A Love Letter to the Goddess Brigid

Brigid is the Goddess who stirred awake the calling of the sacred feminine within me in 2011. During my first Priestess training with the Reclaiming Collective, we worked daily with a particular deity as part of a yearlong practice, and I worked with Brigid. During this time I remembered an ancient connection with Her that felt very personal. It seemed my relationship to Brigid was woven into the fabric of my being. I began seeing visions of Her fire temple in Kildare, Ireland, of holy wells and springs, and lush green rolling hills.

In 2017 I made my first pilgrimage to Ireland and Scotland, exploring sacred sites dedicated to Her which are many! There is an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland known as the Hebrides Islands, or the Isles of Bride. I visited several of these Isles, one of the highlights being Iona and Brigid’s Well on Dun I Mound, the highest point of Iona, where the water is known as Brigid’s Well of Eternal Youth. There is a palpable healing energy that permeates this Isle, the pinnacle of this energy emanating from Her holy well.

Upon arriving in Kildare, Ireland for the first time, I felt my body electrified with energy. There was a force beyond my comprehension and control that surrounded me as we parked the car in the lot outside the church which is dedicated to Her. This church was originally built in the 6th century and was then reconstructed in the 13th century and sits on the site of a very ancient temple dedicated to Brigid that existed before the time of Christ. As this energy swirled around me, my feet took off with a mind of their own and, having never seen pictures of the site, began walking to the left around the perimeter of the church among the olden gravestones and to the backside of the grounds. Completely taken by this energy, my body began trembling as I approached the rocks that mark the site of Her ancient Fire Temple. To my surprise my knees went weak and I fell to the earth, tears streaming down my face. Before my mind could catch up with what was happening, my body was heaving with sobs and I was crying into the earth.

There was a part of me that felt embarrassed that other visitors would see me, yet it was a fleeting thought that carried no weight compared to the immense power that was moving through me. I began to feel a profound sadness at finding the Temple no longer standing, the flame no longer lit, feeling as if I had somehow failed or broken a vow. As I allowed this feeling to flow through me, I heard a voice from within and outside of me simultaneously, the most loving soothing voice I had ever heard. She said, “my daughter, do not feel defeated. The flame is eternal.”

The ancient Fire Temple that existed on this site in Kildare kept a flame lit in honor of Brigid for hundreds of years. This flame was tended day and night by 19 Priestesses. It was described in 1187 by Giraldus Cambrensis: “Brigid’s Fire Temple is surrounded by a hedge, made of stakes and brushwood and forming a circle within which no man can enter, and if any one should presume to enter, which has been sometimes attempted by rash men, he will not escape the divine vengeance.” This described vengeance may be referring to the natural law of cause and effect, or karma, that is a universal principle we all live by. Dishonoring a sacred temple in the name of Goddess, tended by women, is going to bring about consequences (and ultimately opportunities for karmic balancing and healing). I believe that Goddess/ God is Love and that we are reflections and embodiments of this Divine Love from the Source of creation. There is no wrath that comes from Love, rather opportunities to return to Love that come to us as lessons through the law of cause and effect. I am so grateful that Brigid guided me back to Her Fire Temple, dissolving any misunderstandings that had been carried over from previous lifetimes where I felt I had broken a promise by allowing the physical flame in Her Temple to be extinguished.

Thank you Brigid for reminding me that the flame is eternal and that your eternal presence lives as Love within my heart. 

Blessed Be, 

Annah Taylor xx