The Goddess of Poetry

Brighid is the Goddess of Poetry and today too is the festival of Imblog, according to pagans celebrated as a fire festival, a midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox later in the week.

Brigid is not only the Goddess of Poetry, but Healing, Smithcraft, and Midwifery. If you can make things with your hands you have Brigid to thank. Wiccans light many candles, white for Brigid and red and yellow to remind us of the passing of winter and the beginning of Spring.

The Christian festival is St Brigid’s Day, a religious feast-day honouring the fifth-century Co Kildare nun who, with Patrick and Colmcille, is one of Ireland’s three patron saints.

February the second is Candlemas Day, from early days the Church has kept this festival to commemorate the Light of the World, the Feast of Candles.

February 3rd is St Blaize’s Day who is thought to have suffered martyrdom under the Romans in the year of 316.

I don’t follow a particular spiritual path myself. When I was young I could see four different churches from my bedroom in the attic and in subsequent years I took it upon myself to try them all. I wrote a poem about it a while ago and now feel moved to find it.

This post started when I got a ‘be nice to Bridget’ post from Bridget Whelan, telling about Celtic Spring and the origins of her name. Later a friend emailed me about Imblog and another friend who studies Wicca as her spiritual path, told me a bit more.

Currently I like to think that jogging through life, planting flowers and veg. capturing things I find inspiring on my camera, my attempts to write poetry takes me down some sort of spiritual path, but who knows.

Anyway was glad to learn about the Goddess of Poetry today and checked her out on google. Oh the joys of the internet, everything at our fingertips, except of course the physical sense of touch. For me no spiritual path can really be without it, so I’ll leave room in life for a few hugs.