Imbolc: Return of Brigit's Fire

Full Moon Ritual
Imbolc: Return of Brigit's Fire
January 26, 2002
by P.Althouse and C.Clarenbach

Intent:
This is the full moon close to Imbolc, and so this service will be about the returning of the light to the earth, via Brigid.

Follow up:

In Service:
Invoking Priestess
Brigid's Priestess
Three element callers: Sky, Ocean, Earth
Fire tender
Coordinator: will be in communication with Invoking Priestess and in charge of cueing choir, drummers, and traffic flow.
Stone Singers Choir
Drummers: one djembe one junjun

Intent:
This is the full moon close to Imbolc, and so this service will be about the returning of the light to the earth, via Brigid.

Equipment:
Wrought iron Candelabra with red candles
Wok on Stand, with embers inside
Small cauldron, for people to pitch resin into
Resin incense to flavor the fire in the cauldron
Long sticks for fire-tender to use for lighting candles
Colored candles for each Element caller (white, blue, green)
Red candle for each ritual team member and celebrant
Bus pan with sand to hold candles upright. It may be inside a container filled with water.
Basket to hold the candles
Red altar cloth
Sword or knife

Ritual Setup:
Altar: Red cloth covering, sword or knife, candelabra (pre-lit), bus pan, and bowl of water.

Lights are out.

Element callers (each with his or her lit candle), fire tender, choir and drummers all begin In place in the circle. Element callers form a triangle around the space for ritual. Sky Element (white candle) is in the southeast corner. Ocean element (blue candle) is in the southwest corner. Earth element (green candle) is in the north area. Cauldron (with embers) is in the south. The small cauldron is in front of it. The fire tender, with his basket of red candles and fire implements, is by the cauldron. Drummers are on the south side. Choir is on the north side, unless they are integrated into other cast roles.

Ritual:
Choir sings "Invocation":
"Sing, with my voice. Play with my hands. Let the way be open.
Sing, with my voice. Play with my hands. Let the way be open.
Sing, with my voice. Play with my hands. Let the way be open.
I sing for the Stones, I sing for the Land.
I sing for the Stones, I sing for the Land.
I sing for the Stones, I sing for the Land.
Let the Way be Open."

Brigid's Priestess gives out a small portion of resin to each person. As she does this, signal drums to start, very softly.

Invoking Priestess:
"Now is the time of year when the process of planting begins. I know that it may not look like it. But the expansiveness of the season is already in motion. Farmers repair equipment and plan what they will grow. It is the season of lambing, when some of the first new life comes into being. You have been through the contemplative time in the heart of dark days, the time of the Dark Night of the Soul when the earth is still and we are confronted with the darkness of our own hearts, the necessary dark that comes before the breakthroughs of birth and dramatic transformation."
(pause)
"Now is time to nurture new growth, make new magic, and expand your awareness. Now is the time of year claimed by the Goddess Brigid. She embodies the everlasting embers that survive the dark nights and ignite the new day's flame. We who live with electricity forget the importance of the fire tender and the embers that he or she nurses."

Sky puts out white candle.

Invoking Priestess:
"We forget the power of the dark, and the importance of keeping a hearth that is never cold."

Ocean puts out blue candle.

Invoking Priestess:
"We don't take time to let our lives ebb with the light, and learn the lessons that quiet and inactivity teach."

Earth puts out green candle.

Invoking Priestess:
"Take some time, now, and contemplate the darkness. Where has your journey into the darkness taken you...what have you found there...what senses have been strengthened by the journey?"

Brigid's Priestess puts out candelabra. (pause)

Cue drum accompaniment for "I am the fire". This should not be loud, but meditative.

Wait a few moments.

Invoking Priestess:
"And through the darkness, the embers continue."
(pause)
"Then, when the darkness is at its most difficult and terrible, when the thickness and heaviness of darkness is unbearable, when the cold Aloneness rears up out of darkness to confront you with a self-reflecting mirror--magic happens, and the light, the heat, the fire, returns."

Fire tender lights stick with embers and hands it to Brigid's Priestess. She will re-light the candelabra and then go to each Element to re-light their candles.

Invoking Priestess:
"Life begins its cycle anew. This return is a mystery, a gift."
(pause)
"Your personal growth also begins anew. What will be your growth this season? What seeds have you planted? What do you see in your own heart?"
(pause)
"These thoughts you may seal in the resin in your hand. It will carry your seeds of growth onward. To the Goddess. To Brigid."

After some meditation time, Coordinator takes up knife and casts circle in silence to the drumbeats.

When circle is cast, drums stop.

Sky:
"Brigid, Goddess of Knowledge, our voices echo the song.
Sound the rhythm poetic! Your mysteries sweeten our tongue.
Now, as bards raise their voices, and drummers beat cadence ornate,
Brigid, also a poet, please speak now the verse of our fate!"

Ocean:
"Brigid, Goddess of Smithing, your flames on the water will show
Opposites coming together, in union the magic will flow!
As hammer rains blows on the anvil, the will of the shaper creates,
Brigid, worker of paradox, forge our pieces in one whole innate!"

Earth:
"Brigid, Goddess of Healing, here where king mates with the land,
Your people and earth suffer sickness.rest on them your healing hand!
The flora and fauna reflect you with whom beauty and function belong:
Brigid, Keeper of ancestors, make our lives and our stories live strong!"

Goddess Brigid is invoked:

Invoking Priestess: (Calls down the Goddess Brigid on Her Priestess)
"Lady! From winter's dark, Star of Imbolc, rise!
Dance across our threshold,
Scattering warm laughter, seeds of hospitality, tolerance, forgiveness!
Return again to the Folk; You, the Spring we yearn for!"

Brigid's Priestess:
"I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the vulture upon the rocks,
I am the fairest of plants,
I am the wild boar in valor,
I am a salmon in the water,
I am a word of knowledge,
I am the point of the lance of battle,
I am the Goddess who created the fire in the head!"

Invoking Priestess:
"Lady! Bearer of springtime's promise, I, _____ , daughter of the Lord and Lady, ask you to bless the Folk gathered here tonight seeking inspiration."

Brigid's Priestess:
"May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine upon you and warm your heart till it glows
Like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and be warm at it,
As well as your friend.
May the light shine out of the eyes of you,
Like a candle set in the windows of a house,
Bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.
May the blessing of the rain be on you, the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up,
And shed their sweetness on the air.
May the blessing of the great rains be on you.
May they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean,
And leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines.
May the blessing of the earth be on you, the great round earth.
May you ever have a kindly greeting from them you pass as you go along the roads.
May the earth be soft under you when you rest upon it,
Tired at the end of a day,
And may it rest easy over you when, at the last, you lie out under it."

Coordinator cues drummers and choir to begin "Bringing in the Light."
"Bringin’ in the light
Pushin’ out the darkness
Bringin’ in the light where the darkness dwells."
(repeat)

Invoking Priestess encourages all celebrants to go to the small cauldron and pitch their resin into it. The fire tender will light a candle from the ember-filled wok with a taper, and hand it to the celebrant. The Elements will also get in on the act, to prompt the celebrants, and pitch their own resin. Fire tender gets his candle last.

When everyone has a candle (except drummers. I can't think of a way for them to pitch resin, get a candle, and drum at the same time) and has returned to their place in the circle, and after a pause to sing and reflect, Coordinator will cue choir to cut out. The drums continue with a plain heartbeat rhythm.

Invoking Priestess speaks about the blessing of hearth -- for individuals and for the Community. How hearth brings individuals together to combine their lights into a greater whole…Let the candles shine brightly as the blessings we have each received and continue to receive, for ourselves, our families, and our communities...etc.

Invoking Priestess: (goes to the wok)
"As I save this fire tonight,
even so may the Gods save me.
On the top of our homes let the Great Mother—
let Brigid in its middle be,
Let nine of the mightiest heroes
round the ancestral hall of Kings and Queens
Protect our homes and kin,
till the dawn of the day shall be.
Hail, and farewell!"

Drummers begin a banishing rhythm. Brigid's Priestess leaves.

Ritual team (except Brigid's Priestess) will lay out food and drink. People are encouraged to come and get food -- and to put their candles into the sand as an emblem of all Bridget's blessings brought together for the community. The Fire Tender has the responsibility to move the embers outside (he can recruit helpers if needed) and pitch the resin from the small cauldron into the embers. The embers will be left to burn for a time outside.

Drummers will continue banishing rhythm until Coordinator feels that the energies are dispelled and signals them to stop