Did you feel it? That little flutter of an idea of how you want your life to be different?
In some cultures, a baby’s life is not measured from birth or even from conception, but from the time that the mother first imagined she would have a child. That dream of a child was the child’s first moment of being.
What we do in CUSP is similar. At Winter Solstice when the spark of life returned to the sky, the spark of inspiration came to us. After six weeks of quiet introspection and rest while the fields lay fallow, we open our minds to the first thoughts of what we want to grow in the coming year. What do we want to change?
Our group went into the sweat lodge to open to the spark. We did not have the hot rocks, but just sat in the darkness of the womb and visualized to get the first inkling of our list for the year.
By Imbolc (Feb 1), we had solidified what we wanted to harvest in the coming Fall and gathered around the bonfire to burn away the papers on which we’d written our goals. That stirred the life we would conceive in the spring. It gave us the first clear image of what the new life would look like, would feel like, and would mean to us.
Over the next six weeks, we will be very alert for significant confirmations and redirects from The Divine. God/Goddess will show us if what we plan to plant in Spring is the right thing. Sometimes, what we have on our list is already well underway and will be granted to us before March 21 (the planting). This tells us that we should focus our energies on a new venture. Sometimes, we receive clear messages that what we intend to plant is not in our best interest. Occasionally, that is because we are planting at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, it is because we cannot see why this is not the right path for us to take. Other times, we receive encouragement that want we want is exactly right. Invariable, Deity speaks and tells us how to proceed.
The time between February 1 and March 21 is a time of listening and opening. Imbolc is traditionally translated as “in the belly,” or the time of the quickening when the new life is sparked.
What new life do you want to grow? How do you want to craft your own life to be what you want it to be? So often, we are afraid to dream, but the Universe wants us to be happy. We hold ourselves back by our own negative thoughts of why we cannot have what we want. Really, we are the only true obstacles to our happiness. Some life changes are easier than others and some take longer than others, but any and all are within our reach if we are willing to do and give what it takes to get there.
Just as with a true agricultural harvest, we have to do the work. A garden does not grow itself, even with all of the blessings of God and Goddess. A harvest does not walk itself up to your door; you have to go bring it in. Life itself is a delicious, cooperative dance between our own energy and Divine energy. “As above, so below” is also about how we mingle our energies together to create outcomes. What will YOU manifest in the coming year? Dare to dream!