Our Imbolc Ritual was so wonderful. We greatly deepened our awareness and our connection to Great Goddess Brigid. We brought Her energy more into our life and present phase of living.
We created our Brigid’s Crosses to keep Her energy with us in our homes for the year to come.
The land where we met was so full of the energy of Brigid. This was a deeply ancient sacred site, on the edge of beautiful Loch MacNean near Killinagh in Co. Cavan. The landform was so pervasively full of ancient high-energy sacredness. There’s a Court Tomb there and a Brigid’s Well.
There is a huge rare bullaun stone there, with nine cup marks, similar to the Cup-marked Megalithic Bohea Stone from where the Rolling Sun was anciently witnessed on Croagh Patrick on April 18th and August 24th. The energy that can be felt from this stone is very strong and immensely healing, though of course high energy can also be misused.
There’s also a ruined 6th Century St. Bridget’s Church there to over-ride and utilise the ancient Megalithic sacred energies (with two ‘pagan stones’ built into its foundations), and a graveyard dating back to the 12th Century.
A totally amazing add-on to our Imbolc ritual was our visit to a huge hidden-away very high energy Standing Stone. According to local oral tradition, this standing stone was taken to its present location by pagans at the time, when they heard that 6th Century Christian monks were heading their way, who had been over-zealous in their bloodshed and forced conversions at a similar pagan site nearby.
Importantly, according to local tradition, therefore, the Bridget site where we met for Imbolc, was the original location of this ‘pagan idol standing stone’ locally known as Crom Cruach’, which is now located in a hidden away place nearby. By amazing coincidence, Crom Cruach was the pre-Christian God of Cruachan Aigle, the older name of what is now known as Croagh Patrick Mountain. Crom Cruach was an ancient pagan deity of Harvest. He was depicted as bent over under the weight of the sheaf of the Harvest he carries.
Imbolc is the Festival of the start of Spring. Lambs are being born in the field across from our house. The earth is clearly beginning to shoot again after the coldness of winter. The Catkins are out! We brought snowdrops for the altar at our ritual and planted them on the site. Imbolc is the festival of the rising light and the rising waters. The presiding energy is that of Great Goddess Brigid of the Tuatha De Danaan, Goddess of Midwifery, childbirth, rising inspiration, poetry and smith-craft, Goddess of Healers, Poets and Smiths, Goddess of Divination and Prophecy (I drew a totally useful Tarot card), Goddess of the fairy Hollow Hills (and there are quite a number of those there). Historically her soldier followers were known as Brigands.
If you are interested, you can contact Tracey Jean Yappa, artist and craftswoman, about the group, at traceyjeanyappa8@gmail.com
And for more details of our new North West Ireland Druid Group, please see: https://www.druidforestschool.com/druid-group.html