Brigit Celtic Goddess of Fire

Brigid, gold-red woman,
Brigid, flame and honeycomb,
Brigid, sun of womanhood,
Brigid, lead me home.

Brigit is both Pagan Goddess and as Christian thought invaded the ancient world, the Goddess Brigid was so powerful that She was morphed into Saint Brigid of Kildare.


Goddess Brigid may indicate that Saint Brigid is partially or entirely a fictional creation based on the pagan figure in order to convert Celts to Christianity; the euhemerization of pagan figures and tradition was a common practice of Christian missionaries However the saint may merely have been named after the goddess.

In Irish mythology, Brigit or Brighid was the daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She was the wife of Bres of the Fomorians, with whom she had a son, Ruadán. She had two sisters, Brigid the Physician and Brigid the Smith, but it is generally thought that all three were aspects of the one goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft. Elsewhere she is described as the patron of other vital crafts of early Celtic society: dying, weaving and brewing. A goddess of regeneration and abundance, she was greatly beloved as a provider of plenty who brought forth the bounties of the natural world for the good of the people. She is closely connected with livestock and domesticated animals. She is considered a classic Celtic Triple Goddess.

Brigid is celebrated at the Gaelic festival of Imbolc, when she brings the first stirrings of spring to the land. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and some Anglicans mark the day as the Feast of Saint Brigid; the festival is also known as Candlemas and Purification of the Virgin.

Pantheon: - Celtic
Moon Phase: - Triple
Energies: - arts & crafts, healing, home and hearth, fertility.
Symbol: - Fiery arrow, fire, heath, light, candles, sunrise, springs, wells poetry, thresholds and doorways, bells, cloak, Imbolc, St. Brigid's cross.

I am under the shielding

Of good Brigit each day.

I am under the shielding

Of good Brigit each night.

I am under the keeping

Of the nurse of Mary,

Each early and late,

Every dark, every light.

Brigit is my comrade woman,

Brigit is my make of song,

Brigit is my helping woman,

My choicest of women,

My woman of guidance.

--Carmina Gadelica

If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight.
If Candlemas day be shower and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again.

http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/bride.html

"Feed your fires!"

This card in a reading indicates bright inspiration and renewal. Healing may be accessed in both inner and outer aspects of your life, with balance being the key and the method.

St Bride’s day, wherever it is celebrated, is one of the clearest examples of a pagan festival being adopted by Christianity because even the name has not changed. St Bride or Brigid simply took over the mantle of the pagan Brigid, chief goddess of not only the ancient Irish but Celts across a wide swathe of western Europe. The name in Gaelic means ‘bright flame’. In northern Britain she was called Brigantia, chief deity of the Brigantes tribe who were often led by warrior queens. Elsewhere she was called Brigit, Bride, Brighid, Brigandu and Berecynthia.

Brigid’s festival was one of the four main events in the ancient Celtic calendar because it marks the invisible rewakening of Nature within the cold earth. It was also sometimes called Oilmec, ‘Ewe’s Milk’ because it opened the season of lambing.




Resources.
http://reclaimingthedarkgoddess.blogspot.com/search?q=brigit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid_of_Kildare
http://www.druidry.org/obod/deities/brigid.html
http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/celtic-goddess-brigid.htm
http://www.unicorngarden.com/brigid.htm
http://www.woodka.com/2008/02/01/the-wheel-of-the-celtic-year-imbolc/
http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/feast-of-st-brigid-or-bride-or-bridget-of-kildare-february-1/
http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/bride.html
http://spiritlibrary.com/videos/doreen-virtue/doreens-daily-oracle-card-reading-jan-22-2010