Brigid (Brigit, Bride, or Brighid) is a Celtic goddess with many associations with the hearth, home, warmth, fire, wells, healing, poetry, protection, smithing, inspiration, and creativity. To us, summing her up as the Celtic Goddess of the Sacred Flame is a beautiful way to show how all of these seemingly different associations are all connected.
The Sacred Flame is the energy, force, or spark within something, whether it be the love that makes a home a home, the fireplace that keeps a house warm, or the source of inspiration for creatives—it’s all connected and it’s incredibly magickal to say the least.
Her energy brings about change, healing, comfort, hope, strength, wisdom, and compassion. It evokes brilliance in the mind of artists and poets, it enhances the nurturing elements of motherhood and the power to rebirth, and awakens the fierce protectiveness of Mother Nature.
Brigid is remembered as the daughter of the Dagda, one of the primary deities of the Celtic pantheon, ruling over death and rebirth, and The Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of death and rebirth. The divine coupling between the Dagda and The Morrigan makes the birth of Brigid all the more interesting because she is born as a balancing force emanating from two already incredibly balanced divinities.
The Irish Pagan School beautifully describes the well-balanced relationship between the Dagda and The Morrigan, which is quite different from many other divine couples we see throughout the globe where there is often an imbalance with the divine masculine attempting to dominate the woman.
The Irish Pagan School beautifully describes the well-balanced relationship between the Dagda and The Morrigan, which is quite different to many other divine couples we see throughout the globe where there is often an imbalance with the divine masculine attempting to dominate the woman.
“The Dagda and the Morrigan are a couple. This segment makes that abundantly clear, but what might not be understood from this is the nature of that coupling.
In other pantheons there are what some refer to as a ‘divine couple’. This is usually some pair of primary deities, usually built around a primogenitor, a first or father of the rest of the pantheon. Common examples of this are Odin in the Norse pantheon, or Zeus in the Greek.
In much of the lore of these other pantheons these ‘prime deities’ engage in other relationships and their partners are presented as contentious or even outright adversarial in the case of Hera.
This is not so in the case of the Irish Gods, but to add some weight to our inference we need only look to the old Irish Legal structure known as the Brehon Laws. Here we find that under these old laws of Ireland there were no less than eight forms of marriage, or union.
Many of these unions dealt with complexities between societal classes. There were even legally recognised unions that would last a year and a day, ending without prejudice, as well as a function for divorce should either party not live up to the agreements of the union.
The type of union that best fits the relationship between the Morrigan and the Dagda may best be considered as the Union of Equals. This type of coupling was usually found between two people of similar status and wealth which was considered equal.
The rights of each individual to autonomy were preserved in this union as neither part was more powerful or privileged than the other. Both were free to pursue their own agendas and even other relations as defined by their union and should there ever be grounds for divorce, each would leave with the wealth and status they brought into the union as well as 50% of everything generated during the coupling. At no point in the lore as we currently understand it does either the Dagda or the Morrigan display dominance over the other in their interactions. This added to the information above leads me to believe that they share a marriage of equals.”
Traditions surrounding Brigid maintained that the Dagda and The Morrigan would meet up once a year and Brigid was then birthed on February 1, which is where the celebration of Imbolc on the pagan wheel of the year is derived from in honor of her.
From her father, the Dagda, she inherited her connection to the earth, agriculture, animals, land, and the elements.
From her mother, The Morrigan, she inherited a triple-goddess aspect, and her Sacred Flame association is the connecting force between how her triplicate personas are depicted. All three facets were named Brigid: Goddess of Storytellers, Goddess of Healing, and Goddess of Smithcraft.
As with many pagan traditions and divinities, the rise of monotheism distorted and attempted to erase the beauty of the old ways. The Goddess Brigid’s memory was shuffled into the saint named Brigid in Christianity and Catholicism. She was watered down, transformed into a wet nurse, and forced into the framework of modern religion. Interestingly enough, her power was restored back to her by practitioners of Haitian Vodoun and the New Orleans Voodoo religion through the remembrance of their loa (word for Haitian deity) Maman Brigitte, who maintained all of the Celtic elements of the Goddess Brigid plus additional aspects of her Celtic mother, The Morrigan, which brought in associations of death and cemeteries. They honor Maman Brigitte at dueling points in the year as a Celtic pagan would separately recognize the Goddess Brigid and The Morrigan at Imbolc/Saint Brigid’s Day on February 2 and at All Soul’s Day on November 1 respectively.
Honoring Brigid Today
Brigid is a goddess who is honored by work and action making it easy to dedicate aspects of life into her name.
Goddess of Storytelling — Everything in the vein of creativity can be dedicated to Brigid. This includes painting, poetry, writing, filmmaking, sculpting, and everything in between.
Goddess of Healing — With healing, works can be devoted to her that help yourself, animals, or other people heal physically, emotionally, or spiritually, such as the work of doctors, nurses, veterinarians, psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, oracles, healers, and reiki practitioners.
Goddess of Smithcraft — Smithcrafting includes everything related to the forge and crafting raw materials into something brand new. From metalworking to jewelry, anything that utilizes fire and forge to bring to life, or utilizing tools and other objects created in a similar manner can be devoted to her.
Additionally, physical offerings can be made to Brigid that acknowledge her symbolism, including fire, candles, bonfires, water, ink, coins, copper, gold, moss agate, fire agate, or anything else that draws your mind back to her. If you liked this article, leave a comment below letting us know and we’ll keep creating similar content for other divinities.