February 2, so this is the day, 'IMBOLC', St Brigid's Day, a numinous day in my calendar.
Imbolc, February 2nd, is a cross quarter day, falling as it does between the midpoints of Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox {if you reside in the Northern Hemisphere}. February 2nd is variously known as Imbolc, Feast of Pan, Festival of Snowdrops. Americans on this day of course have their own quirky 'Groundhog Day' mythology, tracking back to 1887: "the day when thousands of people gather outside a small Pennsylvania town to watch a marmot's annual weather prediction trump all other meteorologists' forecasts." [England's Daily Express newspaper reporting on this tradition].
Now I'll come back to Old Country 'Imbolc', as described by Wikipedia: "Imbolc or Imbolg (/ɪˈmɒlɡ/ i-MOLG), also called (Saint) Brigid's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Bríde, Scottish Gaelic: Là Fhèill Brìghde, Manx: Laa'l Breeshey), is a Gaelic traditional festival marking the beginning of spring.
So this was the day I first took my womb tumor/fibroid tumor to a medical doctor and heard the words from my M.D.: A hundred out of a hundred surgeons would say you need this removed immediately along with your womb, but I think you're doing something different and you're capable of doing it. I can only give you three months, because this thing is pressing up against all your internal organs [the size of a six month fetus]..
That was the beginning of the mega soul-size journey, that took me back to Scotland, to 'walk the physical land with my mother..., and brother and sister, to address a deep lineage wounding. That story is integral to my book 'Guest At The Mouth of the Womb'; self-published on Amazon, journal entries and background notes, to share with others this transformative womb journey my body cried out for; not for surgery, not to be 'cut out', but an astonishing opportunity to address a deeply ingrained pattern, a lineage wound, to be resolved and dissolved.
So this February 2nd Anniversary harks back to where it all began; from finding my way to this godsend metaphysician M.D. on this day, to stumbling upon a group of women and men who were about to do a burden basket burning on the beach that very same day/night; February 2nd. That evening turned into an utterly memorable spontaneous emerging ceremony, in which I became the 'bird in the basket' before it was ceremonial set on fire (after I climbed out!). That #Imbolc evening on Monterey Bay Santa Cruz shore was to set the tone for the Journey that lay ahead, a journey that would demand of me, demand of us, the wit to turn on a dime, listen ever deeper, and follow through, to be brought to encounters and epiphanies that were beyond what any of us could have dreamed or imagined.
Guest At The Mouth of the Womb, Amazon book blurb: "Guest At the Mouth of the Womb addresses the fundamental question: why would a body grow something that is harmless but useless, and begins with the premise that so-called fibroids are neither harmless nor useless. Today these tumors in the uterus rank as the number one reason for hysterectomy in the USA and the UK, though categorized as "benign." An abnormal growth that leads to the loss of womb is not benign. "Fibroids", as they are called today, are identified in a Chinese scroll dated 100 BC specifically: “Cold Qi is a guest at the mouth of the womb." Cold Qi ('chee') is stagnant frozen energy which is, by nature, less than positive. But these growths embody a story that needs to be heard and told so that they do not come in vain. To engage with their presence as a 'guest' then is inspired. Since the least helpful thing we can bring to any bodily condition is a contracted fear state (at what will happen), we make a decision to bring a curious spirit of inquiry. And the grand journey begins…"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1514313847/ref=cm_sw_su_dp