An Imbolc Choice - Invoking the Goddess - Pagan Song: Music for Your Magic

I live in the northern hemisphere, where winter is giving way to spring as we prepare to celebrate the subtle fire festival of Imbolc. Light softly conquers shadow, and we observe the early days of February to choose our path through the seasons before us. This is often a time of new beginnings and setting intentions that will have an impact on the year ahead. Some Pagan traditions choose Imbolc – set apart from the labor or revelry of other Pagan holy days – for initiations and calling the God/dess within to assist us in our Work.

An Imbolc Invitation

January 2013 a friend messaged me. “We are gathering for a small, private Imbolc ritual in early February … would you like to join us?” We were each asked to prepare in advance by choosing a God or Goddess to invoke for the year ahead, crafting our own invocation, and dressing as, or otherwise physically representing, the entity that we would invoke. Each of us would be given ample time to step into the ritual circle and invoke our chosen Deity.

Wait! What?

I couldn’t quite get past the words “choosing … to invoke for the year ahead.”

I can choose my own Deity to invoke? And for a whole year?

I was in my late 40s and somehow had never understood in all my magical and musical practice up to that point, that I had that option. Teachers, mentors, high priestesses assigned my invocative work – OR – the various entities simply arrived, often while I was in that vortex of writing music, and said, “Girl, we have work to do. Let me in!” I would study, invoke, and then carry and express a specific Deity’s energy for a ritual or the time it took to write a song, and then release it.

Certainly any invoked energy leaves an indelible print on my soul that I can access as needed, and I am grateful for all those earlier experiences. But I knew this Imbolc ritual would be something very different indeed.

Choosing Deity

With only ten days to prepare, this very busy mother, full-time paralegal, part-time musician and Tarot teacher set to work. How could I pick the best God/dess to invoke if I didn’t know what I wanted in my own life? What did I truly want to set in motion for the remainder of the year? What energy did I want to manifest? I knew full well that the invoked energy would not be selective. Rather, it would be all-encompassing and would likely change everything in my life. Aware that invoked energy often deconstructs before it creates, was I willing to fully carry that energy within me through every aspect of my life? What did I want to set in motion for the year ahead and perhaps even longer?

I already knew the answers, and it helped to write it all down.

My foremost desire? To love my child well … to provide for my family. And just over the horizon, I could see potential for a second chance at writing, recording and sharing the music that was important to me. I wanted to be enough to accomplish all of that – no, I wanted to be more than enough.

What Deity would guide me to be not just enough, but more than enough?

An Invocation For Nut

Suddenly, the stele of the Egyptian Goddess of the Night Sky in all her indigo glory blazed in my mind’s eye. Her body – fingertips to toes – arched over the Earth. She was made of star stuff and more than enough to love everything in her domain.

I am pretty sure that the invocation began in that moment of recognition, though I still had much work to do. We saw each other, and she led me to my hand drum, speaking her story and her power into my own soul. Of course, it took a few days to write it all down. In the moments in between, there was the creation of a full blue bodysuit with hundreds of glued-on rhinestones. She laughed when I worried that it would all be dry in time.

The ritual was a brilliant moment of women calling their power to them. One by one we each became the vessel for our chosen Deity. If you asked me today, I can barely recall my own moment, because it was not mine, but Hers. Nut sang to everyone in the room, declaring Herself the Queen of Infinite Space and shared her gift of becoming More Than Enough.

I am indigo – I am night
Embracing your souls – each one a light
I hold your true nature – when you’re ready to know
When you’re ready, look up and let go

Call me Arc of Heaven
And Lady of the Stars
I am Mistress of All
And She Who Bore the Gods
No temple shall hold me
And none shall you make
I’m the Queen of Infinite Space

I am indigo – I am night
Limitless – I am the sky
Giving birth to the Sun – then I swallow him whole
Child, be fearless – look up and let go

Call me She Who Protects
And Friend of the Dead
Paint your ceilings deep blue
And stars o’er your heads
No temple can hold me
No temple could stand
‘Tween the night sky that kisses the land

No money; no lover; no justice; no peace
No human endeavor; no painless release
I’ll offer no solace if you live in fear
But if you saw what I see from here …
Every man every woman – a star shining bright
I am indigo – I am night
I hold your true nature; and when you’re ready to know
Freedom, look up and let go

Every man every woman – a star shining bright
I am indigo – I am night
I hold your true nature; and when you’re ready to know
Freedom, look up and let go

I am indigo – I am night
I am indigo

Milky Way over mountain observatory; photo by Horacio Lander

Embracing Imbolc’s Choice

For me, Imbolc is a quiet season and a time to contemplate the cycle of what has come before, what is, and the choices ahead. I encourage you to reflect this season and choose a Deity that most clearly aligns with your own heart and soul, and do the work to invoke and express that energy within every aspect of your life.

As for me, there have been many other Imbolcs, other Goddesses, other invocations – each one powerful in its own way. Yet, the results of this particular invocation have been long-lasting and life-changing. Not once have I regretted that Imbolc choice.

With the aid of Nut, the Egyptian Goddess of the Night Sky, I walked away from a steady, well-paid paralegal position and took a leap of faith into a full-time songwriting, solo musical career that allowed me to tour Pagan festivals and other venues for over a decade, sharing the music at my core. Through all the changes She wrought, I have learned to provide for my chosen family in ways much different than anticipated. I have loved and watched my son grow into my favorite human/soul on the planet. Her energy remains with me. And it has been more than enough.

For more information about Mama Gina, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to Gina’s sites on the web, check out Gina’s page on Pagan Song.

The featured image is a stele of Nut, the Egyptian Goddess of the Night Sky, stretched above and over her mate Geb, the Land. Variations appear in many Egyptian tombs and temples, with significant examples found in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, the Tomb of Ramses IX, and on the inner coffin lid of Lady Isetemkheb.

You will find more wonderful Pagan Song posts about Imbolc h ere.

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