This is Brigid, one of the earliest known images of her that I could find
Brigid is actually a very important triple Goddess, representing maiden, woman and crone.
She is the most important Goddess in ancient Irish religion and there are many stories about her and her role.
Unknown artist
stained glass by Mary Leen
We celebrate Brigid’s feast day, Imbolc, on February 1st. It is one of the four major Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. Imbolic is critical because it marks the welcoming of Spring.
We find Imbolc mentioned in some of the earliest surviving Irish literature and there is evidence that it has been an important festival since Paleolithic times. In fact, the inner chamber of the Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara, the spiritual heart of Ireland, is aligned with the rising sun on the dates of Imbolc and Samhain.
However, the patriarchy within the Catholic Church, fearing the fertility aspect of the rituals, as well as its empowerment of women, conscripted the festival day (as with so many ancient worship days), turning it into the festival of Saint Brigid, a Christianization of the goddess. And here she is:
The Christianized Goddess,
Saint Brigid. Lovely girl.
At Imbolc, Brigid’s crosses were woven from straw and a doll-like figure of Brigid, called a Brídeóg, would be paraded from house-to-house. Brigid was said to visit one’s home at Imbolc and thus, fires were kept burning all night to light the path.
To receive her blessings, people would make a bed for Brigid and leave her food and drink, while items of clothing would be left outside for her to bless. Brigid would then be invoked to protect homes and livestock. Special feasts were had by families and entire communities, holy wells were visited due to her extraordinary healing powers and the night time was a time for practice divination.
The Mother Goddess, in her exalted state
This is all prelude to the fact that I began my pilgrimage today.
I began it with a clear intention: to visit and honor the Goddess, dip my hands into her sacred waters and then bathe my head, anointing myself.
A kind of baptism at 61, my 7 year, in the waters found eternally bubbling up from the Goddess Brigid’s well in County Kildare.
The rain ceased just before I took this photo, leaving the air smelling unimaginably sweet, fragrant with fresh flowers.
All around me was lush greenery fed by clean, pure oxygen, nourished though total silence except for the sound of birds singing and water gently bubbling. It was peaceful and powerful. I felt myself going deep within the presence of the Divine.
And then, unbidden, a gift.
As I stood up from my ablutions within the well, a feather floated down and landed beside me.
The appearance of that feather brought tears to my eyes. I felt oddly humbled, then, deeply grateful.
It is now in my hire car, where it will travel with me across Ireland throughout this pilgrimage of healing and re-finding myself.
As is the tradition, I tied my clootie, a red silk cord in this case, onto a branch and made my invocation.
A clootie is usually a piece of cloth, dipped into the waters of the well, then tied while saying a prayer of intention, onto the branches of the Whitethorn or Ash tree which is always found growing beside a healing well. However, a clootie can also be an offering of anything one feels moved to give.
I was struck by this woman’s poem.
As I moved away from the well and began my walk out of this ancient, holy space, I stopped to take this picture of the statue of beautiful Brigid, built thoughtfully over the stream which bubbles out of the ground several yards away, rather than over, or too close to, the ancient well.
It was time to leave. Yet it was so peaceful, so sweetly fragrant, that I would have like to have stayed all day. However, please remember, the rain which had so kindly stopped was making its move to return.
So I drove into Kildare village to visit the Sheela na Gig hidden underneath the tomb of Bishop Wellesley in Saint Brigid’s Cathedral.
photo taken from a small lane behind the building and outside of the walls
This is a very unusual Catholic institution. It is said to have been erected in 523 A.D., shortly after Saint Brigid’s death. According to the Church’s version, Brigid was an Abbess who lived with a small group of nuns, practicing healing arts, in a simple wooden compound.
In her honor, they constructed this massive stone Cathedral to replace the former, simpler dwelling. For many centuries after its construction, Kildare maintained a unique Irish experiment; the Abbess ruled over a double community of women and men, and the Bishop was subordinate in jurisdiction to the Abbess. This is just not the way it is usually done.
However, what is really interesting is that in Pagan times, the enclosure which the church is now situated within was known as Brigid’s Fire Temple. The walls were at that time made of Hawthorne hedges, not stone. And yes, there were fires: fires kept lit by a small group of virgins. Not Christian nuns but Priestesses dedicated to the Goddess Brigid.
Men were not allowed within the walls of that hedge enclosure ever. It was women’s Sacred Space, pure and consecrated to the Goddess. The people respected it as such. Sadly, I am not surprised that the Church tore down the hedges and put up a stone wall, then constructed a monument to the patriarchy.
The fire pit has been restored and sits next to a round tower, the second highest one in Ireland, which was ordered by the Bishop to be built there.
This creates an interesting yin/yang or yoni/lingam type of relationship and perhaps that is what was intended. We know that the early Pagan Christian brothers in Ireland were attempting to do honor to the old ways before Rome ran amuck and began ruling with its unloving reach.
It’s worth noting that there is a very phallic neolithic round tower on the Hill of Tara itself.
In any case, it is a strange juxtaposition within the Cathedral walls, this balanced male and female energy in what was once sacred female space. I am just thankful they didn’t obliterate the sacred feminine entirely.
Moving inside the church, I had to crawl down the wall onto the cold tile floor and then lay down in order to capture this image of the Sheela na Gig hidden underneath the corner of the Bishop of Wellesley’s tomb.
Many thanks, by the way, to the kind local fellow who helped the unknown eccentric white haired woman, with her physical challenges, to get back up off the ground.
Curiously, Wellesley did not have this Sheela destroyed.
This was a rather bold move by a man of the Church because the associations with Sheela na Gig’s are very much about strong female power. They are, after all, pagan carvings of Goddess mothers spreading their vulva wide apart. Here is a better preserved one in which the details are clearer.
Perhaps the Bishop understood that through paying homage to the ancient beliefs of the local people, he might increase his Church’s membership.
I then noticed that every window in the church had a Brigid’s Cross.
And one other curious thing: this carving of a skull and crossbones. 
This is exceedingly rare to find inside a cathedral.
It was added, according to the little handwritten sign on the wall, “in 1708 to demonstrate that even in the midst of life we are also in death and no matter what we do….we will be held accountable.” An odd way to reference heaven and hell, I thought.
And then I sat in a pew and immersed myself for awhile in the beautiful interior of Saint Brigid’s Cathedral…
…gave my thanks and quietly left.
Pilgrimage begun. Blessed Be.
Below is very well researched and written link to more information on the Goddess and her traditions than I have been able to provide you. Happy reading.
http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/brigid-survival-goddess