#cross quarter

As the veil bleeds and billows between the worlds in preparation of winter and rest, I light candles to remember the hearth of self & home; I talk with my spiritual and familiar kin and allies; and invite curious thoughts and questions to fill the long winter nights. Welcome transformation and mystery! Let Samhain be a time to celebrate your roots, to release your wildest self, and to celebrate the cycle of life/death—and summer’s end. Welcome winter! 🫖🪵🕯

Today is Imbolc in Australia, Imbolc is the cross quarter that transitions the cold seasons to warm as it sits in between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. As nature rewakens from the winter slumber we celebrate rebirth, and beginnings. As part of Imbolc its common to do a deep cleanse and I feel it is a large part of this Sabbat.

I cleanse myself, my home, my work desk, my tools, everything. Obviously this takes more than one day especially because I like to physically and spiritually cleanse. I recommend mixing physical and spiritual cleansing together to save time. I use a playlist full of cleansing noises (rain, waves, singing bowl, etc), and add appropriate corresponces to my cleaning products.

For example I have a bad reaction to certain cleaning products so I use white vinegar for cleaning my bathrooms, I add essential oils of correspondences and draw a sigil on the bottle to help the vinegar clean spiritually too. I also use magick floor wash and soap for moping and carpet sweeps for deodorising carpet.

For myself on the day I apply face and hair, then rinse and exfoliate in a shower. For spiritual cleansing I either hang cleansing correspondence (lemon herbs, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, salt) under the shower head, or I use those correspondence in a bath.

Remember when cleansing to follow up with protection magick and fill with intention, as the universe abhors a vaccum.

Outside, I weed my garden of anything that is disturbing the garden's balance to make way for beneficial plants. If I can I like to volunteer for some cleaning groups but sometimes I just go for a walk and pick up litter. Picking up litter can be dangerous as you may cut yourself and get an infection, possibly à STI in some circumstances. Please wear gloves and hard enclosed shoes, and do not put yourself in danger or trespass to collect litter.

Spiritual Cleansing magick for lazy or low spoons witches (these methods aren't ideal for a deep cleanse but can still help with cleansing):

Purification and Home Blessing Shaker Jar

Have a generous amount of cleansing plants (rosemary, garden sage, dwarf citrus tree, lemon thyme, lemon balm) growing in the area you want to cleanse and regularly shake them gently to activate them.

Leaving out a bowl of cleansing correspondences (Florida water, salt, rice)

Play cleansing sounds or music

So besides cleaning what else do I do to celebrate?

Before Imbolc I start growing sprouts and microgreens, the new growth I often associate with imbolc

I wake up early to watch the sunrise

I eat breakfast. I have a very different selection of food to the Imbolc recipes you typically find. Yes, eating seasonally is always a great idea, especially with Sabbats, but I try to include eggs, sprout and microgreens for rebirth and beginnings. I also include salt, vinegar lemonherbs, garden sage, and other ingredients I associate with cleansing. Sometimes I also like try raw food in honour of the newness of Imbolc, raw ingredients must be fresh for this to work and if you are not confident of its safety do not try it.

Weave a Brigid cross out of paper and write on it things I'd like to try before next Imbolc

I'd like to make my own besom, but I'll see how I go with that

Decorate with white, blue and green. I use these colours to represent growth in the cold, to show the transition. However Imbolc is also a fire festival so many people use fire colours, symbols and correspondences for Imbolc too.

Considering I've noticed people relaxing with their hygiene now that lockdown has been lifted I think it's a good time for Imbolc to remind us of the importance of cleansing. Take Imbolc and this pandemic as an opportunity to learn more about good hygiene practices both spiritual and physical.

In case anyone was curious: Today (11.7.19) is the true cross-quarter, the official midway between equinox and solstice and the sun moves into 15 degrees Scorpio.