As we left the Kaliakh,
Looking out at sea,
As her wintry grip receded and her life force slowly ebbed away,
As her rough skin became that of the rocks surrounding her,
And as she merged as one into that ancient landscape,
We also left Breda and the old woman's hall beneath the mountain of Ben Nebes.
In some stories,
She's been imprisoned here by the old woman.
I see her waiting for the old woman to return,
Wondering what she could have possibly done to upset her so.
And as she waits and wanders,
Across the sea,
In the land of vibrant green and eternal youth,
I see a young man dreaming of her.
The young man's name is Angus.
And in some stories,
He is the son of the Kaliakh,
Sent away in his youth to keep winter's rule strong.
For there was a prophecy on the wind,
And it said that he would one day bring summer to these lands when he met a spring goddess there.
Perhaps he was this man,
Or perhaps he wasn't.
But we know that this man was dreaming each night of a beautiful young woman with a mantle of white.
And in his dreams,
He would see her sad and weeping in a dark cavernous hall of crystal beneath a mountain covered in snow.
He would see her alone,
Distraught,
Waiting and wondering.
He had never seen a woman like her in his waking life,
And the dream alone enchanted him to the point where he couldn't even really think straight about anything else.
He would be caught staring off to sea when he was supposed to be mowing the fields or turning the land.
He was in his own world,
Which I guess wasn't an unusual thing for the people of the lands of Tirnanog,
This land of eternal youth and perfection,
But it also made him want to sleep all day and do nothing else but dream of her.
And one night,
When he had left the hall,
The feasting and the carousing,
Reaching a fever Pidgey could no longer stand,
Reminding him of that hole in his heart,
Something he missed but he didn't even know.
He retreated early to his rooms and he tucked himself into his bed to dream,
His lavender-scented pillow sending him off to the shores of lullaby and softness.
He dreamt of the woman,
Except this time he saw her leaving the hall under the mountain.
He saw her walking across fields of white,
Blanketed snow,
And as she did so,
The snow began to dissolve from beneath her feet,
And from it,
He saw white snowdrops beginning to spread,
Peeking up from beneath her soft white feet and spreading into fields and fields of white,
Delicate flowers.
And soon the frozen lakes and the waterfalls were dripping and melting,
And the force of new life was surging upwards from beneath the earth.
This dream was so real,
He woke up with wet tears of melted snow upon his face.
And he knew,
In that moment,
He knew that he had to leave this land immediately and go find her.
He set sail across the sea,
To the lands of mountain and snow,
And with the wind whipping at his sails,
For it was the month of February,
That month of the wolf weather,
The wild and unpredictable weather,
He almost did not make it,
Until,
As a cunning lad,
He decided it would be best if he just borrowed three days of weather from August.
Doing so,
He cast a spell across the sea and managed to get the sun to shine out gloriously,
Setting the sea alight and it calmed and it floated him gently to the shore of the land of rock and crag.
But as he landed on these shores,
Strangely,
The mountains were no longer ice and snow.
The lakes were no longer frozen,
Still and silent as they had been for centuries.
Life had begun to spread everywhere.
His jaw dropped,
For he no longer knew this land of his youth.
He had left it as a young boy,
But now it had been altered unrecognizably.
And as he stepped to the shore,
A green blanket of moss and new life also began to spread amongst the wild flowers.
The snowdrops that had peaked up from the soil in a trail from the seashore up to the hilltops down into the valleys.
And he knew,
If he followed them,
Eventually they would lead him to the woman in his dreams.
And so he ran the length of Scotland,
Spreading the mantle of green across the land,
Being careful not to trample the delicate flowers that had burst forth from the soil,
The primroses the bluebells,
The fragrant wild garlic.
He ran and he ran until the trail stopped suddenly beneath an ancient oak tree.
And there lied this woman of his dreams,
Sleeping sweetly beneath it in a bank of white snowdrops.
Her cheeks rosy,
Her skin so white,
Her hair like fire spun with flax.
And when she slowly lifted her eyes to see him,
Eyes still sleepy and soft from dreaming,
She smiled,
For she had also seen this young man in her dreams,
And she knew he had been making his way to her.
Tears of joy welled from her eyes and dropped to the ground,
Forming violets of purple as they landed in the soil beneath the oak tree amidst the white of the snowdrops.
And they went to each other,
And they embraced,
Holding each other there beneath that sacred oak.
And in their union,
All the flowers of the land and all the plants and the animals,
They began to come out of their hiding places,
The burrows and rocky crevices where they were forced to stay warm all winter long,
For spring had come at last.
And with the sun shining high in the sky,
And the king of summer and the queen of spring united,
The old woman of winter fast asleep in rest on her summit,
All was well with the world.
The cycles of nature had found their rhythm.
What was birthed into the land would fruit and spread its seed,
Then fall to the earth again in death to nourish the soil,
To feed the turning of the year,
To roll the wheel of time forward,
And to rest patiently in darkness until it was time once again for life to come,
Balance restored.
From winter to spring,
To summer to fall,
From life and death to life again.
And so,
We find our way to Imbolc,
The beginning of the beginning of spring,
With the promise of longer days,
The birthing of the lambs,
The greening of the landscapes.
We have met Brida in one of her many forms as the bringer of spring,
And this is just one story in the great lore of stories and anecdotes about her from across the Celtic nations.
So now,
Let us journey inward with Bridget.
Here we go.
Breathing into your body,
Just noticing how you're feeling in this moment,
And allowing the breath to call me,
Come,
Breathe in and out,
Just noticing how the breath feels in the body,
Each inhale,
Each exhale,
Noticing what part of your body you feel this breath in,
With your eyes closed,
Just allowing your body to relax.
Imagining you are in a hallway.
What does the hallway look like?
Is the ground smooth on your feet,
Like polished marble,
Or tiles,
Or wood,
Or carpet?
Notice how that feels on your feet,
And notice the walls around you,
If the hallway is narrow or wide,
If you can see the ceiling of the hallway looking above,
Are there high ceilings and arches and stained glass windows,
Or just simple walls and a ceiling?
Is it dark,
Or is there light coming in?
And as you become familiar with the space,
Just allow yourself,
If it feels comfortable,
To walk along the hallway,
Noticing any sounds of your feet on the ground,
Padding on the wood,
Noticing any sensations in your body,
Is there a bit of fear,
Is there a bit of anticipation,
Just noticing.
Moving down the hallway,
You see in the distance that the hallway comes to an end,
And is met with a door.
As you get closer to the door,
Just notice the details.
Is it a large wooden door,
Or a small door?
Is it simple in structure,
Or quite ornate?
Is it a door that looks modern,
Or a door from ancient times?
As you get closer,
You know that you will open this door.
Notice how that feels in your body.
Is there anticipation on what is on the other side of the door?
Is there some reluctance to know what is beyond?
Just notice and accept any feelings that are coming up.
And now,
Moving your hand to the doorknob,
You notice the feeling,
The pattern,
The texture of the doorknob.
You open the door,
But you don't immediately step through the door.
You are still on the other side,
Looking through,
Over the threshold.
Take a moment here to notice how that feels,
To be on the edge of something,
To be in this in-between state.
Even before you notice what's beyond the door,
Notice this feeling.
And look beyond now,
Into the room before you,
This room of mirrors,
This room of fractured light.
Although the floor is the same as the hallway,
The walls are full of mirrors of different sizes and different colors.
Some of them are smooth.
Some of them fracture the light into beautiful rainbows,
Little prisms floating in the air.
And some of them distort the shape.
You're ready to step over the threshold.
And you move towards these mirrors now and look into them at your reflection.
Seeing yourself from many angles,
Framed by different mirrors,
You notice yourself turning and moving and admiring yourself in these mirrors.
You notice the rainbow of the light being fractured like you are dancing amongst floating rainbows.
And you notice that above these mirrors,
There's a stained glass ceiling that's fracturing the light from beyond into thousands of different shapes and colors that then reflect off of these mirrors so you feel like you're dissolving into light.
And allowing this light,
Its many colors,
To move through your body,
Allowing the red light,
Prism of red light to move through your root chakra below the base of your spine,
Weaving in and out.
You imagine an orange light as it shines and clears your sacral chakra,
And a yellow light as it shines and clears through your solar plexus right above your belly button,
And a green light as it shines through your heart and clears the space soothingly up through your throat.
There's this beautiful blue light shining up through your third eye.
There's this purple light shining and clearing the space,
And then this warming ultraviolet light shining around you and connecting you in with that which is seen and that which is unseen.
All of these rainbows of light cleansing you and allowing you to feel ready to move through the next doorway.
Except this doorway beyond this hall of mirrors,
It has a large knocker on the door.
So you walk towards it and you put your hand on it,
Noticing how it feels beneath your hand,
And you use it to knock at the door,
Loud and echoing.
And you wait at this doorway until it slowly creaks open.
And beyond it,
You see a woman standing there in a mantle of green velvet wrapped around her,
The hood over her golden hair.
You see her eyes shining.
She smiles at you and says,
I've been waiting for you.
And she reaches out her hand and you soundlessly take it.
You step over this threshold now into another room.
And this room is quite magical feeling as well.
For on one wall,
There are many beautiful masks of velvet and gold embroidery and all the most beautiful masks you could imagine just hanging on the walls,
Different shapes,
Different forms,
Different textures.
And the woman introduces herself to you and she says,
I am Bridget and we will go through this next doorway,
But first I would like you to choose a mask that speaks to you.
And you look at all of these masks and you decide on one.
One specific mask calls to you slightly more than the others.
They're all beautiful,
But this one looks like it will fit well for now.
And so you take the mask and Bridget helps you put it on your face and ties the ribbon.
And then she says,
We need two more things.
On the other wall is hanging a different array of velvet cloaks,
Heavy,
Beautiful fabric,
Different colors,
Different shades.
There's many,
Many to choose from.
And you take the one that speaks to you,
Noticing the vibrancy and richness of the color.
And she helps you fasten it around your neck.
You feel the weight,
The softness as it rests on your shoulders.
And she puts the hood up over your head and she too has chosen a mask.
And so both together,
Masked and cloaked,
You move towards the door.
And she says to you,
There's one more thing.
I would like you to choose a lantern to help guide our way.
And you notice by the door,
There are many lanterns hanging different colors and different shapes.
And you choose one.
You feel the weight of it in your hand.
And Bridget says to you,
I'd like you to lead the way.
I will be here behind you,
Your protector,
But you must choose where to go next.
And there's a door before you.
And so you open this door,
You walk through it and into another room.
And in this room,
There are many,
Many doors.
And you look around all these different doors you could possibly choose from.
But it's clear there's one you'd like to go through.
And Bridget says,
You know best,
Lead the way.
And so you move through this hall of different doors towards the door that speaks to you.
You open it.
You walk through,
Using your lantern to guide you,
Bridget behind you.
In the distance,
There's a light gleaming,
And you move through it softly,
Trusting that you have chosen the right path.
And out you come,
Eventually,
Into the outdoors,
The space in nature.
You hear the sounds of birds singing,
And the breeze in the trees,
And the sun shining.
And you see this beautiful oak tree.
Amongst the branches,
There are all these different ribbons,
Different colors,
Different objects hanging in the tree.
You move towards it,
And you choose one of the things that's hanging off of the branch.
Perhaps it is a ribbon with a message on it,
And you read the words.
Or perhaps it's a special object that you want to keep.
And Bridget says,
Of course,
You can keep it.
Put it in your pocket.
Keep it safe.
It's yours now.
We have one last place that we need to go.
Pointing to a small church on a hillside.
And so you walk towards this church,
And you see a little well in front.
And Bridget says,
May I wash your feet as a blessing and an honor,
If that feels good to you.
From this holy well,
She takes this fresh,
Clean water,
And she washes your feet,
Feeling the softness of her skin on yours.
Feeling this lightness in your feet that you've never felt before.
And then towards this small church,
You go.
Into the church,
You see it's lit up with many,
Many candles.
And you take your lantern,
And you add it to this array of dancing light.
And in the center of the church,
You see 19 figures standing around this beautiful candle,
Ornate,
With three flames burning from it.
They're singing and chanting into the flame.
And Bridget,
She kisses you on one cheek.
She says,
You know what to do.
I will always be with you.
And you move towards the circle,
And you join these other men and women in the circle.
You stand with them,
Staring into this triple flame.
Feeling this warmth,
This light,
This connection,
The voices all around you and Bridget behind you.
And you know you have everything within you.
And when it is time,
It will blossom into the most beautiful,
Light-filled flower that is yours and yours alone,
But made up of everything you've ever done.
Every choice you've ever made.
And so you take off the hood of the cloak,
You take off your mask,
And you allow everyone to see your beautiful face,
The gleaming of your eyes shining into the candlelight.
And you know you are where you need to be.
