Exploring Celtic Spirituality - Brigid &
Imbolc, 2013
A Series of Classes and Ceremonies
Celebrating the Celtic Wheel of the Year
with Edie Stone, MA
2027 Broadway, Suite H,
Boulder, Colorado 80302
303-415-3755
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main Exploring Celtic Spirituality page and current events.
Edie's
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Read article from the Daily Camera
Read article from The
Celtic Connection
By Susanne Iles, Irish
Symbolist Artist and Writer ©2008
Explore her art and writing at susanneiles.com
We can all receive the Flame of Brigid in our
hearts.
-
Imbolc on the Labyrinth
- Celebrate Brigid, timeless Celtic
goddess and beloved Irish saint.
- Saturday, February 2, 2013.
2 to 4 pm.
- Celebrate the beauty, inspiration,
and healing energy of Brigid
- Receive a small candle infused with the Flame of Brigid,
and a blessing from her well
- Walk the lovely 11-circuit labyrinth in quiet
contemplation
- Celebrate the Rebirth of Spring in the Celtic calendar!
- By donation
- $10 to $25 appreciated (no one turned away for lack
of funds)
- RSVP: 303-415-3755 or
rsvp@ediestone.com
- Plenty of space, but I need to know how many candles we
need
- LOCATION: First
United Methodist Church of Boulder
- 1421 Spruce Street, Boulder, CO 80302.
- Labyrinth is in basement. Handicapped accessible.
- Directions
and Parking
Come join us in celebration of the beauty,
inspiration, and healing energy of Brigid -- Brigid who is an
ancient and timeless triune goddess of the Celtic spirit, and
Brigid, who is the beloved saint of Ireland and Scotland.
In our ceremony, we will have an opportunity to
walk the lovely 11-circuit labyrinth in quiet contemplation.
We will also share stories, music, and poetry inspired by
Brigid. All participants will have an opportunity to receive a
small candle infused with the Flame of Brigid, and a blessing
from her healing well.
The qualities and symbolism of goddess and saint overlap and
merge in a lovely way, making it difficult to tell where the
myth of one ends and the legends of the other begins.
Check out the article that appeared in the Boulder Daily
Camera, Saturday, January 23, 2010, about our Imbolc
celebration!
http://www.dailycamera.com/archivesearch/ci_14248469
Text of the article is copied below.
See my new article, Discovering
Brigid, below.
Well of St. Brigid in Kildare,
Ireland
NOTE: Be sure to bring warm socks, or enjoy going barefoot on
the Labyrinth. They will have some booties to cover shoes, if
you need shoes. (The floor can be slippery in socks.) We must do
everything we can to preserve the labyrinth, which is in
delicate condition.
The church has an elevator to the basement, and is handicapped
accessible.
The parking lot behind the church is available for Sunday (not
for weekdays, however).
EVENT DETAILS
EVENT:
Imbolc: The Festival Of Brigid, Celtic Goddess and
Saint
TIME:
Saturday,
February 2, 2013 -- 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
LOCATION:
Labyrinth Room
in the First United Methodist Church, downstairs, 1421 Spruce
Street, Boulder, CO 80302. Church is handicapped accessible.
DIRECTIONS:
NE corner of 14th and
Spruce. Spruce is one-way going west in the downtown loop.
Park on the street or in the city garage on 15th Street
between Pearl and Spruce. Free parking on Sunday. Or park
in the lot behind the church, at 15th and Pine, also free
on Sunday.
COST:
Open to all. Donation
of $10 to $25 appreciated, if you have the ability to give. No
one turned away for lack of funds.
RESERVATIONS:
Please RSVP if
possible. Plenty of room, but I need to know how many candles
to bring.
Edie
Stone, 303-415-3755, rsvp@ediestone.com
Return
to
main Exploring Celtic Spirituality page and current
events.
Edie's main page,
www.ediestone.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Perpetual Flame of Brigid which was
relit in Kildare, Ireland.
Source: See kildare.ie
for history of the Flame.
Flamekeepers of Brigid
Who are the
Flamekeepers?
The original fire of Brigid was probably a druidic
fire dedicated to the goddess. At Kildare, the legend is
that St. Brigid lit a fire, which was tended by 19 sisters
and on the 20th night by Herself. After her death, the 19
sisters kept a perpetual fire at the abbey, still leaving
the 20th night to be tended by Brigid in spirit. The fire
was tended by the nuns for centuries, but was eventually
extinguished by the English during the Reformation.
Each rotation is 20 days long, each keeper takes one of 19
shifts. The twentieth night is Brigid's. A keeper's shift
begins at sunset and continues until sunset the next day.
Keepers can begin their shifts by lighting a candle or lamp
while saying a prayer, invocation, or chant to Brigid.
During a shift, the keeper tends Brigid's flame physically,
symbolically, or both.
(Flamekeeper info quoted in part from cauldroncill.ecauldron.net
)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Links:
http://www.dailycamera.com/archivesearch/ci_14248469
Celtic celebration honors spiritual woman of mystery,
history
Megan Quinn, For the Camera
Posted: 01/23/2010 12:04:44 AM
MST
Celtic goddess and Catholic
saint Brigid carries a sense of mysticism in two seemingly
different but intimately connected traditions.
Edie Stone, who has been
organizing Celtic festivals in Boulder since the early 90's,
hopes to shed light on Brigid and Imbolc, her upcoming Celtic
celebration. The holiday honors Brigid, a woman with dual
identities as a Catholic saint and a pagan goddess of healing
and poetry. The Imbolc celebration takes place 3 p.m. Sunday,
Jan. 31 (Note: that was
2010! Current event is 2:00 to 3:30 pm, Feb. 2, 2013) at
the First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce Street.
Brigid is a dynamic symbol
because of her multiple identities, Stone said.
"The qualities and symbolism
of goddess and saint overlap and merge in a lovely way, making
it difficult to tell where the myth of one ends and the
legends of the other begins," she said.
The celebration, which is open
to the public, will feature stories, music, and poetry
inspired by Brigid, and participants will pass around candles
that symbolize the fire that continuously burns in Kildare,
Ireland, where Saint Brigid established an abbey around the
year 470. In the Pagan tradition, Brigid's flame symbolizes
Spring's growing warmth.
"There's a lot of crossover
when it comes to Brigid in the historical sense and the
mythical sense," she said.
Stone became interested in
Celtic rituals as a graduate student at Naropa in the early
90's. At first, she studied Native American traditions and
their connections to the earth. After meeting another student
who described his spiritual experiences with Celtic
traditions, Stone threw herself into learning everything about
Celtic ceremonies and their similar ties to nature. A group of
students got together and organized celebrations for each of
the four major Celtic celebrations.
"We started really getting
into it and taught each other. It was a joyful process, and we
were always discussing how we could do it so it was
interesting and exciting for people," she said.
There are four "cross-quarter"
holy days that fall in between solstice days and equinox days.
They also include Samhain or Halloween, Beltane or May Day and
Lughnasa or Lammas. Stone often holds workshops that delve
into the other three celebrations.
Stone said the First United
Methodist Church was a good place to hold the event because of
the church's large indoor labyrinth. Another part of the
ceremony will include a contemplative walk through the
labyrinth.
Labyrinths have also appeared
in both early pagan and Christian traditions, Stone said. The
winding, circular path is meant to help generate a meditative
state where people can reflect on their life and spirituality.
Julie Heins of First United
Methodist Church said the church has rented out the labyrinth
room to many organizations since it is one of the few indoor
labyrinths in Boulder.
"It's a pretty popular
spiritual practice around here," she said.
The church's large basement
labyrinth was the brainchild of former pastor Trevor Potter,
and a committee helped maintain it and integrate it into
spiritual events. In the past few years, however, the most
active users have moved away, gone back to school or joined
other churches, Heins said.
The labyrinth, open to the
public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wednesdays, it is available to people of all faith traditions,
she said.
Those interested can also walk
a few other labyrinths around Boulder. St. John's Episcopal
Church, 1419 Pine Street, has a stone labyrinth just outside
the building. Those who are looking for a nature-centered maze
can walk the gravel labyrinth behind the Boulder Public
Library. The labyrinth sits right next to Boulder Creek.
Megan Quinn writes a weekly
faith column for the Camera and can be reached at
bubblegumandbibles@gmail.com.
Return
to
main Exploring Celtic Spirituality page and current
events.
Edie's main
page, www.ediestone.com
~~~*~~~ ~~~*~~~ ~~~*~~~ ~~~*~~~ ~~~*~~~ ~~~*~~~
ARTICLE
Thanks to Pat McCullough for publishing this article in The Celtic
Connection, January 2012 edition!
You can subscribe to The Celtic Conection: 303-777-0502, celticevents@rmi.net,
or www.CelticEvents.com
Discovering
Brigid
The Sacred Faces of Brigid, Goddess
and Saint
by Edie Stone
Just as you can hardly travel a week in Ireland without discovering
that two or three of your B&B hostesses are named Brigid, so you
cannot journey very far along the paths of Celtic spirituality
without discovering Brigid, either in her historic form of St.
Brigid of Kildare, or in her mythic form as the triple goddess of
the Tuatha Dé Danann who presides over bardic poetry and
visioning, smithcraft, and the healing arts.
The qualities and symbolism of goddess and saint overlap and merge
in a lovely way, making it difficult to tell where the myths of the
one end and the legends of the other begin. Both are healers, for
example. The goddess presides over a cauldron of rebirth, and the
healing well of St. Brigid still flows at Kildare (and many other
healing wells in Ireland and Britain).
There are differences between goddess and saint, of course. While it
was Patrick who converted Ireland, it was Brigid who brought the
love of Christ into the homes and hearts of the women. St. Brigid
was known as the Midwife of Mary, and it was to her that the women
prayed in childbirth.
Both goddess and saint are associated with the transformative power
of fire – the fire of the forge, the hearth, and the sun. Brigid was
the goddess of metalworking, at a time when that art was imbued with
power and mystery. And the fire of her inspiration has burned in the
minds of bards and poets for centuries. When Brigid of Kildare was
consecrated (as a bishop!), a column of fire ascended from her head.
There was an ever-burning fire at Kildare, which was tended by the
nuns for a thousand years. This fire was relit in 1993, and in the
form of embers and candle wicks, it has spread around the world.
Circles of Flamekeepers now honor either goddess or saint or both.
Each participant tends a Flame of Brigid in a cycle of 20 days. And
on April 13, 2011, the Dalai Lama received a Flame of Brigid in
Kildare.
Note from Edie: Participants at
our Imbolc celebration on February, 2013, will each receive the
Flame of Brigid embodied in the wick of a small candle.
There will also be a meeting in
February for anyone interested in becoming a Flamekeeper of
Brigid.
Time TBA.
Return
to
main Exploring Celtic Spirituality page and current
events.
Edie's main page,
www.ediestone.com