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Goddess Brigid
Brigid
has been known by many names, mostly depending upon the specific location
or time period. Worshipped in Ireland, Wales, Spain, France, and Britain,
she was called Brighde in Ireland, Bride in Scotland, Brigantia in Northern
Britain, Brigandu in France, and also known as Brid, Brig and Brighid.
The name Bridget is the Christianization of these pre-Christian goddess
names as discussed below. Her name is taken to mean "Power,"
"Renown" and "Fiery Arrow of Power."
Celtic
Myth
In the Celtic myth cycles, she is an aspect of Danu, the daughter of
Dagda. She is a triple goddess. However, she is not of the maiden, mother,
crone variety; she has three different aspects which are all parts of
the same ageless goddess. One aspect of Brigid is of poetess and muse,
goddess of inspiration, learning, poetry, divination, witchcraft, occult
knowledge. A second aspect of Brigid was as goddess of smithcraft, carrying
a famous cauldron for this purpose. The third aspect of Brigid was that
of healer, goddess of healing and medicine. These three aspects were
united through the symbol of fire; thus her appellation as a fire goddess.
In various places she was also know as goddess of fertility, the hearth,
all feminine arts and crafts, and the martial arts. She was identified
with the changing moon and the ox, boar and ram. Her sacred number is
19 (the Celtic Great year -- the number of years it takes for the new
moon to coincide with the Sun's winter solstice).
Some clues to her association with fire, and possibly the Sun, can be
found in an Irish legend that states that in Winter Brigid was imprisoned
in an icy mountain by a one-eyed hag (Calleach, see below). In some
places, she presided over thermal springs (i.e. water warmed by an underground
Sun...?). But these are speculative.
Brigid may even pre-date the Celtic period, being a remembrance of a
more ancient seasonal goddess of Ireland and Scotland. The relevant
legends recall how Cailleach kept a maiden named Bride imprisoned in
the high mountains of Ben Nevis. But Cailleach's own son fell in love
with Bride and they eloped at winter's end. They were chased by the
angry hag Cailleach who caused many a fierce storm. Finally Cailleach
turned to stone and the couple was free. This type of story, which may
date back to 2000 or 3000 BCE, recounts Brigid as a spring and summer
goddess who alternates her rule with a fall and winter hag. Also, the
monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury are constructed of massive sandstones
(called sarsens). These stones are also known as Bridestones, suggesting
that Brigid may have been a primary goddess used in that area in the
Neolithic, the late Stone Age.
Ireland
Brigid had an extensive female priesthood at Kildare, Ireland and an
ever-burning sacred fire in her shrine. There were 19 priestess representing
the 19-year cycle of the Celtic "Great Year." Each priestess
tended the sacred fire in turn, through a 20-day rotation. On 20th day
of each cycle the sacred fire was said to be tended by Brigid herself.
Her shrine was likened to that of Vesta tended by the vestal virgins
in Rome. Its sacred flame was kept burning even after the shrine became
a Christian nunnery, until 1220 when Archbishop Henry of Dublin ordered
it extinguished.
The Irish claimed that she brought "whistling" to the world,
which she invented one night when she wanted to call her friends. She
also invented "keening," the mournful song of the bereaved
Irishwoman, one night when her son was killed. In 722 she appeared to
the Irish army of Leinster, hovering in the sky before they routed the
forces of Tara, rather like the sun god El Gabel had appeared to (the
Roman) Aurelian in 273 and as the Christian chi-rho sign had appeared
to Constantine in 312.
Britain
Brigid was known as Brigantia in Northern Britain, and also as The Three
Blessed Ladies of Britain, and The Three Mothers. The name Brigantia
for the goddess arises from that of the ancient people that bore her
name, the Brigantes. She was worshiped especially in Yorkshire, and
her name is still echoed in the names of rivers Briant in Anglesey and
Brent in Middlesex. It is likely that the ancient Brigantes saw her
as the power of rushing rivers and the thrusting hills of the countryside,
rather than a personification of a triple goddess.
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| Christianity
The Christians converted the goddess Brigid along with the people of
the area. They fabricated an entire history for this "Saint Bridget."
She was said to be the daughter of a Druid, who was baptized by the
great patriarch St. Patrick. Bridget apparently took Christian religious
vows, and was canonized upon her death by the church. She was given
sainthood by Pope Gregory I. The Pope told Augustine in the sixth century
that Brigid should be co-opted rather than having the Church destroy
the pagan sites and customs of the "newly Christian" pagan
peoples.
The Chruch added Bridget to the the nativity scene, calling her Mary's
midwife. They also renamed Imbolc to Candlemas, to disguise this holiday's
pagan origins. Bridget was attributed a curious list of qualities that
were coincidentally identical to those of the earlier goddess. She was
said to have the power to appoint the bishops of her area, an unusual
power for an abbess. This was made stranger by her apparent requirement
that her bishops also be practicing goldsmiths (hearkening to the second
aspect of the goddess described above). This Christian saint was also
invoked as muse and healer (the first and third aspects described above).
Queen of Four Fires
This is a myth of Brigid taken from The Storyteller's Goddess referenced
Below. It well described the qualities of the goddess Brigid.
A long time ago, near the beginning, at the first crack of pink in a
young morning, near the waters of the magic well, the goddess Bridget
slipped into the world and the waiting hands of the nine sisters who
swayed and crooned in a great circle around her. The waters of the magic
well burbled their joy.
Up rose a column of fire out of the new goddess's head that burned to
the very sky. Bridget reached up her two hands and broke away a flaming
plume from her crown of fire and dropped it on the ground before her.
There it leapt and shone, making the hearth of the house of the goddess.
Then from the fire of her hearth, Bridget used both hands to draw out
a leaping tongue of heat, swallowed it, and felt the fire burn straight
to her heart. There stood the goddess, fire crowning her head, licking
up inside her heart, glowing and shooting from her hands, and dancing
on the hearth before her.
The nine sisters hummed and the waters of the magic well trembled as
Bridget built a chimney of brick about her hearth. Then about the chimney,
she built a roof of thatch and walls of stone. And so it was that by
the waters of the magic well the goddess finished the house in which
she keeps the four fires which have served her people forevermore.
Out of the fire on Bridget's hands baked the craft of bending iron.
Out of the fire on Bridget's hearth and the waters of her magic well
came the healing teas. Out of the fire on Bridget's head flared out
writing and poetry. Out of the fire in Bridget's heart spread the heat
of compassion.
Word of the gifts of Bridget's fires traveled wide. People flocked to
learn from Bridget the secret of using fire to soften iron and bend
it to the shapes of their desires. The people called bending iron smithcraft,
and they made wheels, pots, and tools that did not break.
All the medicine plants of the earth gathered in the house of the goddess.
With their leaves, flowers, barks, and roots, and the waters of her
magic well, Bridget made the healing teas. She gave a boy with weak
teeth the tea of the dandelion root. She gave a young woman the tea
of the raspberry leaf to help her womb carry its child. An old man,
a cane in each hand to help him walk, took from Bridget wintergreen
bark for his pain and black cherry juice for the rheumatism. She gave
comfrey to a girl with a broken leg and blue cohosh to bring her bloods
without cramps. Bridget brewed motherwort, licorice root, and dried
parsley for a woman who was coming to the end of her monthly bleeding.
"Cup a day," said Bridget, "that you stay supple and
strong."
The people wanted Bridget's recipes. "But we can't remember which
plants for which healings, where to gather them or how long to steep
them," they told Bridget.
The fire on Bridget's head blazed bright. She took up a blackened stick
and made marks with it on a flat piece of bark. "These are the
talking marks," She said. "They are the way to remember what
you don't want to forget." The talking marks also let the people
write down the stories of her wisdom.
Once two men with terrible stories of leprosy came to Bridget. "Bathe
yourself in my well." said Bridget to the first man. At every place
Bridget's waters touched, the man's skin turned whole again. "Now
bathe your friend," said Bridget. Repulsed, the man backed away
from his friend. "I cannot touch him," he said. "Then
you are not truly healed," said the goddess. And she gave the first
man back his leprosy and healed the second man. "Return to me with
compassion," she said to the first man. "There find your healing."
Every year at midwinter the people thank Bridget for her well of wisdom
and her fires of hand, hearth, head and heart. "Thank you, Bridget,
for the simthcraft, for the healing teas, the talking marks, and compassion.
May you dwell with your fires in your house by the waters of your magic
well forever."
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From
Real Magick,
by Gwydion
References
• Magick of the Gods & Goddesses, D.J. Conway, Llewellyn 1997.
• A History of Pagan Europe, Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick,
Routledge, 1995.
• The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Patricia Monaghan, Llewellen,
2000.
• The Storyteller's Goddess, Carolyn McVickar Edwards, MArlowe
& Company, 2000.
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