There is nothing like cake to celebrate a special occasion and Imbolc (on February 2nd) is no exception. And I think this “naked” sponge cake would be a wonderful addition to any Imbolc Feast! It’s kept gorgeously moist with brushings of lavender and rosemary syrup (between cake layers) but the slight tang of the Mascarpone […]
via Imbolc Lavender & Rosemary Seed Cake — Gather Victoria
Check out this lovely cake recipe and overview of Imbolc & St. Brigid symbolism. I am hoping to try out the recipe in my celebrations this weekend and get a little kitchen witchery back into my life.
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I stumbled upon this beautiful blog, “Gather Victoria” and I’m in love, so you’ll probably see me sharing a lot of their posts. I’m really struck by the beauty and depth of content from this site. Clicking through their posts, I realized that it closely resembles the vision I’ve always had for what Mugwort & Meade would eventually become (except with M&M having more of an emphasis on integrating occult syncretism, traditional witchcraft & hermeticism).
I can imagine the amount of time and dedication it takes to produce a website like Gather Victoria. In the vast sea of WordPress spirituality blogs, there’s a lot of crappy stuff out there…posts that never reach a coherent thought, or are riddled with typos, or are carbon copies of other sites. When I first envisioned Mugwort & Meade, I hoped that its content would be substantial enough that the cream would rise to the top, as they say.
But life has been prohibitive to spending as much time building Mugwort & Meade as I would like to invest in it lately. The refurbished laptop I bought to write on turned out to be an dud, and pretty much functions as an expensive paperweight now. Working three jobs has left little to no time for writing, but has even more impact on my mental and emotional capacity for writing. My communal living situation has kept me from openly practicing many of my rituals, and the extreme cold has kept me from spending much time in nature. All in all, I’m in a bit of a rut.
So I’m taking all that as a sign that right now is still a chance for to keep building my foundations. I’m reading everything I can get my hands on right now, and meditating in all my spare time. I’ll continue to share stuff when I get a moment, and post observations when I’m able. I’m certainly not giving up on my dream, just acknowledging that I am doing a little more cultivating and growing before I can realize it.
And that’s what Imbolc is all about, isn’t it? As I put rose seeds in the fridge to stratify them this morning, I was thinking of how much I feel like I’m living in that cold, dark seed-space under the frozen earth in so many aspects of my life. But this a festival of hope and growing warmth. Of survival and dreams of abundance. Of digging deep into your subconscious to plant the seeds of transformation.
That’s exactly where I need to be right now.
Mugwort & Meade 