What do you have under your bed?

I am eagerly looking forward to Imbolc this year!  I am excited to report that my renewed commitment to the Craft appears to be holding strong, and honestly, it feels a lot like the first time.  (I am coming dangerously close to sounding like a Madonna song, but I'm glad, because the feeling of being excited about something is a fun feeling!)

I have been reminded of the spring cleaning nature of this Sabbat, and as such have been spending some time getting my Spiritual house in order in a fairly literal way.  For the years my spirituality lay fallow, I kept a pile of papers--interesting articles, links, magazines, etc--on my desk.  I spent some time getting those papers organized, as well as dusting off and giving some TLC to my Craft tools.  It's weird saying that, since they lay all over the house, but I do have an altar, and it has been gathering dust--quite literally--for some time.

I also made a bath salts blend of salt, lavendar, and chamomile, which we will use to cleanse our hands at the Imbolc ritual (I have a large pottery bowl, which I fill with water and salts for symbolic cleansings), and I will give small bottles of it out to the attendants to continue to the energies of the Ritual.  The bottles will be charged in the moonlight the night before the Ritual.  The current jar of salts is on the altar with the white ribbons that were blessed at last year's Imbolc Ritual.

In thinking about the spring cleaning nature of Imbolc, I am reminded of the best piece of Feng Shui advice I ever got.  The area under your bed is an area of money.  Do you store stuff under your bed?  Is it cluttered?  Clean it up!  Get everything out from under there.  Packing/storing items under your bed stops the money energies from flowing.  If you do nothing else to honor the Imbolc Sabbat this year, I recommend this one thing--clear it out, vacuum under it, and visualize money energies flowing freely and happily around you.

I also bumped into Feng Shui at a Mind, Body, Spirit expo a few years ago, when a friend stopped to chat with a consultant.  I had been working on a major reorganization of my house, and noticed one room in particular had been the catch-all for storage, clutter and junk.  It was like a whirlpool of attraction for everything in my house that didn't have a space of its own, and there was a lot of it.  It was disorganized, cluttered, messy, and therefore, for me, anxiety-producing and overwhelming.  The Feng Shui read?  It was my room of relationships, which at that time were disorganized, cluttered, messy, and therefore, for me, anxiety producing and overwhelming.

I made it a top priority to clean it out, and sure enough, things fell into place. 

My task for the next two weeks, leading up to the Imbolc Ritual at my home, will be to continue with the decluttering and get the house in order.  It's nearly there.  Then my main room, which is our Ritual space, will be open and ready to receive Brigid's blessings.