Taking vows at Imbolc is a long-standing tradition among those who walk The Wheel of the Year.
Vows are a way to honor our precious life force.
It’s also a way to focus it, keeping us on track for soul growth and connection with the divine.
Admittedly, vows can feel intimidating, kinda heavy.
But they’re actually meant to lighten the load.
At Imbolc, we walk with The Priestess archetype, a wisdom that includes the concept of “the empty vessel”, or “the blank page”.
Fresh from the Dreaming time of Winter Solstice, The Priestess walks into the dawn of a fresh year with weeks and weeks of unknown spread out before her.
The Priestess archetype knows what to do with “empty”.
Rather than fill these weeks with frenzied scheduling, she allows “the blank page”; she knows the wisdom of spaciousness.
This wisdom knows to leave room for the divine, so The Priestess builds in wide margins — blank space — everywhere she can.
In the same way our overculture uses dark as a synonym for “bad, evil, unethical, or disturbing”, it hears empty and thinks “lack, scarcity, poverty, not-enough”.
But our Priestess intelligence knows better.
The wisdom of Imbolc and The Priestess helps us embrace what empty allows; space for the divine to inhabit, a free-flowing channel through which wisdom can pass, serendipity, creativity, and room to receive.
If the cup is full, it can hold no more.
Like a server walking a restaurant with a pitcher of water, topping off empty glasses, glasses that are full will be passed by; why spill water and make a mess?
So, Priestess wisdom uses emptiness and spaciousness to make room to receive, especially the blessings we aren’t even aware that we want or need.
And vows can help us stay empty.
In the Darkwood curriculum, the empty chalice is the tool/symbol for the Priestess archetype, an empty container ready to receive.
And so, vows can be looked at as the container itself, the material of the vessel.
The way a cup “focuses” water by holding it, allowing us to drink it easily rather than lapping it up from a formless puddle, vows focus the divine.
Vows create a container where the divine can land, so we can drink it in the form of lessons, synchronicities, relationships, and myriad opportunities for revelations and soul growth.
Vows also focus our attention and energy.
When we vow to do something, we’re saying this and only this.
A nun vows “only the divine”. A monogamous marriage vows only you.
But that kinda sounds like filling, right?
Only you can sound like “I will fill my life with you”.
Oof, and that’s where we mess up.
Instead, only you actually allows for tons of spaciousness.
When we vow only you, the amount of thinking spent on “who should I be with” is null; I’m with you.
It frees up energy, fuel, that can be used for other things.
This vow creates space, emptiness.
The nun isn’t wondering what to do, she knows; I’m with the divine.
When we take vows at Imbolc, it frees up the energy it takes to wonder what am I doing with my life, what am I here for, what’s happening to me?
Vows focus your attention, which frees up tons of space and fuel.
Remember last autumn, right after Hurricane Helene, when I wrote you about my vow for that season?
It was to persist.
Whenever I was tempted to get lost in the maelstrom or wonder what to do in the midst of such chaos and destruction, I could feel that vow focusing me.
All I’m here to do this season is persist. One thing.
As long as I’m persisting, I am aligned and allowing space for the divine.
But here’s the cool thing — I took that vow at Imbolc, no clue as to how the fresh year would unfold, no idea how timely this vow would be.
And this year, 2025, vows are more important than ever.
I wrote this prediction in the 2025 Darkwood Almanac:
2025 will be a year of profound commitments. The way you devote your life force will ripple throughout time and space, exponentially affecting your personal evolution and everyone whom your devotion benefits. Take your vows seriously this year.
Allies who support your vows this year are paramount. Make sure that the people you’re spending time around naturally contribute to your focus and devotion, whether they are aware of your vows or not. You will spend the year discerning and refining this.
This prediction is based on my observations of the patterns of Nature, specifically the moon’s phases and how they align with the seasons.
So I shall repeat, take your vows seriously this year, double entendre intended.
OK cool. But how do you know what vows to take?
There are a bazillion ways to determine this.
Here’s how I do it.
First, I look at the archetype I’m Walking With this year (Mystery School students have worksheets and a class about this).
(Walking With an archetype is a vow in its own right.)
But anyway, then I bullet point that archetype’s wisdom, and choose seven points.
Or, I would feel out 7 points of growth or curiosity that I need or want to focus on.
For each of the seven, I create a sentence or a short phrase (like to persist). These are the vows.
I write each vow on a strip of paper, fold them up, and draw one for each season (minus the Dreaming).
I record which vow goes with each season, then forget about it until each season begins. At the start of the season, I review my vow and the Year Ahead oracle card (also worksheets and classes about that for the Mystery School students).
Done and done!
With these vows, I am focused, deliberate, and devoted; ready for the divine to fill me with the teachings and opportunities that will grow my soul and build my wisdom.
Also, during Imbolc and under each Priestess moon, I’ll have empty bowls and cups on my altar to remind me that my vows are containers, holding space where I can connect with myself and the divine (the Priestess’s mission statement).
And, any empty bowl or cup I encounter — at a restaurant, a friend’s house, or in a shop — can be a symbol, a reminder to take a breath into my empty lungs and remember the holiness of empty; space for the divine.
So, blessed Imbolc, and blessed vow-taking.
Blessed soul growth and wisdom building as this fresh year dawns.
love and Imbolc,
xo
kv
