Fire in the forge that
shapes and tempers.

Fire of the hearth that
nourishes and heals.

Fire in the head that
incites and inspires.
~ The Three-Fold Fire of Brighid, Ord Brighideach

Continuing the discussion of Brigid begun last week, even after the Roman Catholic Church banned all Pagan ways, She was so firmly and permanently beloved, She was absorbed into Christianity as a saint. Beloved to millions, She has been called the Mother Goddess of Ireland.

The woman identified as St. Brigid built her Abbey around 480 C.E., on a hill beside a great oak tree.  This had been an important gathering place and sacred pilgrimage site since far more ancient times, and it was named from the Gaelic term Cill Dara, which means the Cell or Church of the Oak, pointing to its importance in Druid practice. We now know it as Kildare.

Long before Her adaptation as a Christian saint, possibly even pre-dating the Celtic civilization, there had been a great cult that surrounded this Sun Goddess with various spellings including Bride (pronounced “breed” or “breej”), Brigit, or Brighid.

Brigid (both Saint and Goddess) presides over healing, inspiration, poetry, and smithcraft. She is provider of plenty, giver of life and is also identified with nurturing, childbirth, fertility and fire.

In addition to Her fiery blessings, wells and many rivers and streams are sacred to Brigid, for they are doorways to the Underworld and the womb of our Mother, the source of all life. You can also see Her embodied in the bright stars of the constellation we call Orion.

For millennia at Her temple at Kildare, Brigid’s priestesses, and later, the nuns of Her order, tended an eternal flame in Her honor. Although it was extinguished during the Burning Times (the Inquisition) for being too Pagan, Sister Mary Minehan boldly re-lit St. Brigid’s flame on Her feast day in 1993.

It was lit again for the day in 1997, in the square at Kildare by Ragny Skaisten, a member of the Norwegian Brigidine Sisters.

Each year thereafter on Brigid’s Feast Day, despite reluctance from the Pope, the Brigidine Sisters in Kildare continued to light Her flame in the town square for the day.

Until 2006.

For then, the Wheel turned yet again.  That year, in Kildare, on St. Brigid’s day, with much ceremony and celebration, including the dedication of a specially commissioned sculpture housing it, Her eternal flame was lit once more, by the president of Ireland, Mary McAleese.

And there it burns to this day.

The local news reports described the sculpture as “a twisted column, which flourishes at the top into large-scale oak leaves, nestled into which there is a bronze acorn cup holding the flame. The use of oak leaves symbolises both the Christian beliefs of St. Brigid and the earlier Druidic worship of the trees.”

Brigid presides over all transformations: birth and brewing, metal-smithing and poetry, and the passage from Winter to Spring. Her name may be derived from Gaelic “breo aigit” meaning “fiery arrow.” Her name is noticeably similar to the Sanskrit derivation “Brahti” which means “exalted one.”

The gifts of Brigid transcend spiritual path and culture. Brigid inspires us to become more than we have ever been – to reach for the greatest potential that exists in each of us. Her Flame is given to us for inspiration. It lights the path from our dark Winter to the promise of Spring.

It illuminates us to see and know our ancient, true history. Hers is the purifying fire that heals our wounds, forges new strength, and weaves creativity and art into our lives.

May Brigid the Shining One bless you with Her hope and power.   May the waters of healing in your life flow freely and clearly; may the Light illuminate your path. May we, with our lives, ensure that Her holy fire burns forever more.   Blessed be.

As long as I am offering some encore posts, here’s one that is more recent, from last year.  But I think that, having concluded our Artist’s Way work, yet perhaps only just now really beginning our path as creators, this might bear repeating.  Blessings!  — Beth

The Celtic Spirit

Daily Meditations for the Turning Year

by Caitlin Matthews

March 6: The Underground River of Creation

Apart from sleep where the creative act seems involuntary and instantaneous, it does appear that a creative process goes on all the time beneath the level of conscious thought.
–Neil Gunn, The Atom of Delight

The underground river of creation curves on beneath the surface life, its inspiring waters ever available to refresh and bring sparkle to daily life. People who feel that they are uncreative often complain that they do not know how to get access to these waters. Surely, these people assert, creative waters run through particularly gifted people only.

The way to find the ever-flowing creative river is to dig an artesian well by means of engaging actively and consciously with our creativity. By so doing, we allow the water to rise swiftly.

The moment of creative conception happens in the dark, in sleep, in moments of forgetfulness, in lapses of concentration when we have been beavering to bring something wonderful to fruition—but to no avail.

As we continue to work, suddenly our project starts taking shape, though progress is still gradual, inching forward day by day. The creative process cannot be hurried without loss or miscarriage of our project.

However much we want it to manifest, it has to have organic space and time. It has to rest, like the dough of good bread “proving” in a warm place to double in size. The frenzy of kneading and pummeling will not hasten its arrival.

The moment of manifestation, when we share our creation with others, is only one among many moments of deep satisfaction, wherein we have drunk of the sweet waters that flow deeply through us.

What are the processes of the plan you currently foster?
At what stage are you at the moment?

© Caitlin Matthews

A request from Macha NightMare:

This is an informal survey for an upcoming panel I’m moderating at PantheaCon, featuring Holli Emore, Ivo Dominguez, Jr. and Sam Webster. The topic is how Pagans involve themselves in efforts to create a better world, or for those who don’t, why.

To give us some idea of how Pagans do or do not volunteer, donate to charities, etc., I’ve created a brief survey.  Please consider taking it before February 10, 2010. Thank you kindly.  Yours in changing culture,
- Macha

Please click here to take this brief survey.

If you are a Capricorn, you belong, not to the sign of the goat, but to the sign of the sea-goat; a mythical creature that lives in two worlds – that of land and of sea. Although the myth about Capricorn people is that they are far too sensible and down to earth (translation: dull) to be interested in much more than getting ahead in life, astrologer Jon Cainer reminds us that the fact is, they are just too busy to fool with fixing people’s wrong-headed assumptions about them!

“Capricorns,” he writes, “may be capable characters but they have plenty of mystery and sensitivity in their souls. They also have plenty of fire in their bellies. These passionate, adventurous and mischievous people also just so happen to be highly intelligent. They can instantly see that, if folk want to jump to the wrong conclusion about them, it will only help them run rings round the rest of the human race!” He admonishes Capricorns to “Remember this and have more faith in the visions and ideas that constantly flood through your busy brain.”

When the Sun is in Capricorn, we prepare for the worst, expecting the best. Capricorn’s strong-willed Sea Goat climbs up from the sea and scales the steepest peaks to reach the high goals they set for themselves. Their cautious but sure steps usually get them to the summit. Common sense governs decisions made under this influence. Rather than being spontaneous, Capricorn takes itself and its life seriously, believing that it makes more sense to do things well the first time. Though gifted with a good sense of history and perspective, once it starts climbing, Capricorn doesn’t look back.

Capricorn’s Earth Sign energy is a time of self-control, persistence, patience. Ruled by Saturn, Planet of Karma and discipline, Capricorn’s Sun transit can be frustrating to the more impatient signs. But this influence grants us great ambition and clarity of purpose tempered by a deep respect for others.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see – and to see we have only to look.
– Fra Giovanni Giocondo, 1433-1515 C.E.

We are now in the deepest darkness of the year, with Winter Solstice only a few days away. So we are taking some time to receive a most ancient gift of the Gods, called the Halcyon Days.

At this time of year, when you look towards the Sun, directly behind it is the center of our cosmic home, the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, Kelley Hunter, an astrologer who did her Ph.D. on the psychological and spiritual meaning of dark matter, notes that the tip of the arrow of Sagittarius points right to the Galactic Core, which some consider to be our celestial birthplace.

While it may seem that the shortening of the daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, or the crass marketing of consumer Christmas are responsible for our feelings of intensity or sadness at this time of the year, she and others suggest that this alignment with our celestial birthplace may also influence our consciousness in subtle, but powerful ways.

Astrologer Eric Francis theorizes, “The Solstice is, precisely, the Sun aligning with the Galactic Core. It’s also the Sun aligning with the Tropic of Capricorn, the southernmost tropic.. So there is a purely local (for our planet) solar event, as the Sun reaches its southernmost latitude; and there is a stellar event, with the Sun making a conjunction to the Galactic Core at the same time.”

The Galactic Core is the massive cluster of stars at the center of the Milky Way, which is our local region of space. Our Sun is part of a massive spiral of stars in space, which spreads out from a bulge in the galaxy’s center. And at the very center of that bulge, there is a hidden element.

Deep in the heart of our galaxy is a mass more than 2 million times that of our own Sun, but contained in a small stretch of only 93 million miles. Whatever it is, it is extremely compact and dense. It emits so much gravity that it seems to hold the whole galaxy together. The only explanation is that it is a supermassive black hole.

In other words, at the dead center of our island of light is dark matter: the heart of our galaxy is the blackest darkness beyond imagining. To astrologers, the influence of the Galactic Core has to do with the sub- or super-consciousness, and is the source of information accessed by artists and visionaries.

And every year at this time, it is in alignment with our Sun, activating its influence on us in similar ways that the Sun’s presence in the signs of the zodiac affects us, like the way that the Sun is now in Sagittarius.

Today astronomers tell us that about ninety-five percent of the Universe is comprised of dark matter, which seems to be the only way to explain discrepancies in how visible matter moves throughout the galaxy. And it is dark matter, in the form of that supermassive black hole, that holds together the very heart of our own galaxy.

So, it turns out that the Universe is, first and foremost, comprised of darkness. And it is from this darkness that all light (and life) is born.  So maybe, knowing this,  we can be more open to exploring our own darkness, both within and without. Perhaps we need not fear the dark or label it as evil.  It need not, and should not be defeated, or replaced with light only.  It is the dark core, the black heart, that is the very seed of who and what we truly are.

I hope that as we now descend into the deepest darkness, we will honor its teachings. As T. Thorn Coyle has said, “The dark is powerful, not evil.”

I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you which shall be the darkness of God.
– T.S. Elliot

We here in the Northern Hemisphere are in the deepest darkness of the year, with the arrival of yesterday’s New Moon and then the Winter Solstice less than a week away. At this time of year, when everything can be so rushed and busy, darkness and quiet and calm can be especially precious. During the Halcyon Days, we are taking some time to honor the silence and even the Dark, both within and without.

The mystical pull toward darkness is something that former priest Matthew Fox calls the via negativa, or, the negative way. Mirroring this time of the darkened Moon, the last days before Winter Solstice and even our Tarot card of the week this week, Fox explains that illumination of the soul may often come “at the end of the bottoming out in the darkness experience.” Allowing ourselves to experience the dark is, in itself, a vital manifestation of Mystery within us. In such times, we surrender our control to something very big within us that we cannot even name.

Yet he goes on to point out that so much of our culture shuns this experience by fleeing from darkness, dreading winter and honoring summer, rushing away from depression toward lightness and brightness. “Our culture would try to intervene with quick remedies, whether it’s drugs or palliatives of some kind. A lot of our addictions are efforts to intervene with the darkness that’s happening. But the mystical traditions would all say there’s something deep to be learned by making the journey into darkness.

“Many people today,” he points out, “are channeling their restlessness of spirit into consuming the variety of goodies that our consumer culture promises, making uncountable visits to the shopping malls and watching uncountable television programs.”

Instead, as this dark time of year makes itself noticed, even if some of that may be sorrow,  I encourage you to sit with it and allow it to be present. Listen to the voice that may even sound like despair. As sociologist and author Philip Slater says in his classic Earthwalk, “Despair is the only cure for illusion. Without despair we cannot transfer our allegiance to reality… it is a kind of mourning period for our fantasies. Some people do not survive despair, but no major change within a person can occur without it.”

Do you have some thoughts on how the Dark is important or challenging for you? I welcome your musings, experiences, and ideas. Please share them with us, as we make this journey into the deepest dark of the year. Together, I know we can make this our most authentic, fulfilling winter holiday ever.

Dark of the Moon
New beginnings
Dark of the Moon
Plant a seed tonight
Dark of the Moon
What we envision
Will come to be
By the Full Moon’s light.

There is really only one thing that I hope you will weave into your magic spells on this New Moon. Saving life as we know it on our Earth.

Period.

Now is the time. Let our leaders know we are demanding their action. The time for maneuvering and posturing is past. We need a real deal in Copenhagen.

“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling…their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.  On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
- – Arundati Roy

May our Halcyon days be quiet enough to hear Her.

All politics is local.
–  Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill

As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, please consider making as many of your purchases as you can from local merchants and businesses. Sure, going to the big sales at the malls, or online shopping may seem to save you a few dollars, but if you factor in the cost of shipping, time and travel, the savings fizzle quickly. And there are other repercussions to consider.

Shopping locally helps reduce your carbon footprint, transportation emissions, and food miles. And when you shop locally you are helping to build connections that sustain your community’s businesses, and the health of your local economy.

Local stores are more likely to carry locally produced foods and products. Business owners contribute to more local fundraising initiatives; and they provide a majority of jobs.

Local shops usually provide much better, personalized customer service, which creates a more pleasureable shopping experience for you. Money spent locally contributes to supporting the community tax base, which means those dollars that fix our roads, maintain our recreational facilities and fund our schools.

Competition and diversity result in fair prices and more choices. And local business owners invest in the community and have a vested interest in the future of our communities.

It is true that Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, GE, and Macy’s have all recently made some significant green commitments. From Wal-Mart’s push to sell millions of CFL light bulbs and its commitment to purchase only sustainably-caught wild fish to Whole Foods’ elimination of disposable plastic bags and commitment to renewable energy, these companies are leading the way to green in the business world.

With their tremendous purchasing power and their ability to advertise to millions (if not billions) of consumers, the potential for effecting positive change is tremendous. Yet these large, centralized companies control more and more of the economy. They are no longer connected to any individual community and therefore do not feel any obligation for its health and wellbeing.  When big box stores take the place of small, independently-owned companies, communities lose jobs, cash flow is diverted away from the community, and the local tax base shrinks.

When consumers shop at local stores, on the other hand, more money re-circulates in the community because local businesses often purchase from other local businesses, service providers, etc.  Locally-owned and operated businesses also add character and uniqueness. And where large stores and malls often set up shop on the fringes of town, local businesses thrive in more high-density areas, where consumers can come and go using public transportation, local walking paths, and other low-impact transportation methods.

If you must go to the big chain stores, using some of your holiday shopping dollars to purchase green products will help to send a signal that the market supports their green changes.

But the best choice is to spend money that will stay in your community with local vendors who will keep your local economy diverse,  healthy and strong. Vote with your money to support your local friends and neighbors who are working hard to serve you.

From December 3rd through the 9th, a delegation of modern Pagans and Witches from across the globe are gathered in Melbourne, Australia for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.  They are representing organizations like Covenant of the Goddess, the Temple of Ara, EarthSpirit, Cherry Hill Seminary, Earth Traditions, Circle Sanctuary, Solar Cross, the Pagan Federation, Reclaiming, and the World Congress of Ethnic Religions.

Held once every five years, the Parliament brings thousands of religious leaders and grassroots activists together to find common ground on issues that face us all.  It is an attempts to build bridges of understanding between diverse faith traditions.

Ever since the parliament’s rebirth in 1993, Pagans have been an active and visible presence at these gatherings, and today we play a vital role in its leadership as well.  I offer this beautiful piece in honor of their work, and in remembrance of where we have come from.  It is from the glorious “Earth Psalms” by Angela Magara, a re-visioning of the biblical Psalms, many of which were based on far older praise-songs for the ancient Gods and Goddesses of the Middle East.  May the work of our representatives, as well as all who are working to create peaceful understanding across spiritual divisions, be profoundly successful.

Psalm 107

from Earth Psalms, by Angela Magara

Thanks be to the Earth, Goddess beneath our feet
Enduring through time.
Give us voice to speak truth and
Tell our story of beginning.
Open heart to hold us in safety.
Protection against threat of visibility.
Tell how we knew loneliness,
Knew want, knew fear.
And in our fear we did cover ourselves not to be seen.
Spoke without opening lips less we offend.
But Earth satisfied our emptiness and opened our throats.
Each desire speaks guidance and
Calls fulfillment to our gates.
Now is the time for our voices to ring.
That we may speak the wonder of our lives.

As sure as shadow melts into darkest night,
So does fear open to despair.
But we called out and were heard.
Though set about by lies we seek truth
As dowsers do, by the feel.
Of this time of adversity I will not speak,
Nor honor slanderers with my rage.
Each tree bears fruit in season, earliest
Lesson in Life.
To that I will leave all recompense.

Goddess spins with the typhoon and
Shapes with the earthquake.
She uses not my strong arm, but my open heart.
Her eye, in mine and yours, sees what must be done.
This I attest,
Nothing has been withheld from me
That did not enrich in time.
No chaos, no ramblings, cannot be changed to serve
With time. Like compost.
From waste, with patience, paradise will emerge.
Rich fields, joyful song, healing and long life lived in peace.
Sow the fields and await the yield.
These seeds are true.

“The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is Universal Access and Human Rights. For me, that means doing everything we can to support countries to reach their universal access goals for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support – all the while protecting and promoting human rights.”
– UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, 2009 World AIDS Day message

Established by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day serves to focus global attention on the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Observance of this day provides an opportunity for governments, national AIDS programs, churches, community organizations and individuals to demonstrate the importance of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

According to UNAIDS statistics, an estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV. Among these, 2.5 million are children. Almost 5,500 people die every day due to AIDS.  AIDS caused 2 million deaths in 2007.  An estimated 32 million people have died from AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic.

The good news is that data recently released by UNAIDS and the WHO indicates that prevention programs are making a difference. According to the 2009 UNAIDS epidemic update, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years.  UNAIDS says that anti-retroviral therapy has benefited in preventing new infections, especially among children. This has been possible only due to improved access to treatment among HIV-positive mothers, which has helped prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child.

HIV/AIDS does not discriminate. The notion that HIV/AIDS is limited to the gay community is ignorant and dangerous.   Approximately 95 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS live in developing countries, with Sub-Saharan Africa the hardest-hit region. But other regions face severe or rapidly growing epidemics in specific countries or areas. Parts of Asia and Latin America are now experiencing severe epidemics at the national or local level.  Eastern Europe and Central Asia are the regions with the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world.

And at the end of 2007, the CDC estimated that 468,578 people were living with AIDS in America, around 20,000 more than 2006. That includes an estimated 3,792 children aged under 13 years old.

World AIDS Day serves to remind everyone that action makes a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Ignorance and prejudice are fueling the spread of this preventable disease.

World AIDS Day is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This year, it’s up to you, me and us to stop the spread of HIV and end the prejudice. This is why it is important that all sexually active adults ought to be tested for HIV/AIDS. And why we are demanding accountability from our leaders, that they keep their promises to make AIDS awareness, prevention, and affordable treatment a high priority.