Dria El
June 16th, 2001, 03:11 AM
In order to incorporate Brigid into Christian worship, and thus insure Her survival, Her involvement in the life of Jesus became the stuff of legend. According to the stories in The Lives of the Saints, Brigid was the midwife present at the birth, placing three drops of water on His forehead. This seems to be a Christianized version of an ancient Celtic myth concerning the Sun of Light upon Whose head three drops of water were placed in order to confer wisdom.
Further, as a Christianized saint, Brigid was said to be the foster-mother of Jesus, fostering being a common practice among the Celts. She took the Child to save Him from the slaughter of male infants supposedly instigated by Herod. She wore a headdress of candles to light Their way to safety.
There exists an apocryphal gospel of Thomas that was excluded from the Bible in which he claims a web was woven to protect the infant Jesus from harm. This is in keeping with Her status as the patron of domestic arts, weaving wool from Her ewes, increasing the connections as a pastoral Goddess.
Due to the original differences between the Roman church and that which was once an extremely divergent type of Christianity practiced in the Western Isles, particularly Ireland, many of the older deities made the transition from Gods and Goddesses to saints, some experiencing Church-inflicted gender changes on the way.
Often thinly-disguised pagan worship was continued in monasteries and convents which were built on or near the sites sacred to the Celtic pantheon. Many of the great monasteries - Clonmacnoise, Durrow and Brigid's own Kildare - were great centers of learning and culture, with information disseminated from these sites to Western Europe. (This is much the same as the great Druidic colleges and it is not surprising to find that places sacred to the new religion were built upon the foundations of the old.)
These cloisters are thought to have kept alive and preserved much of classic culture in Europe throughout the Dark Ages. During this period of time, wars were decimating the population. Mary, as the Mother in this new religion, was embraced by women who felt a similar experience of sacrificing their sons to a political and religious machine.
The Triple Goddesses were replaced by a Trinity, but the Old Ways lingered in worship. Brigid‚s role as Mother Goddess was never completely eradicated and reappears throughout Her entire career as a Catholic saint. As Saint Brigid, there are rays of sunlight coming from Her head, as portrayed as a Goddess. Themes of milk, fire, Sun and serpents followed Her on this path, adding to Her ever-growing popularity. Compassion, generosity, hospitality, spinning and weaving, smithwork, healing and agriculture ran throughout Her various lives and evolution.
One of the stories of Her life as a saint supports Her original attribute as a solar deity. During Her infancy the neighbors ran to Her house, thinking it was afire. This radiance came from the infant saint, a demonstration of Her grace bestowed as by the holy Spirit. A prayer to Saint Brigid requests,
Even in Her new incarnation as a Catholic saint Her previous existence is affirmed. The eternal flame at Her convent at Kildare suggests its existence as having been pagan and/or Druidic. The shrine at Kildare is assumed to be a Christian survival of an ancient college of vestal priestesses who were trained and then scattered throughout the land to tend sacred wells, groves, caves and hills. These priestesses were originally committed to thirty years in service but, after this period, were free to marry and leave. The first ten years were spent in training, ten in the practice of their duties and the final ten in teaching others, similar to the three degrees of initiation found in most traditions.
These women preserved old traditions, studied sciences and healing remedies and, perhaps, even the laws of state. At Kildare their duties must have involved more than merely tending the fire. This perpetual fire at the monastic city was tended by nineteen nuns over a period of nineteen days. On the twentieth day, Brigid Herself is said to keep the fire burning.
The site for the monastery at Kildare was chosen for its elevation and also for the ancient Oak found there, considered so sacred that no weapon was permitted to be placed near it, with fines collected for the gathering of deadfalls within its area. The word, Kildare, comes from "Cill Dara," the Church of the Oak. The entire area was known as Civitas Brigitae, 'The City of Brigid'.
The preservation of the sacred fire became the focus of this convent. The abbess was considered to be the reincarnation of the saint and each abbess automatically took the name, Brigid, upon investiture. The convent was occupied continuously until 1132 C. E., with each abbess having a mystical connection to the saint and retaining Her name. At this point, Dermot MacMurrough wished to have a relative of his invested as the abbess. Although popular opinion was against him, his troops overran the convent and raped the reigning abbess in order to discredit her.
After this, Kildare lost much of its power and the fires were finally put out by King Henry VIII during the Reformation. During the time the convent was occupied by the saint Herself, She went from the position of Mother Goddess to that of Lawgiver, paralleling Minerva, once again. Her ability to move between categories is the secret of Her continuing success. When the laws were written down and codified by Christianity, Brigid figured largely to insure that the rights of women were remembered. These laws had been committed to memory by the brehons as a part of the extensive oral tradition.
The Old Ways were still practiced, although not often openly and, in order to make certain that people would not stray from the new religion, many aspects of the old were incorporated into the new. In keeping with the Old Ways, men were not permitted to impregnate women against their will, against medical advice or the restrictions of her tribe. A man was not permitted to neglect the sexual needs of his wife. Irish law also provided extensively for the rights of women in marriage, for pregnancy out of wedlock and for divorce.
In one incident, clearly defining the position of women in this new warrior class, a woman petitioned Brigid for justice. Her lands and holdings were about to be taken from her after the death of her parents. Brigid, however, ruled that it was the woman's decision to either take the land as a warrior, being prepared to use arms to protect her holdings and her people. If she decided not to take on this privilege half her land should go to her tribe. But, if she chose to hold the land and support it militarily, she was permitted to hold the land in its entirety.
The shift from Mother Goddess to Virgin Mother to Virgin Saint presented difficulty. Even though it insured Her survival and the emergence of Her power in Neo-Paganism, the emphasis on virginity stemmed completely from the Christian patriarchy. She derived power at the expense of other women, removing motherhood from its revered position in Celtic society.
As the Mother, Brigid keeps the traditions alive and whole, offering a means of guidance that sustains through any circumstances. In Her capacity as the Lawgiver Her attempts to carry the Old Ways through the storm to the present day, much as Merlin's work would extend to the limits of the solar system, have been successful. Paganism still exists and in a form that may well weather the storms present at this moment.
However, seeing Brigid as the unbroken vessel, Her virginity being wholly symbolic, Her loyalty is not compromised by allegiance to one lover or husband. Beyond the grip of any one tribe or nation, She can mediate to ensure unity for the good of all. She protects us as we walk through the labyrinth but also makes us face the reality of ourselves. Her Fire is the spark alive in every one of us.
Further, as a Christianized saint, Brigid was said to be the foster-mother of Jesus, fostering being a common practice among the Celts. She took the Child to save Him from the slaughter of male infants supposedly instigated by Herod. She wore a headdress of candles to light Their way to safety.
There exists an apocryphal gospel of Thomas that was excluded from the Bible in which he claims a web was woven to protect the infant Jesus from harm. This is in keeping with Her status as the patron of domestic arts, weaving wool from Her ewes, increasing the connections as a pastoral Goddess.
Due to the original differences between the Roman church and that which was once an extremely divergent type of Christianity practiced in the Western Isles, particularly Ireland, many of the older deities made the transition from Gods and Goddesses to saints, some experiencing Church-inflicted gender changes on the way.
Often thinly-disguised pagan worship was continued in monasteries and convents which were built on or near the sites sacred to the Celtic pantheon. Many of the great monasteries - Clonmacnoise, Durrow and Brigid's own Kildare - were great centers of learning and culture, with information disseminated from these sites to Western Europe. (This is much the same as the great Druidic colleges and it is not surprising to find that places sacred to the new religion were built upon the foundations of the old.)
These cloisters are thought to have kept alive and preserved much of classic culture in Europe throughout the Dark Ages. During this period of time, wars were decimating the population. Mary, as the Mother in this new religion, was embraced by women who felt a similar experience of sacrificing their sons to a political and religious machine.
The Triple Goddesses were replaced by a Trinity, but the Old Ways lingered in worship. Brigid‚s role as Mother Goddess was never completely eradicated and reappears throughout Her entire career as a Catholic saint. As Saint Brigid, there are rays of sunlight coming from Her head, as portrayed as a Goddess. Themes of milk, fire, Sun and serpents followed Her on this path, adding to Her ever-growing popularity. Compassion, generosity, hospitality, spinning and weaving, smithwork, healing and agriculture ran throughout Her various lives and evolution.
One of the stories of Her life as a saint supports Her original attribute as a solar deity. During Her infancy the neighbors ran to Her house, thinking it was afire. This radiance came from the infant saint, a demonstration of Her grace bestowed as by the holy Spirit. A prayer to Saint Brigid requests,
Even in Her new incarnation as a Catholic saint Her previous existence is affirmed. The eternal flame at Her convent at Kildare suggests its existence as having been pagan and/or Druidic. The shrine at Kildare is assumed to be a Christian survival of an ancient college of vestal priestesses who were trained and then scattered throughout the land to tend sacred wells, groves, caves and hills. These priestesses were originally committed to thirty years in service but, after this period, were free to marry and leave. The first ten years were spent in training, ten in the practice of their duties and the final ten in teaching others, similar to the three degrees of initiation found in most traditions.
These women preserved old traditions, studied sciences and healing remedies and, perhaps, even the laws of state. At Kildare their duties must have involved more than merely tending the fire. This perpetual fire at the monastic city was tended by nineteen nuns over a period of nineteen days. On the twentieth day, Brigid Herself is said to keep the fire burning.
The site for the monastery at Kildare was chosen for its elevation and also for the ancient Oak found there, considered so sacred that no weapon was permitted to be placed near it, with fines collected for the gathering of deadfalls within its area. The word, Kildare, comes from "Cill Dara," the Church of the Oak. The entire area was known as Civitas Brigitae, 'The City of Brigid'.
The preservation of the sacred fire became the focus of this convent. The abbess was considered to be the reincarnation of the saint and each abbess automatically took the name, Brigid, upon investiture. The convent was occupied continuously until 1132 C. E., with each abbess having a mystical connection to the saint and retaining Her name. At this point, Dermot MacMurrough wished to have a relative of his invested as the abbess. Although popular opinion was against him, his troops overran the convent and raped the reigning abbess in order to discredit her.
After this, Kildare lost much of its power and the fires were finally put out by King Henry VIII during the Reformation. During the time the convent was occupied by the saint Herself, She went from the position of Mother Goddess to that of Lawgiver, paralleling Minerva, once again. Her ability to move between categories is the secret of Her continuing success. When the laws were written down and codified by Christianity, Brigid figured largely to insure that the rights of women were remembered. These laws had been committed to memory by the brehons as a part of the extensive oral tradition.
The Old Ways were still practiced, although not often openly and, in order to make certain that people would not stray from the new religion, many aspects of the old were incorporated into the new. In keeping with the Old Ways, men were not permitted to impregnate women against their will, against medical advice or the restrictions of her tribe. A man was not permitted to neglect the sexual needs of his wife. Irish law also provided extensively for the rights of women in marriage, for pregnancy out of wedlock and for divorce.
In one incident, clearly defining the position of women in this new warrior class, a woman petitioned Brigid for justice. Her lands and holdings were about to be taken from her after the death of her parents. Brigid, however, ruled that it was the woman's decision to either take the land as a warrior, being prepared to use arms to protect her holdings and her people. If she decided not to take on this privilege half her land should go to her tribe. But, if she chose to hold the land and support it militarily, she was permitted to hold the land in its entirety.
The shift from Mother Goddess to Virgin Mother to Virgin Saint presented difficulty. Even though it insured Her survival and the emergence of Her power in Neo-Paganism, the emphasis on virginity stemmed completely from the Christian patriarchy. She derived power at the expense of other women, removing motherhood from its revered position in Celtic society.
As the Mother, Brigid keeps the traditions alive and whole, offering a means of guidance that sustains through any circumstances. In Her capacity as the Lawgiver Her attempts to carry the Old Ways through the storm to the present day, much as Merlin's work would extend to the limits of the solar system, have been successful. Paganism still exists and in a form that may well weather the storms present at this moment.
However, seeing Brigid as the unbroken vessel, Her virginity being wholly symbolic, Her loyalty is not compromised by allegiance to one lover or husband. Beyond the grip of any one tribe or nation, She can mediate to ensure unity for the good of all. She protects us as we walk through the labyrinth but also makes us face the reality of ourselves. Her Fire is the spark alive in every one of us.