Finn’s Lorica of Brighid-Part II

I prefer the day to the night. Once the sun goes down, I tend to shut down as well. I’ve become more attached to the daylight and the sun, and it seems to energize me more than ever, since I began my worship of Brighid. Morning especially is my favourite time of day. I am one of those rare college-students who doesn’t sleep till noon.

It is important to start off my morning with the correct mindset: with a sense of calm and readiness for the day. It is important to be mindful of my energy and my emotions, and it is important for me to greet the morning.

But it is just as important to me to end my day equally calm and relaxed, ready to rest, and greet another day coming. It is just as important to love the night, for if there is no darkness, the light will eventually blind you and destroy you.

I begin every morning with the prayer I posted here. I end every day with this prayer here. 

 

I rest today

Through moon on sea,

Through wind in the meadow,

Through echoing of valleys.

 

I rest today

With silence on my tongue,

With calm in my mind,

With peace in my soul.

 

I rest today a poet under the mantle of Brighid;

I sleep today by her side.

 

May she always keep me close, and I never afraid.

 

Finn’s Lorica of Brighid

For me, prayer is an important and powerful connection to deity. Perhaps it is a remnant of my Christian upbringing, but I have never had any doubt that when I close my eyes and speak with my heart the gods are listening. Prayer is communication with deity; most often, we pray in appeal to the gods, but often, I find myself just speaking to Brighid, saying hello, good night, asking her what she thinks of a particular idea. And sometimes I hear her, especially when I find myself on the other side of irony. Her laugh is a sparkling chime in the morning.

These days, I certainly appeal to her more often than anything else–I always turn to Brighid to bring me back to myself when I find myself sinking into personal darkness. Brighid is the light that guides me back.

But mostly, I pray to her, I speak to Brighid, as a protective, energizing and strengthening act of devotion. By the act of daily invoking her, and her relationship to me, and my part in her plans, I ground myself in a true spiritual reality and purpose.

Every morning, as I place my Brighid pendant around my neck, I say this prayer, based in large part on the famous “Deer’s Cry,” or Lorica of St. Patrick. 

 

I rise today

Through sun on spring,

Through wind in the forest,

Through song of the mountain.

 

I rise today

With poetry on my lips,

With healing in my hands,

With strength in my heart.

 

I rise today a poet of Brighid;

I walk today on her path.

 

May she always guide me further, and I never wander.

 

Long Time No See

Life often gets in the way of a lot of things–including updating the blog. I’ve been thinking about about a number of subjects, including gender roles and sexuality, the nature of time and, of course, storytelling, but unfortunately my thoughts have been too scattered to really focus and write about one thing at length.

However, I do have some small thoughts concerning a recent conversation with a friend online on the symbol of the lantern; specifically as a symbol of Brighid, Her followers, and Her work.

 

 

Flamekeeping in the Park

 

I haven’t posted for a while; in penance, I give you poems, and reflections on Brighid.

It seems that nearly every Flamekeeping shift finds me outside, at one point or another. Today’s shift is no exception: it’s beautiful and after I shower, I will probably meander to a park and read or crochet.

Last shift, I wrote some poetry for the first time in a long time–a welcome pastime, particularly as my emotional and mental state has not been too conducive to creativity lately. It felt wonderful to be sitting there in the cool of the morning, watching people stroll and loll on the grass, the sunshine on my face, the shade of the tree on my back, the presence and companionship of Brighid, and her Flame, in my heart, and these poems coming from my pen.

 

 

Midsummer Ritual

This Midsummer, I was moved to do a ritual, very small, which is something I am not usually inclined to do.

What this ritual basically came down to is the mystery of fire and water (a primary mystery of Brighid, and one with which I’ve always had particular resonance), or “sunlight on water”, as it applies to the various parts of my life. Without too much detail, I’m focusing on being a channel–the flow of emotional and physical energy (water) and spark of creative energy (fire) merging to allow me to continue working in the forge, writing on the page, without (heh) burning myself out or draining myself. (Excuse the double puns).

The end metaphorical vision is basically for me to be as a river, flowing, with sunlight sparkling all over me, and it was this vision I focused on.

I do not think the “fire on water” motif is amiss at Midsummer, being both the time of the greatest sunlight and the greatest heat, the time when all of nature is abundant, and we are all working hard to produce work (especially me, as a college student, when I finally have time to focus on non-school work), and the time when we all seek water, whether to cool ourselves (in the pool!) or, as we are down here in south Texas in a heavy drought, to survive. The image of sunlight on a river is one that connects me not only to my physical surroundings and the emotional connotations of this holiday, but it connects me most importantly to Brighid, who is at the center of everything I do.

I’ve learned how to crochet in the past week, and decided to incorporate it into my ritual, in which I made a chain of all the things I wanted to accomplish, to have support for, to have energy for, etc. I unraveled it and placed it outside to blow away, and then I came back and wrote this poem:

 

Naming the Path

I have a lot of thoughts on names in general, but let’s keep this short.

I have decided to go back and rename this path. I’m calling it Filidecht: An Seanchas Fior. The only change is from Filiocht to Filidecht, and I feel far more confident and assured that Filidecht is, after all the hemming and hawing I’ve done over using it (or not) for the past few years, the right choice.

It took me a long time to decide on what to call this path. Did I just waste time trying to find a name for what I was doing when I should have just kept on doing what I was doing? I don’t think so, because names are extremely important to me, and they give me more than a verbal understanding of what something is (as opposed to “that thing I do” or “hey you”); it gives me a depth of knowledge, a whole system of symbolism, language and meaning, and more importantly, it gives me a spark. Giving a name to things makes them come alive and breathe.

I always spend an inordinate amount of time naming characters in my writing–it is the first thing I do, and once I have it, I have that much a stronger sense of who they really are and I am able to finally learn their stories. The characters I have the hardest time naming are the characters I have the hardest time discovering, and I always find the two to be closely related in terms of my storytelling. I can’t tell someone’s story properly without knowing their name.

So this path has gone through many names: from “just me” to “that thing I do” to “filidecht” to “The Path of Poetry” to “Filiocht” to “An Seanchas Fior” to “Filiocht: An Seanchas Fior” and now finally to “Filidecht: An Seanchas Fior.” And it very well could change again. Such is life.

I had problems with calling my path “filidecht” because I believed that implied that I was something I actually was not: reconstructionist. However, I’ve never felt quite… right with Filiocht. And I’ve realized: though I may not call myself a reconstructionist, I still do practice filidecht (in so far as I can) in a recon way, and feel very strongly about keeping it that way. So, now I shall use that word to describe what it is I do, and add the rest of the stuff to give me a further sense of autonomy. And I’ll be able to use Filidecht as a short-hand to describe what it is I do, and people will have a (marginally) better sense of my beliefs. At least in the pagan community.

Names are important–they preserve our identity, or they mask it. In many places, they reveal certain parts of ourselves that we may not wish to show, or they may bring a new sense of understanding and life to an idea that had faded and died.

 

Speaking Through Two Faces

Writing poetry is a small, but important part of my spiritual practice. Every Flamekeeping shift (and I’m part of three cills, so I have an average of one shift per week), I try to write a small poem in devotion. For poems directly related to Brighid and keeping her flame, look here: Keeping Brighid’s Flame, under entries marked Finn.

Here, however, is a poem that is more related to actually being a poet, and being Other.

speaking through two faces
I gaze inside
a pool, where, mirrored,
I see only the stars

am I a galaxy
reflected from a sea of dark?
or am I two shadows,
neither one certain
of the other?