BRIGID MATRON GODDESS OF FAERY HEALING

[putnamwitches]

Brigid, beloved Celtic goddess, was well-known throughout the British Isles as the three-aspected goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing. Occasionally the three aspects were portrayed as three sisters, all named Brigid - an example of the “triple” form so beloved of the Celts. She was sometimes said to be the daughter of the Dagda, the “All-Father” of the Tuatha De Danaans. In Ireland she was known as Brigid, in Scotland, as Brigid or Bride, and in Britain, she was known as Brigantia, goddess of the Brigantes of Northern England. In spite of the fact that not many tales seem to have survived about her, she looms larger than life in the psyche of the Celts of the British Isles, and it is likely that her legends were juxtaposed onto those of the early Irish Christian saint of the same name, who, in Wales, was known as St. Ffraid.
She was, and is, the Goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing, and the Fire that is behind them all: the fire of the mind and mind’s inspiration that sparks and ignites the poet’s creativity, the fire of the forge and skill of the craftsman/woman, and the fires of life that must burn properly so that life may continue, and healing occur. Each of these show themselves to be fires of creation and transformation. Thus, she is the pre-eminent deity-saint of Celtic Healing.

The stories, but particularly the customs and lore about Brigid in either her Pagan or Christian guise, inform us that we are dealing with a very powerful Being, one of the “Old Ones,” deeply connected with the primal powers of Life itself - fire, water, air, earth, origination, creation, formation, and manifestation, fertility and abundance.

The legends of Brigid show her to be associated with that borderlands/liminality/threshold state, which clearly links her to the Otherworlds, including faery. Her association with liminal states is shown in her St. Brigid legends by the fact that she was born at sunrise, and while her mother was straddling a threshold; it is shown in her Goddess legends by the fact that she was of the Tuatha De Danann, yet married to a Fomorian.

Brigid is associated with water as well as fire, and many healing wells are sacred to her throughout the British Isles. Places where water emerges from the earth are always considered thresholds between the worlds, the underworld and middleworld, in this case. As a goddess of healing associated with seership and liminal states of being, she is uniquely suited to be the especial matron goddess of faery healing.

Information found at: http://www.faeryhealing.com/faery_healing_goddesses.htm