Brigit and the Buddha, Sharing an Altar

 A month or two ago, I felt the need to combine my two main altars, my Brigit altar and my Buddha altar.

It feels right this way, for now at least Brigit has my heart and the Buddha has my mind. When I sit with Brigit now I am reminded to welcome everything. Considering that "Everything" has recently included the death of my beloved younger brother, welcoming it is both a challenge and a gift. Sitting here, I read my poetry to Brigit and I remind myself of the Buddha's teachings and how they have helped me to shape a practice that is based on growth through self reflection and compassion.

I can mourn here, in stillness and the security of Brigit's protection and my own clarity and strength. I can yield to my sorrow and in yielding to it free it and come tear by tear word by word moment by moment closer and closer to peace.

I practice yoga in this tiny room, too. I have to be careful not to kick the altar when we do a leg raise in downward facing dog. The practice of asanas and of pranayama breathing help me to feel my body more completely than I do in my normal, vaguely unaware state. This practice brings me to a place where I can sit at the altar and connect, meditate, contemplate, or pour out my feelings in a far more grounded state.

When I moved here from my bachelor apartment of thirty years, I decided not to use the little bedroom for my bed, but to create a sanctuary for yoga, meditation, and prayer. This has made the room a magical place. If I am out there in the living room where my bed is or in the nook where the table is (with computer, eg work space, on it), or generally wandering around with a feeling of stress, if I walk into this room where all that loving work is done, I feel peace. Maybe just for a second and maybe only a particle of it, but it’s here. All those moments, they are here, waiting to greet me when I have the need. The love I have for Brigit, the gratitude I have for her and for the Buddha, the moments of strength in my body or release of pain or tension, the times when I’ve been able to open my mind to a different way of thinking or my heart to a different way of being. They’re all here.

I am infinitely lucky to have this room, to have the teachings of these two culturally disparate wisdom paths, to have the support of communities, to have a disability pension and a place in a wonderfully conceived subsidised housing development. I am lucky to have had my brother for the 50 some years that I did. I am lucky in so many ways and I am so grateful.

When I visited Kildare in 1997, I took my various life strands to her well and talked with her about them. I wondered if I should give up some of the things that I loved and devoted time to so I could focus more generously on some of the others. What I realised there, through her guidance, I am sure, was that even though they were seemingly unrelated they all supported each other in me and that I didn’t need to give any of them up. That in drawing on all of them I understood each of them a little better. Similarly, I used to worry about being a Pagan and a Buddhist at the same time. I wondered if I was being insincere or inauthentic or somehow letting down the team. But they served such different purposes in my life, although they blend together beautifully. My Buddhism is stronger and broader because of Brigit, and my service to and connection with Brigit is stronger and broader because of the Buddha. I guess that’s why combining my two altars feels so right for me. There is no contradiction here. And I am so so lucky to have found them both.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me on these interweaving paths. Blessings on us all.

Image: Photo of my quiet place.

Brigit Classes with Mael Brigde

It is nearly Imbolc, and it is a time each year when I have been busy doing Brigit work for a couple of months. Readying the newsletter for the Daughters of the Flame 🔥 is a big part of that, and working with my flame sister, Nichole, to find out who is keeping her shift for another year and who is not. Assigning shifts to new members. And making contact with all manner of individuals on their journey with Brigit.

Some of the most rewarding of those contacts are with the folk who take my Brigit classes. There are many opportunities to reflect and build on our concept of and relationship to her in the classes, and I am moved by the depth of the reflections each student offers.

As the evenings draw nearer to Imbolc, many of us wish to deepen our connection with her. If you would benefit from some quiet contemplation of Brigit over the next days or weeks, my three Brigit courses may provide a safe place for you to do so.

The first two, Discovering Brigit and Stepping Into Brigit, focus on our ways of seeing and understanding her and exploring our connection with her. The third, an intensive and much longer course, immersed us in the reading and writing of poetry, under the mantle of Brigit, with an exploration of the poet in Ireland.

If you want to learn more about the classes, you may find them here. If you would like to learn more about me, go here. If you do take Discovering Brigit, remember that there is a coupon at the end for a substantial discount on the following class, Stepping Into Brigit.

May your Imbolc be a blessing, and may your gradually manifesting spring be a season of growth and insight.

Sweet blessings,

Mael Brigde

Cartimandua and Brigit

The key paragraph here, where Koch and Carey suggest that Brigit and Briganti are correspondents, and that Brigit arose from Brigantes in the Kildare area, and even that she had a "mortal high priestess" there is all speculation, unproven and as far as I know unsupported, but this does help explain why so many people assume it to be true.

from The Celtic Heroic Age by Koch and Carey, 4th edition, 2003.

BRIGIT Strikes a Blow for the Environment!..............(I Think.)

Well, here's an odd one. As you know, I often find ideas for my posts by simply entering the name "Brigit" in my search engine and seeing what pops up.

Till today I did not know, for instance, that since August 2012 a four year research and development project involving sixteen partners in the European Union has been operating under the name of BRIGIT.

But why? I mean, why the name? I have written them, and I hope I can report back to you. There is no obvious explanation on the site. It isn't an acronym, it has nothing to do with Ireland, but look at the logo. A sort of half-Celtic knot, half-pentacle thing, no? And look at what they are doing:


'New tailor-made biopolymers produced from lignocellulosic sugars waste for highly demanding fire-resistant applications'

BRIGIT aims to develop a cost-competitive and environmentally friendly continuous process to produce biopolymers (polyhydroxybutyrate, PHB, and succinate-based biopolyesters, PBS-Poly-Butylene-Succinate) from waste-derived lignocelullosic sugar feedstock liquor of wood sulphite pulping process based on “in-situ” fermentation process and new fermentation culture technology without alteration of the quality of current lignosulphonates (they have a high market demand as additive). Other non-wood plant waste, used nowadays in the pulp production, will be also considered as alternative sugar source in this project.

In comparison with previous projects to obtain biopolymers from different sources, the main innovation in BRIGIT is the use of an existing sugar-rich waste stream and the process integration with the existing industrial operation, that will permit an overall reduction in resource consumption and in greenhouse gas emissions and a dramatic reduction of operational costs due to the use of non-sterile steps, without the need of intermediate discontinuous bioreactors and avoiding waste transport.

Okay. So, like our Brigit, BRIGIT has a connection to fire, though in her case, she is resisting it, not igniting it. On the other hand, if we look back to Saint Brigit's vitae, when she was a baby flames were seen to be coming from her chamber while she herself was untouched. So maybe they are onto something here.

Taken further, BRIGIT is apparently concerned with the health of the land, as Saint Brigit and her goddess counterpart--and any self-respecting sovereign goddess would do. At least, the thrust seems to be to reduce the use of natural resources and decrease greenhouse gas emissions (besides saving investors a bucketload of cash, though I'm not sure our Brigit is too concerned about that).

Going a few steps further even still, notice that they are making polymers. It would not be too great a stretch to see the goddess Brigit's role as smith here. Where her devotees originally shaped metals, these modern day smiths shape plastics, bio-plastics, even--indeed, they are shaping molecules themselves. Which is pretty darn cool; the stuff of goddesses.

So I don't know if we have a hidden Brigidine in here, or if the woman who thought of the project named it after herself (or the man who thought of it named it after his mother) or what. But I like the parallels, and I like the logo, and for that matter, I like the project, from what I can understand of it.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. And if I hear back on the name, I'll post it here.

What the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has to say about Brigit

Brigit [St Brigit, Brigid] (439/452–524/526),patron saint ofKildare 

by T. M. Charles-Edwards

St Brigit in Melbourne, Australia

Brigit [St Brigit, Brigid] (439/452–524/526), patron saint of Kildare, is the only native Irish saint to enjoy a widespread cult in all the Celtic countries. About the events of her life little can be said, since the earliest sources come from more than a century after her supposed death, on 1 February in either 524 or 526, and were in any case interested in miracle stories rather than biographical detail. Her early cult is, however, among the most influential and the most interesting of any saint in Ireland or Britain.

The cult and lives

• Uploaded by Joe Byrne

The early texts in Brigit's hagiographical ‘dossier’—ranging from the seventh to the early ninth century—contain different perceptions of her natural clientele. At one end of the spectrum, she was a pan-Irish saint, enjoying local support in all the provinces of the island; at the other end, she was the saint of her own people, the Fothairt, settled mainly in Leinster but with outposts elsewhere. The Fothairt were never, in the historical period, a leading power even in Leinster, let alone anywhere else; indeed, their particular pride was that Brigit belonged to them. Even within Leinster different texts emphasized different themes: the life by Cogitosus (c.675) was written by a champion of her principal church, Kildare; there, so the life claimed, she lay enshrined, alongside her episcopal helper, Bishop Conlaíd [Conláed, Condlaed] (d. 518/520). On the other hand, the Vita prima, which powerful arguments would date earlier than Cogitosus, is more interested in Brigit's relationship with the people of her father, Dubthach, the branches of the Fothairt settled on the north-western frontier of Leinster. The same is true of the ninth-century vernacular life, Bethu Brigte, which is related to, but not dependent on, the Vita prima; both probably drew on a lost life of the mid-seventh century. These local affiliations were to be enduring: Brigit has remained to this day the patron saint of Kildare, but her cult has continued to be vigorous around Croghan Hill in Offaly, which is mentioned in Bethu Brigte and was close to the home of her father.

One of the most interesting aspects of the hagiography of Brigit is, therefore, its variety, rooted in particular places and enjoying different audiences. Cogitosus's life was addressed initially to the bishop and other educated clerics within the double monastery of Kildare and then to their equivalents in the other major churches; to meet the expectations of such a readership it had to be, and is, a polished piece of writing; Read More...

Jill Smith: Brighde of the Isles

Check out the English webzine Goddess Alive: a new magazine of Goddess celebration.  Now into its 17th issue and its 8th year, if you peek back to issue 2 you will find fine paintings and an article about Brigit in the Hebrides, all by Jill Smith. Art from the series Brighde of the Isles was used on the cover of the Friends of Brides Mound CD, Songs of Bride.

“Brighde is an ancient creative force/goddess who later merged with St. Bridget of Kildare in Ireland to become something of both of them, yet more; and in the Hebrides she has her own distinct character.”

(For photos, ferry schedules, weather forecasts, jobs, events, and more for the Hebrides, click here to get to  Western Isles of Scotland.)

Cill Dara Historical Society

The  Cill Dara Historical Society site has a number of goodly bits on offer. An article on Brigit, a history of the area, a collection of old postcards, including the market square, the round tower, and the interior of the church. I do wish these were clickable to see larger images but alas, no.

Also included are a table of annals (plus bibliography), from 484 when Brigit founded the monastery to 1539 when the “Carmelite friary in Kildare (was) suppressed on 3 Apr. The friary was surrendered by the prior. It consisted of a church, belfry, dormitory hall and two chambers. Kildare also owned a messuage, a garden and a close containing one acre, as well as a cottage and six acres of arable land in the vicinity.”

The site is hosted by Kildare.ie--the County Kildare Community Network--with everything from community events, forum, and business directory to  an A-Z of County Kildare Websites. Check it out before you visit!

5th annual Cyberspace Poetry Slam for Brigid

Autumn Hiscock passed on through Facebook the invitation to publish Brigit poetry all over the web today.

(Go to the bottom of this post to see my offering.)

Autumn encourages us to "Help weave a web of poetry today in honour of Brigid by posting a poem (original or otherwise) on your blog, journal, Facebook page, Twitter, or somewhere else (who says you can’t write one out and pin it to a bulletin board at work, or tape it to your office door?). Leave links to it in the comments area of other post...ed poems; follow the other links you find online to read a vast woven web of poetry today."

Here is the original invitation from Oak:

5th annual Cyberspace Poetry Slam for Brigid
Feel free to copy the following to your blog/facebook/website and spread
the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!
WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2010
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to
post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on
this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in
cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear
about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.
Please pass this invitation on…

Hail, Poetry! Let the web be woven!

Autumn's offering can be found at http://www.owldaughter.org/blog/?p=2761

And here is mine, from 20 February 1995:

St. Brigit of Kildare

she was a short woman with heavy hair
the colour of peat
plaited and pinned back recklessly
her skin bore a swarthy
neolithic caste
hips hands forehead
broad and strong as rock

she never read
nor spoke from a pulpit
and no
she didn't appoint bishops
hang her garment on a beam of sun
cause the milk to flow
from calfless teats

she never met saint patrick
didn't catch the slippery christ
as he was squeezed from his mother's pelvis
she never was a goddess
though she believed in many
her god was well accompanied

the land spoke to both of them
birds' pathways meant much
and a poem sung on an injured part could heal

yeats would not have known her
we would not have known her
she would have stared at us
from crooked brows
if she had seen how we'd picture her

she would have trod on
momentarily
a sort of prayer inherent
in her breath her step
her glance at the harebell
on the moist edge of the spring

Mael Brigde