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The interesting thing about Brigid (Brigit) is that she appears to be both an Irish Christian Saint and a Celtic Goddess. The thinking goes that Brigid of Kildare took the place of the earlier Celtic Goddess but in doing so acquired many of the attributes of her predecessor. Or to put it another way, Brigid the Saint has simply evolved from Brigit the goddess to become a more recent expression of the archetype in the Celtic psyche.
As to what the underlying archetype is, O Duinn suggests, backed by a fair amount of evidence, that Brigid represents “the beginning of the farmer’s year, with the new life and vigour which springtime brings.” She is associated with the sun and thus is believed to return from the Otherworld each year. Her feastday (as a saint) is the Celtic festival of Imbolc (1st Feb).
Julian Cope makes an interesting case for associating a number of places starting with “bri” with Brigit (the godess), whom he reckons was probably originally simply called Bree, and backs up these links by the prescence of some variation of the three-spoked sun wheel. Thus we have Newgrange (Bru-na-Boyne or “the womb of brigit”) with its triple spiral; the Isle of Mann (bride, Braaid and St Bridgit’s Nunnery) with it’s three legs; Brittany with its triskelion – and possibly even Bree-tan with its tribe of Brigantes.
Amazingly, given the earlier discussion on the three hares, Brigid’s cross looks like this: [img]http://www.simonjnugent.com/wordpress/wp-content/brigit_cross.JPG[/img]
The Cult of Brigid (the saint) is still quite active today in Ireland in the form of the Brigidine Sisters.
Bega (this very brief and I’ll have to come back to this later but maybe Alex could help out in the meantime) appears to share many of the same miraculous stories as Brigid (e.g. the cloak covering the land) and her psychic imprint also seems to cover both an ancient godess and a christian saint.
Simon
She is quite important all around the Bristol Channel
Bristol was originally called ‘Brigstow’ that being ‘Brigids Town’.
The centre of Bristol is still called Brideswell.
The early Romano British name of the Bristol Channel was the ‘Sabrina Sea’. Sabrina (sounds like ‘bree) comes from Sancta Bree-na.
Along the coast near Weston-Super-Mare is ‘Brean Down’ which inspired Dion Fortune to write the Sea Priestess.
All along the southern Welsh coast are numerous St. Brides finishing (after Swans Sea (Swansea)) with ‘St Brides Bay’.
Coming in-land from Weston-Super-Mare to Glastonbury we have ‘Brides Mound’ which once had a small nunnery of St. Bridget, and around the north foot of Glastonbury Tor is a small area still called ‘Brinsea’ a memory of when Glastonbury was once an island.
I have never seen a Bride’s cross with three arms before. They usually have four – almost swastika like.
Certainly I have been to the mound in Glastonbury at Imbolc and have performed a ritual there. Its difficult to describe the enrgies of the place it is unlike any other place I have been to. Its wild and desolate.
I found a reference on the www that indicated that the primitive form of the Brigid cross had three arms:
[url:2np2qngh]http://www.obsidianmagazine.com/DaughtersoftheFlame/Brigit.htm[/url]
It says that it may refer to a triple aspect to Brigid. That page has a number of references at the bottom, though it doesn’t say from which the info on the three-armed cross comes from. Simon, perhaps you can give further info on where you got your image from?
Simon, I gather that this is what you meant by the ‘crooked triangle’ formed by the ears on the three hares (on some of the roof bosses at least). The association is probably a long shot, but further to what Yuri said about the importance of Brigid in the Bristol Channel area I wonder how far this might extend into Devon, where the three hares gambol in abundance. I need to get a map out, maybe check on the dedications of those churches or the surrounding area (I’ve been meaning to get onto it for a while, but never enough time). I wonder what was going on in the minds of those Devon wood-carvers (the website above mentions that Brigid is the patron of crafts). Mind you, if Imbolc is ‘in the belly’ then perhaps there is also something in the womb-likeness that you saw in the ears themselves (obviously this may have no bearing on the Middle Eastern/Chinese version of the symbol).
Right, sorry, I’ll try and stay off of my bleedin’ three hares now.
Hmmm, does anyone know if there is an association between the Celtic Brigid and the Saxon Eostre? Both seem to have associations with spring and birth.
I though that this was interesting. Came across it a while ago in a book about myths of China and Japan… and there are some really odd parallels between Chinese and Celtic myth; here is what it says…
“…In Gaelic Scotland the serpent, which is associated with the goddess Bride, sleeps all winter and comes forth on 1st February (old style), known as “Bride’s day”. A Gaelic verse tells in this connection:
‘The serpent will come from the home
On the brown day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.’As in China, a compact was made with the Bride serpent or Dragon:
(Chinese verse)
‘To-day is the Day of Bride,
The serpent shall come from his hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
And the serpent will not molest me.’Pretty odd stuff eh?
Gaelic verse tells in this connection:
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