BRIGHID, WARMING FIRE TO MAN AND BEAST ©
by Dillon Carlyon

Brighid is a greatly revered Goddess in the Celtic world and has been since time immemorial. Her many faces are like the many shapes and colors one can see dancing in a flame. She is well known as a Goddess of the hearth and a Goddess of Bards, but her fire, as sacred in the home as it is in her more public places of worship, has also warmed a cow or two through more than one winter.

As Imbolc approaches, the first stirrings of the long dormant flora and fauna occur, heralding the end of the cold and the dark. For our Celtic ancestors, these subtle but vitally important changes signaled warmer weather, which in turn meant that the cattle, sheep, and goats would once again multiply in number. The Irish depended on domesticized animals as the main food staple well into the Christian era, and so, during the winter months, when only a small number of animals were maintained, many families likely kept their animals in their home with them, the better to conserve resources. Thus, it was the heat of the hearth that maintained the household's wealth and social status (defined by how many animals a family had in their possession), and even more importantly, the future food supply.

The Goddess of the hearth, while perhaps not as “high profile” as other figures in the pantheons to which they belong, is a constantly recurring one in European mythologies. Her role seems simple through modern eyes, but when one considers everything that happened at the main hearth of ancient dwellings in general and ancient Celtic dwellings in particular, we can begin to realize why this Goddess was so important. Food was cooked, prepared and stored at the hearth. The fire that kept the house and its occupants safe and warm was maintained at the hearth. Clothing and other materials were likely woven not far from the hearth. And the connection between the hearth Goddess and the Bardic craft is not surprising when we consider that Bards recited their tales from their honored place by the fire. If a Bard performed in someone's home, he or she likely only did so with the blessing of the Goddess who protected the home from her sacred space—the place where the fire was tended.

When the winter ended, many thanks would have been due to the Goddess of the hearth for keeping the household alive during the thin period of the year. This may be the origin of Brighid's reputation as a Goddess of nature and fertility, but it may also be that she was a nature and fertility figure to begin with, and that she became increasingly associated with the hearth as the Celts became less and less nomadic. Either way, Brighid's association with animals (particularly cattle) and the magical art of increase stayed with her during the Christian conversion, and these associations are strongly emphasized in the figure of Saint Brighid.

In 1906, after emerging from a personal winter of mourning her husband's death, Lady Gregory wrote A Book of Saints and Wonders, a record of folk stories about the Irish Saints that were gathered from the countryside of Coole in County Westmeath, Ireland. 1 “Brigit, the Mary of the Gael” is Book One of this collection and contains a wealth of material about the Saint, much of it emphasizing her connection with cattle and dairy. She is said to have been raised on the milk of a cow with red ears (red ears are always the mark of an Otherworld animal). 2 Repeatedly, Brighid is credited with causing vessels of milk and butter to overflow. In one instance, seven Bishops are visiting Brighid and she is caught in the embarrassing predicament of having no stores with which to feed them. She prays so hard for aid that when she milks her cow for the third time that day, the pail overflows so greatly that a lake of milk is created. 3 In another incident, a leper comes to Brighid and asks for a cow, and she asks him if he would instead prefer to be healed of his leprosy; he responds that he prefers healing, and she grants it. 4 Lady Wilde, in her own excellent collection of folkloric items from 1887 entitled Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, also gives us this story:

Another time, two lepers came to beg, and Bridget said, "I have but this one cow--take it between you and go in peace."
But one leper was proud, and made answer: "I shall divide my goods with no man. Give me the cow and I shall go."
And she gave it to him.
Then the other leper said, "Give me your prayers, holy Bridget, I ask no more."
And she gave him her blessing. And as he turned to depart a man came in, and offered a cow as a present to the holy woman.
"Now the Lord has blessed you," she said to the humble leper. "Take this cow and depart to your home."
So the man drove time cow before him, and presently came up with the proud leper just at the ford of the river. "Cross you first," said the proud leper, "there is not room for two," and the humble leper crossed in safety with his cow; but when the other entered the ford, the river rose, and he and his cow were carried away and drowned, for the blessing of St. Bridget was not on him. 5

The Carmina Gadelica provides some excellent poetry that continues to connect Brighid with cow imagery:

Mar a gheineadh Criosd am Moire
Comhliont air gach laimh,
Cobhair thusa mise, mhoime,
An gein a thoir bho ’n chnaimh;
’S mar a chomhn thu Oigh an t-solais,
Gun or, gun odh, gun ni,
Comhn orm-sa, ’s mor m’ othrais,
Comhn orm a Bhride!		 As Christ was conceived of Mary
Full perfect on every hand,
Assist thou me, foster-mother,
The conception to bring from the bone;
And as thou didst aid the Virgin of joy,
Without gold, without corn, without kine,
Aid thou me, great is my sickness,
Aid me, O Bride! 6


'La Bride breith an earraich
Thig an dearrais as an tom,
Theirear "tri-bhliadhnaich" ri aighean,
Bheirear gearrain chon nam fonn.'		 The Day of Bride, the birthday of Spring,
The serpent emerges from the knoll,
'Three-years-olds' is applied to heifers,
Garrons are taken to the fields. 7


Brighid is firmly linked in folk memory to images of prosperity. She represents the agent of seasonal change by which the bounty of man and nature once more increases. It is in Spring that the warmth of Brighid's flame breaks the cold of winter, and her presence grows more and more pervasive throughout the season as the grazing animals grow in number. Both Gregory's A Book of Saints and Wonders and the Carmina Gadelica give us this Scottish poem:

'Chuir Bride miar ’s an abhuinn
La na Feill Bride
Is dh’ fhalbh mathair ghuir an fhuachd,
Is nigh i basan anns an abhuinn
La na Feill Padruig
Is dh’ fhalbh mathair ghin an fhuachd.'		 Bride put her finger in the river
On the Feast Day of Bride
And away went the hatching mother of the cold,
And she bathed her palms in the river
On the Feast Day of Patrick
And away went the conception mother of the cold. 8



REFERENCES

1 “Lady Gregory.” Wikipedia. Last accessed 1/27/2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gregory (Return to Article)

2 Gregory, Lady Augusta. A Book of Saints and Wonders, Book One: Brigit, the Mary of the Gael, 1906. Last accessed 1/27/2009. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/saw/saw01.htm (Return to Article)

3 Gregory. (Return to Article)

4 Gregory. (Return to Article)

5 Wilde, Lady Francesca. “St. Bridget.” from Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, 1887. Last accessed 1/27/2009. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ali/ali183.htm (Return to Article)

6 Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica, Volume 1. II. Aimsire: Seasons: 71. Bride the Aid-Woman / Bride Ban-Chobhair, 1900. Last accessed 1/27/2009.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1076.htm (Return to Article)

7 Carmichael. Carmina Gadelica, Volume 1. II. Aimsire: Seasons: 70 (notes). Geneology of Bride / Sloinntireachd Bhride. Last accessed 1/27/2009.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1076.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1074.htm (Return to Article)

8 Carmichael. (Return to Article)
Currently living in California Dillon Carlyon is an Oak Grove Ogham Master and is currently in Year 1 of the Faery Shaman's Apprenticeship. A graduate of Loyola University New Orleans where he earned a B.A. in English, he has been studying history, religion, spirituality, the Celts, the Oghams, and shamanism for over ten years and hopes to move on to graduate work in the field of Old and Middle Irish. In his spare time he studies the Gaelic languages, Shotokan Karate, the Tibetan art of Boabom, and squeezes in reading, writing, making music, and DJing where he can. Contact Dillon at carlyond@gmail.com.

Brighid, Warming Fire to Man and Beast copyright © 2009 by Dillon Carlyon, all rights reserved. Used with permission. Top of Page

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