Brighid
Our Lady of The Flame
and
Fire Dancing

Over the years, I have sought out my Patron/Matron deities & have been unsuccessful until recently. I myself had come to honor mainly Danu & Cernunnos I believe of my own choosing. None of the Gods had called me directly that I was aware of.

I had been following the Old Ways for quite some time & had reach a point that I felt comfortable exploring beyond my hippie lifestyle. I made some good friends online through my Tribe "The Pagan Village" & one of them invited me to a Fire Dancing Gathering being held up the road from where I grew up & was living at the time. It was called Fire Drum and was held in Pismo Beach. Being a newbie I didn ’t really know what to expect accept that my friend Bear told me I should experience Burning Man. Well Pismo was a small taste & its all I needed. At that gathering I picked up my first set of Poi & after an hour of practice breathed my first flames also the second night. Anyway the first time I spun poi (The most basic weave pattern) I went into a very powerful trance. After words I was so stunned by the experience I went & sat by the fire pit & got lost in my thoughts working out what just happened. I was staring into the fire ignoring the other fire dancers & the party going on around the pit. In the fire very clearly manifested the face of a woman made of fire. She laughed at me with what sounded like a mature older womans throaty voice (a voice I've come to know well). She said, "Seosamh! About time your bloody arse took notice of me. Why so surprise by your experience with fire. You're my child after all. I gave birth to your soul. All my children know how to use fire. Who you think been with you while dancing with the Blade & Staff all these years preparing you for this moment? (A interesting thing I learned long before I recognized Brighid as my Matron is that us Druids have long known that the blood of the Ancient (Tuatha) Ones run through our veins.) These are more or less the words she spoke and there was more but its personal. The experience lasted for several minutes. I finally shook my head got up & went back to my tent as the expereince had me too shaken to stay sitting around others.

After the Gathering I went back up on Figueroa Mountain & performed a ritual dedicating myself to Brigdet. Here is a a poem I spoke at that ritual.

First picture ever taken of me spinning Poi.
Taken at Pismo Beach, 2003

Since that night Brighid has made it very clear she's my mother & not to place any of the other gods before her. Oh I can honour the others but that she came first cause she gave birth to my soul. Over time she let me know she's always been watching over me. Telling me all her children come to her through fire. Tragedy, suffering & hardship are her forges that all her children pass through. At first I believed she was referring to me as one of her children metaphorically speaking. But no, she made it clear I was actually her child, that she had been my first mother. The one who gave birth to my soul. I have since had many mothers on my divine journey. But she was my first there fore my Mother. She taught me that we all can trace our first mother & father to what us mortals call gods. She taught me that in the beginning was Danu & Bile, The Universe's two sides. They are known by a thousand names & gave birth to all the Ancient (gods) Ones from all the known myths. The ones we call the gods are called The First Born. From them sprang many families. Brighids family begun with her father The Dagda who was one of the 3 great kings of the Tuatha whose family was named after Mother because of their great love of her. Hence the Tuatha de Danann.

Anyway as a budding Fire Dancer I am making the transformation into a stronger, wiser being. It seems only right that the Goddess of Fire should be my Matron, though I never made the Sword/Staff/Fire connection till recently since she is the Goddess of the Smithcraft as well as Fire. I guess it makes sense since she's also the Goddess of the Forge. Also in the Celtic/Druidic system it seems the element of fire is associated with the sword, not air as in Wicca. Just wanted to share that with you all.

Since my awakening has begun (thats what I like to call it) Brigidh's Imbas has been burning hot within my heart and my mind and our Lady has been opening doors to me, I've been making connections with people in both the Pagan & Artist community I otherwise would have never met had it not been for that one night on the beach in Pismo. I have projects on the horizons, a Nemeton, and a Shrine, a Homestead and Druidic school to build and a vision to fulfill.

Below are some great fire dancing links. You can find my Fire Dancing photos in my Photo Gallery. Do hope you will enjoy. I am busy writing a piece called "Fire Dancing, the Ritual of Transformation by Fire. It will have sections on "how to create a fire temple", "fire scrying", "fire breathing - "speaking the dragon's tongue" and other systems of rituals using fire. I like to point out that these are my systems. They are not ancient lore of magick given to me by Brighid, I make no claim to having access to some lost ancient lore. Rather they are modern systems come down to me from her in the form of Imbas (divine inspiration). I follow the ritual form as practice by the ADF & between their system & the Imbas from Brighid I have been slowly constructing-experimenting, creating my only modern system. Anyway enjoy and I'll try to get a piece of my magick/ritual theory up soon. So check back often.