Last week brought “Imbolc,” the traditional midwinter cross-quarter holiday. But don’t despair if you missed it. You can still enjoy its benefits; this Full Moon is an ideal time. In the Northern Hemisphere, nature is awakening with small gestures toward spring. There’s an erratic sprinkling of warmer days. Buds are just forming on the branches and birds are getting busier. Imbolc’s opportunity to cleanse and refresh your life is also a need. It’s coded in your DNA, as humans have honored this seasonal turning for millennia. This past week, I’ve heard Imbolc’s influence in my clients and friends: in a new resolve, a cleansing diet just begun, an urge to find true purpose, or sweep the house, or reorganize the studio to prepare for some yet unborn creative project.

Here’s a short and sweet Imbolc celebration: clear your house of winter’s musty energy. Use the air element to assist you. Even if it’s chilly, open all the windows in your house for just fifteen or twenty minutes. Test this. Before you open the windows, step through your front door and get a sense of the place. Do the same after you’ve done your air cleansing. Note the difference. If you want a magical home, it’s important to develop this sensitivity.

One of my favorite ways to cleanse a home is to ring a pair of Tibetan Bells through all the rooms. I move clockwise from my front door and go all the way around, waking up the stuck energy in the corners and within the walls. (Clapping your hands along the walls works well too.)  I began this practice years ago in Southern California, where the winters are so mild, seasons and cross-quarter holidays were merely concepts.  I did my bell-ringing as more of a pantomime of magic. Now, having lived over a decade in Southern Oregon where there are seasons, and where I’ve had time to deepen my sensitivity, it’s more than just pretend. I can feel the responsiveness of my home as I give it this special attention. I can now say without equivocation or embarrassment that my house is alive. And it’s delighted with its Imbolc cleanse.

Last night I ate a heavier meal than usual. This morning I slept in. Later I won’t go to the gym as I usually do. It’s solstice time. The sun appears to be standing still as it slowly turns to go back along the horizon line (moving north or south, depending on your hemisphere). This is how we shift into the new season. A lot of people get sick during solstice week, though we don’t need to pause that way. Rather, we can follow the body’s subtle or insistent promptings to slow, tune inward, and when ready, reach out to reconnect with the wheeling planet. Freshly centered within ourselves, we can enjoy the profound delights of sensing the air, listening to the trees, watching the new flight patterns of birds. Something in the body wants to do this; it’s ancient, powerful, and pleasurable. Some people like to sit in meditation on solstice. Others perform ceremony and ritual. Some buy new journals, others select goals for the season, some light candles, others take walks in the park. It doesn’t particularly matter what you do on solstice. It’s the spirit with which you do it that brings the magic. The solstice is a bright jewel on the year’s necklace. Wear it with joy this week.

Beltane is one of the four great Fire Festivals in the fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. In the ancient Celtic calendar, Beltane is a hinge ushering in the light half of the year, a time of fertility and abundance. In the standard calendar, Beltane is May 1. Astronomically, Beltane is May 5, when the Sun reaches the middle of Taurus, at its 15th degree. Celebrations include bonfires lit to honor the solar god Belos, rites of cleansing and purification, and rites to bring fertility to the land, to animals, and to the people.

This year’s Beltane season promises to be powerful indeed. The Sun may be in peaceful Taurus but five planets continue to blaze in Aries. In the Beltane chart, Uranus the Awakener is first, followed by Venus conjunct Mercury, and Jupiter conjunct Mars. The bonfire is alight!

At this time, the veils between the worlds are thin, the land of Faery is close at hand, and magic abounds. White hawthorn blooms, whose branches are cut but not brought indoors, for this flower of May belongs to the Fae. Now everything gestated during the winter is born, desires are made manifest, the unconscious emerges into the light. Venus and Mercury together are expressive, Jupiter and Mars are active, Mars exactly trines the North Node energizing our life path.

The past weeks have brought the challenges of Aries––irritations, miscommunication, anger, headaches, accidents––with an almost overwhelming energy. This Sunday, as the lusty month of May arrives and Beltane begins, we are invited to flow that energy into exuberant celebrations of Spring. Throw open the doors and dance with fairies in the fields.

During this Beltane, find your joy. Connect with whatever brings you alive. Be juicy! Where is Aries in your birth chart? With so many planets in Aries now, something new and exciting wants to happen there. Saturn remains in Libra, opposite Aries, but remember one of his roles is to make things real. The Taurus New Moon is also part of this Beltane season, a time of planting seeds in fertile soil. Celebrate the fiery energy of Spring!

“It loved to happen” ––Marcus Aurelius

Mary Pat Lynch combines archetypal astrology with the Tarot, dreamwork, and shamanic practice, exploring many intuitive languages. Her blog traces the Moon’s transits and cycles through signs and seasons.

Whether you live in northern snow, or the southwestern sun, or the green and wet isolation of the coast like I do, I hope you come to this day of midwinter with a sigh and a sense of peace. Imbolc (pronounced Im-olc) is the ancient Celtic day that marks the halfway point between the solstice and the equinox. This is a cross-quarter day then, a reminder that time is moving and we have obligations. In ancient times, perhaps we simply cleaned out our fireplace, set aside a burning taper, cleaned out the ashes, and then kindled the warming fires of winter again. This was a safety issue, a housekeeping issue, and yet it has deeper implications. This is a night time moment, a time to clear out the “ashes” of our lives, kindle a stronger fire, a stronger sense of purpose for ourselves. This is a time to notice whether we have done the work of winter. Have we told the stories we need to tell? Have we rested, feasted, and shared our hearth with our larger community?

When Christianity came to the Celts, Imbolc became Candlemas. February 2nd, a fixed date instead of the mutable date engendered by Sun reaching the middle of Aquarius. Candlemas suggests a lovely ceremony. Gather those you connect with around a fire, each with a candle and a prayer; sing, feast, share and encourage the great work of winter. Make a circuit or procession with candle as your only light. Honor grandmother Moon, the candle is her light. Slow down, it’s winter, remember the ancestors and their stories, dream deeply.

Jane Galer, is an award winning poet and author who trained with the Q’ero indigenous shaman of the high Andes of Peru.

You will need: an altar; three candles, one a beautiful shade of blue, one black, one white; a lighter to ignite the candles; and a a piece of chocolate.*
Place the chocolate on a small plate on the altar, then the candles, from left to right: blue, black, and white. Have a lighter nearby. When you’ re ready to begin, ring a bell or clap your hands. Step forward and recite the following:

I now enter a time that is not a time and a place that is not a place, at an hour that is not an hour, but a sacred portal between the worlds.

Light the blue candle. For as long or as briefly as you desire, offer your heartfelt respect, love and gratitude to your ancestors. Bow when you’re complete.

Light the black candle. For as long or as briefly as you desire, ask your protectors to help you release all that interferes with your passion and joy. Bow when you’re complete.

Light the white candle to signal your willingness and desire to receive a message from your ancestors, protectors, or guides. If you have a specific question, ask it. You may receive the answer now or sometime in the next 24 hours. Bow when you’re complete.

With all three candles lit, thank all the spirits and powers who have been in attendance. Take the chocolate into your mouth. Eat it slowly, with tremendous pleasure. (And don’t judge your level of pleasure; just surrender to whatever amount is available.) When you’re complete, ring a bell or clap your hands, and take one step back.

Recite the following:

I now leave the time that is not a time and the place that is not a place, at this hour that is not an hour, but a perfect moment in my perfect world.

Blow out the candles or let them burn—your choice! Of course always take care with unattended burning candles.

* You can also use a garden trowel instead of or in addition to the chocolate. At the conclusion of the ritual, take the trowel out to your garden to dig and/or weed in the moist dirt, thinking of how this act has the magical power to clear away inner obstacles. Feel gratitude for the earth and how it recycles death into nutrients for plants, people and worms.

Recognition of the Solstice lies deep in your genetic code. Somewhere inside you know: It's time to bang the pots and celebrate the Sun. Your arms want to open and receive its sustaining power. Your body wants to dance. Tell your mind to relax. Pretend it's a vacation day. Then, during a random hour, at your desk or in a coffee shop, the Sun will find you. It will beam through a window and touch your arm. Like an old friend. Enter into this meeting deeply. It's a simple and spiritually authentic Solstice ritual: Just let the Sun touch you and give thanks.

Father Sun enters Cancer, the sign of the Mother on June 21 at 7:30 am EDT.