Category — Personal
Compliments of the season!
December 18, 2014 Comments Off on Compliments of the season!
& Well Goddess: 1st February">Celebrating Brigit/Bride’s Day, Fire & Well Goddess: 1st February
This website is dedicated to Brigit.
We honour Her and What She Signifies, The Healing of Our World
Last night, on the 31st January, the Eve of Brigit’s Day, I moved into action, re-invigorating a very ancient tradition of honoring the ancient ‘Celtic’ fire Goddess Brigit: Her name may be spelt variously, especially as regards the use of ‘d’ or ”t’ (Brigid/Brigit), which are very closely linked. She is also endearingly known as Bride and Bridey–thus Brides’ Well or Brideswell–the name of my husband’s and my website: www.brideswell.com–signifying MUCH! The Goddess of Healing, Poetry and Birthing, is very well-connected (smile!)–as the many wells, especially in Ireland, contest.
In years gone by, my pal Kathy Jones (of Glastonbury UK Goddess Conference fame) and I, amongst others, revived the tradition of creating Bridey Dolls, birthing a yearly Bridey, appreciated through the year and beyond. So I too birthed a Bridey last night, attached my special California wand (normally it should be of some tree or bush that starts with a ‘b’), and swaddled her in an ornate Moroccan travelling pouch left by my old Wise Crone Café pal, Margaret Kimber. I stood at the door and knocked thrice, and each time my savvy goddess-wise husband (whose surname is that of the Great Goddess of the Trackways, Elen) correctly called out “Enter Bridey!” She entered our home officially and lives with us now, bringing Her Blessings. Tonight She will eat with us–’poundies’ (potatoes), eggs and lots of butter and cream–as milk and butter are especially associated with her. Her blessings on our house will be many, as She is a benevolent, healing Presence to a household who honours Her.
And for the first time I created a Brigit ‘brat‘ (wait for it!): I placed a piece of unwashed cloth, a white (milk-colour) handmade shawl brought back from the recent 9th World Wilderness Congress in the Yucatan, out in our garden, as it is said that Brigit will come by and turn it into a magic cloth. The full moon had risen (in Leo, my sun sign!), flooding the garden with clear and silvery enchantment; I placed the shawl on a prolific rosemary bush (associated with The Feminine, as Sage is with The Masculine). This morning, covered with dew and a dusting of silvery frost, I brought it it. It is now a healing blanket to be carried Where Need Be.
Brigit’s Time–Imbolc–heralds the coming of spring, when wee lambs start to appear in the hills and dales of this Magical Island of Britain, when ewes’ milk pours forth, a by-product of which can be a lovely cheese!
My husband and I often visit our favourite local ‘holy well’ in yes, Holywell (near St Ives, Cambridgeshire). From being an overgrown bramble infested site some years ago, it’s been restored and cared for (THE GREAT RETURNING has its own natural momentum). Once there were many such such ‘holy wells’–too many have been sealed up or forgotten. They marked healing springs, where in olden times people would tie bits of cloth and other items on branches of trees and bushes nearby, as an indication of prayer for some healing necessity. There are still a few of these in Scotland and Cornwall. Most such wells and springs would have had some linked association with Brigit or a form of Brigit, often transposed onto some Christian saintly figure (males or female). Thus the ‘pagan’ Brigit became St Brigit, and Long May She Live in whatever form She chooses to take through these difficult times, when we sorely need Her Healing Touch.
Hail Brigit!
There are many celebrations in honour of Brigit…as The GREAT RETURNING gets underway. As well as in Glastonbury (where the Goddess Tradition is alive and well!), back in my ‘home town’ of London, Ontario (Canada), The Circle up at Brescia College (at my old Alma Mater, University of Western Ontario) is sponsoring a Brigid (Brighid) Festival from 19–21 February: “Entering the Matrix…Being Betwixt and Between”, featuring the Irish scholar Mary Condren: “It will be a weekend of ritual, learning, community, art, movement, workshops and exploration as we reclaim the ancient female wisdom traditions of Old Europe through the figure of Brighid: http://www.brescia.uwo.ca/thecircle/brigit.htm; Contact: The Circle circle@uwo.ca “. My good goddess-pal Penn Kemp, with whom I have facilitated a Great Returning workshop last autumn in London, is also one of the workshop facilitators.
February 1, 2010 Comments Off on Celebrating Brigit/Bride’s Day, Fire & Well Goddess: 1st February
In Memoriam: Florence Boyd-Graham
The Passing of a Grand Woman
Florence Boyd-Graham: Dec 22, 1913 — Nov 24, 2009
Florence was born in Toronto into the era of the First World War, lived through The Great Depression, and with her husband, Lt Cdr William A. Graham (RCN, RN, RCNR) and four (soon five) children, survived the Second World War in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The family moved back to Toronto, did another NS stint followed by over 50 years based in Oakridge Acres, London. Losing her mother Nell at age 15 impacted her greatly: she dedicated herself to mothering, followed by first class grand and great-grand-mothering.
Having seen her children through the various levels of higher education, she returned to University (the University of Western Ontario) herself in her late 70s, graduating with a BA/Hons BA (but did an equivalent of an MA) in Philosophy. During these years, she worked in Veterans Affairs, was a member of the United Church, the Unitarian Fellowship (a dedicated choir member in both), and the Albert Schweitzer Society, followed by the Raging Grannies (add ‘Reveling,’ she always said) who sing protest songs for good causes.
On the environmental front, in 1962 she brought home Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, got involved in ‘Pollution Probe’ and The Coop Store. An active member of CFUW and the Oakridge Ratepayers Association, she never ceased doing public service.
She travelled widely to visit her children far and wide, and became a fond supporter of The Findhorn Community in NE Scotland (where she visited eight times).
Her favourite gatherings were her local weekly ‘coffee group’ with dear friends Pat Dinsmore and the late Evelyn March, her monthly book club with David Smith and friends—and of course good-spirited bridge parties!
Florence was, in essence, a grassroots philosopher who spoke her mind, whose search for ‘truth’ was unstinting. Her interests were both wide-ranging and breathtaking. Our family home, ‘540’, was virtually an Open House for over 50 years, featuring notable parties, workshops and late night sessions. She brought the World into the Canadian suburbs and turned her backyard into a woodland wildlife haven. She represented the best Canada can boast of: A Grand Woman—not a ‘lady’, she said, that smacked too much of ‘the aristocratic’.
Our world is less without her physical presence, but indeed, she walks tall amongst us in the best of Canadian life, what made us Canada from 1913–2009, and through her surviving children, Robert, Joan, Leona and Ralph—her darling youngest son Ian passed away in 2005—and finally through her grand-children Laura, John, Bruce, Nathalie, Kim-Ellen, Lila, Alex, Lara and Danny; and her great-grandchildren Gabriella, Garrett, Sean, Geordy and Charlton.
Fly high and free ‘Sophia’-Florence, as you travel the heights with Socrates and Plato—and of course, the Great Sappho.
A memorial service was held at Mt Pleasant Chapel on Friday December 4 from 1–2pm (see programme below).
Main photo courtesy of the London Free Press
November 29, 2009 Comments Off on In Memoriam: Florence Boyd-Graham