Today's Oracle 1st May 2021

Brigit, the Snake and Fire goddess (Transformation)

The snake goddess is associated with midwifery, smithing, and the fostering of the creative arts. Her capacity for change and renewal inspires creativity in challenging situations, and enhances our capacity to meet old circumstances with renewed vision. Her qualities are imagination, intuition, and vision.

Invoking the Qualities of Imagination, Intuition, and Vision.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are attracting change and regeneration into your life. The snake goddess brings creativity and power. Domestic activities, family and friends, and circumstances close to daily activities are likely to be sources of breakthrough and insight. Old and fossilized circumstances and relationships may begin to breathe with new life, vision, and activity. Creative projects, artistic pursuits, and unexpected insights may appear in ordinary circumstances. New and creative ideas may present themselves while conversing with friends and family or while engaged in everyday activities. Now is a good time to watch for newness and allow your imagination to roam freely.

Aligned with snakes and with fire, Brigit is the guardian of transformation and change. Present in moments of creativity and vision, she presides as midwife, prophetess, and patron of the arts, especially of poetry, hospitality, healing, breast-feeding, and the brewing of beer. The young and beautiful Brigit is composed, vigorous, passionate — and usually a virgin. Her presence inspires creativity and the capacity to meet old circumstances with renewed vision.

The Goddess Brigit, who also appears in Christianity as St. Brigit, figures powerfully in the Celtic world. In many ways, Brigit is a youthful composite of all the attributes and symbols of the Celtic goddesses. Derived from the Gaelic word brig, the name Brigit means "High and Exalted One." Often appearing as three sisters, she is identified with the transforming power of the Dark Goddess herself.

Brigit's special symbols are snakes, fire, and sometimes the cow. Surrounded by snakes, Brigit remains close to the earth, lending authority to transformation and change. As a child is about to be born, the attending women intone softly to invoke her presence and assistance. In Christian legend, she is known as the midwife to Mary when she gave birth to Jesus. Aligned with the element of fire to forge and mould, Brigit also presides over the hearth of the blacksmith and over imagination, vision, and prophecy. This excerpt from a simple prayer from the Scottish Highlands invokes her to shield men and women from danger at night, inspire song, and give guidance:

"I am under the shielding of good Brigit each day
I am under the shielding of good Brigit each night
I am under the keeping Of the Nurse of Mary
Each early and late, every dark, every light
Brigit is my comrade-woman
Brigit is my maker of song
Brigit is my helping-woman,
My choicest of women, my woman of guidance."

The first of February (or the thirteenth of February by the old style) is the Feast of the Bride - Brigit - celebrating the coming of spring. Brigit, as a serpent, emerges from the brown hills and turns winter to spring. Fragments of the ancient songs still survive:

"The serpent will come from the hole On the brown Day of Bride
Though there should be three feet of snow On the flat surface of the ground."

Snakes shed their dry old skin only to grow new skin. Close to the Otherworld and its powers, Brigit's snakes signify creativity as well as caution. The presence of regeneration can transform positively or can manipulate others and circumstances for personal gain. The otherworldly powers of the snake not only inspire but may also confuse, resulting in mistaking your own desires for the needs of others and even turning into trickery and deceit what may have appeared to be a worthy pursuit. Check your intuitions with the counsel of those you trust to tell you the truth.

By remaining open-hearted and generous to all, you will experience renewed vitality in everyday encounters and activities as you attract the qualities of imagination, intuition, and vision into your life.