Brigid possessed an apple orchard in the Otherworld; bees traveled there to obtain magical nectar. This orchard was associated with Avalon. The Lady of the Lake in Arthurian Legend may be based on Brigid.
Brigid was the goddess of the Sacred Flame of Kildare.
The first Abbess of Kildare, Brigid of Ireland, daughter of King Dubhthach of Leinster, is often conflated with this figure, sometimes to the point wherein it is denied that the actual woman ever existed, despite historical records of her presence at the abbey.
On February 1, Brigid was celebrated at Imbolc, when she brought spring to the land. It is also the feast day of St Brigid (who is honored by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Anglicans).
Brigit was transformed into a Catholic saint, who was the daughter of a druid by the name of Dubhthach.
There are other such legends involving Brigit as a child helping her mother to make the woad dye, and finally getting the perfect mixture that her mother was not able to achieve.
Brigit was concerned to be the goddess of new beginnings and birth, being represented by the lamb and the sheering of sheep in the spring.
Brigit (the Goddess and the Festival) represents the stirring of life again after the dead months of the winter, and her special blessings are called forth at this time.
Some say that there are three Brigits : one sister in charge of poetry and inspiration who invented the Ogham alphabet, one in charge of healing and midwifery, and the third in charge of the hearth fire, smithies and other crafts.
The Christian Brigit was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of her area, a strange role for an abbess, made stranger by her requirement that her bishops also be practicing goldsmiths.
Feeds |
Contact