Today in secular terms is Groundhog Day, but in Celtic tradition it is known as Imbolq, the special day mid-way between winter solstice and spring equinox. Six weeks after the shortest day of the year, we can now see clearly that the sun is returning. One of the traditional “tasks” for this day is to completely sweep out the hearth, the heart of the home, and lay in a completely new fire. One might also do this with the human heart, and so I dedicated my morning’s labyrinth walk to this task – sweeping out the old ashes and preparing a completely clean heart-space for what is to come.
