Sherrie Scott’s Celebration of Brigid and Springtime
Last weekend, I participated in a fabulous celebration of Imbolc and Brigid, facilitated by our own Wise Woman, Sherrie Scott. I was one of seven women who gathered in the cosy front room of the Mermaid’s Healing Arts Centre in Rossnowlagh, County Donegal. A big fire blazed in the hearth to welcome us. We sat in a circle around a square of red material, in the centre of which was a mound of earth in the shape of a volcano. At the top there was a spume of flame coloured cloth and when you looked more closely at the slopes, there were bulbs growing in the soil.
This was the setting in which we shared our knowledge of Brigid, Celtic Goddess, historical woman and Christian Saint. Brigid is known as the Triple Goddess, virgin, mother and crone. She is the keeper of the flame and also the protector of the home. Brigid’s flame burned in Kildare right up to the middle ages and was re-lit again in the 1990’s. She is a smithy, a weaver, a healer. Intriguingly, she is also the patroness of brewing and is once reputed to have changed water into beer! She is also the patroness of poetry and is my own personal Muse.
We wove Brigid’s crosses made from rushes while we considered the seeds of projects and ideas which we’d planted at Samhain and which had gestated over the long dark winter. We decided which of those should be manifested, which should be let go and which should be left to find fruition at another time.
There was a long, leisurely lunch over which we discussed various aspects of healing, particularly the chemotherapeutic properties of dandelion roots – (the dandelion is Brigid’s flower) and the power of honey (also associated with Brigid) to heal infected cuts.
In the afternoon, Sherrie led a drumming meditation in which she we journeyed to meet Brigid. As always, my Muse had plenty of encouragement and wisdom for me in my writing and all of my projects. Her advice to me was: write, love, heal.
Perhaps the most famous story of Brigid is the one where she asked the King of Leinster for land to build her monastery. Disparagingly, the King answered, ‘I will give you as much as your cloak can cover’. When she laid her cloak out, it covered all of County Kildare.
In a beautiful, dramatic moment Sherrie invited us to pull the cloth flame at the top of the volcano. We pulled and the cloth burst out, a huge sheet of flame coloured silk that covered the whole room, as Brigid’s mantle had covered Kildare. The ‘volcano’ was then divided up between us and we were gifted the bulbs and soil to bring home with us to where they too will manifest themselves.
This is soul work at its deepest and best. Well done, Sherrie, and thanks to the other women in the circle for making the day so special. I came away from there renewed and full of enthusiasm for all of the projects ahead. It’s a long time since I got such value for fifty euro.
Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill
Last weekend, I participated in a fabulous celebration of Imbolc and Brigid, facilitated by our own Wise Woman, Sherrie Scott. I was one of seven women who gathered in the cosy front room of the Mermaid’s Healing Arts Centre in Rossnowlagh, County Donegal. A big fire blazed in the hearth to welcome us. We sat in a circle around a square of red material, in the centre of which was a mound of earth in the shape of a volcano. At the top there was a spume of flame coloured cloth and when you looked more closely at the slopes, there were bulbs growing in the soil.
This was the setting in which we shared our knowledge of Brigid, Celtic Goddess, historical woman and Christian Saint. Brigid is known as the Triple Goddess, virgin, mother and crone. She is the keeper of the flame and also the protector of the home. Brigid’s flame burned in Kildare right up to the middle ages and was re-lit again in the 1990’s. She is a smithy, a weaver, a healer. Intriguingly, she is also the patroness of brewing and is once reputed to have changed water into beer! She is also the patroness of poetry and is my own personal Muse.
We wove Brigid’s crosses made from rushes while we considered the seeds of projects and ideas which we’d planted at Samhain and which had gestated over the long dark winter. We decided which of those should be manifested, which should be let go and which should be left to find fruition at another time.
There was a long, leisurely lunch over which we discussed various aspects of healing, particularly the chemotherapeutic properties of dandelion roots – (the dandelion is Brigid’s flower) and the power of honey (also associated with Brigid) to heal infected cuts.
In the afternoon, Sherrie led a drumming meditation in which she we journeyed to meet Brigid. As always, my Muse had plenty of encouragement and wisdom for me in my writing and all of my projects. Her advice to me was: write, love, heal.
Perhaps the most famous story of Brigid is the one where she asked the King of Leinster for land to build her monastery. Disparagingly, the King answered, ‘I will give you as much as your cloak can cover’. When she laid her cloak out, it covered all of County Kildare.
In a beautiful, dramatic moment Sherrie invited us to pull the cloth flame at the top of the volcano. We pulled and the cloth burst out, a huge sheet of flame coloured silk that covered the whole room, as Brigid’s mantle had covered Kildare. The ‘volcano’ was then divided up between us and we were gifted the bulbs and soil to bring home with us to where they too will manifest themselves.
This is soul work at its deepest and best. Well done, Sherrie, and thanks to the other women in the circle for making the day so special. I came away from there renewed and full of enthusiasm for all of the projects ahead. It’s a long time since I got such value for fifty euro.
Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill
Sherrie Scott is an Energy Therapist.
Contact: flowingtide@hotmail.com. Or 00353860811217
Up and coming workshops at Mermaids
26 & 27th February Spontaneous Painting Weekend Fee €150
26th March Journey to your Power Self Fee €50
She will facilitate a workshop at the upcoming
Wise Woman Weekend, 13th – 15th May 2011: www.wisewomanireland.com
Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill is a writer and facilitator of creative writing workshops. www.writersinksligo.com.
She is also the co-ordinator for the Wise Woman’s Weekend in 2011.
The picture of Sherrie's Mermaid's Arts Healing Centre, Rossnowlagh, is posted below.
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