BRIGHID THE UNTANGLER

Holding Us Together in Troubling Times

BRIGHID THE UNTANGLER.

As we prepare to welcome Brighid into our homes and to our hearths again this Imbolc, I consider another aspect of her powers.

Brighid, Brighid, come in, your bed is made!

Give relief to the labouring year and help it come forth!

Street artist, Mister Copy.at work on a mural of Brighid at Kildare.

The cult of Brighid as both Goddess and Saint has gone around the world now, but the myths and legends about her have not ceased. She brings herself into our world in many different ways, just as we are facing new challenges. How does she come to us in our time? I have been contemplating this deeply over the last years. It seems that, in response to the challenges of our time, she is taking the form of Brighid the Untangler who takes the ragged ends of our lives and reconciles them by reweaving us into her cloak.

This includes the simplification of our increasingly complex lives where the snarls of technology coil around our lives. She takes the strands of our lives, like a woman carding wool fibres so that they lay straight together, and weaves them into one strand.

Brighid is not just there for women, but for anyone at their time of need. She who was the knee woman of Mary, midwifes us too. In the cold times of winter she helps us come to new birth at winter’s back, in the time of purification and cleansing. In the unfolding of our life path, she is there to lead the threads into their patterning. She leads us to consider the muddles that we have made, bringing us into the spareness of February in which to make our lives simpler, to acknowledge mistakes, look closer at areas which are not progressing because of added complexities or expectations that we have thrown over our projects, ideas and relationships, as if it were sauce that would make the flavours meld together.

Brighid the Untangler also mothers and fosters all who are bereft of spiritual tradition, for she carries the sacred threads of the white, red and black strands in one weaving: the white sutures of the midwife to tie off the cord of the new born, the black bands that tie the body to the bier, and the red ties which unite the troth-plighted couple in marriage. These are all her domain. It is usually within these great changing points of our lives that we come closer to understand the skilful fingering of her threads, and the dye of the seasons of our lives.

As the Fosterer of understanding and learning, she is the bringer and supporter of the civilising arts; she brings us new inspirations and stands beside us as we make or craft or just cook, write, clean and plan our lives. She inspires the virtues that we need in our times, especially:

*equanimity and patience in the face of frantic demands

* loving kindness to those who are out of their comfort zone

* giving clear boundaries to those who overstep or challenge the sacred borders of life, and protection for those who are threatened by those transgressions.

In the design of the Romano-British statue from Birrens above, now in the National Museum of Scotland, we see Brigantia with the attributes of Minerva/Athene - this early appearance embodies the qualities of Brighid. The emblems that the Goddess is carrying keep everyone safe.

• the mural crown that surrounds all the people in their cities or settlements that maintains all civilised arts, crafts and technologies

• her shield of defence that protects them

• the spear of bright integrity that defends them

• the orb of the world, home to all living beings

• wings which enable her to be where she most needs to be. While these wings are traditional neither to Brighid nor to Athena, they represent the nature of her help, which is immediate and swift.

• the face on her chest (the Gorgoneion of Athena) is the sign that she misses nothing and will tolerate no nonsense.

As the keeper of the Civic Virtues, Brighid maintains the city, but when integrity governing the city fails, and balance is lost, when the institutions of the city that should support it becomes corrupt, we can each very quickly become a separate household fighting for survival – another reason why we need Brighid at this time as institutions and governments are taking their eyes off the necessity for integrity in challenging times.

Consider what is in the way, or obstructing, impeding or fouling up the unfolding year for you. This might involve your personal aims and objectives, the needs of your household, wider community issues; or the more immediate difficulties arising from fixed attitudes, uncontrolled behaviour, or unfortunate habits; or just the order and neatness of your surroundings. Take your tangles to Brighid as well as doing your best to make things clearer.

HEARTHS AND HEARTS TOGETHER

Brighid is the keeper of hearth of our home, the place where welcome is given, but against those who would wreck the hearth and take away its warmth and comfort, she is a fierce protector. As one of the invocations from Scots Gaelic tradition says of her feast day, on the threshold between winter and spring, when the hibernating beasts look out to check on the weather and whether life is viable yet,, ‘I touch not the snake, nor does the snake touch me.’

Whatever comes comes against us, she protects us. Whatever new deregulations and disconnections tempt us to behave in reactive ways from frustration and anguish, the fires of Brighid do not go out, when anyone kindles the hearth in her name. Because, when we forget to kindle the hearth, then the light of hospitality, which is the heart of the home, goes out too. The hearth is the shrine of every home, and is considered sacrosanct in every tradition of the world - whether it is an actual fire, or a candle in the place where the household gathers, or the stove where people gather around the kitchen table.

A hearth shrine is a symbol of the earth, while a temple or place of worship is the symbol of the heaven. While Brighid visits our hearth, heaven and earth will always be reconciled. Every home is not separately sealed; every home that she blesses joins with other homes, and those hearth shrines form a civilisation in which she is the hearth goddess of a place, a county, a country, as well as the international mothering hearth of the world.

The mantle that she puts about our shoulders, shelters us, but it is not for our use only: it can also be the cloak that we also place about the world. Everyone of Brighid’s devotees are her hands, feet and voices in everyday life – creating the pathways for her providence to come down to the lowest part of need, holding and encouraging life, and bringing her blessing to all. May she untangle all hat is muddled and mistaken so that we can begin again this Imbolc.

As we light our own hearths this Imbolc or kindle the candle upon our shrines, let us remember that hospitality and the enlarging of our hearth to include others is part of Brighid’s service, as well as her protection upon the heart of the home

BLESSING FOR HEARTH KEEPERS by Caitlin Matthews

Brighid of the Mantle, encompass us,
Lady of the Lambs, protect us,
Keeper of the Hearth, kindle us.
Beneath your mantle, gather us,
And restore us to memory.
Mothers of our mother,
Foremothers strong.
Guide our hands in yours,
Remind us how
To kindle the hearth.
To keep it bright,
To preserve the flame.

Your hands upon ours,
Our hands within yours,
To kindle the light,
Both day and night.
The Mantle of Brighid about us,
The Memory of Brighid within us,
The Protection of Brighid keeping us
From harm, from ignorance, from heartlessness.
This day and night,
From dawn till dark,
From dark till dawn

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WHEN ANCIENT STARLIGHT FALLS TO EARTH

Songs and Poems by Caitlín Matthews

In this collection, Caitlin Matthews gathers together many of the poems and songs that have marked her long career as a singer, writer, ritualist, and performer. These mythographic poems arise from the song that always singing at the threshold of the otherworld and the apparent world, where the poet becomes a walker between worlds. When the song of the ancient starlight falls to earth, we hear the voice that is resounding at the edge of hearing. It is here that wisdom arises, directing the soul along the mythic road where truth and devotion are honed by life to sharpness and compassion.

Arranged thematically, the poems and songs evoke the ancestral beings and divinities of Britain and Ireland, and beyond, with the deep connections that maintain the poet’s belonging to the land. Poems of love, songs of seasons and places, dreams, visions and prayers uphold the way of myth and story that make life shine and sing.

CAITLÍN MATTHEWS

Caitlín Matthews is the author of over 85 books, including Celtic Book of the Dead and The Lost Book of the Grail. Her poetry was published in Poetry London by the late Tambimuttu, and her first collection, Search for Rhiannon appeared in 1981. She is known internationally for her work on the mythic and ancestral traditions of Britain and Ireland. Caitlín is a co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS), which is dedicated to the sacred arts that shape the landscape of the soul, via vision, dream and memory. She has a shamanic healing practice in Oxford. For books, events and courses, see www.hallowquest.org.uk

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