Brigid painting by Helen O'Sullivan
Imbolc is the first day of spring and the patroness is Brigid, a triple goddess who had three roles in one. She was a keeper of the flame. Fire, for Brigid, was the heart fire as well as the hearth. She was also the midwife and healer.
Brigid’s third role was patroness of
the arts. Originally the arts were the ability to scry and to see (in the sense
of being a seer). It was the cultivation of the third or inner eye, to see
beyond and within. Later, the definition of the arts changed and the
visionary and journeying elements were lost.
In the 5th
Century AD, the first woman in Ireland to be professed as a nun in the
Christian tradition was given the name Brigid. This was done to attract people
into the new religion and to draw people’s awareness and attention away from
the earlier, pagan tradition. Brigid really was a bridge between the ancient
and the new, between the Goddess Brigid and herself, the Christian saint. She
encompassed both.
St. Mel, the
bishop who presided over her profession as a nun, also read over her the form
for ordaining a bishop. This may not have been a mistake, because when he
realised what had happened, he said: “What God has done no man can undo”. People’s
homage to Brigid was so strong that, up until the 1920’s, women often prayed to
Brigid rather than Mary. She was called Mary of the Gaels.
Many of our
Imbolc traditions had to do with Brigid as keeper of the fire, the hearth, the
home. Fire kept the tribe together. Even up until the 1960s, when a house was
built, the oldest woman of the family, (either the man’s or the woman’s), took hot
turf from her fire, put it in her apron and carried it into the couple’s new
hearth where they built their fire around it. Then they kept that fire going;
the fire continued down through the family.
When I was young,
I remember the ritual when the old women cleaned out the fire. Then they called
on Brigid to keep the fire burning. When women spring cleaned their houses,
they often walked around the house three times calling on Brigid to bless and
protect the house. Brigid was also called upon in her role of midwife and
healer. If a child was being born or someone was dying, they summoned her.
Imbolc was a time
when people began to venture out of their homes and brave the weather after the
winter. The cattle were brought out for short times of the day. It was a time
when the waters and the wells were blessed. It is still a traditional belief
that, if the weather is fine on Brigid’s day, we will have a good summer.
Brigid’s crosses are
hung over the doorway so that, when people come in, they are blessed by Brigid.
If the intention they carry is not of light, it is released.
In Beaufort, in
Kerry, the Biddies make beautiful, straw hats for Brigid’s Eve. They knock on
doors, dance and sing and people bring them in and give them drink and food to
carry forth. Opening the door at Imbolc is a ritual, allowing Brigid to enter.
The maiden brings laughter, light and delight.
Brigid holds this
space, the place of birth and beginnings. This is the time when the seed is put
into the ground and begins to grow. Standing in this place tells us that we
have been through a time of darkness and through the void. Empowered by that experience,
we have come to the place of beginning again.
This is the place
of new things coming into our lives. We need to be open to that. Brigid midwifes things into being. She is the one we call on when we want to give
birth to physical children or creations of the mind.
When we stand in
the place of Brigid, we are called to allow ourselves to move and change and to
wear many hats. How do we wear those hats? How do we dance our dance?
Excerpts from The Way of The Seabhean, the forthcoming book from Amantha Murphy (Seabhean, healer and seer) and Órfhlaith Ni Chonaill (Scribe)
