Imbolc Project, rock candy

Pre-Imbolc Project

Homemade Rock Candy!

Okay I know what you're going to say, "It's the beginning of January, I've got Yule bells ringing in my head! Why are you doing Imbolc now?" We seem to have a strange love/hate relationship with winter. All the way until late November we celebrate the harvest season, and then ram Yule and high winter down everyone's throats the next day. Immediately fallowing Christmas? We curse the very fabric of the world around us and proclaim winter has been around far too long! Huh?

Imbolc is the time of year when inspiration hits of from the Goddess of creativity from every angle. You look backward at the joys of Winter, and you look forward to the promise of Spring. Around Imbolc you start seeing the tips of the trees swell with life like a new mother's belly, farm animals begin to lactate, rose hips ripen, and new trees go into the ground while still dormant. There are a lot of ideas roaming around, and there is a lot to plan, but really not a lot to do. This is the time of year that can seem just a little frustrating. The holidays are over-- quiet has been restored-- a quiet so deafening it sometimes makes it hard to sleep. We are a society that is constantly on the move, silence, and stillness can often be unnerving.

Pagan holidays are about listening and connecting to the Earth. Here in the Bay Area, winter has but a tenuous grip. Indeed the trees are starting to swell with life, some are in bloom already. Plans are thick into spring's garden. I have seedlings in the house already. But the air can still bite. Rain threatens to beat the windows almost every weekend, and when it isn't raining you can see frost on the grass and roofs in the morning. 

We need activities, something to do with our hands, our minds, and our hearts that keep us from going insane, and remind us that even if there is no holy day we are still children of Earth. The seasons call to us to bring a piece of them inside. There is no way, of course, to bring frost or snow in without it quickly melting, and I'm not into plastic and Styrofoam decorations... thus the Rock Candy.

One warning, before we continue

Rock Candy takes an ENORMOUS amount of SUGAR. I tried to do this on a whim, and well I made sugar water instead of rock candy. The good thing about this is if you fail to see crystals forming within 24 hours you can put the thing back onto the stove and add

yes more sugar.

To get started you will need:

3 parts sugar

1 part water

String or Skewers for the Crystals to cling to
Tall skinny glass

Remember while you are doing this that it is indeed a ritual. Be calm, and mindful, see the sugar as snow, your hand as Mother Earth stirring, and the fire as the light of the Earth returning.

1. Bring the water to a boil.

2. Poor in the sugar, some say a little at a time but I have no problem with all at once and stirr the living heck out of it!

3. Wait for the mix to cool a little. 20 or 30 minutes depending on how much you've made.

4. Place your strings or skewers into the syrup and set it in a cool dry place where it will remain undisturbed.

A Word of Warning

* I tried to do this the first time with raw sugar. DO NOT USE RAW SUGAR. This is one instance when the cheep stuff is the good stuff. Raw sugar still contains molases and the more sugar you add the darker the water will become until you have something that looks like tea instead of clear syrup.

There you have it, you've just made yourself rock candy. Now what the heck are you going to do with rock candy... besides put yourself into a sugar coma?

Take a good look at the sugar crystals, then look at the frost outside your window-- look familiar. You have brought into your home the impossible, frost that won't melt. Place this in your window to catch the light, or on your altar as a reminder that yes even winter has its preciousness. If you make enough of them you can turn your Yule wreath on its side and string them from it, making yourself your very own Imbolc sugar frost chandelier.

Pat yourself on the back. You've just bide your time to Imbolc.