Cross Quarter Day of Imbolc: Brihati

[Guest guest]

Dear Mary,

 

As I said in an earlier post, these traditions are preChristian, or pagan,

originating

with the Celts in Ireland, but the cross quarter days are celebrated in all

world

cultures, and there's a reference below that links the name Brigid with the

Vedic

Sanskrit word brihati, an epithet of the divine.

The description of the devic qualities she embodies also is similar to Saraswati

whose

puja was celebrated according to the lunar calendar this year on February 2 and

is an

archetype for wisdom. Most neopagans who have returned to the worship of the

Mother or Earth Goddess (obliterated by the Catholic priesthood and during the

Witch

burnings in the Inquisition, which viewed women's powers of divination and

prophecy

the work of the Devil) honor the divine aspect of the woman, and of course in

the

East, the worship of God as Mother has been continuous (sans Inquisition),

celebrated

in India as the Navaratri, which honors the three aspects of the Devi ,

Durga-Kali,

Lakshmi, and Saraswati (corresponding to the triple goddess in neopagan

worship).

Many native American traditions viewed the woman as solar (not lunar), and it is

this

imbalance in male-female polarity that we are seeing today in the fury and wrath

of

nature, embodied in my mind with the transit of Saturn (father archetype) in

Cancer

(mother archetype), marching inexorably to restore nurturing and compassion to

the

world that has stripped the woman of her power and relegated her to the position

of

a reproductive mule and of course a sexual object instead of a tantric

intermediary

who must be equally empowered as the female principal to attain union of shiva-

shakti. Of course the empowerment must be enacted from within, as without, in

all,

of both genders, through the balance of the inner feminine and the inner

masculine

for ida and pingala to rise to sushumna.

 

Wikipedia has comprehensive information also about Brigid or Imbolc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc

 

Janna

 

-- Om aim srim hrim saraswati devyai namah

 

http://seven_directions.tripod.com/

 

 

 

THE EXALTED ONE

Éwoman of wisdomÉa goddess whom poets adoredÉ

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ Ñ CormacÕs

Glossary

 

It is tempting to view this tender goddess of the early Spring only as she is

pictured in

Scottish artist John DuncanÕs famous picture, The Coming of Bride: a wide-eyed,

golden-haired girl, encircled by children. ÊBut behind her girlish innocence is

the

power of a once-great ancestral deity, Brigid, whose name means ÒThe Exalted

One,Ó

queen and mother goddess of many European tribes. She is also known as Brigid,

Bridget, Brighid, Brighde, Brig or Bride and some scholars consider her name

originated with the Vedic Sanskrit word brihati, an epithet of the divine.

 

The 10thcentury CormacÕs Glossary describes her as the daughter of the Daghda,

the

ÒGreat GodÓ of the Tuatha de Danaan. He calls her a Òwoman of wisdomÉa goddess

whom poets adored, because her protection was very great and very famous." Since

the discipline of poetry, filidhect, was interwoven with seership, Brigid was

seen as

the great inspiration behind divination and prophecy, the source of oracles.

 

She is said to have had two sisters: Brigid the Physician and Brigid the Smith,

but it is

generally thought that all three were aspects of the one goddess of poetry,

healing,

and smithcraft. Elsewhere she is described as the patron of other vital crafts

of early

Celtic society: dying, weaving and brewing. A goddess of regeneration and

abundance, she was greatly beloved as a provider of plenty who brought forth the

bounties of the natural world for the good of the people. She is closely

connected

with livestock and domesticated animals. She had two oxen called Fea and

Feimhean

who gave their names to a plain in Co. Carlow and one in Tipperary. She was also

the

guardian of Torc Triath, king of the wild boar, who gave his name to Treithirne,

a

plain in West Tipperary. These three totem animals used to raise a warning cry

if

Ireland was in danger.

 

Some Irish rivers bear her name, as do places as far apart as Breconshire in

Wales,

Brechin in Scotland and Bregenz in Austria, which was once the capital of the

Brigantii

tribe. This tribe was under the tutelage of the goddess Brigantia, who is

thought to be

another aspect of Brigid. The most powerful political unit of Celtic-speaking

Britain,

the Brigantii mostly held sway in Northern England, where place-names and rock-

carvings still echo the presence of their mother-goddess.

 

http://www.celticspirit.org/imbolc.htm