A triple goddess of prime importance to all Celtic tribes, she has been honored as Lady of Healing, Midwife of consciousness, a real woman of flesh, blood and bone, who knew the arts of brewing ale, and herbal teas, keeper of the Sacred Flame and healing waters. She is said to govern and assist the fire of the poet’s heart, of the healer’s hands and the fire used by the smith to alchemically change stone to metal, metal to tools and amulets.
She is the Goddess and then Saint of compassion and healing.
A Meeting with Brighid
Brighid stands at the edge of the forest
where a Path leads in,
waiting for me
to follow her back to her cottage
and the shed out back.
The forge sits patiently there,
ready to strike up conversation,
and bring to manifestation
another tool purified by fire
and guided to its purpose
by sacred crafting --
She asked if I were ready for my ritual;
I said I trusted her Call.
She placed her hands upon my forehead
and behind,
igniting fires unknown to mortal minds,
that filled me quite completely -
set me glowing
white-hot
the liquid Spirit slowly flowing
til all my thinking vaporized,
and I was lost entirely to her molding,
allowing all I was to her unfolding,
and all I wasn't stripped in her unloading,
and all I sought re-wrote with her encoding...
and I fell to my knees weeping weeping
and She kept hold my hands, gentle keeping-
and quietly the tears began the cooling
and She gently raised my hands and helped me stand
and held me through the deepening
and quickening of who I am
smiling just a bit in love for me,
and asked me to her cottage to share tea.
"Come now, my Friend -- a Child no longer;
come sit at my table with me;
let us talk of visions and journeys beyond here;
let us drink some raspberry tea."