About Us
Our background and aims
Gylden Community is a magickal and spiritual group. We support, promote and organise pagan events within the Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and Berkshire areas. It's a place for all those who feel drawn to nature-based beliefs and for meeting like-minded folk. You’ll find us at spiritual events throughout Southern England, celebrating sabbats, publishing regular magickal help and having lots of laughter at gigs, picnics and socials too.
Gylden Community is not a traditional pagan group. We link to our friends in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Bracknell, Farnham and anywhere else that hosts magickal or spiritual groups. We visit to share fellowship – and they can visit us too.
As a pagan library, we share knowledge and experience with others, not only via monthly publications or online files, but also at themed discussions or fayres where we can put aside time to show others what each of us can do or have learned along our specific pathways.
Gylden Community works with Guildford & Godalming Interfaith Forum, Woking Action for Peace and other Interfaith bodies to promote spiritual tolerance. We raise funds for charity whenever possible via our presence at public fayres, including Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and Step By Step charities.
Gylden Magick magazine
Our regular monthly magazine is also on: www.facebook.com/groups/gyldenpaganfellowship/
Our February 2025 issue includes the following features:
- Imbolg magick
- nature: restoring the Ingleborough peatlands
- science: classroom learning
- prehistory: Neolithic footprints
- science: sleep medicines and dreaming
- beliefs: Forty Shilling Day
- Parinirvana
- nature updates in Horsham
- crystals: the Roman use of variscite
- celestial forecasts for February (also published in full on Facebook)
- folklore: the Great Eastern curse.
Visit our Gylden Magick magazine archives for past issues.
Working with others
Pagan/ spiritual groups in the Gylden Community area - all are listed on meet-up or Facebook.
Arun Traditional Witchcraft (Arundel)
Association of Sussex Pagans
Basingstoke Pagan Circle
Basingstoke Pagan Moots
Berkshire Witches & Wiccans
Blackthorn Witchcraft UK (Havant)
The Circle of Ankerwycke (Staines)
CoA Southampton Witches
Colours of the Oak Moot (Bracknell)
Crawley and Horsham Pagan Moot
Godalming and Villages Moot
Guildford Mantra Meditation
Guardians of the Grove (Chichester)
Hampshire Pagans for Environmental Change (Southampton)
Horndean Positive Living Group
Horsham and West Sussex Pagans
Moon Rituals Portsmouth
North Surrey Pagan Circle (Weybridge)
Pagan Federation South Central
Reading Berkshire Pagans
Rollright Circle of Friends (Chipping Norton)
Rowan & Thorn Druid Grove (Alton)
Seasons of Albion Moot (Farnham)
The Witches' Inn (Redhill)
University of Portsmouth Pagan and Spiritual Society
University of Southampton Pagan & Witchcraft Society
Worthing Pagan Moot
Imbolg/ Imbolc/ Oimelc 2025 ©
Imbolg/ Imbolc/ Oimelc is a Celtic festival that falls on the mid-point between Yule and the Spring Equinox at Ostara, this year on Friday eve, 31 January until Saturday eve, 1 February. It was known as Oimelc or I’mbolg and the light increases each day. At burial places like Newgrange, underground chambers align perfectly with the rising sun on Imbolg. Some open-air rituals may be found, e.g. Basingstoke Pagan Circle, and some moots are holding talks about Imbolg, e.g. Colours of the Oak Moot in Bracknell or Reading Pagan Moot.
Let’s start with Oimelc, which is a Gaelic word meaning “ewes’ milk”, whereas I’mbolg means “in the belly”. Both words refer to the start of the lambing season for Celtic farmers: many ewes had given birth to lambs and this was a time of celebration. Spring was not far off and it would be time to plant the crops as the ground thawed. Both the new lambs and the ewes’ milk would help people to survive the winter, as the stocks of meat and grain stored at Samhain might be running low.
The Goddess, Brighid (or Bride) is the keeper of the sacred flame, the guardian of home and hearth. As a way of honouring Brighid, rituals of purification and cleansing are common. Her name means “bright one” and she was the daughter of the chief god, Dagda. Brighid is a goddess of poets, healers and midwives, but also symbolises a war-like aspect as the fabled Brigantia who battled the Romans.
A Celtic celebration at Imbolg was not a massive community fire like those at Beltane or Samhain. As Brighid looked after homes, each home would have its own fire, burning through the night. If the home was built of wood or thatch, some would prefer that candles were lit in each living area. In the Christian calendar, Imbolg falls on the same day as Candlemas.
Here are some ideas for celebrating Imbolg in your own homes.
Ø Making a Brighid doll (brideog) out of straw, flowers or shells
Ø Making candles out of beeswax
Ø Planting spring flowers
Ø Cleansing the home for spring
Ø Lighting a white or green candle, if you don’t have an open fire
Ø Making a Brighid cross or a straw cradle or bed, the Ieaba Brid
Ø It’s a good time of the year for scrying or divination
Ø Composing and reading poetry
Ø Storytelling
Ø Placing snowdrops or swan feathers on your altar
Ø Making a Brat Brigidhe for a sick person (or ribín Bríghud) – otherwise known as St Brigit’s Ribbon – and leaving this strip of cloth on an outside door or window overnight. Next morning, the ribbon is placed on the patient’s head as a well-known cure for headaches.
© 2025, Written by Gylden Fellowship
Blessings for Imbolg