This painting shows the goddess Brigid nestled in the hollow of a tree, caught in that soft, in-between moment — the gentle awakening to a new day, and the awakening of the Earth in springtime.

 

In pre-Christian Irish mythology, Brigid, also spelled Brigit or Bríd, was one of the major goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the mythical race of gods who once ruled Ireland. She was linked to a variety of things: fire and the forge, poetry and inspiration, healing, fertility, and livestock. But perhaps most of all, she is associated with the coming of spring.

 

There's an old and enduring idea running through goddess mythology: the three stages of a woman's life, maiden, mother, and crone, each giving birth to the next in an eternal cycle. These stages follow the seasons of the year, and the cycles of the sun and the moon, in turn.

 

Brigid is said to have been born at daybreak, and she is associated with the waxing moon. In her maidenhood, she heralds the return of light to the Earth after the long darkness of winter, through the pagan festival of Imbolc, celebrated on February 1st. Along with the promise of spring to come, Brigid and Imbolc light the flame of hope for new life and new beginnings.

 

As spring draws toward summer, the maiden gives way to the mother goddess, represented in this series by the Earth mother goddess, Áine. She carries the Beltane festival with her, along with lush fertility, abundance, and fruition, the full moon and the midday sun. It is this rich, plentiful version of womanhood that gives birth to the Crone.

 

The Crone, or the Cailleach, belongs to fall and winter, the waning moon, and sunset — a time of completion and inward quietude. Through the continuation of this cycle, the seasons of the Earth, the goddess, and a woman's life all flow one into the next, just as the lore surrounding Brigid herself has flowed and changed across time.

 

For those learning about Irish mythology, the overlap between Brigid the goddess and Brigid the saint can be confusing — and for good reason, since the lore surrounding each is remarkably similar. Here's why: when Christianity arrived in Ireland, it found the people's devotion to Brigid too deeply rooted to easily colonize.  Some might say it was easier for the Church to reshape Brigid than to erase her, making the new faith more palatable to the people it sought to convert.

 

Out of that encounter between paganism and the Christian missionaries came the story of an abbess said to have lived in the 5th–6th century, known as Brigid of Kildare. Her feast day falls on February 1st, landing right on top of Imbolc. She's said to have founded a monastery at Kildare on a site believed to have once been a pagan sanctuary sacred to the goddess, where legend holds that a perpetual sacred flame was tended by nuns, echoing the goddess's own ties to fire. She's also credited with miracles involving livestock, healing, and abundance, the same territory the goddess had always ruled.

 

Though never canonized by the Vatican, Brigid of Kildare is one of Ireland's most venerated saints, traditionally counted among the country's three patron saints alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Columba (Colmcille).

 

One thing that is certain about Brigid is that her presence has endured —

On the eve of Imbolc, also referred to as St. Brigid’s Day, people across Ireland weave crosses, square in shape with arms of even lengths. The Christianized folklore of these crosses is that St. Brigid wove the cross from rushes scattered on the floor to explain the meaning of Christ's cross to a dying pagan chieftain, soothing him and resulting in his baptism.

 

The symbolism of the cross also reaches back to the older story of the Earth-based paganism.  The arms radiate out from a woven center represent the sun wheel, celebrating the return of the light carried across the ages, on the island of Ireland and far beyond its shores, all the way to you, reading this, today carried across the ages, on the island of Ireland and far beyond its shores, all the way to you, reading this, today..  The four even-lengthen arms reference the classic elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water as well as the cardinal directions of North, South, East and West.

 

These crosses, believed to hold protective magic, are still today hung over doors and windows to ward off malicious spirits.  As is the ceremonial practice of Earth-based spirituality, rather than simply being thrown out, the crosses are retired from use by burning or burying them, hence returning them to the Earth, with honor.