Tonight, the 31st January is Bridget’s eve. It is rumoured that the goddess Bridget will gift the land of Erin with her blessing. As she wanders over the land, offering her fertility and the energy to birth a new Spring, her cloak will touch the fields, the trees, the water, the forests, the rushes and the grass. Everything it touches will be blessed and in the early morning we see evidence of that blessing in the form Bridget s Day dew.

st-brigits-garden 3 faces
This is the three faces of Bridget in a sculpture in the ground in Bridget s Garden in Roscahill Co Galway

The goddess Bridget has three faces; the face of the poet, the face of the smithy and the face of the midwife. Historically, Bridget was held in awe by midwives. Her place in the Celtic calendar is tied to the first day of Spring, and so as birth brings new life; she fills the earth with the new life and light of the coming Spring.

Bridget was often called upon to ease the fears of a diffticult birth or to help with a mother who was fearful of labour and birth.Traditionally midwives and doulas and all who work with the coming of life would have a shawl or piece of red cloth that they would cover the woman with in times of need or distress. The shawl represented Bridget’s holding, and the protection of the goddess. Any such shawl received its potency or its power from being laid out on Bridget’s Eve to receive the blessing of the goddess in the from of the dew from her cloak s she roamed the land on Bridget’s Eve..

I learned about this many years ago, and so each Bridget’s Eve, I take my Bridget’s shawl; a red square of fabric with a Bridget’s cross woven into it, and I place it on the grass to receive its blessing. I also put out the red yarn I will use in Mother Blessing s over the coming year.  If I am attending our birth this year, you will see my Bridget’s shawl there in my doula basket ready and waiting to bring the spirit of one of Ireland’s greatest goddesses to your birth if it is needed!

Bridget s Eve
Gathering Bridget s Blessing on Bridget s Eve

If you are pregnant or even if not and you want a reminder of Bridget s healing power, then you too can put a piece of red cloth out to catch the magic of Bridget’s dew tonight!

More about Bridget can be found here  http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/celtic-goddess-brigid.htm

Facebooktwitter