Читать книгу Celtic Moon Signs: How the Mystical Power of the Druid Zodiac Can Transform Your Life - Helena Paterson - Страница 40

The Celtic fire festival of Brigantia, also known as Imbolc, symbolized the first transformation of their triune or triple-aspected Mother goddess from the ‘Old Veiled One’ into the Maiden aspect of spring. In Celtic Britain she was the goddess of the Brigantes, a widespread tribe, but her name is derived from Brighid or Brigid and in Ireland she is still revered as Saint Bridget. The early Christian Church adopted a number of pagan festivals and local shrines to encourage a transference of worship that continued under a thinly disguised conversion. Subsequently, her fire festival is now celebrated on the second day of February as the Christian ceremony of Candlemas, with the lighting of candles – a symbol of light and the new Christian faith.

In the original ceremony, flaming torches were carried by the women of the tribes and used to re-kindle the eternal flame at the shrines of Brigid. At the first glimmer of dawn the torches were thrust into the earth to rouse the sleeping Green Dragon, an ancient symbol of the feminine energies of germination – a magical process that marked the sowing season when the dark soil received the seeds of new life.

For people born at this time of year it marks a personal transformation of character that has unlimited potential, but it still requires a great deal of personal motivation to fully activate this ‘gift from the gods’. According to the druids, you have inherited a concept of the future which allows people to see other possibilities, which can place you in an isolated position. But in turning their eyes towards new possibilities they will also have the gift of freedom of thought and personal liberty. In other words, you are the complete individual – a prototype example of future human development, perhaps?