Brighid

Through out this site you will find many references to Celtic gods and goddesses, but Brighid most of all. This one Celtic goddess has had a major influence on Hearthstone, standing as bridge between the Pagan and Christian world, the old Celtic world and the 21st Century one.

I discovered Brighid only a few years ago, though I had read about her existence briefly in various books, and during my summer spent working in Glastonbury many moons ago, I came across her name. For some reason her importance did not register until long after my search for a more spiritual home-life had begun. One day, whilst enjoying one of my first, liberating experience of the World Wide Web, I landed upon the site of the Bards, Ovates And Druids (I had read a few books published by them). There in links page was a reference to a Brigidine order that were dedicated to her, fascinated I clicked and so had my first proper introduction to Brighid.

About Brighid

History is a difficult thing, those that record events often have specific reasons for doing so. For some it is power or politics, others wealth, for a few it is recording the truth. As most of the Celtic tales were first recorded by monastic scribes, they often contain a heavy Christian content, either to make sure the Christian God was given His due place events or perhaps to acknowledge that without such a slant those ancient tales would disappear for forever. Whatever the reasoning recording them this way did indeed preserve them, but left us with the difficulty of establishing their original form. When it comes to discerning Brighid's origins there is little original information to go on.

What follows is a brief description of the goddess and saintly aspects of Brighid, but it has been written far better elsewhere and so I would recommend those with a keener interest to visit the links provided at the end for a much fuller account of the Lady Brighid.

The goddess

Brighid in the Irish tales is daughter of the Dagda, she is a goddess of poetry and wisdom, and has two sisters, both called Brighid, one is goddess of smith-craft , the other goddess of healing. She is married to Bres, King of the Formorians, the gaint race with whom the Tuatha De Dannan have frequent conflicts. Her son Ruadan is killed in fight with the Tuatha De Dannan smith, Giobniu., and her lamenting is supposed to be the first heard in Ireland.

She has oxen and boar in her herds and it is the same boar that is involved in the Culwch and Olwen tale of the Welsh Arthurian cycle.

From this information we can see that Brighid bridged two worlds, being married to the race with whom her family are in conflict. She has many skills, and from her association with oxen has a domestic role as well. The boar is taken to represent the warlike aspect of the Celts as it symbolised aggression, so she has connections to that too.

From her many associations it is easy to see why historians felt she may in fact represent many goddess not just one with a triple aspect. One interpretation of her name is 'exalted one', and so this could have been a title for many deities and misinterpreted over the years to mean one only. Another interpretation of her name means 'fiery arrow', and through this she has solar and fire associations.

Brighid the Irish goddess has been connected to goddesses in other Celtic areas such as Brigantia, in what is now northern England, Brigindo in Gaul and possibly Bricta from a site of healing springs in eastern France.

From what we know of Brigantia , she was a local goddess of the Brigantes, and the Romans equated her with Minerva so she was a wise war goddess and had skills in many crafts.

Brigindo seems to have had fertility, healing and craft connections.

Bricta appears as the consort of a solar god (similar to Lugh), in France but another deity representing healing and fertility was also associated with the site, whether Bricta was there for the same qualities is unknown.

So we know a little about the goddess, but it is the saint that pulled Brighid into the 21st century.

Brighid of the Mantles

Perhaps the dedications to the goddess or goddesses with the title Brighid just wouldn't die out despite the incoming Christian religion, for at some point Brighid became a Saint. The goddess had been very popular, one that could be turned to no matter what profession a person followed. It was quite common for the Celtic Church to absorb deities rather than contend with them, this is probably what happened in the case of Brighid, as there is no contemporary evidence to suggest she existed as a person. Many regard her as the skilled invention of the local clergy, seeking to deal with a pagan cult and further their own monasteries.

Brighid the Saint was born in the 5th or 6th Century C.E. Before becoming a nun and abbess she had shown many remarkable talents and a total devotion to helping the needy and defending those that could not defend themselves. Her father was a king and her mother a slave woman, her foster father a druid. She was born at sunrise as her mother crossed the threshold of the house, having come back from milking. She was bathed in milk and later fed milk from a cow, whose description could only be that of an Otherworld animal.

As a babe a fire destroys her house but she was unscathed. She tends sheep when she is older and could hang her wet clothes on sunbeams to dry.

She was so ardent to remain single that she removed her eye to give the appearance of being deformed, but replaced it and healed herself. Having been able to avoid being betrothed she was allowed to enter the Church and her ordination was deemed to given by God as flames rose from her head as she took her vows.

In the Scottish highlands and islands she was the foster mother to Christ and was there at his birth protecting him from Herod.

Brighid was a powerful nun and then abbess and used her miraculous (magical) abilities to get her own way, using forceful methods to persuade those who would not listen. Despite this awesome power she was also regarded as a mediator and her prayers were said to be devoted to avoiding conflicts.

Her church is at Kildare (Cell of the Oak) and a fire was kept burning there by herself and the nineteen nuns that attended her in a twenty day rotation. After her death the tradition continued, the saint herself was said to keep the fire burning on the twentieth day. No man was allowed to look on this flame and there were dire consequences for those that did.

The saint was also associated with sacred wells and springs, having brought about healing through using the waters of springs. Many such places throughout the British Isles have had dedications to her.

Her death was said to be on the 1st February, Imbolc, and just before Candlemass. Quite how Brighid found herself here is unclear but the associations with the dairy (though cattle, sheep and milk) and with Christ and Mary, and the virginal aspect probably seemed a fitting overlay on that pagan festival.

Conclusion

So from the story of the Saint we can see that a powerful goddess figure remained in folklore. A goddess most popular with women.

A mother and fertility goddess and as foster mother to Christ she retained this aspect even in celibacy.

A goddess of rivers and springs, and probably a solar/ fire goddess, if not initially, then later in the evolution of her story.

A goddess of war. In the stories of the nun there are hints of an aggressive approach to achieving God's will, so the warlike characteristics remain. Indeed the Scottish islanders, for whom Brighid's mantle of protection was very important, feared that she may not necessarily give her blessing.

A goddess of crafts, especially of healing, smith-craft and poetry.

Brighid Today

Thanks to the preserved lives of the saint and her great popularity in the Irish catholic church, Brighid has survived the span of the centuries as no other Celtic deity has done. Her fate has not been consigned to a fairy-tale, she has been revered in one form or another right up to the present day.

As a goddess/nun she bridged the gap between many worlds, she has also bridged time and religions making her an ideal way for Christians and Pagans alike to contact their ancient Celtic/British roots. Still most popular with women, her strong character enables an assertive but feminine approach to the affairs of the world.

Her compassionate, mothering nature elevates the domestic chores of the home back to a spiritual level. Hearth, home, child-rearing are no longer the other thing women do along with a career, secondary to being a wage-earner, they are at the heart of life without which we drift rootless in the world. A message that is very relevant to today.