I set up my altar in a small private space, casting a circle and replicating what I’d learned so far in my studies and in class. I brought honey, nuts, dried fruit, crackers and whiskey into the circle as offerings for the Gods. Alongside these and my required tools for Sabbat, I had my phone for low volume meditative music, my class notes and a deck of Tarot cards.

After a ritual bath to clean and shift my mindset towards what was ahead, I entered the circle for Sabbat. I cast the circle, honored the corners, made holy water and improvised the words when I faltered. The witches rune helped me raise energy and start to really feel connected to the moment.

There seems to be a point during every ritual where I feel insecure, silly or uncertain of what to do or say next. Like there should be more to what I’m doing or that I’m forgetting some important aspect that would be more pleasing to the Gods. This happened and so I spoke openly and candidly directly to the Gods and told them how I was feeling. I apologized for being so silly and thanked them for welcoming me to this path. I closed my eyes while seated and swayed, repeating the name of the Gods as a mantra, this always seems to produces a sort of lightness and focus. It helps to get me out of my head and back into the liminal space. I then read aloud all the parts for the Imbolg ritual, projecting energy out to the coven who were celebrating together.

After completing the reading of the ritual aloud, I thanked the Gods and honored them with my humble food and drink offerings. I then asked the Goddess for a tarot card that I could contemplate between now and the next Sabbat. I offered my hand to be guided to the card after spreading the cards out on the floor. I closed my eyes and waited until i felt a weight take my hand and guide it to the card.

12. The Hanged Man.
    What a perfect card for the season and the Sabbat and here’s why I think so!

Life is forced into hibernation by the winters chill. As it retracts it can be necessary to make difficult changes or at least minor adjustments to preserve life into the spring. The HM illustrates this in his compromised position, uncomfortable, vulnerable, unable to make any outward move. Forced to look at the world in reverse, at the whims of the elements- he should be in agony! Rather than kick and scream (or maybe we are only glimpsing the end result of an inner transformation) we meet him at a place where it looks like he is quite at peace. His expectations now meet his situation and he no longer wrestles with the discomfort. It’s as though he’s moved through the discomfort moment by moment. Without control over circumstances, forced to control what is within instead, he makes the changes necessary to survive. As he looks out into a world that is upside down, he knows that this view is not fixed. It has changed before and it will change again. The wheel turns and the hanged man will wait as long as it takes. His time has come.

This is a season of hope, knowing the wheel turns and nothing is fixed except the change of season.