Since the inauguration of Lá Fhéile Bhríd day to national holiday I have been invited to celebrate Brigid in Libraries in Cork County. Every year I have to reaccustom myself to the making of the “St Brigid Cross”. This year like every year I believe that I have finally developed a mnemonic which will carry me through till the next time.
I hold the first straight rush at North South, I fold my next rush and hook it over the middle pointing towards the West – I turn the rushes counter clockwise and hook the next rush under the East arm of the first straight rush ( at 3 O’Clock) this new rush pointing upwards “to the North”. I turn the bundle anti-clockwise and hook my next folded rush under the Eastern arm. I continue, each time hooking the new rush under the Eastern arm, and each time my new rush is pointing to the North. At the end I hook the last rush into the opposite hook to lock it in place. I think of the earth spinning on its axis – the Sun rising in the East as it falls in the West, this series of gestures encapsulated in the weave is befitting of Brigid, the godess of renewal and seasonal rebirth. The first day of February is when the first light creeps into the Northern most places of the earth.
Brigids Cross weave and Mexican God’s Eye weave
Birigids cross and triskel and brideog
Notes after attending a lecture on the mythology of St Brigid’s Cross by folklorist, Shane Lehane
This account is a mixture of notes from the Lecture and other myths found about Brigid.
The St Brigid’s Cross – Charm/ Amulet/ Fetish …and…Cross?
Affter a blue sky Brigid’s eve today we have grey skies and rain. A guest at yesterday’s lecture with Shane Lehane threw out this observation gleaned from farmer’s lore – that should we have warmth on the eve of St Brigit we should go gather our kindling for the next sharp snap. This day of Brigid rained hard but wasn’t cold.
Brigid the myth and the legend
Brigit arises from a proto-Indo European deity, associated in Europe with the river Danube. She is leader of the tribe of Brigantes whose legend spread across the continent. On an old map by Ptolemy we are shown the Brigantes located in the South East of Ireland. In Celtic mythology Brigid is the daughter of the Dagda and the Morrigan.
In accounts from the 5th century, St. Brigid was born into slavery, the daughter of a chieftain from Dundalk and a Christian slave. According to medieval records Brigid was born in Dundalk in 451, and it is said that she was born on the threshold of the Cow byre after her mother had spent the morning milking the cows. The cows became so fertile they needed to be milked 3 times daily and it was said that Brigid wasn’t able to drink milk until she was brought a white and red eared cow ( a reference to her connection with the Sidhe) which sustained her. Later she became the great nourisher and provider, with the ability to turn water into milk, her cows were sacred.
Raised by druids, St. Brigid was a spirited young woman who gave away her father’s possessions and removed an eye from her head in order to put a halt to his arrangments for her marriage. She befriended a fox and made friends with wild boar. Brigid famously made a bargain with the High King of Leinster when she asked for some land for her sacred herd. The king pronounced she could have as much land as her cloak could cover, whereupon Brigid unfolded her cloak again and again until it spread across the whoke of the Curragh. This miracle meant she could claim the land and the king converted to christianity in her honour. Brigid built a monastry in Kildare on the site of an ancient oak forest and she was granted the title of Bishop of this cultural and religious centre.
Brigid hangs her cloak on sunbeams, her cloak may be frost or snow or fog covering the land.
Brigid of Fire of Poetry and of the Wells.
Fire and water each reperesent powerful processes for purification and cleansing.
Brigid is keeper of the wells and many bear her name, she is matron saint of water as she is of fire. Fire is protean alchemical creativity. Water is fertility and life. Together they indicate a powerful healing combination and the wellstone of poetry and art. Brigid is matron saint of smiths as well as farmers healers and poets.
The essence of water is of fertility, of cleanser and rejuvenator. Her presence is there at the breaking of the waters in birth. The amniotic sac is the caul, and the hood is synonymous with Brigid. Babies born inside a caul covering the head were said to be protected from drowning and Midwives used to sell the birth cauls to sailors.
It is customary to leave a ribbon or a rag for a blessing at Brigid’s well. On the eve of the first of spring women leave out a scarf or any worn and unwashed piece of cloth, known as a Brat Brigid to be blessed by the saint, filled with the dew from the last day of winter crossing to the renewal of Spring.
The fiery arrow, Brigid shone so brightly she had to cover her head at all times with a cloak. She is depicted often in 3s, with offerings appearing in the opening folds of her cloak – fruit…bread…a baby.
Brigid is both saint and godess, harbinger of the spring, and protector of the threshold. Born on 1 February after her mother had finished milking the cows she was birthed on threshold to the byre. The cows had to be milked 3 times, such was the abundance that Brigid brought with her, and her head shone so brightly it had to be covered. Her feast day is Imbolc, “in the fertile belly” or Óimelc meaning ewe’s milk, and she is bound up with this milky necter through her fiery flower, the Dandelion with its milky sap, she is the butter on your spuds. She is goddess of fire and water and matron saint of poetry. She is keeper of many of the wells.
She is bound up with The Cailleach, the veiled one and the crone – Brigid is Maiden to the Hag. The last standing sheaf of the grain harvest is coiled into a Cailleach at Samhain, on the threshold of winter. The straw Cailleach is kept for the the first day of spring when it is transformed into a Brideóg for St Brigid’s day. A brideóg is a doll, a representitive of the divine feminine, and also a baby. In the old customs the “biddy boys” were originally girls. The girls made a brideóg, dressing it up in a white shawl and skirt. The biddy boys roam from house to house asking for a blessing in return for a coin, customs like this contributed to the bonding, the nurturing and the knowledge of midwifery and childbirth, the womens’ realm. She is the protector of young women’s virginity.
The custom of the ribbon winds through Irish folklore. On the eve of February the first a ribbon may be left out for Brigid’s blessing, to be kept on hand for healing and protection. In this way Brigid is bound with St. Gobnait, whose day is celebrated 11 days later, on the 11 of February (slippages and overlaps like these are thought to transpire due to the “missing 11 days” that resulted from the change from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar). At her Pattern day at St Gobnait’s church in Ballyvourney the ritual of St Gobnait’s measure is enacted. On entry the women buy a ribbon then form a line to vist the 14th century wooden effigy of St Gobnait. In turn they measure the torso of the effigy and tie and untie the ribbon three times at neck and waist and groin, and on each occassion of the untying the devotee blesses herself, finally lifting the doll to perform the blessing. After the blessing the ribbon is bound into a bundle and kept for healing. This sanctified ribbon may also be unwound and worn for protection during childbirth.
Brigid and Sheela. Sheela na Gigs are stone carved depictions of skinny crones with withered breasts and ribs, who are squatting in birthing positions, many appear to be wearing a ribbon and some have what may be a caul at their feet. There is a distinct diamond form created by the birthing legs, much like the weave pattern of the Brigid’s cross. They are a perplexing riddle of ancient crone combined with fertility godess and they are found over portals in holy places. The Sheela na gig is seen to be both maiden and hag, a being who is at once Brigid and The Cailleach.
In Ballyvourney there is a Sheela above the portal of the now ruined church where Gobnait’s ceremony takes place. Sheela occurs at the stone portal in much the same way that Brigid’s crosses are placed over the portal to the home, a talisman protector of the threshold. Many of the stone carved Sheelas appear to have the same lozenge shape that is expressed in the weave of the Brigid’s “Cross”. Shane Lehane (among others) argue convincingly that it is this lozenge that is the sacred element of Brigid weavings, and not the cross, and this lozenge form is a sign for the sacred female genitalia.
The Brigid’s cross is made from fresh rushes pulled up from marshy areas and often brought to the milking parour where they were placed under the butter churn. The rushes are then woven into “crosses” and sometimes triskels and other forms. There is a strong connection with fecundity. The weaving of a fetish item which possesses magic power and becomes a symbol for the female godess. There is a contiguous magic between the crop, rushes, water, time and rebirth. Indeed, when creating the cross you turn it like a wheel, and the use of North South East West or a clock denoting the times of 12,3,6,9 can be used as mnenomics for its creation.
Brigid is the matron saint of domestic animals, from her own birth connection with cows through fertility and birth, through her connection cows and ewes milk and, with Gobnait, bees and honey.
Brigid is also entwined with Mary whom she accompanies in many guises in Irish mythology, Lehane says: “where Mary goes Brigid goes”. When Mary is brought to Ireland there is already a female deity and Brigid becoems Mary of the Gael. Brigid is midwife to The Christ, and companion to Mary in her hour of need. At the deeply shaming churching ceremony, when Mary is invoked and shamed, along with each new mother for her sins and her part in the creation of new life, Brigid is said to appear as a veil of light for Mary to alleviate her humility, when she brings the form of a harrow over her head, the teeth of the harrow light up and all are blessed.
The Leaba Bríd is a birthing bed of straw strewn in the corner near the hearth, the place where mothers squat to bring forth new life, When a couple married the mother of bride or groom used to make a straw cross and singe the ends of one arm and one leg to bless the marriage and place it on the straw bed for protection in childbirth the saying “the moment my head hit the straw” comes from the moment I was birthed in the straw.
Another ritual element is the Crios Bride, a girdle woven from straw which has woven “Brigid’s crosses” attached. The Crios would be lowered over the womans head to encircle her feet on the ground, and she would step through the Crios right foot first, in a reneactment of birth and ritual for rebirth and invocation for protection from Brigid. Though associated with female procreation and protection, men might also partake in this ceremony.
Brigid and New Grange
The kerb stones at Nowth and Dowth dispaly similar lozenge shapes to the Brigid’s Cross. Arguably the chamber at Newgrange is the ultimate symbol of procreation where the winter sun sends its shaft of light to enter the dark tomb/womb at the solstice.
Brigid and Patrick
The time between St Brigid’s day on 1 Febraury and St Patricks day on 17 March is traditonally set as the time for sowing seeds.
There are many forms made from the brigid weave – often a composite of up to 30 “crosses” triskels and other weaves. The one we know today is not the most typical from times past. It is the one familiar fro the RTE Logo and most similar to the “wheel cross” (swasitka) forms created in cultures globally, including times when it was adopted and plagarised by warmongers.
references to scholars made in the lecture:
Marina Gimbutas
Sanas Cormac (9th Century)
Cogitus Life of Brigid (6th Century)
Seamus O’Cathain, The Festival of Brigid
Anne O’ Dowd Straw Hay and Rushes
Estyn Evans
John C. O’ Sullivan
Here is a link to what happened to The Biddy Boys in the 20th Century
julforrester 