POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Let the crystals fall
To add form to the light…
Thru the white I will see
The single star that calls to me…
The waxing moon falls away so that I may live
Free to stumble
Free to fly with my snow angel
Listening, waiting, willing
The sap to rise
~hag
Opening the way for Brigid, the Celtic Alchemical Triple Goddess of the 4 fires & the purifying waters which gives birth to healing.
A long time ago, nigh the beginning, near the waters of a sacred well, at the first crack of alabaster in the young morning at the Cross-Quarter time between Winter & Spring, there at the very threshold – the goddess Brigid slipped into the world, & the waters of the earth rippled with joy.
Up rose a column of fire – out of the head of She – burning clear to the very sky. ‘Ha’, She laughed, reaching up to break away a flaming plume from her crown; dropping it on the ground before Her. There it leapt & shone, creating a blazing hearth.
Then from the fire of her hearth, Brigid used both hands to draw out a leaping tongue of heat, swallowed it, & felt the fire burn straight to her heart. There stood the goddess, fire crowning her head, fire leaping inside her heart, glowing & shooting from her hands, & dancing on the smoldering hearth before her.
The waters of the sacred well quickened as Brigid built a chimney of brick about her hearth. Then she formed a roof of thatch & walls of stone. And so it was that by the waters of the sacred well the goddess built the forge in which she keeps the 4 fires which have served the world evermore.
Out of the fire in Brigid’s hands baked the craft of bending iron. Out of the fire on Brigid’s hearth & the waters of her sacred well came the healing potions, teas, & tinctures. Out of the fire in Brigid’s head flared out writing & poetry. Out of the fire in Brigid’s heart spread the warmth of compassion.
Word of the gifts of Brigid’s fire traveled deep & wide. People flocked to learn from Brigid the secret of using fire to soften iron & bend it to the shape of their will. The people called it smithcraft, & made wheels, pots, & tools that did not break.
All the medicine plants of the earth were gathered & brought to the house of the goddess. With their leaves, flowers, bark, & roots, they offered themselves to the waters of her sacred well. Brigid made healing brews. She gave a boy with weak teeth an infusion of the dandelion root. She gave a young woman the decoction of raspberry leaf to help her womb carry a child. An old bent man, took from Brigid wintergreen bark for his ache & black cherry juice for the gout. She gave comfrey to a girl with a broken leg & blue cohosh to another to bring her moon-blood without pain. Brigid infused motherwort, licorice root, & dried parsley for a woman who was becoming a crone. “Cup a day,” said Brigid, “that you stay supple & strong.”
The people were healed & wanted Brigid’s recipes. “But we can’t remember which plants for which healings, where to gather them or how long to steep them,” they told Brigid.
The fire on Bridget’s head blazed bright. She took up a blackened stick & made marks with it on a flat piece of bark. “These are the talking marks,” She said. “They are the way to remember what you don’t want to forget.”
The talking marks also let the people write down the stories of her wisdom. Here is one that fits for us today:
Once 2 men, came to Brigid, both had a terrible case of leprosy.
“Bathe yourself in my well.” said Brigid to the 1st man. And so it was that at every place the healing waters touched, the man’s skin turned whole again.
“Now bathe your friend,” said Brigid.
Repulsed, the man backed away from his friend. “I won’t touch him,” he said.
“Then you are not truly healed,” said the goddess. With that truth revealed, the 1st man’s leprosy returned & the goddess herself bathed & healed the 2nd man.
“Return to me with compassion,” she said to the 1st man. “There find your healing.”
The folk hold the wisdom of the goddess close; & every year on Imbolc they thank Brigid for her well of wisdom & her fires of hand, hearth, head & heart.
Brigid is a Triple goddess holding the archetype of the Maiden, Mother & Crone. In her maiden aspect, she is said to charm new life into the cold heart of Winter, with her white birch wand, to help him open his eyes to the promise of Spring. Imbolc literally means ‘in the belly’ it is the lambing season after all, when the milk begins to flow, this is Her Mother aspect.
This is traditionally a time of purification – a time of re-dedication – of initiation, when the power of the Wise Crone comes to bear. So start by cleaning your house! Brigid will thank you for it. And if you have any Christmas greenery lingering, burn it now. And bathe with warm milk for health & beauty, setting aside a time to reflect on what you will renew.
Meditate upon what you would like to see grow in health & strength this year: for yourself, your family, your community, the Earth, & ask for Bride’s blessing upon your prayers.
Make your own Brigid Cross, a fiery sun-wheel & hang it up, especially in the kitchen where her influence can bless your food.
Give an offering: cake, buttered bread & milk will do — outside your door: Brigid & her cow are said to walk through the neighborhood tonight. In the city it is proper to give food to the homeless.
Leave a red silk ribbon on your doorstep for Brigid to bless: It can then be used for healing purposes. When I was a wee girl whenever we would skin our knee, or some such, my ma would say, ‘Go, fetch Brigid’s ribbon’. Then she would wrap it gently round the booboo – lo & behold – it would be all better!
When my daughter was young, we would gather with other Waldorf families to honor & explore the power of the Triple Goddess within us, through storytelling, crafting fiery Sun-Wheel’s around the fire, sharing a potluck meal, & making a scavenger hunt in the woods.
Can you feel the earth quickening? This is a magical time, when the sap begins to rise & the waters start to flow. While frost still bites & winds still blow, the light is growing stronger, & life begins to wake. It is the time of year when the belly of the great mother quickens with the growing light, for this is the feast of Brigid – the midwife of the New Year ‘s Sun. Through the union of fire & water, we can work with the elementals to call in the Spring.
Thank you, Brigid, for the smith-craft of your forge, the soothing healing teas, the talking marks, & for the warmth of compassion. May we use it wisely to prepare for growth & renewal, performing the ancient rituals of spring cleaning, purifying & anointing the body electric, awakening the spirit within…
A time of spiritual re-dedication, of self-blessing & initiation, of affirming & energizing creative work…
A time of blessing the seeds & consecrating the garden tools…
A time to purify & get fertile, so let’s charm the plow, & kiss the candle, to re-kindle, a need-fire, as a welcoming beacon, to call back, our dormant power, to heat up, our potential, & re-seed our creativity. As we add fuel to the fire of our community, one spark warms us all, a purifying fire, that burns clean & opens the way to the true power of love & light from deep within us all…
I will kick off the Prep-makers conference at Michael Fields Institute tonight with a ‘Candlemas’ offering to begin our work of forging tools to bring the Cosmic Light into the Earth.
After some leading thoughts we will gather in Triad Groups to do Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Seed Exercise’ from How to Know Higher Worlds.
- Describe, precisely what you see
- Picture clearly, that the plant will grow out of this seed
- Reflect: light & earth will entice this plant out of the live seed (out of the ‘artificial’ seed nothing alive will grow)
- Think how something invisible is hidden in the seed.
- Concentrate on this “invisible something”.
- Ponder how the invisible will become visible. Feel intently as well as think on it. Let it be planted deep into the soul!
- An inner force will be felt eventually. A luminous cloud seen. Colors like lilac & blue. The physically invisible reveals itself. (Many cautions) No reverie – sobriety. Control.
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30 January 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Gemini twins lie on their sides on January evenings, left of Orion. Castor & Pollux, are farthest from Orion, one over the other. Castor is the top one, with his feet just left of Orion’s very Club. Far below that spot shines Procyon.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
516 BCE – The Second Temple of Jerusalem finishes construction
1128 – Birthday of Alanus ab Insulis, Teacher at Chartres. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in many of his Karmic relationships lectures.
1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.
1882 – Birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt, American lawyer and politician, 32nd President of the United States
1889 – Deathday of Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling. From the research of Rudolf Steiner we hear about this suicide as being a karmic consequence of his life as Nero.
1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 10,500 people
1948 – Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. A year earlier on this same date, W.J. Stein sent him Steiner’s Threefold Social Order
1956 – Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1969 – The Beatles’ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
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