Imbolc: Bridgit's Day

The Blessings of Bridgit to you!  In olden days, and to this day still in Ireland great fires were lit on hilltops in honor of Bridgit, Goddess and Midwife to the new born, Smith of fire craft and metal, Goddess of love and marriage, Lady of the seed, and the new milk................just about all good things were seen as the blessings of Bridgit.  In fact, and many don't know this, Britain was named after Bridgit.  Great Britain, Great Bridgit.  Her roots go very far back to prehistoric times.  

This is a significant day because it is the day of quiet, unseen Germination, in the roots, under the sleeping Earth,  the very beginning of the awakening of new life as the sun begins to warm and illuminate the world.  Bridgit's Day.  

Here is a lovely little article from geomancer and Earth Mysteries teacher Sig Lonegren,  who first taught me to dowse and introduced me to.......well, what became my life work.  But that's another story. Time to begin to germinate those seeds!  

 

 "Imbolc is that time of the Celtic yearly cycle when the seed that was planted at Samhain (1 November) and lies dormant through the dark of the winter, by throwing out that little cotyledon, moves by itself for the first time.  It is analogous to the quickening in the human reproductive cycle.  It has a life of its own.  In Vermont, where I used to live,  an underground chamber called Rodwin is oriented toward the Imbolc Sunset. 

Here in Glastonbury, the Pilgrim Reception Centre sponsored a new Holy Thorn (the old one on Wearyall Hill was vandalised).  This cutting from the old Holy Thorn was planted next to a new World Peace Pole as well as a bench for visitors to rest on.

Imbolc is the time when ideas or plans that have been lying fallow in the dark all winter are now ready to begin a life of their own.  What projects have you been thinking about that are ready to begin to move, to manifest?  Use this time of Imbolc to feel that quickening, and be ready to give birth."

Sig Lonegren

Mid-Atlantic Geomancy

http://www.geomancy.org

Bridgit in performance.  Photo by Thomas Lux

Sig Lonegren on Imbolc

Here's what Sig recently wrote on his Blog about Imbolc. 

 Time to begin to germinate those seeds!  Thanks Sig!

 
 "Imbolc is that time of the Celtic yearly cycle when the seed that was planted at Samhain (1 November) and lies dormant through the dark of the winter, by throwing out that little cotyledon, moves by itself for the first time.  It is analogous to the quickening in the human reproductive cycle.  It has a life of its own.  In Vermont, an underground chamber called Rodwin is oriented toward the Imbolc Sunset.

 

Here in Glastonbury, the Pilgrim Reception Centre sponsored a new Holy Thorn (the old one on Wearyall Hill was vandalised).  This cutting from the old Holy Thorn was planted several days ago at the Abbey Car Park next to a new World Peace Pole and a Glastonbury bench for visitors to rest on. Imbolc is the time when ideas or plans that have been lying fallow in the dark all winter are now ready to begin a life of their own.  What projects have you been thinking about that are ready to begin to move, to manifest?  Use this time of Imbolc to feel that quickening, and  ready to give birth?

The Blessings of Bridget
Be With You
This Imbolc!
}:-)

Sig Lonegren
Mid-Atlantic Geomancy
http://www.geomancy.org
SunnyBank Centre
Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8JE
England
sig@geomancy.org

Bridgit's Day

"BRIDGIT" danced by Linda Johnson.  Photo by Thomas Lux.

As it's IMBOLC,   Bridgit's Day.   I felt like posting my own "Bridgit's Poem" (1999), and the  Hymn to the Sacred Body of the Universe as told by the wonderful poet Drew Dellinger.   And the "Voice of Bridgit" by Diane Darling!

Diane Darling as Brigid, photo by T. Lux

I am Brigid,  Lady of the Celts
Creatrix of the Island of Ireland
Midwife to new life in the spring.

On the last dark night of January,
 leave a cloth outside your door -
For I shall be abroad on Brigid’s Eve.
I am Lady of the Flame, Mistress of changes,
I shape the bright metals:
gold and silver and spirit

Feel my hand on yours as you craft your lives.
I am Lady of the Well, the deep well
That reaches into the darkness
and rises to the light.

I am the fount of Inspiration
for poet and bard.
My song is sung in all the lands,
by bird and bard and babe.

Call me by my many names:
Breezh, Bridey, Brigit, Breed
Sweet Mary of the Gaels, midwife to Christ
When once again amongst us he is born.

I am with you, children of the children of
The Lost Isles, the Western Shores
Far flung, far from your homelands:
I have not forgotten you.

Remember me when the poet sings
When the cow rises from the calving
and the fever leaves the brow.
Raise a glass of golden mead to Brigid,
Lady of the Celts.

by Diane Darling (1999)

 http://www.currentmiddleages.org/conchobar/brewing.html

 BRIDGIT

"God's abstention is only from human dialects;
 the holy voice utters its woe and glory in myriad musics,
 in signs and portents.
 Our own words are for us to speak,
 a way to ask and to answer."

Denise Levertov

 There are some gifts that come to us
just once or twice in a lifetime,
gifts that cannot be named
beyond the simple act of gratitude.

We are given a vision so bountiful
we can only gaze with eyes wide,
like a child in summer's first garden.

We reach our clumsy hands
toward that communion
that single perfection
and walk away speechless, blessed.

And breathe, in years to come
    breathe,
breathe our hearts open
aching to tell it well
to sing it into every other heart
to dance it down, into the hungry soil
to hold it before us
that light, 

    that grace given
    voiceless light

Lauren Raine