Brigid, My Accidental Patroness

Recently, pagans all around the world celebrated Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, or Brigid’s Day. I won’t go into great detail here about the holiday, as tons of information is available around the interwebs. Suffice it to say that Imbolc marks the middle of winter and that the day is dedicated to the goddess Brigid.

So here’s an interesting thing about Brigid: she’s a badass.

I didn’t know! While I celebrate the Celtic-origined Wheel of the Year in my spiritual path (8 solar festivals), I’ve never been a huge scholar of Celtic paganism. Living in North America at this time, a lot of Celtic concepts and traditions infuse Neo-Paganism. But you know, I’m not really a Celt. I’m 2nd generation Italian and 3rd generation German. So I don’t speak Gaelic, or have a special celebration on St. Patrick’s Day. I never gave most of the Celtic pantheon any thought. Well, except for Cernunnos. He’s my homie. Master of Beasts, lives in the deep woods, the hunter and hunted? Hello!

At my coven's Imbolc celebration, we made 7 day spell candles infused with our intentions for this new year. It was a lot of fun. Imagine a large group of witches all happily painting, glueing, glittering, decoupaging and stickering their candles. I went heavy on the stickers and filled in all the empty space with glitter. Of course!

Next morning was the time to light the candle and begin the 7 day burn. I tiptoed into my workroom, lit the altar candles and incense and said my morning devotional. Then I settled in for some meditation about the spell candle. I thought of and visualized all the intentions I built into the spell. All of the beautiful dreams that I hold for 2014 (it’s going to be a great year!). Opening my eyes, I said a few words aloud, and without any sort of plan…yeah. I dedicated myself to Brigid this year.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my years of spiritual practice, it is that these unbidden impulses must be honored.

So all week, I burned my candle as much as I could every day. I studied Brigid, looking at artistic representations, history, lore and story. I couldn’t have accidentally asked for a better patroness. I’m a healer, a warrior, a poet and an artisan…and guess who’s in charge of all of those things? Brigid.