B is for Brigid Brigit Brighid Bride - by Nan Brooks

                                                                Image by Beth Owl's Daughter

The days are getting longer, thank goodness, and we begin to notice as the hours of daylight increase.  We take heart -- spring will come again. We passed the cross-quarter day around February 1, called Imbolc or Imbolg or St. Michael’s Day or Candlemas depending on what spiritual tradition one follows or where one lives. It’s secular version in our culture is, oddly enough, Groundhog’s Day.  The association of a creature emerging from hibernation with Imbolc makes sense, odd though the connection seems. The groundhog’s behavior foretells how long we will have to wait for warm and sunny days. In the Northern Hemisphere, at any rate.

Cross quarter days are the midpoints between solstices and equinoxes and if I pay no attention to the calendar, I can tell when we’re near a cross-quarter because the people around me start remarking on how the hours of daylight are increasing or decreasing.

So Imbolc/Imbolg/St. Michael’s Day/Candlemas is cause for celebration, a harbinger, a ray of hope. In some traditions it is the day to celebrate St. Brigit, a holy figure through centuries of changing beliefs, or at least of changing religions.  Saint Bridget or St. Brigid is one of the patron saints of Ireland

Amantha Murphy, pre-Celtic Irish shaman, writes in her new book, The Way of the Seabhean*,

”Homage to Brigit goes back thousands of years. She was a prominent earth goddess of our ancient people in Ireland.  As a triple goddess, Brigit had three different roles in one. Brigit was a keeper of the flame and keeper of the hearth, which in Irish is often called neart (strength of life force)…”

She was also the midwife and healer, patroness of the arts, especially poetry, song (‘tis said she taught humans to whistle), and silvercrafting, which is, after all, a transformation of molten metal into the durable and beautiful. She is especially beloved of women who turn to her in birthing times and in difficult times of all sorts. Many goddesses are said to have epiphanies – objects and beings in nature that carry their sacred energy and strength.  It is said that silver is sacred to Brigid, as are cows and their milk, flowing water, flames, and the land of Ireland itself. Across Ireland there are many wells dedicated to Brigid where people come to drink the healing waters and leave offerings.

                                                              Brigid's Well at Clare, Ireland

There is an old story that long long ago, Brigid asked the King of Leinster for land in Kildare upon which to build her sanctuary. He refused, but she and her sisters prayed that the king’s heart would open. She asked again, this time requesting as much land as her cloak would cover. The king laughed at her and agreed. Brigid then asked four sisters to each take a corner of her cloak and walk in opposite directions and so the cloak magically spread to the north, south, east and west across many acres. And that his how her sanctuary at Kildare came to be.  For hundreds of years, the Brigidine nuns kept a flame alive at Kildare until the Christians came and destroyed her sanctuary.  The Brigidine Sisters continue in our time and you can learn about them at www. https://brigidine.org.au/

The love of Brigid and worship of Her is but one example of how conquering cultures not only imposed their religions upon the conquered, but how they co-opted the sacred stories and beings of the newly-conquered.  The old Brighid (pronounced “breed” became St. Bridget in Ireland and the community of women at her sanctuary became the Brigidine nuns. It is said they kept Her flame alive at Kildare, each of twenty women tending the fire through the night in turn. On the twenty-first night, no sister need tend the flame, for Brigid did so Herself.  In time Christianity arrived and the Brigidine order was founded – still the women who worked as healers, midwives, creative artists and teachers. In time, the order shrank as order sometimes do and it was believed the flame had been extinguished or died away when the last nun died.  But Brigid did not disappear, nor did her flame.

With the women’s spirituality movement of the 1980’s and with the growth of paganism worldwide, the stories of Brigid and her flame were rekindled, figuratively and literally. Word spread that there were still Brigidine nuns living in a small house in Kildare and that they kept Her flame burning on an altar in the house. Lo and behold, when pagan women turned up at their door, the nuns welcomed them, recognized their shared love of Brigid, and showed them the altar

So among contemporary pagans and in the women’s spirituality movement, Brigid continues to be a presence. She is especially honored at Imbolc, the harbinger of springtime and new growth. Celebrants might create Brigid’s crosses – four-armed emblems woven of straw.  These are then placed over doorways in homes to protect all within. They are part of a very old tradition and thought to be particularly effective in protection against destructive fire. At each Imbolc, the previous year’s Brigid’s cross is burnt and the new one given a place of honor – an act of renewal in and of itself.

Some contemporary pagans create red candles at Imbolc, rolling them from sheets of wax or pouring wax into molds. They might carve symbols into the completed candle as a visual reminder of Brigid, her protection and creativity. In this way, Brigid is a presence throughout the year – to en-courage the creative force to emerge in all.

An internet search will reveal books and images of Brigid – I am particularly amused and slightly annoyed at the images of a wispy long-haired maiden working at the forge. Blacksmiths and silversmiths have muscles! And they don’t invite disaster with long hair near fire.  It is too easy to romanticize a strong female deity and make her into a dainty girl. But that is a discussion for another time.

May we all be blessed with healing and creative joy as the world turns ever onward.

To learn more about Brigid/Brigit/Bride you can turn to the teaching of Mary Condren, especially her book The Serpent and the Goddess: Women Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland.

*Amantha Murphy with Orla O’Connell, The Way of the Seabhean: an Irish Shamanic Path. Womancraft Publishing, 2020.