The sabbat of Imbolc is inexorably linked to fire. One might argue that among modern Pagans of a wide variety of paths, the holiday is also synonymous with the stories and magick of the Celtic goddess Brigid, who is almost inexorably linked with this season and with fire. Fire, Imbolc, and Brigid are a seasonal trifecta. While being a goddess of healing, poetry, music, smithcraft, and motherhood, Brigid is likely most universally noted as a goddess of fire. So much so that the practice of tending her eternal flame carries through to modern day, bringing people together from diverse spiritual lineages and points of view in shared practice.
Brigid has dedicated followers from both the Pagan and Christian ends of the spectrum. It is well known that the Goddess Brigid was transformed into or incorporated as a saint into the Christian milieu. It is the opinion of many that Brigid’s foothold on the culture of the Celts was so strong and ingrained that the Catholic Church realized that it would be impossible to purge her from the culture’s spiritual practices. Therefore, she was lightly cloaked and framed as St. Brigit of Kildare. A great number of her modern-day devotees even admit that St. Brigit and the goddess Brigid are essentially one and the same—differing in semantics alone.
Whether framed as a goddess or a saint, Brigid’s actions were magickal through and through. Her main shrine is considered to be in Kildare, Ireland, although exactly which Brigid shrine is the main one, and which was the original site of the eternal flame, is debatable and varies from source to source. Many claim the main square in Kildare as the site; others claim the fire pit at St. Brigid’s Cathedral in Kildare. The flame was tended for literally centuries, first by pre-Christian priestesses and later on, after Christianity’s spread, by Brigidine nuns as well. Brigid was associated with miracles that affected things within the daily lives of the people. A typical account of such a miracle involves a young child who gives away his family’s entire supply of butter or other food and their supply is magickally restocked by a blessing from Brigid. It is said by many that flowers bloomed in the footsteps of Brigid, that livestock never starved, miraculous healings occurred, and as mentioned, depleted foodstocks were replenished. Brigid was admittedly (even by those newer followers of the Christian variety) overtly more magickal in nature than many garden-variety saints … almost goddesslike!
Because Brigid touched so many areas of so many people’s lives through her magickal miracles the tending of her eternal flame was and we will learn it still is an act of devotion in honor of all she did for the people.
The concept of tending the hearth flame and its spirit reaches across cultures. The similarities of the practices are often readily visible despite the varying theological details and ritual practices from culture to culture—from the tending in Greco-Roman traditions of the hearth fire of Vesta and Hestia to the tending of sacred fires in shamanic cultures the world over. However, the tending of Brigid’s eternal flame has some traditions, practices, and details specific and special unto itself. For example, the traditional cycle of tending to Brigid’s flame consists of a cycle of twenty days. For nineteen days, individuals are assigned a shift of a full day to tend the flame. The day’s shift runs from sundown to sundown, as the traditional Celtic day does. The twentieth day, Brigid traditionally tends to herself.
While many people throughout time have honored Brigid as a goddess of hearth and home, historical accounts often attribute the official tending of her flame to priestesses and nuns (at least as far as “official” records are concerned). However, I think it’d be pretty safe to say that the eternal flame was tended to and honored in more places by more people than we know. Today, there are a few different organizations dedicated to keeping the practice of tending to the eternal flame alive. Those persons that tend to her flame are often referred to as “flamekeepers.” The Ord Brighideach International is one such organization dedicated to organizing and coordinating modern day flamekeepers.
Modern-day flamekeepers may well indeed include nuns and priestesses, however, they include people from a wide variety of other backgrounds, roles, and vocations. Most modern organizations, including Ord Brighideach International, encourage persons of all backgrounds who are dedicated to their devotion of Brigid and carrying out her work in any of its myriad of forms to consider tending her eternal flame. Some organizations, like Ord Brighideach, welcome flamekeepers regardless of gender while others restrict membership to women, such as Daughters of the Flame. Like all practices and traditions, while many things stay the same, other parts evolve over time. No longer is Brigid’s eternal flame one specific physical flame but many. Modern flamekeepers can choose to light a flame that they dedicate and tend as the eternal flame for their twenty-four hour shift. It can be a candle, an oil lamp, their fireplace, etc. Others actually use the Kildare flame, which has been passed from candle to candle to them directly. Some flamekeepers are solo independent agents and choose a day each month on their own. Other flamekeepers choose to join an order or organization that coordinates “cells” or groups of flamekeepers in the traditional twenty-day cycles. As is the case with much of modern spirituality, flamekeeping practitioners are afforded great autonomy and a number of choices in how to carry out their devotions.
Fire is magickal, of that there is no doubt. It is used for banishment, manifestation, cleansing, transformation, creation, destruction, inspiration, and divination. Many of its uses blur and blend the lines between the mundane and the magickal. Its purpose can be shifted with intent and not surprisingly, Brigid—goddess of fire—is also known as a shapeshifter. Philosophically we can all relate to the plurality of Brigid’s specialties and the uses of fire. We all wear many hats in life, and whether we are expressing our self through poetry or perhaps musically, parenting children, cooking dinner on our hearth, creating or smithing with our hands, or scrying in the flickering flame of a candle, we too have a place in the honoring of Brigid’s Eternal Flame.
Bibliography
“Daughters of the Flame.” Obsidian Magazine. Accessed September 4, 2014 http://www.obsidianmagazine.com/DaughtersoftheFlame/.
Ord Brighideach International. Accessed June 11, 2014. http://www.ordbrighideach.org/.
Illes, Judika. The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A-Z for the Entire Magical World. Hammersmith, London: Harper Element, 2005.
Illes, Judika. Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses. New York: Harper One, 2009.
K, Amber, and Azreal, Arynn K. Candlemas: Feast of Flames. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2001.