Brigit is my maker of song, My choicest of women, my guide.
(Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations with Illustrative Notes in Words, Rites and Customs, Dying and Obsolete: Orally Colllected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and Translates into English, 1:169)
So, dear boys and girls, you already know by now that the mythological universe of old Ireland is as fascinating and hidden as the land itself: covered in mists and guarded by supernatural beings. Be mindful of
where you are going, or else you can easily get lost and find yourself on the other side, in Tir na nOg, the Land of eternal youth. If you get there, watch your step for the serpents of Bridie! Oh, afraid of snakes, are you? And what if I tell you that the snake, the sacred animal of Bridie, stirring deep in the earth as spring arises to quicken the earth after the inertia of cold winters, was known in ancient times as the serpent of wisdom? Oh yes, a symbol of deep mysteries were they, a guardian to the secrets of the Otherworld, and held in high esteem by the poets and prophets of the ancient lands!
So you see: Bridie is not only a protector of arts and crafts, a young and romantic maiden. She is passionate and feisty, she wields the fire of her transformative forge, and she is not afraid of anything.
We celebrate Bridie beginning of spring, the 1st of February, but we also celebrate her in every new project we start, every time we unleash our imagination for new creative ideas, every time we are courageous and inspired! For she stirs our soul into quickening just as she stirs the earth back into life to bring spring back to the land.