Imbolc, Brigid, and Healing the Collective Unconscious

Happy Imbolc to those who celebrate!

Imbolc is the Celtic celebration of the goddess Brigid (pronounced “BREED”), who is the goddess of the hearth and fire, healing, smith work, and poetry. Imbolc comes in the middle of Aquarius season, associating Brigid with the energies of Aquarius (happy birthday to those of you with this Brigid energy!). Aquarius energy is associated with social healing, change, and innovation, as well as creative endeavors like poetry. During the time of Aquarius, we move from the depths of Capricorn winter, when structures like homes and social institutions that provide food and warmth are crucial, into the stirring of spring and the hints of newness. At this time, questioning institutions is as important as acknowledging their power to protect.

In one story, Brigid, is said to have lost her son in a battle and gone to the battlefield to keen over his death. This is said to be the first keening over loss of a loved one. In some ways this story is very true to the transition between Capricorn and Aquarius. Capricorn is the good soldier, who upholds the institution, while Aquarius sees the broader picture and the social change necessary for the community to serve the most vulnerable. Aquarius has learned that being a good soldier is not always the answer and often causes the harms it is trying to prevent.

Photo by Haley Owens on Unsplash

The Sun will be in the middle of Aquarius (15 degrees) this year at 12:02pm Pacific on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, and this can be a good time to celebrate Imbolc. It is sometimes considered the astrological moment of Imbolc. This is the chart, using whole sign houses, for the moment when the Sun goes to 15 degrees Aquarius in case you follow astrological charts:

Thanks to Astrotheoros for their beautiful charts!

This puts the Sun between two femme deities very aligned with Brigid: Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, at 12 degrees Aquarius; and Venus, the goddess of beauty and poetry, at 21 degrees Aquarius. These celestial bodies are in the 9th house, the house of higher education, ideals, and belief systems. This moment on February 3 offers us a time to sit with our ideals and belief systems and how they can contribute to healing the collective.

The Full Moon in Leo happens on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at 2:08pm Pacific, and this is another marker of energy relevant to Brigid. This Full Moon happens with the Sun at 13 degrees of Aquarius and the Moon at 13 degrees of Leo, so this Full Moon is almost exactly conjunct the midpoint of Aquarius as well. Aquarius brings energy of innovation, social justice, and the collective; Leo brings energy of the self, being in the spotlight, and personal identity.

The Leo Full Moon represents a tension between being ourselves and serving the collective. If I want to be me, is it selfish? If I want to serve the collective, does that mean I have to go against my nature? Now is a very relevant time to ask ourselves these questions.

And, they are the wrong questions. In some ways, there are no bad questions, but in other ways, the questions we ask ourselves matter a lot. They both reflect the path we are on and allow us to choose a new path. These questions assume the Leo/Aquarius polarity is all there is. They assume that it is either me or the collective, and any time we get stuck in that kind of either/or thinking, we’ve gone into Pluto territory. Pluto has been in Aquarius for the past year, so this polarized thinking is all the rage right now and may continue to be for some time.

Healing the Collective

As a poet, healer, and representative of Aquarius, Brigid is a wonderful symbol for our abilities to heal the collective. I come from the (admittedly very Aries) belief that it is through being fully ourselves that we best contribute to healing our communities.

Being fully ourselves means having integrity between our minds, bodies, emotions, and spirits (our four cups, if you will). And, at the same time, when we only focus on our personal healing, we indulge in narcissism. We are individual humans living in communities, both in terms of our physical communities and the collective unconscious. So, both are true. The Moon’s Leo energy of embodying the self and being the best co-exists with the importance of protest, social justice, and envisioning a better world.

In order to heal the collective, we have to ask better, less superstitious questions. Here are a few to ask yourself over this Imbolc season. You can talk these through with a friend or get out a journal or sketch pad and write or draw through them.

What are ways I find it easy to be my full self while I am with other people?

In what ways do I find it challenging to be my full self while I am with other people?

If I assume that being myself contributes to my community, what are some of the ways I’ve seen that happen or heard people say they have seen that? (This is not a time to debate whether being yourself contributes, but a time to see ways it does.)

What is a block I am willing to release in order to be more fully myself so that I can help heal the collective?

I am thinking about offering some ongoing notes about the ritual work I do every day to contribute to healing the collective unconscious. This work does not exist on its own as a substitute for engaging with community, but I find it impactful for myself and the coaching and remediation clients I work with. Let me know if notes about this sound helpful.

Collective Healing. As an example, one shift that I believe is quite straightforward for many people right now is around the thought, “I’m not contributing enough.” This thought sounds like it would motivate us to do more, but if you sit with the thought, understanding that it is not an observation, you may notice that it actually makes you feel helpless. It does so for me at least. When I feel helpless, I actually give up, rather than doing more. So, the thought “I’m not contributing enough” actually makes it more difficult for me to contribute. I call this a sabotage spell because it creates what it is trying prevent.

Instead, if we want to heal our communities, we have to ask, What actions can I take to contribute to healing my community? Then, make a list of activities you might be able to engage in. The next question is, What feeling would motivate me to engage in one of those activities? For me, the feeling may be belonging. Then, a thought that might contribute to feeling belonging is, “I love my community and am willing to do one thing to contribute to its healing.”

The more of us who are willing to heal our thinking in this way, the more the collective unconscious heals and the easier it is to see evidence of healing in our communities.

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