Spinning Light In Midwinter: Call Me Jedi Blue Feather
As winter lingers and the first whispers of spring stir beneath the surface, how do we honor this in-between season? In this episode, Alexander Blue Feather reflects on Imbolc, the Gaelic festival marking the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox. He explores the themes of rest, renewal, and the quiet work happening beneath the surface—both in nature and within ourselves. Drawing from Katherine May’s wisdom and his own creative practices, he invites listeners to slow down, tend to their roots, and embrace small rituals of light and stillness. Plus, updates on Wise Circles, new watercolor prints, and the music that’s been carrying him through this season.
Mentioned in this episode:
✨ Imbolc and the art of honoring winter’s pause
✨ Katherine May’s reflections on midwinter
✨ Music as a companion in silence and transformation
✨ Small rituals to welcome renewal
✨ Updates on Wise Circles & creative offerings
Tune in and join this journey of deep listening, reflection, and gentle awakening.
KEY POINTS & THEMES
Midwinter as a Sacred Pause
We are in the middle of winter—still a time for inward reflection.
Imbolc represents a threshold moment, honoring both rest and renewal.
Aligning with nature’s rhythms can help reduce stress and anxiety.
Catherine May’s Wisdom on Midwinter
“We do the sun’s work while it rests.”
“Time slows to treacle.” → Encourages slowing down and embracing stillness.
“We tend to our roots in the subterranean darkness.” → Calls for introspection before external growth.
Personal Updates & Offerings
Wise Circles: Enrollment is open, with the first session starting March 4.
Watercolor Prints: Limited edition artwork available on his website.
Silent Retreat Reflections: Upcoming episodes will explore his experiences with noble silence.
Music, Contemplation & Expression
Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Renaissance as powerful soundtracks for processing emotions.
The importance of song, silence, fire, and ritual in spiritual practice.
Nikita Gill’s prose on resilience—small efforts matter.
Imbolc-Inspired Practices
Renewal & Light: Using candles, fire, and slow movements to honor transition.
Creativity & Expression: Writing, painting, or singing as forms of healing.
Meditation & Intuition: Deepening mindfulness practices.
Rituals of Cleansing: Decluttering physical and mental spaces.
Honoring Hearth & Home: Creating warmth and sacredness in living spaces.
TAKEAWAYS & NEXT STEPS
Slow Down & Align with Midwinter Energy
Pause, reflect, and acknowledge where you are emotionally and spiritually.
Allow rest without guilt—winter is still here.
Cultivate Small, Intentional Rituals
Light a candle, journal, or engage in creative expression daily.
Embrace both music and silence as tools for grounding.
Reflect on the Sun’s Work in Your Life
What does "doing the sun’s work while it rests" mean for you?
Identify small ways to embody light in your own space and energy.
Join the Wise Circles or Explore Other Offerings
If seeking community and guidance, consider enrolling in Wise Circles.
Explore Alexander’s guided meditation and creative resources.
Make Space for Renewal
Declutter physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
Set intentions for the next few weeks leading up to the spring equinox.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Viral Mindfulness, the podcast. I'm your host, Alexander Bluefeather. It's midwinter. It's the middle. There's still time to tend to your roots.
Welcome back. Soul sibling, it's February 3, 2025 in real time. How's it going? I was starting to feel overwhelmed last week, maybe the week before. Oh, maybe the whole month of January.
And I'm like, wait. I don't have to do all this. Wait. It's winter. It's not even the middle.
Now it's the middle. We just passed the middle. I think we're right on the cusp. February 1st, 2nd, 3rd ish. There's also a festival, a traditional Gaelic festival, Imbolc.
It's also called Saint Brigid's Day. It marks the beginning of spring and for some Christians, it's the feast day of Saint Brigid. It's Ireland's patron saint. The traditional date is the 1st February but I kind of saw some things that said February second. Here we are on February 3rd.
It's about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. So, if you don't know, my new year is on spring equinox. So, where are you? What? Well, well, well, what the hell's going on in your world?
Don't stress. Oh. Take a deep breath. Drop your shoulders. And here we are.
I just have a couple of quick things I wanna share, and then I'll be right back here in this feed for lots of juicy love. First up, I returned to last time we were here on the podcast together, closer to winter solstice. So, if you remember, I was falling in love and I created a guided meditation. So, it's before this episode, and it's borrowing from the words of Catherine May. Her incantation for the winter solstice back in December 2024.
So, I just took out the parts that I wanted to focus on. So this is what I wanted to remind you, simplify, down to the essential, staying close to the roots, the winter. Yes, there might be a tinge, an aroma of spring. I felt an aroma actually today. That's why I'm here.
And also, why circle? Why circles are open for enrollment? I'll get to that in a minute. So here is the essential, whittling it down. These are Catherine May's words.
These are our words. These are our words for marking the mid winter, the middle between the solstice of winter and the equinox of spring. And maybe we're going to make creative offerings this week as symbols, as offerings So, here are the words. Ready? We do the sun's work.
While it rests. So here we are in mid winter doing the sun's work. I've decided that I'm spinning light. And I have a very strong name now. It is now Jedi Blue Feather.
If you don't know already the House of Blue, you can belong. You just have to promise me that you will be kind, spread kindness, presence, and cheer. Of course, if you do beautiful things in the world, that's amazing as well. So, Jedi blue feather, JBF. Do you know that I have several blue feathers now?
And recently someone told me that I'll just leave it at this. She told me that, well, she bought a print from my store. Oh yeah. My website, I do have prints for sell. There are, there are 5 different ones to choose from.
There are some left there's several different sizes. They're really beautiful. They're 5 of the top pieces from last year's rainwater paintings. I also have several originals from that show that are also at my website. So, this person bought a print and she told me that when she got the print that same day in the mail, her kiddo came home from school and she opened the backpack and she saw child of mine, sweet child of mine.
Woah. Woah. Sweet. I'm sure she didn't sing it like that, but maybe where did you get this blue feather sticker that's in your backpack? And kiddo said, I don't know.
And she said, you don't know. She loved, I mean, I would love that serendipity too. So, I actually have several 4 blue feathers now that have found me. I love them. Did you know there's a book out there in the world called Bluets, B L U E T S?
It's written by Maggie Nelson. I think there's 2 Maggie Nelson's. It's not the one, it's the other. Alright. So, we're spinning light.
It's midwinter, so don't worry. Okay? So how do we do the sun's work? So that's my first question. What is the sun's work in your life?
And if you were to be the sun right now in your own world, in your space, how would you do the sun's work while it's still resting? We keep it alive in fire and candlelight, in song, and silence. So, is there a way for you to connect with fire? I have candles going all the time at my house during this season. Are you connecting with song and music?
Silence. Oh, you know who's been on my soundtrack the last 2 weeks? Beyonce. For several reasons. 1, there was a recent rolling stones release about 250 of the best albums in the, in the last a 100 years.
Or was it this century? You think I would fact check, right? For my episode it's winter people, just search rolling stones. Lemonade was number 1. And I realized, oh, Beyonce's lemonade.
We'll start with the first one. We'll work our way back. And I saw Lemonade back in, go, 2015 or 16, the the visual HBO premier of the visual album. And I remember loving it. I never have really listened to I have some hot tea right now, some peppermint probiotic tea to enhance digestion too before bed.
Isn't that nice? So, I started listening to it and oh my gosh, it's so good. It's the energy I need right now. And yes, very much the energy I need as a human, as an American who's not at all happy about Donald Trump's return to the White House nor happy at all with the last 2 weeks and how this so trigger warning, content warning. I'll make sure I give those to you.
That way you can check out from this part of the podcast, if that's what you desire. But for now, Beyonce is a soundtrack. That's bringing me meaning in my body and my heart and my anguish and the juggling of long term hope and short term terror being alarmed and horrified at the shock and chaos and confusion and unkindness of such a person in leadership. So next up was of course, Renaissance 1 and I loved Renaissance 2, cowboy Carter. It's so good.
Well, Renaissance, I guess, part 1. So it's just wonderful for me. So what is the song? What is the soundtrack and how you doing with silence? Noble silence.
I never used my words yet to tell you about my silent retreat. I kept coming to the podcast to try and form words around it. And alas you've had to wait. And for that, I'm grateful for your patience. And I will visit it over the next couple weeks, for sure.
And give you some highlights. So, back to Catherine May's essential words. In the dark of mid winter, we make the light. Will you join me? Will you channel your Jedi powers?
Time slows to treacle. It's okay to take your time still. We are taught our lesson of deceleration. Decelerate. Oh, yes.
Take your foot off the gas. No more accelerating right now. Contemplation. We are taught of contemplation. I love contemplating, contemplative.
It's such a cool word too. In fact, yesterday, on Sunday, February 2nd, I decided to have a very contemplative day and to use very few words and to touch the silent medicine that I am cultivating. Oh, I can't wait to tell you about silence. A couple wonderful developments have come forward and I can't wait to share them with you. Including a place I found where I can go in person and do just some silence around community and fresh meals each day.
So back to Catherine May's words, we are taught our lesson of deceleration, of contemplation, of contact with life's still heartbeat. So, I am making a reengaged commitment here. I hope you'll join me to surrender to these ideas and to really make contact with life's still heartbeat for 5 to 6 more weeks before my new year and before the spring equinox comes. I hope you'll join me. There are a few more words from Catherine May.
Listen to these. Life above ground hangs in suspension. Doesn't that feel true? What a huge January. We tend to our roots in the subterranean darkness.
We tend to our roots. So as life is above ground hanging in suspension, stressful, crazy in subterranean darkness. That's our space, our sacred space right now. We tend to our roots, Root tending. The year dies softly as it sleeps.
It's still dying, honeys. It's sleeping. And we cradle its rebirth soon. I promise. So here are our mantras.
May we allow the sun to rest. You are the sun. You are the light. Remember? So may you rest.
May we allow time to fall still. Make sure you have moments of stillness regularly. And may we discover what flourishes in the quiet margins of the year. If you wanna go back and use the guided meditation that I use with these words, it might be a beautiful practice. I wanted to tell you what's on my analog calendar.
I'm holding it here in my hand. I keep writing the same phrases, the same to dos on my analog. Sit. Move. Spirit read.
Paint. Move yoga. Spirit, read, read, draw music, art. Oh, today I wrote podcast. Oh, I wrote why circle.
Yes. Why circles are open for enrollment? All the details are at my website. First one starts on March 4th, Tuesday, a month from tomorrow. So I, I, I caught myself being like, oh, this is so funny every day.
This, these are the main things you write. Yeah. My spiritual practices. And in fact, those are part of my white circles are the practice labs where I share with you 5 of the most important practices as part of our additional curriculum. The main part of the wise circle is 90 minutes once a week together community.
There's a bunch of beautiful testimonials and details at my website. You can find them there. And there's additional resources, supplemental lessons, and audios, 30 minutes that focus on the practice labs movement, Movement to the body especially. And then our emotions also move with our body. Drawing, how music impacts our life, writing, meditation.
I have one why circle that's gonna be 6 weeks and that's the first one that starts a month from tomorrow. And I'm adding an additional practice lab. We will focus on noble silence and poetry for one of the practice lab weeks. And the remaining three circles that are open for enrollment now have 5 weeks. So they all start different times.
There are different days of the week. There's always a Tuesday circle. That's kind of my signature time. It's the one that always sells out. So you're welcome to head to Viral Mindfulness.com and get all of the details.
And as I was looking at the things I write every day, these small and important parts, I was struck again with the idea of the small things. And so I wanted to read to you this really beautiful, just very short and finished with this today. It's by a woman named Nikita Gill. And this is the title of the short prose poem, a reminder from smaller beings. The bird, building her home on your windowsill, has had every nest destroyed before.
The spider that is delicately weaving a silken masterpiece has had every single thread broken before. And despite it all, they try again. So here I am, again, beginning again, a new episode, I'll be right back this week with more beautiful, helpful ideas for you to cultivate along the spiritual path. I think of us as not just soul siblings but aren't we spiritual explorers? Yeah.
Let's explore a couple more ideas from the theme of Imbolc and how we can inspire focus and our spiritual practice for for the next couple days. So remember, part of this festival in bulk is deeply tied to Brigid, the Celtic goddess of healing, poetry, creativity, fertility, and protection. So, let's look at 3 quick themes and some ideas about how to focus your efforts, small efforts this week. Number 1, renewal and light. Number 2 will be creativity and expression.
And then 3 will be meditation and intuition. Number 4, rituals of cleansing and preparation. Number 5, honoring the hearth and home. So first up, renewal and light. You could think of Imbolc as a threshold moment.
Winter still lingers. And when I catch myself trying to be somewhere else like spring and hopeful and it's creating that friction. 50% of the time we are in conflict with how we're really feeling. So instead of trying to force ourselves to feel good or to be in spring mode, winter is still lingering. But the first signs of spring might be emerging.
So in renewal and light you can also use this time to clean inner and outer spaces. Like physically decluttering. Yesterday I had the most incredible shift where I decided to take out the front closet. I don't hang anything in there. And I I am like, I need storage in here.
I'm like, I need to build, build. I need to go buy a shelf from target or Ikea. So I did, I cleaned it out. I got rid of stuff. I put stuff in storage and I put this 8 box shelf.
I got out my measuring tape. It was just perfect. And yes, I have like 500% more storage now for my front living room art station. It's amazing. So, take the time right now to declutter physically.
Spiritually, you could release old burdens. And creatively, you could make room for new inspiration. With renewal and light, practice lighting a candle at sunrise or sunset as a symbol of the returning light and your own personal renewal. I'm gonna go to the sunrise tomorrow and I'm gonna think of you and send you love. And as I light a candle in the morning before I go to sunrise, I will focus on this idea that each of us starts to cultivate our personal renewal as light is returning, spring is coming.
Alright, so number 2 the theme of creativity and expression. Bridget is the patroness of poetry and storytelling, the arts, in bulk is a time to invite new creative flow. I have been at my arts desk all month but I haven't been painting the paintings. I've been working on little projects. I've been finishing things.
I've been flowing. I've been sketching. I've been doing loose little practice exercises. I'll share some of them with you over at my substack which I'm gonna start posting regularly. The current working title for my substack is bluescape.
I love it. Blue scape, something along the lines of my gender journey. So coming soon Number 2 or the final part of this creativity and expression theme, practice. Dedicate time over the next few days to writing, to painting, to playing music, to making something with your hands, to fixing something. Let spontaneity guide you.
Maybe consider writing a small blessing or song or poem or drawing a short symbol to represent this honor of your journey. The third theme of Imbolc and how we can inspire our focus right now, meditation intuition. Right now, the thinning veil between winter and spring makes this a powerful time for inwardness. I love that word. Listening inward ness.
Listening inward. Practice. Sit in meditation. One of the strongest things I'm doing right now is I'll sit for 1 minute. I'll set my timer for 1 minute and I feel like such a fool.
I'm just a fool. And it's really interesting how meaningful it is and how much it inspires me to do another session, to do a longer one. And maybe here's a few questions you could ask yourself or journal prompt about. What is the stirring within me? What is stirring within me right now?
Now? And let those answers rise gently like seeds beginning to sprout underground. What is stirring within me? Do you know what's stirring within me? I really want to move.
I want to move to a totally different place. I'm not sure. Lots of thoughts are there and of course I think oh wouldn't it be cool to live close to Harvey? And there's all kinds of other places, like, wouldn't it be cool to live in Switzerland? That's my part of my home country, right?
My mother was born in Baron, Switzerland. Alright, we have 2 more themes to cover. Are you ready? Number 4 is rituals of cleansing and preparation. Imbolc is associated with water and purification.
Reflecting the melting of ice and the washing away of the old. You could practice by taking a ritual bath with herbs like rosemary, chamomile, or lavender. Oh, that's what I'm gonna do. I just got some fresh rosemary from my neighbor yesterday when I was building that bookshelf. I'm gonna take a hot rosemary bath also tomorrow.
Bless your space with water or a simple prayer of renewal. And finally, the 5th theme for us is honoring the hearth and home. Bridget is also a hearth goddess, symbolizing warmth, nourishment, and community. The practice could be to cook a simple meal with intention. Oh, I did do that yesterday.
I totally did. I am in this theme of flow. I made bolognese with ground buffalo. It was so calming and beautiful to dice carrots and celery and onion, the mia pois, and to ground the beef, the bison actually, and to boil the water and add some really beautiful noodles. So, offer a portion of gratitude in your preparation to the ancestors and to your guides or the land.
My the wise ones, my ancestors, and those who have passed who have died, who were some of my loves and friends, as well as my ancestors. I have invited them into my life to be connected to them through the threshold and the veil. And that they are the wise ones. Ancestors, guides from beyond, from over there, from under there, under where, under there. Alright.
Humans, that's what I have for you. Isn't that beautiful? I'll be back real soon. Like maybe in like 5 seconds. Maybe if you count to 5, there'll be a new episode.
All right. So sibling, I'll see you right back here real soon. Wise circles now enrolling students. What if group therapy and a soul nourishing listening circle fell in love with a writer's retreat then moved into a cozy mountain cabin full of cashmere blankets. Welcome to my signature offering, the Y circle.
Y circles 5 or 6 weeks. It's a small group experience designed to nurture healing and growth within a supportive and intimate space. I'll be your field guide. And in this program, we integrate mindfulness, therapeutic practices and spiritual exploration. We'll focus on practice labs like movement, music, meditation, writing, and drawing.
I have one supersized circle that's 6 weeks and will add noble silence and poetry for an additional practice lab. The y circle cultivates deep self awareness and emotional resilience. Through guided practices and heartfelt sharing, participants experience a compassionate environment where vulnerability is honored and meaningful connections emerge. Enroll now at viralmindfulness.com.
