Brighid's Well & Listening to Your Inner Voice
For whatever reason the Imbolc Tea idea has rather captured my imagination for the moment. While perusing a few books about Brighid and Imbolc my mind started drifting to my trip to Ireland and my own visit to Brighid's Well.
I was in Kildare for Imbolc 10 years ago. Today they hold a festival called Feile Bride as part of the celebration. Having not known about it before my visit, I missed most of that festival, but saw posters in town that as part of the festivities there would be "Brighid's Magical Mystery Tour". For £3 or £4 (I can't remember) they were providing lunch, a concert/poetry reading and a tour to visit and explore places where the Divine Feminine once existed and was re-emerging in Irish culture today.
The tour would be starting at the Irish National Stud a couple of miles outside of town. Brighid's Well was on the way, just a bit before INS on the road. I decided I'd visit the well before the tour.
Not wanting to be heavily encumbered if there turned out to be a lot of walking on the tour, I left everything in my leather backpack except for my ID, camera, pocket knife and just enough cash for the tour. I stashed the rest of my money and travelers' checks in a bag with the loaf of brown bread and apples I'd bought for munching the previous day.
While the weather that morning was much like early spring here in Michigan, I had still arrived in Ireland to find them suffering through the coldest winter they'd had in a hundred years. I set off, with my nearly empty pockets, in the grey, drizzly, chilly morning, passing through the town square (shich is really a triangle) and out into the countryside.
It was a peaceful walk through what I'm sure must be the only flat land in Ireland.
Presently I came to the well. This was one of two Brighid's Wells I visited that day. This one showed a very Catholic presence, and I'm totally unfamiliar with that form of Christianity so I just followed my own lead.
I circumambulated the area, then came to the well itself. There I knelt down to spend some time in meditation and prayer then ran my hands through the flowing water and splashed it on my face.
I don't know why it didn't occur to me before I left the inn that I should bring an offering. I searched my pockets looking for something that would be suitable, but really didn't have a clue what might be a traditional offering in this sacred place. I'd done a pretty good job of cleaning out those pockets before I left. All I came up with was the money I'd brought for the tour and my pocket knife.
My pocket knife!
I pulled it out, opened it and used it to cut a lock of my hair that I then hung on a tree next to the well. It just felt right. It wasn't until the next day, when I purchased a small book about the history of Kildare, that I found out it couldn't have been much righter.
According to that book a couple of traditional offerings to make at that Brighid's Well are "whatever is in your pocket" or a lock of your hair. And here, lacking anything I might have thought more suitable, I'd used what was in my pocket to cut a lock of my hair.
I think about that whenever I realize I haven't been listening to my inner voice like I should.
I was in Kildare for Imbolc 10 years ago. Today they hold a festival called Feile Bride as part of the celebration. Having not known about it before my visit, I missed most of that festival, but saw posters in town that as part of the festivities there would be "Brighid's Magical Mystery Tour". For £3 or £4 (I can't remember) they were providing lunch, a concert/poetry reading and a tour to visit and explore places where the Divine Feminine once existed and was re-emerging in Irish culture today.
The tour would be starting at the Irish National Stud a couple of miles outside of town. Brighid's Well was on the way, just a bit before INS on the road. I decided I'd visit the well before the tour.
Not wanting to be heavily encumbered if there turned out to be a lot of walking on the tour, I left everything in my leather backpack except for my ID, camera, pocket knife and just enough cash for the tour. I stashed the rest of my money and travelers' checks in a bag with the loaf of brown bread and apples I'd bought for munching the previous day.
While the weather that morning was much like early spring here in Michigan, I had still arrived in Ireland to find them suffering through the coldest winter they'd had in a hundred years. I set off, with my nearly empty pockets, in the grey, drizzly, chilly morning, passing through the town square (shich is really a triangle) and out into the countryside.
It was a peaceful walk through what I'm sure must be the only flat land in Ireland.
Presently I came to the well. This was one of two Brighid's Wells I visited that day. This one showed a very Catholic presence, and I'm totally unfamiliar with that form of Christianity so I just followed my own lead.
I circumambulated the area, then came to the well itself. There I knelt down to spend some time in meditation and prayer then ran my hands through the flowing water and splashed it on my face.
I don't know why it didn't occur to me before I left the inn that I should bring an offering. I searched my pockets looking for something that would be suitable, but really didn't have a clue what might be a traditional offering in this sacred place. I'd done a pretty good job of cleaning out those pockets before I left. All I came up with was the money I'd brought for the tour and my pocket knife.
My pocket knife!
I pulled it out, opened it and used it to cut a lock of my hair that I then hung on a tree next to the well. It just felt right. It wasn't until the next day, when I purchased a small book about the history of Kildare, that I found out it couldn't have been much righter.
According to that book a couple of traditional offerings to make at that Brighid's Well are "whatever is in your pocket" or a lock of your hair. And here, lacking anything I might have thought more suitable, I'd used what was in my pocket to cut a lock of my hair.
I think about that whenever I realize I haven't been listening to my inner voice like I should.