a while back i started working with brigid. she kind of came to me out of nowhere and it was a bit surprising. i think she may saved my life though
i did a ritual years ago, like junior year of college, where i first ran into her. it was her sabat and i was having a lot of feelings. i was trying out more formal circle casting back then, so i cast a circle and invited her and a few others i was interested in at the time (i think green man and lilith mostly). i mostly just ranted, cried a little, but it was super cathartic. i didn't feel her again after that for a super long time.
not too long after moving back to the state i'm in now, i started feeling a presence again. i'd worked with green man the most by far, including a little right before the move. this did not feel like him. my mind kept going back to that time in college. at first i was thinking of a couple of other deities it maybe could have been, but they didn't seem right when i looked up who they were just from remembering their names.
then i realized it was definitely brigid, actually not long after her sabat this time too! good timing
brigid is an old irish pagan goddess. she's a triple goddess, representing the fires of passion, the forge, and the hearth (or something along those lines)
i remember reading up on her and running into a blog post by a woman who had been working with brigid for years. she said that brigid's forge tends to strengthen people, but it isn't always the pleasant experience you imagine going in; sometimes you really have to go into the fire and be reshaped. you might go through a lot of shit with brigid, but she'll help guide you through, stronger on the other side.
i definitely didn't expect to go through so much working with her. i had just been through a gauntlet of a couple years, almost fatally miserable. i thought she would lead me through the rebuilding of myself after that. instead, i went through worse and in a shorter period of time. truly going through the flames.
i'm really grateful for it though, she definitely saw me through it. i almost always felt that she had my back. she also came in just before shit really started hitting the fan, gave my life a new infusion of meaning and romance before getting to work. that honestly got me on my feet enough to make it through.
a friend gave me some tea that carried a special meaning to them. it was grown on a mountainside their grandfather grew up on, and generations of his family before him. it comes as loose flowers and stems instead of a teabag, and you just dump them into a boiling pot of water. i got it around the same time i started working with brigid, and making it was very evokative and witchy feeling, perfect for use in a practice. i would make a cup of the tea with milk and honey, then go out to my back porch. i'd pour a little over the railing into the grass as an offering for brigid. then i'd sit, sip the rest, and chat with her. i eventually looked up what brigid liked historically, and saw a lot about tea, milk, and honey! perfect
now, i feel like brigid is moving on. honestly, i felt that start a while back. i think she came in to help prep me for what was coming, and stayed long enough to see that i could get through it on my own. kinda like a parent pushing a kid on a bike without training wheels for the first time. they follow behind with their hands close by to catch their child if they start to tip over. gradually they pull their hands back, cautiously. when they're sure the child is balancing properly, they stop running with the bike and watch. brigid was active with me for as long as i needed her to be, then she cautiously let my prove myself, my own balance. i kinda feel her still there in the background, checking in from time to time. kinda like green man did for a while.
thank you brigid for all you've done for me. you came in early to help me prepare for hard times coming over the horizon, and supported me until you saw i could hold my own. i feel stronger, more capable because you helped me get back on my feet