From last Lath Fheill Bride
I’ve been reading a lot of pagan blogs this week and there are too damn many of them that refer to Brighid, Brigit, Bride or Brigde as a maiden, mother or crone goddess. It just isn’t true. In ancient writings from oral traditions she is usually referred to as the Great Mother or the midwife. And in the writings of her as St Brigit she is never ever referred to that way either. Not even the Women’s Book of Myths and Secrets (otherwise known in our coven as the “Doorstop”) which has a good share of the Celtic stuff wrong refers to her as Maiden, Mother or Crone. This is a fiction that some well-meaning person but illiterate of the culture.
You would think if the Church was going to consume her and make her one of their own she would have retained that aspect if she ever had it.
The Maiden, Mother, Crone thing is an addition that comes from the Women’s Spirituality movement and is a misunderstanding of how Celtic minds worked. The power of three is what they were more concerned with and it’s always three functions not three ages of women. The Morrigan is not Maiden, Mother or Crone either nor are the Tres Matres. They are always shown as 3 fully grown women of around the same age. They may look different such as blond, redhead and a black haired women but not different ages.
The original genealogy of Brighid doesn’t mention that she has three ages of women, another source that should have shown three ages if it existed. It’s just not there. Bride in the Carmina Gaedelica is referred to as “presiding over fire, over art. over all beauty, fo cheabar agus fo chuan (beneath the sky and beneath the sea). No mention of maiden, mother or crone.
Somehow the three wyrd sisters mythology of Scandinavian and Teutonic mythology and the mythology of the Greek and Roman Fates got rolled into the story of Brighid and historically it DID NOT EXIST.
Brighid is the goddess of inspiration and poetry. Brighid is the goddess of Smithcraft and artifice. Brighid is the goddess of the wells and healing. Brighid is the goddess of the enduring and eternal flame. She was the goddess who protected their wealth of sheep and cattle. Brighid was a lot of things to the people but Brighid is not and was not a maiden, mother or crone goddess!
Well said!
I grit my teeth a lot when hearing about the Maiden, Mother, Crone trilogy as the reason for tripartite goddesses. It’s a wonky, modern invention – and one that just irks me. Like the ‘mother’ goddesses always portrayed as pregnant. I’d be pretty miffed if I was a perpetually pregnant goddess…There’s a hell of a lot more to a woman’s life than being simply a maiden, mother, or a crone.
There will probably be some PBP rants on this coming up this year.
Here here! I always cringe when I see her referred to as the modern Triple Goddess… She was, however, a mother in the Irish legends! But that’s quite a different matter from the modern misinterpretation.