Brigid, bright shining red one and Imbolc

Yes, a ceramic Teapot! 

Rabbit rabbit to wish you good luck for the new month!

The Calleigh and Brigid by Sue Ellen Parkinson

Brigid is considered the patroness of poetry, smithing, medicine (midwifery,) arts and crafts, cattle and other livestock, sacred wells, and the arrival of early spring.

As of 2023, Brigit's Day was declared a national holiday in Ireland.

Imbolc, another term for this day, was to celebrate the earliest spring milk in the sheep...which in our area in North Carolina don't lamb for another month. But ancient ways cannot be ignored.

Brigid was honored as a goddess first...of smithcraft, poetry and healing. The most miraculous events in her life were retold at this time yearly. All of our first histories were oral history. Until someone started writing down the old stories. So earliest stories may differ from place to place.

The Catholic church came into Ireland later (you've heard of St. Patrick?) and there soon was this wonderful Saint Brigid. Her good works seemed very similar to the goddess Brigid. There was a physical well where healing might take place. And an eternal fire that was tended by the followers of the Saint, only women allowed. The story was that they would tend the fire for 19 days, and then on the 20th Brigid herself would keep it burning. The original well still exists, and the place where fires were tended.

Brigid Dark and Bright

In the steep and common path of our calling,

Be it easy or uneasy to our flesh,

Be it dark or bright for us to follow,

May your perfect guidance be upon us.

Brigid of the Forge, be thou a shield to us!

Brigid of the Fold, be thou our shepherd and our healer!

In each secret thought our minds may weave, Brigid of the Loom, give us sweet clarity.

In our grief or pain or sadness,

Brigid of the Well, heal us, strengthen us, stand with your mighty shoulder near to ours.

And in our joys and in our bliss, Brigid of the Hearth, Keeper of the Bread plate, Maker of Beer,

Dance with us as we waken the great round garden of the world.

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A Brigid statue at a well, Ireland.

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I also bring my deepest love to those who are suffering from political power moves that are cutting into the lives of innocent peoples. And a huge level of gratitude for those who are standing up and resisting.

Reposting a favorite painting, by Wendy Andrew

The Buddhist monks on The Walk for Peace

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This is an approximation, I think. But you get the point.

More info on the triple goddess, Brigid (Bridget)

 Brigid is a triple goddess – the goddess of healing symbolised by the element of water, goddess of the alchemical force of fire, and goddess of poetry. In this respect she represents every woman and our unique talents, skills and qualities. Too often we put ourselves in boxes, limited by cultural stereotypes in an effort to fit in. Brigid urges you to develop and express all your gifts.

By Courtney Davis, Bridget the Triple Goddess

  Brigid embodies mastery represented in the perfect balance of fire and water, symbols of the masculine and feminine, known in Eastern traditions as the yin and yang or ida and pingala. As we strive for equality today, Brigid reminds us that we must also heal our inner feminine and masculine. As within so without, as above so below. She is a reminder that duality and separation are illusions. Unity and harmony are our true nature.

Raising her day to a national holiday is also a welcome recognition of the equality of the feminine with the masculine in society. Because of her very strong association with fertility and the natural world, Brigid is also the perfect patron of the ecology movement. She can become the Mother Earth figure of the awakening consciousness of the beauty and fragility of this Earth, and our human dependency on this Earth, and our interconnectedness with all the other species sharing the planet with us.

— CHARLIE FLANAGAN TD, Former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Justice 

SOURCE of Article, Who Was Bridgid?  by Herstory Founder Melanie Lynch

Bridget, the fiery one

 The fiery one...keeper of the fire, but much more than that.  She is the goddess of healing, poetry, and smithcraft, (metal working, and jewelry.)

Bridget lantern

This was one of my earliest lantern shapes.  Since Bridget's Day (Imbolc) is coming up, February first, I thought I'd share her again.

I'll try to find some of the information that talks about her, quite an interesting goddess turned saint for the Christians.

At this time, nuns in Ireland now keep Bridget's eternal flame alight again.  Wikipedia says the Celtic goddess Brigid, was the goddess of agriculture and healing and also of poetry and fire.

She is known to have started the tradition of keening when someone you love dies.  And she taught people how to whistle, as a way of communicating through the woods at night.

Author Elizabeth Cunningham speaks of Bridget and compares her to Patricia Monaghan here.

A few miracles have been handed down from the stories, such as the one about her cloak and the king.  Wikipedia says it this way:

One of the more commonly told stories of St. Brigid was when she went to the King of Leinster to ask for land to build a convent. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect place for a convent. It was beside a forest where they could collect firewood and berries. There was also a lake nearby that would provide water and the land was fertile. The king laughed at her and refused to give her any land. Brigid prayed to God and asked him to soften the king’s heart. Then she smiled at the king and said “will you give me as much land as my cloak will cover?” The king thought that she was joking and because Brigid’s cloak was so small he knew that it would only cover a very small piece of land. The king agreed and Brigid spread her cloak on the ground. She asked her four friends to hold a corner of the cloak and walk in opposite directions. The four friends walked north, south, east and west. The cloak grew immediately and began to cover many acres of land. The king was astonished and he realized that she had been blessed by God. The king fell to the ground and knelt before Brigid and promised her and her friends money, food and supplies. Soon afterwards, the king became a Christian and also started to help the poor and commissioned the construction of the convent. Legend has it, the convent was known for making jam from the local blueberries which was sought for all over Ireland. There is a new tradition beginning among followers of St. Brigit to eat jam on the 1st of February in honour of this miracle.  

But the eternal flame which used to be tended by the nuns at her convent, has been through several politically driven times, when it was allowed to go out, and now it is under the care of some of Bridget's followers.  When it was originally started, only 19 women were allowed to tend the flame, (with dire threats to any men who came nearby) for 19 days and nights, but on the 20th night, nobody watched the fire, because the goddess herself was tending it.

Imbolc is the Irish and pagan holy day which fits the agricultural year, the time of the ewes having milk returning as they get ready to give birth to lambs.

 I've already posted this same blog on Alchemy of Clay, because there is the lantern which I built.  But it is more appropriate to share this information here, I think.  So it's being given space today on each of my blogs!