 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill, a fourth generation witch of Irish descent, no less. The days are getting longer, the light is coming in, it is the first of our sabbots of 2023 and we're going to look at how to celebrate IMLK. In this video we're going to look at celebrations for IMLK. I'm going to tell you a little bit of history about it and how it came about and we'll look at the different traditions, rituals and spells that you might use to celebrate IMLK. So with that said let's start with when is it? IMLK is celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of February. Sabbots always start at dusk on the previous day and finish at dusk on the day. So it starts on the first at sunset and it finishes on the 2nd at sunset. So IMLK is the halfway point between Yule which is the winter solstice and the spring equinox, the time of the fairies no less. And IMLK is obviously completely and utterly confused with the Christian festival of candle mass. However if you scratch the surface of any neo-pagan wiccan Christian festival you will find that they are literally an amalgamation of ancient traditions, customs, paganism, Christianity and they incorporate a lot of thematic echoes within this. This festival especially so because IMLK is a celebration of the goddess Brigitte or Breed and the Christian faith know her as Saint Brigitte but they have so much iconography which is you know the things that associated with the goddess or the saint together such as square crosses, cows, fertility, water, wells, you name it they are just one and the same person. We're not sure where the word IMLK come from it either means in the belly from the old Irish or from YUMILK which means use milk. Could be either really and it's probably just a mash-up of both those words. We like the traditions from both of them. However in its most basic form IMLK is a ritual of cleansing and purification. Farmers and ploughmen would take burning torches across the agricultural land to cleanse their fields of nasty spirits and to show the sun its flame and therefore bring life to their fields and their crops. It was also a time of cleaning. The spring clean is now. For the Sabbath you should clear out your home and richly cleanse it not just of its energy. I don't mean energy cleansing I mean actually just you know give it a good scrub. It's probably got a bit icky after Christmas and all the other things that have been happening and you've forgotten to dust here and there. There might have been a couple of spiders climbing up into the ceiling and laying some webs. I know that I have a little problem with spiders. Much to the horror may I say of difficult middle child because she can't stand them and spiders terrify her. I'm not a great housekeeper really. IMLK is a celebration of the spring goddess that we know as Bridget, Reed, Bridget, Saint Bridget, one or the other. There's many many names but throughout this video I'm going to refer to her as Bridget because it's easier to pronounce and that's how I was brought up to know her. She is the goddess of well's fertility in spring and she has the patronage of healers, blacksmiths and poets. She is a triple goddess so she has three distinct personalities and these are embodied in those crafts that she's patron of and also in the associations of well's fertility in spring. Of course she's a fertility goddess it's spring you can't have any other goddess in spring unless it's fertility after all. There is a tale that the Scotts tale of Saint Bridget where the old hag of winter who held a long staff in her hand when she banged her staff down the frost would come and spread across the land. She gave a brown cloak to Bridget and told her to go out to the stream and to wash the cloak until it was white and so Bridget took the cloak went down to the stream started to wash it of course it was brown it was never going to be white an old man winter came upon her and felt sorry for her because she was being enslaved by the old hag of winter and so he released her from the slavery and gave her a beautiful white cloak to send back to the old winter witch. He also gave her a small posey of snow drops to take back. On presenting these the witch went into a screaming rage because the snow drop showed that her power over the cold was waning. It's a rather sweet and charming story that one isn't it? So this leads me on to the snow drop which is a symbol of emulch isn't it? In olden times snow drops were known as candle mass bells and the Christian said it was unlucky to bring them into your house before candle mass but the Pagan certainly used to bring them in beforehand and they decorate their house with snow drops because this was a symbol of purity and more importantly hope for the coming seasons and they're beautiful aren't they? I love a snow drop they do cheer my heart we haven't got any at the moment it's a bit early because I'm filming this video in the middle of January and I haven't seen a snow drop yet I'm waiting for them though they do give me that oh my goodness spring is coming fuel which is always appreciated in my household because I don't like being cold. In order to sort of overcome the Pagan association with snow drops the Christians used to plant them in their graveyard they said that the shape of the flower resembled corpse in its shroud. I think they just did it to make them look pretty though maybe they do look pretty don't they? Emulch is a fire festival as all the great ones are which means that you should clean out your heart and light a new fire in it at dusk on the 1st of February this will bring the spirit of spring into your home and Bridget's blessing. In ancient times our Pagan ancestors would go to the sacred well that was dedicated to Bridget this well which she has dominion over they would purify themselves one must be bloody cold is all I can say and then they would light the sacred fire to her she was a huge cult Bridget especially in Ireland in the ancient times and when the Christians came over I think it was in the 9th century that they turned Bridget into Saint Bridget and even then they couldn't really keep the Pagan associations away from her the nuns who worshipped Bridget in her convent in Ireland would tend to her fire on a daily basis to keep it burning throughout the year. Bridget in herself would inspire the shamans in the way of fire and so therefore clearing out your hearth is a really important ritual to do on this time if you don't have a hearth to clear out you could just take a candle like I've got a rather beautiful candle holder here give it a nice clean because sometimes they get a bit waxed don't they in it and put a fresh candle in it to burn its way at sunset on the first and this is a wonderful way to help celebrate that festival. The Pagan thought that Bridget held sway over the sun and moon and the sun and moon that their orbital dance takes 18.67 years to complete from start to finish and so therefore Bridget had 19 maidens to tend to her sacred fire in her sacred wells. This number 19 is a pretty magical number to our Pagan ancestors it comes to the scene in the number of stone circles where they have 19 standing stones such as the Merry Maidens in Cornwall. You'll note that there is a space for a 20th stone although this has never had a 20th stone and this is thought to be the space for the goddess to come to. Castle Rig Stone Circle in Cumbria also has this 19 standing stones with a space for the 20th. We don't really know why we can only assume that it is in honor of Goddess Bridget she was huge in times of yore especially since the Castle Rig Stone Circle is aligned with the Immulc Sunrise. She really was huge in times of yore Bridget and had a great sway over our people. Traditions on this day show that you should make a bride's cross and a bride's cross looks like this it's made from the green reeds that are around at this time it's the only green thing around to make these from which is a bride I presume they were and these crosses were hung from your doorways from your cattle horns from your plows from your hearts you know you put them everywhere because they brought protection luck fertility and the joy and hope that spring is coming of course it looks a bit like a swastika doesn't it and this is a really old symbol far older than the 1940s have ever had it these were called square crosses by the Christian Church to in order to Christianize them and they associated these with their own Saint Bridget as opposed to the goddess Bridget I told you they were interchangeable these crosses are a great way to celebrate and if you want to know how to make a Bridget's cross head over to my Instagram page and I've put a video showing how I made this one up there for you Cornish witches liked to waken the serpent at this time of year and waking the serpent is almost a forerunner of the North American version of Groundhog Day because of course serpents are sleeping in the cold earth and in the spring you would go out with your staff and perform the ritual to bring the serpent out of the cold earth serpents are again fertility protection also the sprawl or the life force of the earth this is what they represent the serpent waking rites were performed in the Bridget wells and the Bridget caves of course this is where they probably overwintered I should imagine that the witches actually knew where the serpents were and went and woke them up with their staff and their rituals to bring forth the prana of the earth it was also at this time that it was considered that a traditional witches power was at her strongest in spring and so if you had purchased a charm from a witch previously you could take that charm back to the witch at Imulc and have it re-energized by the witch because her power is at its peak so as I said previously Imulc is from the word possibly use milk that the use of producing their lamb and milk is flowing so after the long hard lean months of winter we finally have fresh milk and so Imulc was all about butter and you would put butter on your windowsill and butter on your doorstep overnight in order to encourage the blessings of Bridget on your home it also has the advantage of keeping the fey happy because you're feeding the butter to the fey should you leave offerings of butter and milk on your altar overnight the next day it is fine to eat them if you'd like to or just dispose of it in the compost heap because it's just it's real life force energy has been taken rather than it's been spoiled by the fairies passing through lighting a flame clearing out your heart leaving some butter out putting up your Bridget's cross this is the way of celebration of Imulc I'm going to be making some more of these to give to my friends and celebrating with a beautifully clean house a clean half newly lit fire and I might even try a delicious butter board they're very trendy on tiktok I noticed at the moment so maybe I will my cover meeting is still coming up I think it's on the 24th of January so there's still time to join if that would be of interest to you go to patreon.com forward slash Ginny Metherill for all details in the meantime do please give me a like and subscribe because it really helps my channel and I really need you to like and subscribe and I will see you very very soon