Up: [[Spirituality]] Created: 2022-02-08 Updated: 2024-12-28 ## She’s Bride to Me Brigid was called Bride in the West of Scotland. She’s especially associated with Iona. From now on, in honour of my Scottish heritage, she is Bride to me. ## Misunderstandings about Celtic Goddesses Celtic goddesses aren’t like Greek ones. In the Celtic world there weren’t goddesses *of* anything, so no goddess of fire or goddess of poetry. But Celtic goddesses were strongly associated with specific things. Bride was a goddess associated with healing, smithcraft, and poetry. It’s unlikely that she was a triple goddess of maiden/mother/crone variety. The triple deities of the ancient Celts were more likely to have equal status and roles, such as three mothers or three sisters. However, Lunaea Weatherstone in her book, *Tending Brigid’s Fire* (p.58-59) makes a decent argument for Bride’s aspects being easily relatable to the energies of a triple goddess. - Maiden — poet’s muse, the flash of inspiration — forever sought, never contained or commanded - Mother — healing lore and loving touch, nurturing - Crone — the forge hammering the soul’s metal into shape, bringing you closer to transformation and rebirth. ## Connection to Poetry Bride was honoured as patron goddess of the file (pronounced filly; spelled fili if plural). Fili were the local bards, which meant so much more than the poets we have today. Bards were inspired by their connection to [[the Otherworld]] so that any poems they uttered were powerful incantations. While the bards were men, it was always women who mediated the voices of inspiration from the Otherworld. W.B. Yeats wrote a poem called *The Song of Wandering Aengus* where he referred to inspiration as a ‘fire in the head’ which connects nicely to Bride’s association to fire. Weatherstone says that Bride blesses all art and craft three times — in the inspiration, during the creation, and at completion. ## Connection to Hearth Another aspect of Bride was as a hearth keeper, much like the Greek goddess, [[Hestia]] I want to explore the meaning of fire in a lot more depth but, for now, let’s leave it at the key associations of transformation and creation. ## The Only Female Smith As a goddess associated with fire, Bride is also the only female smith in world mythology. Before iron was mined, it came from meteors. It was called ‘sky metal’ or ‘celestial metal’ and was considered quite magical. Plus, smiths could transform metal into tools and tools too were seen as magical, very important and very costly. Smiths were thought to be collaborators with nature, helping nature to perfect itself. The association is to Alchemy. ## Bride the Scholar? Weatherstone says that Bride was a scholar with talents of discernment and synthesis, devoted to learning. She’s the only author I’ve read who calls her a scholar. ## Association to Seasons Bride is also strongly associated with the fertility of the land. In Scottish tradition, she is the Callieach’s sister or her alter-ego. The Callieach (Gaelic for old woman/crone/hag) is associated with the winter half of the year. Some stories have that she dies and is reborn as Bride on Imbolc. So Bride is associated with spring and summer, the fertility of that time. ## Bride’s Sacred Fire The following text and image from [Joanna Powell Colbert](https://joannapowellcolbert.com/product/brigids-fire-print/) - The fire of creativity that brings forth poetry, music, and art - The fire in the head that is the hallmark of shamans, seers, and bards - The fire of the frog, that symbolizes transformation - The fire of healing in the hands - The fire of medicinal and magical herbs - The fire of the sun emerging from its winter slumber - The fire at the centre of the earth waking up once more to Spring ![[Bride by Joanna Colbert.webp|300]] ## Embodies Unity The argument is that Bride is the perfect balance of Fire and Water, symbols of masculine and feminine, so unity of inner feminine and inner masculine. I don’t know if this is true. I’ve only read it on one [website](https://www.herstory.ie/who-was-brigid?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) but I’d love it to be true because that unity is my quest and the quest of individuation. ## Bride Pilgrimage in Ireland There’s a 9 day route from her birthplace in Faughart in Louth to Bride’s Fire Temple and Wells in Kildare. The route was rediscovered in 2013 and is Ireland’s version of the Camino de Santiago. It’s called the [Brigid’s Way Celtic Pilgrimage](https://brigidsway.ie/brigids-way-wells-waters-pilgrim-walk-2024/) ## Bride Course This one from the [Irish Pagan School](https://irishpaganschool.com/p/brigid-goddess-saint?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) looks interesting. > [!User] Sources >[[Sharon Blackie]], Brigid and the Return of the Light online class > >Lunaea Weatherstone, *Tending Brigid’s Fire: Awaken to the Celtic Goddess of Hearth, Temple and Forge* The [[Swan]] is one of Bride's symbols.