{"id":296,"date":"2012-11-10T14:26:48","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T19:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betzking.com\/blog\/?p=296"},"modified":"2024-11-29T17:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T22:07:31","slug":"inspiration-and-invocation-creating-a-ritual-with-the-triple-goddess-brigid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betzking.com\/blog\/inspiration-and-invocation-creating-a-ritual-with-the-triple-goddess-brigid\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration and invocation: Creating a ritual with the triple-goddess Brigid."},"content":{"rendered":"

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(This piece is from the soon to be published “Brigit: Sun of Womanhood”
\n<\/em>by Goddess Ink Press – http:\/\/www.goddess-ink.com\/brigitsunofwomanhood.html\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

There is no need<\/em> to invent a Brigid ritual; many a fine one already exists.\u00a0 But rituals that are created (rather than inherited) offer a personalized embodied experience of the Goddess in a way that following someone else\u2019s \u201critual-recipe\u201d can\u2019t compete with.\u00a0 Since one of the faces Brigid wears is that of the patroness of the arts; surely she would bless the creation of a ritual seeking her council.<\/p>\n

From the Latin \u00a0rituilis \u2013 <\/em>rite or ceremony, rituals have been present since the beginning of time and across all cultures as an integral part of religious, spiritual, political, social and family life.\u00a0 Rituals help us to embody symbolic expressions of our inner life and search for meaning.\u00a0 What need is greater than the need to make meaning of life?\u00a0 This search for meaning has been expressed over and over in the mythologies of humankind.\u00a0prompting Dr. Radha Parker of Old Dominion University to call myth and ritual \u201cthe vehicles through which the value-impregnated beliefs and ideals that we live by, and live for, are preserved and transmitted.\u201d\u00a0 Rituals, like homing beacons, help us to find our way home.\u00a0 They provide many psychological benefits as well.\u00a0 A comprehensive review of 50 years of research on the psychological use and importance of ritual by Dr. Barbara Fiese and her colleagues at Syracuse University finds rituals to be \u201c\u2026powerful organizers of family life, supporting its stability, and increasing both personal identity and marital satisfaction.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 What a noble role ritual can play, protecting and nurturing a group of people, helping each member to self-actualize and to learn to love deeply!\u00a0 Sadly, many powerful rituals have been claimed as the property of various religions, and those that are leftover are often so watered down that their original magical intentions are too weak to be effective.\u00a0 Personalized rites based on the composition and need of the members return them to their more powerful origins.<\/p>\n

Rituals follow a very simple recipe.\u00a0 They have an opening, a verb\/intention and a closing.\u00a0 The opening generally serves to create sacred or liminal space, and to raise some energy that will be directed toward the verb\/intention.\u00a0 The verb\/intention is the most important part, as it is the place where the action and magic of the ritual occurs.\u00a0 The closing generally serves as a time for gratitude, disillusion of any energies still present, and a return to regular non-sacred space.<\/p>\n

Clarity regarding the intention of the ritual will help with the choice of the ritual verb.\u00a0 Imber-Black and Roberts have studied rituals for much of their career, and suggest five common ritual verbs: relating, changing, healing, believing and celebrating.\u00a0 These broad categories of rituals may include rites of blessing, cursing, worshiping, invoking, banishing, pacifying, energizing, imbuing, consecrating, and transforming to name but a few.\u00a0\u00a0 Psychodrama teachers such as Adam Blatner caution that a good ritual must combine \u201chypnosis and drama\u2026 effectively evoking images memories and ideas that are most appropriate for the experience\u201d.\u00a0 The stimulation of all five senses is encouraged whenever possible, as each of our senses follows it\u2019s own path back to the archetypal experiences of our ancestors.\u00a0 This allows for the use of music, incense, food, fabrics and special altar items.\u00a0 Once the ritual intention is chosen, it must be made manifest within the ritual.\u00a0 For example, the ritual intention of banishing would be made symbolically by letting a helium balloon float away.\u00a0 The ritual intention must have a concrete physical expression in the ritual; it is the climax of the ritual and the focal point of the energies that are raised in the opening portion of the ceremony.<\/p>\n

A ritual accessing the goddess Brigid begins like any other ritual – with the choosing of the ritual intention.\u00a0 Her own feast day – Imbolc\u00a0 – (or Candlemas, post Christian conversion) \u2013 falling on February 2nd<\/sup>, celebrates the awakening of spring and is a good time to seek blessings for new pursuits, but this is not the only time Brigid can be invoked.\u00a0 As a triple Goddess of healing, smithery and creativity, Brigid has many powers to choose from; they can all be considered transformative energies.\u00a0 She can be called on to help a woman become a mother, calibrate a magical tool or inspire a work of art.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Baby showers are a very watered down version of a Brigid blessing ritual, the ritual verb\/intention being to bless the new life.\u00a0 New students of the magical arts often take their vows on Brigid\u2019s feast day, with the ritual intention of transforming their egoic personalities into\u00a0 soulful tools of healing for the world.\u00a0\u00a0 This author dedicated a weekend campsite to Brigid while writing this article, creating and hanging an eye of the goddess above the writing table, and writing only while the campfire (of inspiration) was burning.<\/p>\n

For purposes of this article, let\u2019s work with the first example, a blessing ritual (sometimes called a \u2018blessingway\u2019) for a pregnant first time mother-to-be.\u00a0 The intention, to bless the woman\u2019s transformation, must be made tangible.\u00a0 Brigid\u2019s symbols can be used throughout the ritual to physically, psychologically and spiritually express this transformational blessing.\u00a0 Symbols are the oldest form of communication known to human kind, and allow something small and simple to represent something quite epic.\u00a0 Symbolism is key to the creation of a good ritual.\u00a0 Perhaps the simplest yet most powerful symbol associated with Brigid is the element of fire.\u00a0 Her name translates as \u201cbright one\u201d, and in ancient times she was worshiped as a fire goddess at her sacred shine in Kildare.\u00a0\u00a0 Brigid blesses the fires of the home hearth, the fires of the forge and the fires of creative inspiration.\u00a0 Water is another of Brigid\u2019s symbols, as she has long been associated with sacred wells and the waters of inspiration and healing.\u00a0 The image of an eye, also attributed to Brigid, offers wonderful symbolism related to clear-vision and being watched over or protected. It can be represented by Brigid\u2019s iconic straw crosses or by colorful yarn wrapped crosses known as \u201ceyes of the goddess\u201d.\u00a0 Each of these symbols lend themselves beautifully to a blessingway ritual.<\/p>\n

Ritual symbols are often displayed on an altar of some sort, often in the center of a real or imaginary circle, which will be designated as sacred space during the opening of the ritual\u00a0 Candles and a lovely chalice full of mountain or mineral water would lend themselves well to an alter for Brigid.<\/p>\n

The simplest ritual opening might involve a formal procession into the room followed by a prayer invoking Brigid\u2019s presence, or a song with a similar intention.\u00a0 Other common ritual openings include the verbal invocation of the four directions, four elements, or 4 facets of the Goddess \u2013 maiden, mother, queen and crone perhaps \u2013 done by an officiating high priestess, or by other ritual participants.\u00a0\u00a0 Ritual cleansing of the space and or participants may be done with incense or sprinkled water at this time as well.<\/p>\n

Once sacred space has been established, Brigid can be invoked and invited in.\u00a0 Poetic invocations are often used because they are easy to remember, and can be recited with increasing speed and volume (usually thee times) as a method of raising the energy in the room.\u00a0 They need not rhyme.\u00a0 In Tbe Goddess Path<\/em>, Patricia Monaghan offers the perfect invocation for a Brigid blessingway:<\/p>\n

Brigid, gold-red woman<\/em><\/p>\n

Brigid, flame and honeycomb,<\/em><\/p>\n

Brigid, sun of womanhood<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Brigid, lead me home<\/em><\/p>\n

Another invocation might draw on references to fire and water:<\/p>\n

Brigid, keeper of the flame<\/em><\/p>\n

transform the dark to light;<\/em><\/p>\n

Brigid, keeper of the well<\/em><\/p>\n

Wash our fears away<\/em><\/p>\n