Can you feel it in the air? It’s the depths of winter, but there’s something stirring. Even as the snow is still coming down, the end of winter is in sight. Even here in Alaska, the birds have started singing.
It’s Imbolc! Imbolc is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and it’s a great time to start new projects. In celebration of the day, I’ve created 28 creative writing prompts based on the sabbat.
Imbolc is the first day of February, and in the year this post is written, it is also a new moon and the lunar new year. So, the number 28 is no accident. Try one writing prompt for each day of February, if you feel inspired. Or, you could think of it as one prompt for each day of this Snow/Storm Moon. A moon’s worth of writing prompts. Write your way out of winter, and start your lunar new year off right!
What is Imbolc?
Imbolc is a traditional Celtic holiday that falls halfway between Yule (winter solstice) and Ostara (spring equinox). It’s the day the tide changes in favor of spring. The world is waking up from the slumber of winter’s darkness. The sunlight is coming back in a way that’s actually noticeable and though the world is still covered in snow (at least here!), the earth is beginning to awaken with the light. We are now closer to the balance of the equinox than we are to the drastic darkness of the solstice. It’s a time for hope and preparation.
It’s also celebrated as Candlemas, St. Brigid’s Day, or February’s Eve. Imbolc honors the goddess Brigid, especially in her roles as the goddess of the hearth, of fertility, and of creativity. It’s traditionally a fire festival, a time when baby lambs are on the way, and when there is the promise of spring and new life.
Imbolc is, to me, one of the most underappreciated pagan holidays. One of the things I love about Imbolc is that it is really a time for a fresh new start. Imbolc is a recognition that you need a period of rest and readjustment after the busyness of the winter holidays. It’s hard to start fresh the day after New Year’s Eve, especially if you’ve been out celebrating. If you are already falling down on your New Year’s resolutions, never fear! Imbolc has your back. It’s time to start anew.
How to Celebrate Imbolc as a Writer
Imbolc is an especially powerful holiday for writers. Why? It’s Brigid’s day, and Brigid, in addition to being the goddess of hearth and home, is also the goddess of poetry. This means that anything we do to boost our words and our creativity will be supported.
There are lots of ways to use the Imbolc energy to move your writing forward. It’s a great time to start a new project, to daydream and to plan. It’s the original spring cleaning. Here are some ways that writers can observe Imbolc to support their writing practice:
- Spring Clean your Writing Space. Out with the old, in with the new inspirational space. Imbolc is a great time to declutter, rearrange, and create a space that will inspire a new year of writing.
- Start a new habit. It’s a great time to start something small and daily that could have a big effect in the long term. Read a poem a day, start a new writing habit, start a new hobby, pick something new to learn about, journal, or pull a tarot card each evening. Find something small and manageable that will help support your writing.
- Set some new writing goals, or spend time daydreaming about your vision. It’s time to focus on the new year and this fresh start. Now that the hustle and bustle of the depths of winter is over and we can finally see the light again, it’s a useful time to make a new vision board, or create goals for the new year.
- Create a new writing ritual. Especially if you (like me) are the kind of person who has trouble getting in the mood for writing, a little ritual to start you off could be just the thing to connect you with your muse. Put on some music, light a candle or some incense, do a meditation, wear your sassiest lipstick or cozy up in the sweater that makes you feel like your best self. This is the time to think about how the small actions you take can be seeds that grow into a new way of being.
- Spend some time writing outside. It’s not always easy to get outside this time of year, but Imbolc is a great reminder that it still does the soul good to be out in the trees and under the sky.
- Try something new. Imbolc is a time of new beginnings, and sometimes the most refreshing thing you can do for your writing is just to try something new and get out of the same-old-same-old rut. You could do this with your writing (take a playful stab at a new genre, or a new voice), but I also think trying any kind of new thing can revitalize our writing. Go ice skating, go to a new park, or try a new activity. Anything that can give you a fresh perspective also helps make you a better writer.
- Start a new project. See below for prompts to help with this one!
Creative Writing Prompts for Imbolc
- Celebrate Brigid with some poetry. Use the Poetry Foundation to find one line of poetry that really speaks to you, and start there. You could create a poem, a story, or even nonfiction. Use the line of poetry that spoke to you as the starting point for your own writing.
- Write about something waiting to be born.
- Write about someone who meets the goddess Brigid.
- Go outside and see it with new eyes, and ears, and… Use synthesia to describe what you see. What do the colors taste like? How does the sky smell? Bring us there by mixing all your senses and letting your metaphors run wild.
- Write a story about a character who finds something magical while cleaning out their home.
- Use this Image, from Tiffany Laura Danyelle on Unsplash.
- “The world has been still. But something has started to stir underground…”
- Write about what happens when the snow starts to melt.
- Check out the Ace of Wands tarot card. This is the card of new growth and emerging to a new state of being. Use this card as the jumping off point for your writing.
- What happens when St. Brigid and the Goddess Brigid meet?
- The nuns of Kildare, the monastery founded by St. Brigid, were tasked with keeping an eternal flame. Write about keeping a flame alive.
- It was rumored that if a man crossed the hedge of the Church of Kildare, he would be cursed or be driven insane. Write a story about a man who crosses the hedge and goes insane.
- Clean it out! Do an erasure poem of the wikipedia page of Imbolc. (Or another related page of your choosing).
- Use this image from Foundry Co on Pixabay.
- Write about making a bed that never gets slept in.
- Write about a girl made of reeds who comes to life.
- Do a meditation. (You can find Imbolc-specific meditations here.) Jot down the images that come up and create your work from there.
- “It’s time to burn it all down. She lit the match…”
- Write a story that begins with an initiation.
- Find three things that need to be cleared out of your house. Use those three things to describe growth, without using the word growth.
- “When I looked into the water of the well, it was not myself looking back at me…”
- Write about something that has died within you, thank it and lay it to rest.
- Winter is ending, and this means new beginnings are on the horizon. Write a story that begins with an ending.
- Write about something unexpected “in the belly.”
- “The serpent awakens…”
- Write a story that takes place at the exact moment between seasons.
- Write about starting a small new habit that changes the character’s life (or yours!).
- Use this image, from Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
As always, if any of these prompts inspire you, I would love to read what you create. Drop a link below or send me a message. Truly, nothing makes my heart happier than helping people create, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this special time of year than to write new possibilities into being.
Enjoy!
For more writing prompts, click here.
