BRIGHID
THE EXALTED ONE
MEMORIA OF BRIGHID
Daughter of An Daghda,
Sister of Aongus Og,
Sister of the Cailleach,
Wife of Eochaid Bres,
Heaven-king’s Sister,
Mother of Sons,
Mother of the sons of thunder,
The Exalted One,
The Radiant One,
Bringer of Light,
Radiant flame of gold,
Radiance of beauty,
Moon Crowned of the Undying Flame,
Guardian of the hearth,
Star of each night,
Brightness of every morn,
Flower-garland of the heavens.
Adored of smiths,
She of the ringing bent anvils,
Fire of the forge,
Brewer preeminent,
Queen of the Bee-hive.
Far Flung Fame,
Glory of kindred,
Support of strangers,
Tidings of every guest,
Enquiry
High-minded lady,
The victorious One,
She who signals in the night,
She who gives true judgement,
Sovereign lady of Leinster,
Chief of the dearest women.
Conception of the Waves,
Mountain Traveller,
Grey Hound,
Breath of the Heart,
Seek Beyond,
Smile of the plains,
Lady of Inspiration,
First Keener of Ireland,
Lady of the Shores,
She of the Green Mantle,
Owner of royal oxen,
Mistress of the King of Boars,
Possessor of the king of the rams,
Foster-mother of the cow-less,
Store of envied wealth,
Woman mild of the white palms,
Mother of poetry,
Spark of Wisdom,
Sweet-Mouthed Melodious One,
Maker of Song,
Joyful maiden of the graces,
Queen-maiden of guidance,
Seer of augery,
She who raises eyes to heaven.
Sage of leechcraft,
Grace of wellness,
Fount of health, source of joy,
Beneficent one,
Companion of the birthing bed,
Breath of all life that breathes,
Giver of strength to spirit,
Sight that brightens countenance.
© Robert J. Smith, 2022, London
Poem by Chris Dorian
A FLAME TENDING PRAYER
Sister Brighid, daughter of the Daghda, who shines with luminous grace,
Be with me now.
I will guard your flame this night, until the Sun rises and sets once more.
I am filled with gratitude for your presence in my home,
Even through the rain and the first snows of winter,
Even through the dryness and the heat of summer.
Beloved Brighid whose eyes are love and whose touch is healing,
Comfort the tribes and teach us what is true.
​
By Ellen Evert Hopman
BRIGHT BRIGHID OF THE TRIPLE FLAME
​
Beloved Brighid of the triple flame,
Daughter of the Dagda,
Guardian of the sacred spring
Whose voice is the soul of the harp,
We call on thee.
Teach our hands to heal and our hearts to sing;
We entrust our life's progress to your care
and ask that you shape us
bending and turning our hearts on your bright anvil of flame
till we are made perfect jewels
fit to be set in the eye of your timeless harp
to play for the soul of the people in times of sorrow
and times of celebration.
We thank you for your gifts to us of poetry and music
of laughter and tears
and for the healing balm of your wisdom.
May we always remember to meditate
on the gift of your sacred waters
which surround us at our birth
and sail us to our destiny.
Our hearts are open to receive your blessing
Midwife of our souls, rain on us
Shower your inspiration in curtains of song
from sacred waterfalls in the realm where you dwell.
Come to us as Virgin with the soft smell of flowers
Come to us as Mother and feed us your fruits
Come to us as the Wise Woman in the stark blasts of Winter.
​
By Ellen Evert Hopman, (From “A Druid's Herbal For the Sacred Earth Year” , Destiny Books )
INVOCATION OF BRIGHID
A Brigit, a ban-dé beannachtach
Tair isna huisciu noiba,
A ben inna téora tented tréna,
Isin cherdchai,
Isin choiriu,
Ocus isin chiunn,
No-don-cossain,
Cossain inna túatha.
O Brighid, blessed Goddess
Come into the sacred waters
O woman of the three strong fires,
In the forge,
In the cauldron,
In the head.
Protect us.
Protect the people.
​
trans. Alex Kondratiev
By Ellen Evert Hopman
​
​THREEFOLD GODDESS:
SMITH, MIDWIFE, POET, HEALER​
​
Siu’l linn a Bhríd
Saint and Goddess one
Dame extrardinaire
Paint the skies in blue and white,
Springs first breath within Your sight
Crocus raise like Phoenix,
Awakening to rebirth from omnipresent slumber.
Siúl linn a Bhríd!
So it continues, that march towards Bealtain;
Winter's final breaths doth draw...
A tidy bed by the hearth,
A birch-hewn cradle for the birth
A cloth upon the entryway;
Fourfold cross by the Door...
Woven reeds ever more.
Akin to a moth drawn by Your bright Flame
Through each exchange, never the same.
Siúl linn a Bhríd!
Brightest Bríde, blessed Bhríd
Thank you for keeping us safe and warm...
Through the hoary depths of Winter.
Go raibh míle maith agat,
Siúl linn a Bhríd!
​
by Aicerno ÓCathasaigh Ap Gryffydd
née Alexander Blaine Griffith​​
BRIGHID OF THE MORNING
​
I am the poet and the poem
The inspiration in the night
I stand beside the Tarb Feiss
And whisper wisdom low and true
I am the shining sun of morning
A fire that burns inside the head
My gifts are knowledge and transformation
I pound and quench and draw out souls upon the forge of time
The flowing waters of my well
Soothe womb and soul alike
At childbed I am the midwife who brings new souls to birth
For mine is the gift of life.
Those who seek me will find nourishment
I am the brewer of new ale
I am the baker of the grain
All acts of transformation will I aid
The seed becomes the shoot
The shoot grows as its nature dictates
Thus has it always been and always shall be
I am the vitality of fire that dwells within.
copyright 1998 Rowan Fairgrove. All Rights Reserved.
BRIGHID THE PROTECTRESS
- THE DESCENT OF BRIGHID
​
The genealogy of the holy maiden Brighid,
Radiant arrow of flame, noble foster-mother of gods,
Brighid the daughter of the Dagda,
Dagda the Good God, the son of Danu,
Danu the Mother of all Things.
Brighid of the mantles,
Brighid of the peat-heap,
Brighid of the twining hair,
Brighid of the augury.
Brighid of the white feet,
Brighid of calmness,
Brighid of the white palms,
Brighid of the kine.
Brighid, woman-comrade,
Brighid, woman-helper,
Brighid, woman-mild.
Each day and each night
That I say the Descent of Brighid…
I shall not be slain, I shall not be injured,
I shall not be put in cell, I shall not be hewn,
I shall not be riven, I shall not be anguished,
I shall not be ravaged, I shall not be made blind,
I shall not be made naked, I shall not be left bare,
I shall not be enchanted, I shall not be cursed,
Neither shall my power leave me.
No fire, no sun, no moon shall burn me,
No water, no flood, no brine shall drown me,
No earth, no sod, no turf shall cover me,
No air, no wind, no vapour shall sicken me,
Nor seed of the Fairy Host shall lift me,
Nor seed of the Airy Host shall lift me,
Nor earthly being destroy me.
I under the protection of the holy maiden,
I am under the shielding of good Brighid each day;
I am under the shielding of good Brighid each night.
Each early and late, every dark, every light.
Brighid is my comrade-woman,
Brighid is my maker of song,
My gentle foster-mother,
my beloved Brighid.
According to the Carmina Gadelica:
​
When a woman is in labour, the midwife or the woman next her in importance goes to the door of the house, and standing on the doorstep, with her hands on the jambs, softly beseeches Bride to come:
‘Bhride! Bhride! thig a steach,
Bride! Bride! come in,
Tha do bheatha deanta,
Thy welcome is truly made,
Tabhair cobhair dha na bhean,
Give thou relief to the woman,
’S tabh an gein dh’an Triana.’
And give the conception to the Trinity.
Carmina Gadelica, Volume 1, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]
Brighid - The Exalted One
'Brigit, excellent woman, sudden flame, may the bright fiery sun take us to the lasting kingdom.' [1]
Known by many names across the Celtic speaking world, Bride, Bridgit (Brigit, Brighid):, Brigantia, Brigidu, Brigan; Bricta, Brixia, Bricia, Berecyntia, Brigandu and by the names St Bride or St Brighid in Christian times. The root of her name 'brig' means 'high' or 'exalted', and is found throughout Celtic lands.
Brigid
​
The daughter of the Dagda, and the River Goddess Boann, whose name is a reference to white cattle. Although the usual medieval translation of her name Fiery Arrow 'breo-aigit', her name most probably means 'most high' or 'exalted one'.
Triple Goddess, she is sometimes shown as three sisters, each bearing the name Brigid. It may be that they are a representation of the three main areas of her influences, namely Smithcraft, Poetry and Healing. This three-fold nature is also seen in her relationship with fire, the fire of the forge, the fire of inspiration and the fire of the hearth.
She was the wife of Bres the Beautiful, and in the Battle of Magh Tuiredh, she appears as a mediator between the Tuatha De Danann (her own people) and the Fomorains (who are the people of her husband). She had three sons by Tuireann, son of Ogma, named Brian, Iuchar and Uar.
Brigantia
Though little remains to us now of the mythology surrounding Brigantia a number of things are clear. She was seen as the tutelary goddess by the Brigantes, a 'confederacy' of tribes who held sway over modern day Lancashire, Yorkshire, County Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland and part of Derbyshire, Cumbria and across into the Borders of Scotland.
"According to the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy, the Brigantian confederation held sway across Northern England "from sea to sea". There are conflicting opinions about the composition of this league of clans, and conflicting evidence from coins; but it seems that a predominantly Celtic aristocracy had imposed itself upon earlier settlers and sought to unite them in a miniature nation." [2]
Whatever the nature of the Brigantian confederacy it is clear from inscriptions and altars that their chief goddess was Brigantia, though it is highly probable that she was much more martial than her Gaelic counterpart. It is interesting that Ptolemy's map of Ireland shows a tribe of Brigantes living in Leinster, where St. Brigid would be the Abbess of Kildare.
St Bride
Unlike most of the other deities of the Gaelic Mythological Cycle, Brigit survived not only in name but also in function. In her new guise St Bride kept her areas of influence. In the Hebrides their are tales of her acting as mid-wife to Mary and as the forster-mother of the infant Christ.
In her haliography she is said to have been the daughter of the Druid Dubtach, and her mother was a dairymaid. There appears to be a great deal of liminal symbolism associated with her birth. She was born at dawn as her mother crossed the threshold carrying milk into the home of the Druid who had taken her mother in. In some texts he is called her foster-father. As an infant she could not drink the milk of cows, so her father had to procure an Otherworld cow, white with red ears, to provide her with sustenance. In Connaught, the oyster-catcher was known as Giolla Bride, Bride's Page, whilst both linnets and larks are also known to be associated with her.
According to tradition nineteen women tended to a perpetual fire that burned in her honour at Killdare, each taking turn over a nineteen day period. On the twentieth day is was said that Bride herself tended the flame. Killdare means 'cell of oak' which perhaps hints at an older tradition.
As St Ffraid, the Goddess made a return to Wales under another name. She is said to have crossed the Irish Sea on a boat made from a sod of earth and to have landed on Holy Island, where her 'boat' became the mound upon which stood a church which beared her name, Capel San Ffraid.
Daithi O'hOgain, in 'The Sacred Isle' states :-
'That her cult from an early date took on the nurturing aspect of a mother-goddess is clear form the tribute paid to her in the earliest references which we have. In that reference, from about the year 600, 'the truely pious Brigeoit' is described as 'another Mary'. This is the nearest thing a Christian writer could go to assigning divine status to her.' [3]
Agricultural activities that were part of the customs of the goddess, became attached to the Saint who bore her name. It is highly probable that a symbolic first ploughing took place. It also possible that a mini 'baby boom' took place, as Imbolc lies nine months distant from the rites of Beltaine, when, until recent times, young couples would take themselves off to the woods. Brighid, besides her role as the Goddess of the Poets, Ironworkers, and various agricultural practices, was called upon by women in childbirth.
During the Vatican II modernisation program it was decreed that there was not enough proof of Brigid's sanctity nor of her historical existance, and so she was de-canonized. But not even this could extinguish her flame from the hearts of the Gael, and she remains, along with St Patrick the most beloved of the Irish saints.
​
Of the four Celtic festivals, Imbolc is doubtlessly seen as the most 'feminine'. It is a time to honour the Great Mother, Goddess of the Land, Fertility Goddess, Mother of the Tribe. Offerings of food were placed around an image of the Goddess, which would have formed a central feature of the days feasting. A special feast was held by maidens, and it was not until the men had asked permission to pay homage to the Goddess that they were admitted to the festivities.
Due to the time of year the feasting would have taken place indoors, the family gathered about the hearth, the sacred fire of the Mother. This flame is central to the gift of the Goddess. It is the hearth of the home, the flame of the forge that creates the plough, the fire of poetic inspiration. It is the flickering of the candle in the window, inviting the Great Mother into our homes.
J Craig Melia 1997
Sources
[1] - Ancient Gaelic prayer - Carmina Gadelica
[2] - John Burke - 'Roman Britain'
[3] - Daithi O'h'Ogain - 'The Sacred Isle'
Siul Linn, a Bhríd* (Walk with us, Brighid)
*”Shoe lean ah Breejah”
​
Brigit, i.e. a poetess, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigit the female sage, or woman of wisdom, i.e. Brigit the goddess whom poets adored, because very great and very famous was her protecting care. It is therefore they call her goddess of poets by this name. Whose sisters were Brigit the female physician [woman of leech craft, Brigit the female smith [woman of smith work]; from whose names with all Irishmen a goddess was called Brigit.
Stokes, Whitley, ed. Cormac’s Glossary. Trans. John O’Donovan. Calcutta: O.T. Cutter for the Irish Archeological and Celtic Society, 1868.
-
See Also Samhuinn
-
See Also Imbolc
-
See Also Spring Equinox - La na Caillich
-
See Also Bealltuinn
-
See Also Fire Festivals (Members Only)