Blessed Imbolc to everyone! May the hope of the increasing sun inspire and sustain you. This blog post includes a link to our February charity, Brigit’s Basket Food Drive for Food Bank of the Rockies. 

For many people Imbolc is dedicated to Brigit, either as saint or Goddess. In Ireland this is called Lá Fhéile Bride and is an official national holiday, a "Bank Holiday," along with Bealtaine, Lúnasa, and Samhain! For our circle, this is the month of our Brigit’s Basket Food Drive.

Brigit appears throughout the Irish manuscripts in many ways. Sometimes She appears as a triple figure, or more than one triad. In some stories Brigit is the name of a mother and a daughter both. Daughter of An Dagda, wife of Bres, mother of Ruadan; She invented the keening, caointeoireacht (kween TOR ucht) over the dead out of Her grief for the death Her son. 

From "Cormac's Glossary" we read: "Brigit, i.e., a poetess, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigit the female sage, or woman of wisdom, i.e., Brigit the goddess whom poets adored, because very great and very famous was her protecting care. It is therefore they call her goddess of poets, by this name. Whose sisters were Brigit the female physician (woman of leech craft), Brigit the female smith (woman of smith work), from whose names with all Irishmen a goddess was called Brigit."

In modern Pagan practice Brigit is still a source of inspiration. She is called on for abundance, mercy, guidance. She stands for the strength of the blacksmith, the inspiration for the poet, the green energy of the healer. Her appeal is so vast it can seem almost universal. She moves so many of us. 

She appears in some of the texts as "Brig Ambue" or Brigit the cowless, the impoverished, the disinherited. In particular, this is how She is identified in references to a missing law text that seems to have focused on judgements concerning the most vulnerable and least empowered of Irish society, especially women. 

It's not clear whether this Brig was Herself dispossessed, or if this Brigit was a member of the highest class, a well-positioned judge whose judgments set compassionate precedents grounded in Irish law and culture that elevated the status and well being of those who needed that most. 

I love it that this aspect of Brigit combines compassion and judgement. The DCWC Triad for Right Judgement is Just, Discerning, Wholesome. As Pagans we claim the power of judgement and also the power of balance. We value not only compassion, but practicality, and cleverness. What a judge She must have been! I wish we still had access to the law texts attributed to Her. 

When it comes to charity, there is no question that giving is good, but most us wonder how and when to give in order to do the most good, and if possible to not only support our neighbors in trouble but help solve the problems that threaten them. 

It is this consideration that draws so many hearts to Her and it is Her compassion and good judgement that makes it so easy to organize our annual Food Bank of the Rockies drive in Her name. 

And we're doing that again, this year! I'm so grateful that we are a bit past the worst and most frightening moments of the last three years. There has been so much death, uncertainty, and fear. We lived through the terrifying daily sight of red skies due to wild fires, through empty shelves, and closing businesses. Homelessness is always an awful prospect but suddenly it seemed that there were many hundreds more of our neighbors moved out of housing and into cold tents on the sidewalks and in parking lots. They say that for every single death there are nine significant mourners, and that we saw over one million excess deaths due to COVID-19. That's a lot of grief for us to be holding together. That's more than any one of us can mend back together.

For myself, as a person with an invisible vulnerability to COVID-19, the isolation was cuttingly cruel, and the world seemed so different whenever I ventured out in my car and got a glimpse of my community. It's a little less that way now. 

In the same way that every day from Winter Solstice to Brigit's Day gets a little brighter and a little longer, while still being cold, and wintery, it seems like we are getting a little bit better ourselves. We have vaccines. We have sanctioned homeless campsites. More people have found apartments and jobs. It's still scary. There are signs everywhere that our world has been disrupted and it hasn't smoothed out quite yet. 

My own circle has moved from being online as a crisis reaction to staying online as a great way to connect and to teach. I can see advantages and strategies where I previously only saw problems and responses. I can still be in danger, and not be in crisis. 

And that's where timing comes in. Every year we organize our drive for Food Bank of the Rockies in partnership with Spiritways Metaphysical and an online donation link - in February. It's after the first of the year that the big holiday bills come in, and in many cases this is the time of year when people who have lost their jobs are trying to make ends meet while they look for work. These are the weeks before that tax refund comes back. This is the time when a little boost can keep a family going. 

And this is when you can find the Druidry Centered Women's Circle's fundraiser with Food Bank of the Rockies and Spiritways Metaphysical. Click on the link below and know that every $1 you donate provides 3 meals! For just $5 you feed 15 people. It's such an incredibly powerful and effective way to change the world!

This is the best time to make a difference, to keep our neighbors going during the toughest months. Together we give them a little bit more light every day.

Thank you for your donation

 https://ignite.foodbankrockies.org/DCWC 

Peace of the mountains to you, 

Paulie Rainbow

Founder: Druidry Centered Women's Circle