Born on Imbolc: Brigid, the Sacred Flame, and the Return of Light

My birthday falls on Imbolc, and it was my Catholic-raised mother who first told me about the goddess Brigid and this sacred turning point in the wheel of the year. In this episode, I explore why Imbolc was a matter of survival for Celtic peoples, the fascinating transition of Brigid from goddess to saint, and what the perpetual flame that burned for over 1,000 years teaches us about tending our inner fire.

We cover the historical and spiritual significance of this fire festival, Brigid's triple aspects as goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft, the remarkable continuity between pagan and Christian traditions, and what it means to tend the flame within. I also share my new poem "Tending the Flame" about the thousand small acts it takes to keep your fire burning for a lifetime.

Whether you connect with Brigid as goddess, saint, or both, this threshold time invites us to ask: What's awakening within me? And how do I tend the flame that lights my way forward?

Topics covered:

• The etymology and meaning of Imbolc
• Why this festival mattered for Celtic survival
• The goddess Brigid in Irish mythology
• St. Brigid of Kildare and Catholic hagiography
• The perpetual flame and sacred syncretism
• Tending your inner fire through Brigid's three aspects
• Poetry: "Tending the Flame"

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Transcript

Setting The Imbolc Scene

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Blooming Wand, your home for grounded spiritual content. I'm Emily O'Neill, Evidential Psychic Medium, Intuitive Healer, and Coach. And on this episode, I want to talk about Imbulk, that halfway point in the wheel of the year between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. And I love this time of year because it's associated with the goddess Brigid, and also it's my birthday time. And it's always just felt special to me. And I thought it might be fun for us to explore in bulk, to explore the goddess Brigid and her connection and evolution into St. Brigid. I do think there's a direct connection there. And just why this time of year feels so unique, at least to me. I think there's a special magic in this shift from winter to spring. So as I mentioned, my birthday does fall on in bulk, and I have felt connected to the magic of this turn in the Great Wheel for as long as I can remember. It's a time when early signs of spring emerge. There's a crocus here, the green shoot of a daffodil there, and I've always felt it was special, not just because it's my birthday, although that is part of it, but because of the juxtaposition of tiny spring buds against harsh rains and snows. Early spring bloomers, they seem so tender, but they're remarkably resilient, often surviving freezing temperatures and snow. Now, my mother, who was raised Catholic, always pointed out the significant turning points in the season, and she was the one who told me that my birthday was connected to Imbulk and the goddess Brigid. Even within her Catholic framework, she understood that something sacred was happening at this time, something older and deeper than any single tradition could contain. And I thought it might be nice for us to explore this special time together and to see what wisdom we might find in honoring the goddess Brigad and Imbulk. Let's start with talking about why Imbulk mattered to Celtic peoples. For the Celtic peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and beyond, Imbulk wasn't just a spiritual observation. It was about survival. The time of year is when the ewes began lactating in preparation for spring lambing, and after a long winter, surviving on stored food, the return of milk meant the return of abundance. Now all Celtic fire festivals, so those would be imbalk, beltane, lunasa, sawin, they mark critical points in the agricultural year, but imbalk holds a special significance because it marks the shift from complete dependence on what food you'd stored to the first stirrings of new life and productivity. The word imbalk itself likely means a couple of things. It comes from Old Irish, though scholars debate the exact entomology. It translates to in the belly, referring to pregnant ewes or the belly of Mother Earth gesting new life, but others argue that it derives from ol milk, meaning ewes milk, marking the time when ease began lactating before lambing. But either way, you're talking about gestation, nourishment, and life preparing to emerge. Now let's dive into brigand and how we go from goddess to saint. It's pretty interesting, at least to me. The goddess Brigid is associated with Imbalk, so that February 1st and 2nd time frame. She's the Celtic goddess of spring, fertility, fire, and healing. She's the embodiment of the returning light, the stirrings of new life in the soil, and the beginning of lambing season. Many speak of her as spring personified, so she is the season. And her story is one of the most fascinating examples of how sacred figures persist across cultural changes. She is both a Christian saint and a pagan goddess. So I thought it would be interesting to explore both histories. The goddess Brigid was the daughter of Dogda in Irish mythology, and the Dogda was a father figure and a powerful god associated with fertility, agriculture, and magic. Now, Brigid's name probably means exalted one, which tells you something about her importance. She's a triple goddess associated with three crucial domains: poetry and inspiration, no wonder I love her so much, healing and herbalism, and smithcraft and metalwork. We don't have extensive surviving myths about Brigand compared to other deities, partly because oral traditions weren't written down until after Christianization. But she does appear in the Book of Invasions and in The Tribes of the Goddess Danu, both historic texts and tales worth exploring and diving into if you're interested, interested in Celtic mythology. I've started to dive into them. I certainly haven't done an extensive research or deep dive, but I did do some digging to learn more about Brigid, and it's pretty fascinating stuff. Especially if you're just into that mytho into Celtic mythology, I think that they're two texts definitely worth looking at. She is mentioned as the wife of Breath, the mother of Roadon. And when Roadon is killed in battle, Brigid's Keening, so that's a ritual lamentation. Keening is very interesting. I actually, oddly enough, learned about it from reading the Outlander books and was really fascinated by it. We don't see people wailing enough. I think that it's a powerful way to express deep emotion. And I wish that it was still part of our grieving traditions today, because I think it's probably a helpful practice. But this connection to Keening and to being a mother, in my mind, connects her to grief, motherhood, to the transformative power of expressing sorrow. These are all pretty significant things. Now moving to Saint Brigid of Kildare, Kildare comes from the Irish Kildara, meaning Church of the Oak. And she lived from 451 to 525 AD and became one of Ireland's three patron saints. Pretty cool. She founded a monastery at Kildare, and there are some interesting things to note regarding this. Her monastery kept a perpetual flame tended by 19 nuns, so this number is connected to the Celtic calendrical system. Her feast day is, you guessed it, February 1st, same as the goddess Brigid. And her monastery is built in connection with oak with the oak trees, which are sacred to druidic traditions. The stories told about Saint Brigid in Catholic writings are striking because they echo the attributes of the goddess so closely. And I can't help but think that my mom knew that my birthday was connected to the goddess Brigid because it's connected to Saint Brigid and she was raised Catholic. So I think that's probably the main reason why I even know who Brigid is. I myself am not Catholic. I really wasn't raised in any particular religious framework. I've experienced and studied many religious and spiritual traditions. I find them all fascinating and interesting, but I prefer to cultivate my own personal spiritual practice. But moving back to St. Brigud, one of the famous stories tells how Brigud asked a king for land to build her monastery, and he mockingly said that she could have as much land as her cloak could cover. And so she laid her cloak on the ground and it miraculously expanded to cover acres and acres of land. And this mirrors the goddess Brigid's connection to sovereignty and the land itself. And there are other numerous stories of St. Brigand multiplying food and drink, turning water into ale, providing abundant butter and milk, so that milk connection, right, to the ewes, to imbalk, to the goddess Brigud. And these abundance miracles reflect the goddess's association with fertility and sustenance and in bulk's focus on the return of milk and nourishment. And one particularly telling story involves Saint Brigid hanging her wet cloak on a sunbeam, which held it as if it were a solid beam. Fire and light imagery surround Saint Brigid just as they do the goddess Brigid constantly, and she's often depicted with a perpetual flame. One account describes fire appearing above her head as an infant yet burning nothing. Stories tell of St. Brigid curing ailments, restoring sight, and having deep knowledge of herb and healing waters. Her monastery at Kildare was built near a sacred well, and holy wells dedicated to Brigid, so goddess or saint, it becomes very hard to distinguish, are found throughout Ireland. And many years ago, I visited Ireland twice, and the Brigad Wells, the holy wells, are something that I got to experience. And it's Brigad is a big deal in Ireland, the saint or the goddess. And I really love that because here in the United States, it's definitely not something that we hear anything about. And like I said, I've always felt really connected to the goddess, and frankly, the saint as well. And so in my travels, getting to experience their connection, the Irish people's connection to both was something that has stuck with me. And I also think that it's interesting how the transition from goddess to saint was so smooth, suspiciously smooth. The cr the Christianity that came to Ireland didn't try to erase Brigitte. I don't think that would have worked. Instead, it absorbed her, transformed her, and made space for her. And this was likely a deliberate evangelization strategy, but it also suggests something important. Brigit's power ran so deep that she couldn't be eliminated. She had to be recontextualized. That perpetual flame at Kildare, it burned until the 16th century over 1,000 years. And this was almost certainly a pre-Christian practice continued under Christian auspices. The fact that women tended it, that the site was at an oak tree, and that there were 19, so that number 19 is significant in Celtric traditions, all points to continuity rather than replacement. And here's something else interesting. Candle Mass, which is a Christian feast day celebrated annually on, you guessed it, February 2nd, is another example of Christian syncretism. A clever strategy used to merge existing pagan kind of threshold times, such as in bulk, with Christian dates and beliefs to aid conversion efforts. By setting candlemass on February 2nd, the church directly overlapped with the ancient Celtic fire festival of Imbulk. This was Imbulk. This was on purpose. Both holidays shared central themes of light returning and purification after winter's darkness. The Christian narrative of Christ as the light of the world was easily supplanted. It easily supplanted the pagan celebration of the goddess Brigid's hearth fire and the sun's return, transforming existing rituals into new, and according to Christians, acceptable Christian practices. And my mother's ability to hold both Saint Brigid and the Goddess Brigid, both her Catholic upbringing and her older, deeper knowing that seasons turn according to rhythms deeper than doctrine, feels deeply connected to her ancestral wisdom. I know that my mother has some people from these parts of the world, Ireland, I think in particular, and Britain. She's also got a lot of Scandinavian ancestry, but I think that it's interesting how we remember things, even if we've been separated from the stories, the tales, and the practices. I think there is something within us that just knows. And I do feel like I remember when she told me my birthday was connected to the goddess Brigid, but the Saint Brigid and Candlemass and Imbulk. I remember her really feeling like that was something that she wanted to convey to me that yeah, it was Saint Brigid, but that's also a goddess, and that that is the oldest, more ancient form of this spiritual figure. And I think she didn't have to tell me that. She could have just left it at Saint Brigid, but that wouldn't be a that's not the way my mom was. She always told us about all the pagan stuff underneath the that lay underneath all these Christian events around throughout the year. And I think this is a powerful reminder that the sacred persists by adapting. What is truly powerful in a spiritual tradition survives across cultural changes, across time, despite the efforts of the church to maybe make us forget that. And whether you connect with Brigad as a goddess, as a saint, or as both, you're touching on something that has guided people through liminal times. You're touching on a figure that has guided people through liminal times for a long time. Thousands of years in terms of the goddess Brigad. So for those of us with lineages that extend to Celtic to Celtic lands, it can feel like a homecoming to connect with Brigad by honoring her feast day at in bulk. And chances are she's been connecting with you all along, and you might not have noticed. So as I'm sharing this with you, I'm not only remembering my mother's teachings on Candlemass and Imbulk, I'm also recalling how in my teenage years I used to draw a tree against a purple and pink vibrant sky. And that might not seem too compelling, but it was an oak tree, a symbol of druidic tradition and brigad. And fast forward to present day, where my home now stands beside a white oak tree. It's a beautiful tree. And that might not seem too magical, except that the tree looks exactly like the oak tree I used to repeatedly draw. And I remember looking at it and seeing it and feeling like a familiarity to the tree. I know that might sound weird. And it wasn't until I began preparing for this episode that I remembered, oh my God, I used to draw that all the time. Like the memory came back. And some mornings when I get up to let the dogs out, the tree sits against a magnificent purple and pink sky because of the sunrise. It's remarkable. And this is where my altar space to the goddess Brigad and other nature spirits now sits. Now, I want to take this a step further to just talk about the oak tree. So white oaks are protected where I live. They have declined to less than 10% of their historic range, and they support hundreds of wildlife species. I see it all the time when I go out there. And they are critical to the landscape. And many indigenous peoples here in the Americas traditionally managed them with fire. Now, isn't that interesting? And revered them as trees of life that provided vital medicine, spiritual centers for gathering, and a staple food source came from acorns. And some years here we have a boon production of acorns. There was one year that it was like raining acorns out there. The roof would be like bang, bang, bang with all these acorns, and the ground was like covered. You couldn't see anything underneath it. And I remember all the birds and the squirrels and the creatures were just like so exalted by the huge amount of acorns that came off that the oak tree in the yard, in the garden. It's not always producing at that level, but I know it's I know it cycles. It'll have big years where there's a big boon of acorns and then it kind of decreases and then it builds back up again, which I think is really cool because everything in nature has its own cycles and its rhythms. And the oak tree definitely has its own cycles and rhythms. I'll also tell you that there are some interesting things about the bark on the tree where I'll look at it, and sometimes it looks like there's faces in the shape of the bark and stuff like that. And I enjoy going out there and seeing what faces I might see in the bark when I'm out in the yard. So for me, this adds to the mysticism of my connection to Brigid and the oak tree, and it's a reminder to look for the sacred and all that surrounds you. And I'll tell you something: everyone who enters the garden is drawn to that oak tree, and it's not just for its beauty, though I do believe that that is part of it. I think it's for its magic. And maybe they maybe the people that visit the garden have their own unconscious connection to a sacred deity or old practices that they can no longer name, just like I did. Now I want to talk about how Brigad can guide us at Imbulk. And she has three aspects that can give us a framework for kind of diving into the this time of year. So poetry and inspiration. I know that I've been feeling really inspired in writing a lot of poetry, and I have a poem that is inspired by Brigader's Sacred Flame that I'm going to share with you at the end of this episode. But in bulk is a time to listen to what wants to be born through your creativity, not to force it, but to be receptive to it. So what's quickening in the belly of your creative life? Think about that. Healing. This is a time of increasing light, and it invites us to tend to what needs mending. What do you need to take care of in your life? If you're doing shadow work, if you're in therapy, if you're working with your ancestors, in bulk offers supportive energy for that deep healing work. And you may even write a prayer to Brigid, the goddess or the saint, or write a prayer to your oak tree and just share with it in an intimate way what kind of healing you're hoping for. Who knows what might happen, but the practice of acknowledging that there are parts of you that need healing is a wonderful thing to do. It means we're not in denial of what needs tending. So moving on to Smithcraft, the forge is a powerful metaphor for transformation. So what needs to be melted down and recast in your life? What old forms need to break apart so something new can take shape? Brigitt's connection to Hearth and Home reminds us that this isn't about a grand ritual. It's about daily tending of the sacred flame, of your sacred flame, your inner light, whether that's literal or metaphorical. It's about the magic of showing up day after day to take care of what matters. Her association with liminality, so thresholds, dawn, in bulk itself as an in between time, invites us to honor transitions rather than rush through them. Now, how many of us, it's like we're in a transitional time and we're like, I just wish this would be over. Most of our time is spent in transitions between this grand event and that grand event. And we have to learn, I think it's helpful, we don't have to do anything, but to take care of and tend to the little things, because the little things are what make up our life. So in bulk is a time between death and rebirth. And the earth knows this, and your body knows this, and Brigid knows this. So I've written a poem inspired by Brigand and her flame for you to engage during your self-care and spiritual practices at in bulk. And I'm wondering what magic and what illumination will come to you from engaging not only Brigid's flame, but your inner flame. So on a side note, those of you that get my newsletter, you'll be able to easily access this poem for future reference. For those of you watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast, if you want to read this poem, just go to bloomingwand.com, click explore, go to the blog, it'll be right there for you. This is also just another plug to encourage you to sign up for my newsletter because all the things that I reference, sources that I gather information from, all that good stuff is included there. And you can look at it whenever you want. I think it's also nice because it gives people the option to either read what I've written for the blog, listen, or watch. I'm trying to hit on all those different ways people like to learn and grow and consume information. So that's all there for you. Find it on the website. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you're listening to your favorite podcast service or on YouTube. So let me dive into the poem that I've written called Tending the Flame. The sacred flame within you began as a spark, a first breath, a shock of love and life entering your small heart when you exited the womb to enter this world. It was yours then, and it's yours now, yours to tend. Fire is mighty, but it can be put out. Harsh words, cruelty, pain, grief, suffering that seems like it will never end. These things can extinguish you. Or, and this is the mystery, these things can become fuel. The question is not whether your flame will dim. It will. We're human. We are made of elements that ebb and flow. The question is, can you feel into what your fire is telling you? It might be saying, I'm dimming, I'm lost, I'm alone. It might be saying I'm raging, I'm wild, I'm a destroyer. These are all holy. These are all facets of the sacred primal elements of your nature. Fire teaches by burning. It teaches what can be consumed and what remains. It teaches that destruction is sometimes the path to warmth, that rage can be the beginning of clarity, that the wild flame knows something that the tame one has forgotten. To tend your flame is not to make it behave, it is to listen, to feel into the heat of it, the hunger of it, what it is asking for, what it is trying to tell you about how you need to live. When it dims, you do not scold it, you bring it oxygen, you bring it rest, you bring it the fuel of beauty, of laughter, of being seen. You give it permission to burn the way it needs to burn. And when it rages, you do not fear it, you ask it what it's trying to destroy in you, that needs destroying. That old wood, that dead weight, what structure built by someone else's hands needs to burn to cinder and ash. For a thousand years women tended Brigad's flame at Kildare, and it never went out. Not because they forced it, not because they controlled it, because they listened, because they showed up again and again in the dark, in the doubt, and asked, What does the fire need today? Your life is like this. The spark you were born with wants to become the flame that lights your way, but it needs you to pay attention, to feel into its language, to honor both its dimming and its wildness as sacred instruction. You are the keeper of your own fire, not its master. You are the one who must do the tending and the witnessing. You are its faithful companion through all the seasons of burning. You are the fire that lights your way. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this episode. You know what I always say take good care of yourselves, get those journals out, and I'll see you soon.