Free Workshop: Brigit - Looking Deeper, Coming Nearer with Mael Brigde

 

Coming soon!

In this free workshop we’ll look at using the older Brigit lore and texts, with a creative integration of what we learn, in order to draw closer to her. I’ll offer examples from my own work. Then it’s time for you to dive in. 📚💧🙏🏼🔥🧶

MoonCon 22 will be offered on Facebook Live and will remain up as individual videos for each session. You can sign up to get reminders by going to this link. Or simply follow that link on the day. The video will come up live and you can comment below. Later, when the video is posted permanently, I will get the link to that particular workshop and leave it here.

Image: An older white woman holding an empty mug. The text reads, "Mael Brigde will be talking about Brigit: Looking deeper, coming nearer. Sun 3rd July at 1900-1945 BST (11-11:45 PST).

"MoonCon22 Sat 2nd - Sun 3rd July 2022

2 days of online talks & Q/A panels with Moon Books authors"

St. Brigid's Anemone - A Lovely Windflower for Your Brigit Garden

 I wrote this up in answer to a question on Facebook. The asker wanted to know if there were any flowers specifically associated with Brigit. I thought other might like to read about this, too.

There is a windflower named St. Brigid's Anemone. It is lovely, though it refuses to come up whenever I plant it. It is the conditions of my garden, I suspect, not the bulbs themselves, that are the problem.

This video tells you how to plant them.

While searching just now I came across a variety I didn't know of. The Anemone St Brigid The Governor. I like to think of this as evoking her Abbess days, when she pretty much governed the place.

I don't know how new the St. Brigid Anemone is, but I suspect it is relatively modern. 

Image: Photo of a bouquet of red, white, blue, and purple open-faced flowers, from Garden Seeds Market. Second photo of bright red open-faced flower, the Anemone St Brigid The Governor, from Longfield Gardens.

The Brigid Alliance - they make choice possible

 

In this time of fear and action, when Roe v. Wade faces overturn by the Supreme Court in the United States, the work of The Brigid Alliance of New York is more important than ever.

I recall as a young woman being advised (by a nurse in a general hospital) to go from Canada to the States, as it was easier to get an abortion there. It may soon be, for a short but awful time, the other way around.

In Cogitosus's Vitae Brigitae, "Life of Saint Brigid," the following passage appears:

Of the Pregnant Woman Blessed and Spared the Birth-Pangs

 

1. With a strength of faith most powerful and ineffable, she blessed a woman who, after a vow of virginity, had lapsed through weakness into youthful concupiscence, as a result of which her womb had begun to swell with pregnancy. Inconsequence, what had been conceived in the womb disappeared and she restored her to health and to penitence without childbirth or pain.

This passage is often interpretted to mean that Brigit performed an abortion. It is also interpretted, and I am inclined to this understanding, much as I like the former, to mean what it says: that she removed the "sin" of the woman's sexual act and reversed the consequences of it. No abortion occurs because the foetus now never was.

Either way, it is a wonderful illustration of Saint Brigit's caring and compassion. Whether the young woman has sinned or not, she should not have to suffer a pregnancy and birth that she doesn't want.

The Brigid Alliance cannot possibly take on this moment alone, but here is what they do. There are likely many ways you can support them, if this mission speaks to you as one the Brigit you know would support. Contact them here if you want to know more.

From their site:

 

The Brigid Alliance arranges and funds confidential, personalized travel support to those seeking abortion care in increasingly hostile environments. In partnership with a network of funds and providers, we are closing the gap between the right to an abortion and the ability to access one.

Image: Stylised red-haired woman (head only) from The Brigid Alliance website.

Brigid Festival Vancouver: Link to Talks

 

And here is a link to all of the talks from the Brigid Festival Vancouver, 2021 and 2022.

Rowan Lewgalon Art

 There is an artist who loves to paint Brigit. I have only seen a few of her offerings, but I have loved what I’ve seen and I look forward to seeing many more. Here are two examples, and this is her new Instagram profile: @rowan_lewgalon_art

Mael Brigde Interview, Oracle of Luna with Bridget Engels

 

After the flurry of activity last year around this time, with interviews and talks and so on ahead of my book's release, I decided I needed a quieter Imbolc this year, and didn’t organise anything beyond sharing my daily devotional with folk and having a gentle ritual and supper with fellow Daughter of the Flame, Seba.

Into this scene enter the lovely Bridget Engels, who invited me for an interview, to be conducted once the dust had settled. We had our conversation on Sunday and two days later it is ready for interested ears. See below for links to where you can find it.

I enjoyed talking with Bridget, although afterwards of course I found myself thinking, "oh! I didn’t explain that very well. I completely forgot to say the other thing. Etc., etc." As when I said I wanted to bring (describing me in the 1980s) not just the flame but a devotion to Brigit back into the world. Well, despite the fact that I live an ocean away from Ireland, I knew even then that the saint still had her fans. I meant the goddess, who I wanted to see become as known to goddess worshippers as Inanna and Aphrodite.

Earlier in the conversation, I talked about whether or not Brigit’s perpetual flame was an ancient pagan practice or a mediaeval Christian one. I completely forgot to say, as I got carried away with I what I was trying to explain, that whatever my opinions or anyone else’s about that question, tending Brigit’s flame remains a meaningful and precious practice which I have no intention of ever giving up.

So! Enough of my dithering and bum coverage. I invite you to listen to the Oracle of Luna with Bridget Engels and Mael Brigde.

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/18K4q6zxaHiWSX28cXKxyT

 

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oracle-of-luna-with-bridget-engels-presents/id1537504464?i=1000550275300

 

Amazon Music:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dfdcd50b-35f7-485d-86c1-7b06979ae749/episodes/73d0d065-0cfd-4371-a8d2-0bc5a4607ef8/the-oracle-of-luna-with-bridget-engels--conversations-with-goddesses-the-oracle-of-luna-with-bridget-engels-presents-mael-brigde---devotee-of-the-goddess-brigit-author-poet-founder-of-the-daughters-of-the-flame

 

Pandora:

https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-oracle-of-luna-with-bridget-engels-conversations-with-goddesses/the-oracle-of-luna-with-bridget-engels-presents-mael-brigde-devotee-of-the-goddess-brigit-author-poet-founder-of-the-daughters-of-the-flame/PE:8809601

Image: by Bridget Engels.

Online Pop Up Talk: St. Brigid's Shoe Shrine

 The National Museum of Ireland released an online talk on Facebook yesterday, which focusses on one artifact connected to her, the shoe shrine. From the post:

"Celebrate St. Brigid's Day and learn more about the saint and her Shoe Shrine.

"Watch our new pop-up talk about Ireland’s female saint, St. Brigid, and her Shoe Shrine that is on display at the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology. Discover more about the life of the saint and her miracles, and find out more about the unique Shoe Shrine that is associated with St. Brigid.

"Learn about the traditions and practices associated with #StBrigid

 https://www.museum.ie/.../Religion-and.../St-Brigid-s-Day

"Learn about the elaborate shrines which were made to contain artefacts that were associated with saints and these were often embellished and inscribed over the centuries at the Colmcille: Sacred objects of a Saint - 1500 years of devotion Exhibition- https://www.museum.ie/.../Colmcille-Sacred-objects-of-a... #archaeology #StBrigidsDay

 

Image: St. Brigid's Shoe Shrine from National Museum of Ireland.

Mael Brigde Interview - The Oracle of Luna With Bridget Engels

 

I am so looking forward to this! Bridget Engels will be interviewing me on The Oracle of Luna With Bridget Engels podcast next week, airing on 8 February. I've been listening to her interviews and she talks with some very interesting people. She writes:

"Next podcast episode on 2/6 I chat with the amazing: Mael Brigde

"☘️🔥Mael is a devotee of the Celtic Goddess and saint, Brigit, and the founder of the Daughters of the Flame, and the author of A Brigit of Ireland Devotional – Sun Among Stars, a collection of essays, contemplative poetry, and resources for those seeking to deepen their understanding of and connection to Brigit. Her aim in founding Daughters of the Flame was to rekindle the perpetual flame burned by Saint Brigit’s order in Kildare, Ireland until the 1600s. She also publishes a general interest Brigit blog, Brigit’s Sparkling Flame, and a Brigit poetry blog, Stone on the Belly.

Mael has created three online classes for those wishing to learn more about Brigit and grow closer to her. The first, Discovering Brigit, introduces Brigit and many of the ideas associated with her. The second, Stepping into Brigit, guides the seeker into a deepening connection with her. The third, Journey with Brigit, Goddess of Poetry, is a longer, intensive class that explores reading and writing poetry as a sacred act, offering meditations, historical information, and the model of both ancient and modern Irish poets.

"This episode will air on 2/8 on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Pandora, etc."

 

 

 

Image: by Bridget Engels