Essays and Such
Irish Cultural Society
of San Antonio Texas
Promoting Awareness of Irish Culture
IMBOLG
by C. Austin
The Footsteps of Spring: Brigit's Light Returns
For the Celts, February 2 is the quarter-year mark which defines the beginning of Spring. The early February festival of Imbolg is the domain of the ancient fire goddess Brigit, patron of learning, healing and smithcraft. Imbolg, known also as "Oimelic," "Candlemas," "St. Brigid's Day" and in our culture "Groundhog Day," means "in the belly" and signifies an end to the dark, hungry days of winter. With the birthing of lambs and the lessening of winters frozen grip, the pastoral Celts felt the stirrings of spring as Brigit again stood watch over home and herd. Like other goddesses of prehistoric origin, "Brig," appeared in trio or triple aspect. Mythologically, Brigit has two sisters of the same name, all of whom are the daughters of Dagda, king of the Tuatha De Danaan. Brigit, as Spring, was also the youthful maiden of the year, passing into Danu, the mature Summer and ripening through Autumn into Cailleach, the hag of winter. As defender of learning, Brigit inspired poets, lawgivers and soothsayers. In her healing aspect Brigit's curative powers flowed generously through doctors, from "Brigit's Wells" and in curiously formed boulders and holed stones to which those ailing could visit. Brigit was also the underworld "Begoibne" or "woman of the smithery." The goddess' supernatural smithworks in County Kildare caused a hill to rise around her, today called "Croghan Hill." Throughout time Brigit worked, making pots and vessels of every kind into which the future poured. In this shadowy guise of ashes Brigit forged the cooking pots which fed and nurtured the community. Her fires provided the light and heat by which humanity could learn, live and love and her domestic rituals ensured the hearth fire was tended and civility adhered to - the origin of the noted "Irish hospitality." From the rites devoted to Brigit came woven wheat figures which were clothed and placed near the hearth fire on Imbolg Eve. The "Crois Bride" or belt of Brigit was a 3 meter length of woven rope which was carried from house to house and passed over every head to insure health and good luck. Brigit's pagan vessel made the transition to Christianity to become the Holy Grail, thereby wedding the mystery of prehistoric goddess worship to the mystic undertones of Arthurian legend. "Saint Brigid" was born on February 1, 453 A.D. thereby guaranteeing that Brigit, behind a different mask, would become Ireland's foremost female goddess/saint. No other Celtic deity has navigated the evolution to Christianity so successfully. Saint Brigid took up a shrine on the prehistoric foundations of Brigit's fire cult in Kildare where Brigit's hearth fire burned until 1530 A.D. Joseph Campbell notes the nuns tending the eternal flame became the successors to the virgin priesthood of Brigit. Brigit's wheat dollies grew into "Saint Brigid's Crosses," hung over the threshold - neither in this world, nor in that - as befits an otherworldly figure. Brigit's light became Saint Brigid's "head-fires," sometimes depicted as a crown of blazing candles. Brigit guides the poet, ministers to the ill and tends to the domestic needs of those from all walks of life. Imbolg is a day to listen for the first faint footsteps of Spring and remember that Brigit lives on in the home and the heart with the compassion of a saint.