Seasonal Living Guide For February’s Eve Season (Podcast Episode 125)

Seasonal Living Guide For February's Eve Imbolc Season

The wheel of the year has turned once more, and its time to welcome in our first seasonal checkpoint of the New Year: February’s Eve!

It’s the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

Known to Celtic pagans as “Imbolc,” this quiet little celebration is what I like to call the “best kept secret” of the solar festivals.

While its one of the most overlooked seasonal celebrations in modern culture, it is an absolute gem for the self care enthusiast!

With the big fall and winter holidays behind us, February’s Eve (celebrated around February 1st) is literally the ‘breath of fresh air’ we need to settle into our resolutions and intentions for the year to come.

Unlike holidays like Halloween and the Yuletide season (which were converted from nature-based celebrations into religious holidays, and then adapted into popular culture) the wonderful thing about February’s Eve is that, while it does have correspondences with the Christian “Candlemas” and Celtic Pagan festival of “Imbolc,” this celebration never really gained as much popularity, commercialism, and controversy as some of the other holidays on the calander.

Fittingly, February’s Eve is generally celebrated as a time of calm, quiet, and cleansing, all of which are desparately needed for many of us after the dark themes of autumn, and the hectic Winter holiday season.

Whether you look to the Celtic pagan themes of Imbolc or the more Christianized incarnation of Candlemas, (or Brigid’s day, which is celebrated by some Christians and some pagans) – Or if you’re like me and you just tune into the natural energies of the time of year – the biggest themes seem to be cleansing, purification, and a fresh start.

In this video, I’ll share with you some of my personal favorite simple, low-key themes and traditions for this late winter season.

Accepting the Present Moment

For many of us, the winter is a strange combination of hybernation and over-stimulation.

While the popular winter holidays have us bustling around like crazy, in colder climates like mine, we also tend to want to hide away indoors and think of going outside as a chore during this time, and may find ourselves feeling more tired.

After the intensity of the darkening months, and the overindulgence of the holidays, we may be left feeling a bit of seasonal depression.

Right now, nature is providing us with the perfect moment to pause and reset our vibration before energy picks back up again for spring.

By focusing my self care and self development practice around the important themes of February’s Eve, I’ve been able to connect to my intuition and create the type of calm inner space that will help shape my life as the year progresses.

Cleansing and Purification

During the winter, its easy to begin to feel the energy in your life beginning to stagnate.

Spending so much time indoors may have lead to some clutter around your home. You may have settled into some bad habits for the sake of comfort and entertainment, and your body may be suffering after all the rich food and drink associated with the Winter holidays.

Physically and spiritually, its time to gradually begin “spring cleaning.”

If your Winter holiday decorations haven’t been taken down yet, now is a great time to put them all away for next year and dust under them. In stead of clining to those midwinter comforts, its time to air things out and begin to look to the fresh new year ahead.

On the same token, its also a great idea to do a spiritual cleansing of your home as well. Burn some smudging herbs, make a clearing room spray, or try the Four Corners Home Blessing.

Its also a great idea to extend this theme of cleansing to your body and mind. If you haven’t explored the practice of ritual bathing, now is a wonderful time to try it out! Take the time to begin a new cleansing ritual that will scrub away those winter blues and prepare your skin for spring.

Bathing rituals are just one example of how you can evoke your desired feelings for the new year using simple elemental magick. For ideas for all four elements, earth, air, fire and water, I invite you to check out this post on elemental magick.

Healing and Self Love

A lot of us have a way of putting the needs of others or ambitious goals before our personal self care. Now that the obligations of the Winter holidays are over, its time to focus on yourself.

Doing a dietary fast or cleanse is a great way to clean your body out from the inside, and you’ll be surprised how changing what you put in your mouth can help with mental and spiritual clarity as well!

February’s Eve is also the perfect time to start a new meditation practice or schedule in time for regular reading, excersizeing or journalling in a peaceful setting.

Are you still holding onto anything (physically, mentally or emotionally) from last year that isn’t serving you? Now is the time to become quiet and calm, and create space for your intuition to shine through in new ways.

I find that aroma and color therapy are very helpful during the February’s Eve season. Peaceful, calming, and airy scents like lavender, and jasmin are a nice change after all those heavy, foody scents of the Solstice season, like cinamon and vanilla.

While Halloween and Yuletide tend to bring in lots of dense, lower chakra colors like oranges, reds, golds, and browns, try taking this time toward the end of winter to incorporate those calming winter whites, silvers, and blues instead, to promote a sense of fresh clarity.

Keeping The Inner Light Aglow

This time of year is about remembering and honoring the inner life force energy of Mother Earth and of ourselves.

While, depending on where you live, Januuary and February (and, gosh even March here in New York) can be the actual coldest and most wintery-feeling days of the year, this is a time to remember that regardless of what the weather is doing, the days are still growing longer. And inevitably, true spring weather will return.

In much the same way, we can think of our inner light growing as we very gradually come out of hybernation and reimerge as our next-level selves as the new year shapes up.

A popular tradition of “Imbloc” is to light a candle and place it in the snow or baren ground outside, symbolizing the eventual thawing and reawakening of the life force of the land. This candle can also represent your inner light, which is now in the beginning phases of planting the seeds of intention that will blossom into manifestations as the year evolves.

Take a moment with your candle to hold space for that potential, and to aknowledge where you’re currentnly at with your New Year intentions. Take this time to dream about just how big and beautiful those intentions have the potential of becoming as the Sun waxes toward fullness and the earth gradually begins to bud and flower around you.

February’s Eve is a wonderful reminder that while spring weather may still seem far off, nature is still creating beauty in our lives, and deserves a closer look. Rather than rushing toward the Spring Equinox (or Easter, as our commercial society tends to have us do) now is the time to step outside and take in a deep breath of that cold, crisp winter air.

Whether you decide to go for a nice long winter walk, or if you just step out your door to take in the view, you’ll be surprised how good it feels to pause from your routine and simply be in the present moment with nature.

Notice what the late winter world looks like in your environment. What do the trees and ground look like right now? What is the weather doing?

For example, something I’ve noticed here is that even in the midst of a blizzard, you can still see beautiful buds on the trees if you look closely. And even though the grass dies off and turns brown in winter in other parts of the world, here it actually stays fresh and green under the snow, just waiting for a warm day when it can come out and shine.

Whether you’re used to celebrating Imbolc, Candlemas or Brigid’s day in a specific way, or if you’re brand new to this wheel of the year checkpoint like I was when I first learned about it, I invite you to perhaps try something new this February’s Eve season.

It can be anything that evokes the energy of the next level version of yourself that you’re desiring to grow into this year. And if you’re looking to get more clear on what that looks and feels like for you, I would love to invite you to try my February’s Eve season journaling prompts!

I also invite you to check out this vlog video where I take you along with me for my actual February’s Eve rituals:

You can grab my beautifully designed journal prompt pages as a printable download, or you can order pre-printed copies from my shop.

Are you also looking to connect with myself and other magickal mavens as you embody your most fulfilled version of yourself this season?

If so, I’d love to invite you to join our Late Winter Seasonal Living Challenge!

Every Wednesday for the five weeks around Imbolc, I’ll be posting a prompt to help you maximize your fulfillment by harnessing the themes of the sabbat.

All you need to do to participate is be aware that…

The challenge begins on the third Wednesday in January when the first post goes live. There will be one challenge post per week for five weeks leading up to the final post which will come out in mid-February.

Challenge prompts will always be posted on Wednesdays mornings.

You can join late if you need to and go back to previous posts.

If you’re not already an eligible patron, I invite you to sign up now! I’m so excited to get to know you better as we share our experiences with the seasons! I hope to see you there!

February’s Eve blessings!