✺ IMBOLC INKLINGS ✺

Plant gathering for making: Hazel for stick pens, New Zealand Flax for exhibition labels, Hawthorn for ink.

This INKLINGS contains:

☽ A gentle IMBOLC intro
☽ Questions to prompt nourishing reflection/journalling
☽ Voicenote containing guided journalling prompts, cheerleading, care and tangential chat.

At this fire festival, we celebrate the gentle return of light. We are not gung-ho about jumping back into the new year in the way of the January 1st “new year, new you” energy (bleurgh). This is a harmful and commercialised way of exploiting our vulnerability in the darkness of early January, in my experience and opinion.

At the beginning of February, the very, very early signs of life return to the earth. Snowdrops and daffodils and the sprouts of wild garlic. Internally and externally, we are beginning to lay some foundation stones for the seasons ahead. We are not demanding fruiting from our projects. We tend to the embers of our fire. We are bridging here between that which has been with us in the darkness and in the unconscious and making it conscious under the emerging light. We are moving slowly into the more yang part of the year—the more outward-focused.

A pause to reflect on this turning of the year can look like many things. You may notice thoughts, inclinations and feelings bubbling up when you have a moment to yourself. I often find this when driving and walking. It can also look like hunkering down for an hour, an afternoon, an evening and holding these reflections close for a while, picking up a pen and some paper and writing. Scroll down for a stash of journal prompts to follow.

Here, we might find insights emerge from below the usual thinking mind. Listening to this and flowing where we are drawn to can support us in being guided by the life that lives through us, around and in amongst our day-to-day responsibilities. These have the potential to support us in our quotidian needs. They do not need to be separate. Our rituals and reflections can inform our work and activism in the world, as well as our creativity and relationships.

To help ground our riding between the unconscious depths of winter and these emergings of spring, we can bring rocks, wood, plants and other meaningful objects into our homes, studios and ritual/alter spaces. This simple ritual from Glennie Kindred may appeal to you:

“Take a small stone and sit with it. Contemplate its great age and wisdom. While holding the stone, ask what waits to be born? What longings do you carry within you? Write them or speak them out loud to other humans or non-humans, and share your insights.”

✺What is inspiring you right now?

Gather inspiration, and positive news, and connect with other artists, makers, activists, socially engaged humans and groups who share your interests and passions in their practices. Allow yourself to be a beginner again in this early spring and know that the gifts that you bring, in all of their newness or deepening development are needed and valuable.

✺ In what ways do you long to be in service to life and the world in the seasons ahead?

✺ What do you need right now for yourself?

You may not be ready for this shift towards Spring. This is ok. More than ok. It’s completely legit. We need reminding again and again that we live in ways that do not mean we can simply go to bed with the dark and rise with the light and rest deeply through the winter months. Winter may have been a hectic and demanding time. There is a great deal in the collective pot right now (I think we can say this every moment for the rest of - certainly my - time) and the things we may feel a deep need for are more downtime, more nourishment, more rest, more help, rather than stepping into slow action.