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<\/a><\/p>\nI think I already had the glitter fabric.\u00a0 Imbolc occurs in the astrological sign of Aquarius, so I\u2019d already associated some zaniness with it.\u00a0 It was the one holiday whose meaning wasn\u2019t really clear to me at first.\u00a0 Beltane, when we wind the maypole and celebrate the coming of spring, the bare trees clothing themselves in colorful leaves and flowers, spirit fleshing itself out in a body.\u00a0 Lammas is a harvest festival, Samhain is the release of spirit from Matter.\u00a0 But Imbolc? Another clue to the meaning of the holiday came when I overheard someone say \u201cHex is the perfect dance for Imbolc.\u201d I puzzled about this and then saw it: Hex starts with movements of breaking through something hard and rigid (the frozen crust of the earth), then pushing obstacles out of the way while moving to the center.\u00a0 In the center we \u201clisten to the earth\u201d \u2014 listen to the seeds\/new potentials waking up deep under\/behind the frozen crust.\u00a0 The final movement is backwards to the outer circle, moving hands in sweeping circles which could be calling the energy out and smoothing the way for it. Dances we did at Neskaya on Sunday, January 30:<\/p>\n Kos – our usual opening\/greeting dance For this holiday I put on my patchwork pants, and get out the glitter cloth and the sacred armadillo candles.\u00a0 The meaning of this holiday has been revealed to me by remarks that others have made.\u00a0 My friend Beverly gave … Continue reading
\nThe first Imbolc I had ever celebrated happened at the Women\u2019s Counseling Service in Bath Maine in February 1977.\u00a0 I had just joined this group of somewhat fierce scary feminists, and this was my second meeting.\u00a0 The first half was a workshop (usually in some counseling technique) and the second half was our business meeting.\u00a0 It was February 2, and as I left my house I saw a big gibbous moon in the sky.\u00a0 I went back and got a candle and an earthenware goblet.\u00a0 When the meeting was over and we were still sitting in a\u00a0 circle, I said \u201cIt\u2019s Candlemas and I want to do a ritual.\u201d I lit the candle, filled the goblet with water, and said the words of the Prophet Odo (from Ursula Le Guin\u2019s The Dispossessed.<\/a>) \u201cYou cannot buy the revolution, you cannot make the revolution, you can only BE the revolution…\u00a0 It is in your spirit or it is nowhere.\u00a0 It is for all or it is nothing.\u00a0 If it is thought of as having any end, it will never truly begin.\u201d I passed the goblet and each woman took a sip.\u00a0 One woman sighed deeply and said \u201cThis is what was missing\u201d and another said \u201cBlessed Be.\u201d I had never heard those words before and only much later realized I had just come out as a witch.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t even read The Spiral Dance<\/a> at that point.\u00a0 I used the word of the Prophet Odo (who, by the way, is female) because we were in Aquarius, which is about revolution among other things.\u00a0 This group of women continued to celebrate the cross-quarter days, the equinoxes and solstices, the new and full moons.\u00a0 The women\u2019s enthusiastic reception of my ideas sent me out filled with inspiration to write a book about the sun and the moon, the two hemispheres of the brain, megalithic monuments, science fiction and Atlantis.\u00a0 It\u2019s working title was The Feminine of His-story is Ms-story<\/a>, and I never found a better one.\u00a0 And only now, as I\u2019m writing all this, do I connect it with my eventual understanding of Imbolc as a celebration of inspiration.\u00a0 That story is told on the Sacred Calendar page on the Neskaya website. \u00a0Update: the website was updated and that page disappeared. \u00a0Alas.<\/p>\n
\nAnother piece of serendipity \u2014 a friend brought some young women from South America to dance with us.\u00a0 We put together a program of dances from South America, and put in the center two carved and painted armadillos from Oaxaca.\u00a0 One of the dances was a lively one with shouts and claps, called \u201cQuir Quincas de Corazon.\u201d After the dance one of the young women pointed to the armadillos and said \u201cQuirquinchos!\u00a0 Quirquinchos!\u201d Armadillos of the heart!\u00a0 Whatever that means….\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But there\u2019s the armor and the softness inside.
\nSo this year we danced Quirquinchos de Corazon as part of our Imbolc celebration around this centerpiece:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLulla Loel – crystalline sounds
\nKitka – russian evocation of winter
\nHex – Breakthrough!
\nCantus Iteratus – Aquarius
\nBright Fire – a Jan Mulreany concoction: Armenian folk Dance \u201cSweet Girl\u201d put to fast Celtic music.
\nQuirquinchos de Corazon – celebration
\nThe Awakening – The Quickening of the year
\nShaman\u2019s Dance – the gates open between the worlds
\nBleak Midwinter – cold frozen winter
\nBells of Norwich – the daffodil tells us \u201cAll shall be well\u201d
\nMidwives – our usual closing dance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"