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Imbolc
February 1, 2024
Imbolc! What is it? Who is Brigit/Brigid?
Excerpt from, Lady of the Goddess, Becoming a Priestess in Her New World. by Glamourgan. Currently ou of stock. Check back later for new printing.
It is “Feile Brighde,” which literally means the Festival of Brigit. The original word Imbolg means “in the belly.” We call this the “quickening time of the year.” This celebration marks the beginning of the lambing season and signals the start of Spring and the stirrings of new life. Imbolc, also called Imbolg which means ewe’s milk. It is an Irish Celtic festival that marks the midpoint between the Winter solstice and the Spring Equinox. It is one of the four Celtic seasonal festivals, along with Beltane, Lughnasadh also called Lammas, and Samhain. Imbolc was observed in Neolithic Ireland, Scotland, France, and the Isle of Man. Today Imbolc is celebrated in many more countries around the world.
Astronomical Calculation
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Imbolc marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It begins when the sun is 15-degree of the zodiac sign Aquarius. However, most people today celebrate either on the first or second of February. Aquarius is the eleventh astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the constellation Aquarius, the water-bearer. In the Southern Hemisphere, we celebrate Imbolc when the sun is 15-degrees of the zodiac sign Leo around August 1-3.
The Goddess of Imbolc
Goddess Brigit
Brigit is a clear example of a Goddess who was powerful enough and loved so fiercely that she could not be eradicated from the consciousness of the people. She survived through the centuries in spite of the new religion. She was swathed with new Christian anecdotes. With her sanctity preserved, the church enhanced her purity and removed her status as Goddess. She was now a Christian woman. She supposedly “converted” to the new faith along with her people. Her new identity was Brigit, the human daughter of a Druid. The church claimed she was baptized by the great patriarch St. Patrick. So, the story goes, she took religious vows, and her attributes were identical to that of the Goddess Brigit.
Neo-pagans lovingly know Goddess Brigit as the Goddess of fire, healing, metalwork, and poetry. She is the protector of a myriad of people and including, midwives, sailors, healers, cattle (cow and sheep), Ireland, fugitives, foreigners, children, and oracles. She is the triple Goddess, possessing the qualities of the maiden, mother, and crone. As a healer, she was the patroness of dozens of sacred wells and springs throughout Ireland that were believed to have healing properties. A 19th-century survey stated that Ireland and no less than three-thousand holy wells. It seems at least fifteen were dedicated to their patron St. Brigit.
Christians celebrate her feast day is the first of February. Many neo-pagans today celebrate Brigit’s Day on the first or the second, marking the midway between winter and spring. She is often associated with the hearth and cooking.
Due to Brigit’s popularity, her cult following was widespread, and her name has been pronounced and spelled differently. Alternative spellings are Brigid, Brighid, Bride, Bhride, Brigida, and Brigantia. Notice a pattern? Great Britain was likely named after Brigit.
Brigit’s father was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a Dagda, the father figure. He lived a king, poet, and Druid. He is associated with fertility, agriculture, manliness, and strength, as well as magic, Druidry, and wisdom. He could control life and death, the weather and crops, as well as time and the seasons. Dagda’s mother was the Goddess Danu, so Danu was likely Brigit’s Grandmother. Brigit was a descendant of a royal bloodline.
As a young maiden, Brigit had a magical, rich dark blue cloak that was given to her by her father. This cloak had the power to heal, ease pain, comfort a woman in childbirth, manifest, and protect. Her cloak came to be one of her most talked-about possessions in future generations.
In the more commonly told Christian tale, Brigit had to go to the King to convince him she needed a portion of land to build her monastery. This story revealed her first bit of magic with her cloak. Brigit came upon King of Leinster and a band of knights, as they were returning from a hunt. Brigit approached the king and told him she needed land. He asked her, “how much do you need?” Brigit replied, “all I ask for is the amount my cloak will cover.”
Amused by this unusual request, the King agreed, and she laid her cloak on a small amount of ground. To his amazement, the mantle grew and spread until it covered the rich, green expanses we know today as the Curragh of Kildare. This area is also known as St. Brigit's Pastures.
Traditionally the cloak would be laid outside before sunset on the eve of Brigit’s Feast Day, 1st February, and brought back in before sunrise. Blessed by Brigit, the ancient spring Goddess, the dew which fell that night imbued the cloth with powers of healing and protection, which lasted throughout the year.
Today in Kildare, Ireland, a new monastery was built dedicated to St. Brigid. They embrace both the old pagan stories of the Goddess and the Christian tales of St. Brigid. The Brigidine Sisters welcome pilgrims from all over the world. Everyone from the Dalai Lama to little old me has visited the monastery and in ritual, song, and dance, we celebrate peace. All are welcome to light owns candles of Brigid’s Perpetual Flame.
Today, Brigit’s pagan fire temple is situated in the town of Kildare, Ireland, at the St. Brigid’s Cathedral. Folks claim this location to be the very spot where Pagan Priestesses worshiped the Goddess Brigit. The fire temple location behind the Cathedral. The temple today remains as a stone rectangular shaped structure only a few feet high. It has no roof, the floor is gravel and the entrance is open on one side. Pilgrims are free to light candles and do simple ceremonies inside the structure.
Brigit’s flame burned in Kildare, reaching back into pre-Christian times. The Goddess Brigit had nineteen sovereign priestesses. The nineteen priestesses represent one year in what was called the Great Year. This a nineteen-year cycle which was equal to one solar year. The nineteen-year time cycle is the standard by which the lunar and solar cycles are harmonized. These priestesses tended the sacred flame of Brigit both night and day. Likely, Brigit’s Flame maintained its light by St. Brigit and her nuns, possibly up to the 16th century.
The sacred fire of Brigit still burns in Kildare, Ireland. The flame was relit in 1993 at the conference, entitled “Brigid: Prophetess, Earthwoman, Peacemaker,” which was organized by AFRI, (Action from Ireland), a justice, peace and human rights organization, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of St. Brigid’s Peace Cross Project. Since then, the Brigidine Sisters in Kildare have tended the flame in their Centre, Solas Bhride.
Kildare County Council commissioned a sculpture to house the flame in Kildare Town Square in 2005. The piece comprises a twisted column, which flourishes at the top into large-scale oak leaves, nestled into which there is a bronze, acorn cup holding the flame. The use of oak leaves symbolizes both the Christian beliefs of St. Brigid and the earlier Druidic worship of the trees. Of course, the oak is also the namesake of Kildare, Cill Dara, Church of the Oak.
President Mary McAleese presided at the lighting of the Perpetual Flame in the Town Square on February first, St. Brigid’s Day 2006. The flame was lit from the fire tended by the Brigidine Sisters in Solas Bhride. The fire blazes as a beacon of hope, justice, and peace for our country and our world. Since then, this flame has been shared with the visitors of the hermitage, to take back and share with their communities around the world.
It is a hermitage. Here I made my first Brigit’s cross with the Brigidine sisters Mary and Phil. Brigit’s Cross is a small cross usually woven from rushes. Typically, it has four arms tied at the ends and a woven square in the middle. Historically, there were also three-armed versions. The crosses dangled overhead to protect a home from fire and malevolence. But they also represent the four directions and the four elements....
Ireland Goddess and Sacred Site Tour 2024
Ireland Goddess and Sacred Site Tours with Glamourgan. Go with us! Celtic Fire Goddess Brigit's Holiday. Journey into the World of Celtic Goddesses and the Sacred Site of Ireland. Visit some of the most ancient and sacred Goddess Sites in the world.
St. Brigid's Day Becomes a National Holiday in Ireland
THE EPIC STORY BEHIND HERSTORY’S BRIGID’S DAY CAMPAIGN
Courtesy of Herstory.ie
In 2022, following a three-year campaign by the feminist organization Herstory, the Irish government finally acknowledged Brigid’s importance by declaring a new national holiday on her feast day of February 1.
In 2019 Herstory launched their successful campaign to make Brigid’s Day Ireland’s new national holiday. Herstory reveals this epic story and the many people, twists and turns that led to this herstoric moment for the women of Ireland.
Firstly, it’s important to spotlight that this campaign builds on the legacy of visionaries and trailblazers who have kept Brigid’s flame alive for decades, including the legendary Brigidine sisters of Solas Bríde, co-rediscoverers of Brigid’s Way Dr. Karen Ward and Dolores Whelan, Trinity College academic Dr. Mary Condren, Bard Mythologies co-founded by dynamic duo Ellen O’ Malley Dunlop and Sandy Dunlop, and many more.
National treasure, actor and writer Tara Flynn sparked Brigid’s light from the beginning of Herstory, performing ‘Brigid not Jones’ Diary’ at the Herstory launch in the Rotunda back in 2016. Tara introduced Herstory Founder Melanie Lynch to the Celtic Goddess Brigid for the first time. With brilliant wit and wisdom, Tara demonstrated how this extraordinary triple goddess of fire, water and the arts, should be the celebrity of Modern Ireland.
In Spring 2019, Herstory board member Treacy O’ Connor approached Melanie Lynch with the brilliant idea to start a petition to make Brigid’s Day Ireland’s national holiday.
“ Brigid is the bridge, crossing the threshold from Goddess to Saint, Celtic to Christian, North and South, winter and spring, water and fire, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern.”
— Treacy O’ Connor
Together with Lorna Evers Monaghan, they penned the petition and launched it into the world, first securing the backing of the Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus and calling on the Irish people and our diaspora worldwide to celebrate Ireland’s matron saint Brigid and Celtic Goddess equally to our world famous St. Patrick.
Our pitch was comprehensive, outlining the potential of Brigid’s Day for Irish culture, equality, spirituality, tourism, politics, business, health, environment, Northern Ireland and the European Union.
Melanie harnessed her communications skills to weave Brigid’s wisdom, values and the fledgling campaign into Herstory’s strategy and the major Herstory on RTÉ production that launched on Brigid’s Day 2020 with the call to make her day Ireland’s new national holiday. The petition went viral in Ireland and with our diaspora and Brigid’s cloak spread far across the world.
The Herstory Festival of Light was sparked by an epiphany Melanie had when she was meditating one rainy day: “If Ireland lights up the world green on St. Patrick’s Day for one man, why can’t we illuminate the world in celebration of women?”
In 2019 Emily McCormack from the Department of Foreign of Affairs requested that Herstory move their annual Festival of Light from Nollaig na mBan to Brigid’s Day as a number of Irish Embassies had expressed interest in illuminating landmarks in honour of women. The DFA and our diaspora are always at the forefront of Irish culture and have been celebrating Brigid for years.
The Herstory illuminations gave huge power, energy, and media attention to the Brigid’s Day campaign with illumination going viral in the press and on social media. Melanie explains: “Our partners Dodeca were pioneers in co-creating this magic. When we had no funding, Geoff, Mark, Jef and Sharon offered to do the light shows pro bono because they believed in the power of light, the alchemy of Brigid, and the importance of celebrating Mná na hÉireann.
Artists were instrumental in the campaign, generously creating art inspired by Brigid for the Festival of Light, and forging a new understanding of Brigid - Goddess and Saint - and how she can be presented as a modern icon and role model: as environmentalist, feminist, Pride icon, healer, pioneer, human rights activist, goddess of the arts, alchemist and wisdom weaver. Herstory project manager and researcher Katelyn Hanna ran the artist’s open calls and social media activity, epic feats of multi-tasking and dynamism.
In the healing spirit of Brigid, the Herstory team were working with survivors and victims of the Mother & Baby Homes in 2020. Melanie explains; “We asked survivors what was their fear and they said it was being forgotten. In response we produced a spectacular pilgrimage of light on Brigid’s Day 2021, illuminating iconic museums, castles and Sean Ross Abbey in honour of all those who suffered. Peter Martin captures this powerful tribute in SOLAS, a hauntingly beautiful film.
On Brigid’s Day 2021, poet Laura Murphy joined the campaign and penned a powerful Letter to the Taoiseach, seeking justice for the Mother & Baby Home survivors and victims. In her letter she also asked for Brigid’s Day to become a national holiday. The Abbey Theatre invited Laura to read her letter in the acclaimed production HOME, created in direct response to the report on Mother and Baby Homes and focusing on the testimonies of survivors.
The momentum was building and on Spring Equinox 2021, Herstory CEO Melanie Lynch wrote to every politician and stakeholder on the island, calling for Brigid’s Day to be made a national holiday. You can read the letter here. Advisors in this process were Maria Bourke, Ruairí McKiernan, Susan Quirke, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, Treacy O’ Connor and Laura Murphy. The response was strong, with many female and male! politicians and stakeholders backing the campaign, commending the strength of the pitch.
So it was some shock when in September 2021, Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Leo Varadkar announced that there would be a new national holiday in Ireland and Fine Gael released their proposed ideas to public vote, including the favourite idea ‘Thanksgiving’, however there was no mention of Brigid’s Day.
Herstory quickly got to work. The seeds were long sown and the groundwork was done. All we had to do was re-engage the politicians and stakeholders who had already pledged their support for Brigid’s Day, generating the perfect media storm and drumming up support from the public and diaspora. You can read the email here and insights behind the campaign in this Irish Examiner article.
The petition was signed by 16,000 people, and the campaign was backed by the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, Green Party, Official St. Patrick’s Festival, Joe Duffy, Marion Keyes, Imelda May, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl, Senator David Norris, Holly Cairns TD, Ivana Bacik TD, Minister Josepha Madigan TD, Martin Heydon TD, Minister Ossian Smyth, Frances Fitzgerald MEP, Charlie Flanagan TD, Maria Walsh MEP to name a few.
In January 2022 the government announced that St. Brigid’s Day and Imbolc would become Ireland’s new annual national holiday from 2023, the first in honour of a woman, our matron saint, celtic goddess and a celebration of all Mná.
And the rest is history, or rather herstory!
Discover more about Herstory’s trailblazing workwww.herstory.ie and all the wonderful events, articles and art inspired by Brigid:www.brigidsday.org
Picture Courtesy of: Brigid, by Dee McKiernan illuminating St. Brigid's Cathedral Kildare for the 2020 Herstory