What if I told you about a goddess
who could help you with virtually everything? Would you be
impressed? I was. I found out about a goddess who had such
a wide extent of powers, few gods or goddesses could compare.
As sparse as the records are, they hint at a deity who spans
all things; the waters of springs, wells, and the very seas,
the art of rulership and skills of war. She is a goddess of
fire, fertility, the hearth, all feminine arts and crafts,
and martial arts. She is a midwife and lifegiver, poet, smith,
healer, warrior, a Queen of Faery, and sovereign. Her name
is Brid.
Brid was a member of the fifth invasion
of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danann, the People of the Goddess
Danu. The Tuatha were a Faery race who were said to have been
a people of magick wonders, learned in all the arts and masters
of wizardry. Although all the other invaders reached Ireland
by ship, the Tuatha were said to have reached Ireland in dark
clouds through the air, to have alighted on the mountain of
Conmaicne Rein, and for three subsequent days to have cast
a magickal darkness on the face of the sun.
It is thought that the goddess Boann,
for whom the River Boyne is named, was Brid's mother, and
that that she is the daughter of the Dagda, the Celtic "Father
of All" and "Lord of Great Knowledge." Other
sources say that Brid was his consort. In her aspect of Brigh,
she loved Bres the Beautiful, the ruler of the Children of
Danu. Bres was sometimes described as half Fomorian, the race
which ruled Ireland before the Tuatha de Danann arrived. Bres
and Brigh had a son named Ruadan, who was later killed. In
other legends Brid was the wife of Tuireann and had three
sons who were all smiths. It is also believed that Brid may
have been the Lady of the Sea, daughter of Lir, the god of
the oceans. There is a legend in Fiona MacLeod's novel Winged
Destiny, where Brid "had lost her brother Manan
the Beautiful, but... brought him back again, so that the
world of men rejoiced, and ships sailed the seas in safety
and nets were filled with the fruit of the wave." It
is possible that the deity who arrived from the east with
the Children of Danu blended with an ancestral sea goddess
of the Fomorians.
There are some traditions in which
the Maiden is also the Cailleach. She is beautiful on one
side, and ugly on the other. It was believed that Brid and
the Cailleach are two sides of the same being. There is a
Scottish tale that mentions a goddess who is both Crone and
Maiden: "On the eve of Saint Brigid's Day, the Old Woman
of Winter, the Cailleach, journeys to the magickal isle in
whose woods lies the miraculous Well of Youth. At the first
glimmer of dawn, she drinks the water that bubbles in a crevice
of a rock, and is transformed into Bride, the fair maid whose
white wand turns the bare earth green again." The two
are not always so closely identified in the old myths. Patricia
Monaghan relates a pre-Celtic story in which the Cailleach
kept a maid named Bride imprisoned in the high mountains of
Ben Nevis. But her own son fell in love with the girl and
at winter's end, he eloped with her. The hag chased them across
the landscape, causing fierce storms as she went, but finally
she turned to stone as Bride was freed. In such stories, which
may date back as far as 2,000 to 3,000 years, Brid becomes
a surrogate for a spring/summer goddess whose rule over the
land alternated with that of a fall/winter hag.
Brid's name means many things, such
as "Power," "Reknown," "Fiery Arrow
of Power." It also means "one who exaults herself."
She had an exclusive female priesthood at Kildare (derived
from Cill Dara which means "church of the oak")
and an ever-burning sacred fire. The number of her priestesses
was nineteen, representing the nineteen-year cycle of the
"Celtic Great Year." Her kelles were sacrid prostitutes
and her soldiers brigands. Brid became "Christianized"
as St. Brigit of Kildare, who is said to have lived from 450
- 523 AD and foundd the first female Christian monastery community
in Ireland. In reality her shrine at Kildare was desecrated
and adopted as a holy site by Christian missionaries who turned
her into the Saint Brigit in an attempt to Christianize her
Pagan followers. There is no record that a Christian saint
ever actually existed, but in Irish mythology she became the
midwife to the Virgin Mary. It is also believed that St. Brigit
was the foster-mother of Jesus Christ.
Because of her fire and forgery aspect,
Brid was also associated with the Lady of the Lake who forged
King Arthur's sword, Excalibur. She was also thought of as
inventing whistling. She used it as a way to signal her friends
in the dark. Brid also created keening. When her beloved son
Ruadan was killed, she started her mournful song. The caoine
has been associated with the Bean Sidhe. When any death or
misfortune is about to occur in the family, the Bean Sidhe
will be heard wailing her unearthly lament.
Brid, also known as Brighid, Bridget,
Brigit, Bride, Brigindo, Brigantia, and Brittania, represents
the ultimate mother Goddess. She can be invoked for magickal
workings involving fertility, creative inspiration and healing,
and has also been worshipped as a warroiress, a protectress,
a guardian of children, a slayer of serpents, a sovereign,
a Goddess of agriculture, animal husbandry, crafting and music,
and a fire and sun Goddess. She is also called upon for assistance
in childbirth, in all forms of fire magick, in protection
spells for the land, and in workings to help you take control
of your own being, and to inspire those who look up to you.
Her correspondences are fire, blackberries, wells, milk, shields,
lambs, the heart, the lioness, and the Empress and Strength
tarot cards. Her colors are red and white, and an altar dedicated
to her should always have a burning flame in her honor.
I will now conclude by telling you
that this is just part of the story of Brid, whom I call the
"everything goddess."
