Brigid is the FIRE THE CELTIC QUEEN THAT REIGNS IN FEBRUARY

Brigid the CELTIC QUEEN

She is of concern to the three functions respectively; first function as a poet, the second as a smith of weapons, and the third function as a healer and cunning woman, a Bean Feasa. In each of these roles, she is the fire. Among poets, she’s the fire in the head, among healers, she’s the compassion fire in the heart, and among smiths, she’s the fire in the hand. As the exalted one, she’s the fire, the briga power in the fire, which raises itself up. As the daughter of Dagda, whose many names include Aed(Fire), she is the Irish Agni which brings forth other gods, or at least skilled feats of magic in each of these three professions as Fire Tender. Dagda is Lord of Knowledge, and she gives access to it. Brighid’s popularity is due to her being a tri-functional goddess. She has a number of mystical animals and is particularly fond of animals and newborns.

Her feast day on February 1 is associated with the Irish  celebration of IMBOLC. That  feast marks the first day of Spring in Ireland and is also a day  when ewes come into their milk and baby lambs are  nourished. SO Brigid  helps new mothers  and new lives.  She is associated with fecundity and she is also  considered the patron of BARDS  and Poets and adds to their fecundity and creativity.

Her  spiritual power is divination: she has the vision to foretell future events.  For these  prophecies she sometimes relies on certain animals who were consulted by Druids to foretell the future.  We see a remnant of this belief  in the Germanic continuation of consulting animals as they leave their winter dens.. This survives in Pennsylvania in the predictions of GROUND HOG.  Phil did not his shadow this year and so  winter should abate soon.

The first days of February also play a big role in the Christian calendar.  In the Western Christian Church the date is celebrated as THE PURIFICATION   That is the day when following Jewish custom Mary brings her newborn  to the Temple 40 days after birth and herself undergoes a ritual of  cleansing after birth that enables her to return to   the Temple for prayer and services.  In the Eastern Christian tradition  the same day is  celebrated as the feast  of Mary Presenting Jesus to Simeon: bringing her first born son to the Temple in commemoration of the time when the  first born  in Egypt were  taken  by the Angel of Death.
In the Roman Catholic  calendar  it is called The Presentation of the Lord on  February 2 and also Candelmas when all the candles for the next year are  blessed.

That brings us back to Brigid's ancient  role as patroness of the returning light and of fire.  My own  mother died on the First of February and I recall that my first thought was one of wonder and pious expectation  that The Irish Celtic Goddess Queen now a Catholic Saint would escort her  devoted follower  into heaven.