Gelli Fach

Gelli Fach

I'm a cell, I'm fragmented, I change my form;
I'm a repository of song, I'm a dynamic state.
I love a wooded slope and a snug shelter,
and a creative poet who doesn't buy his advancement.

Wyf kell, wyf dellt, wyf datweirllet;
wyf llogell kerd, wyf lle ynnyet.
Karaf-y gorwyd a goreil clyt,
a bard a bryt ny pryn y ret.


From: Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, edited and translated by Marged Haycock





Wednesday 31 August 2011

Tending the Flame: To Brighid, Patroness of the Druids and Bards

 

Brighid by Tattered Dreams 

 

 

To Brighid, Patroness of the Druids and Bards


Beloved Brighid of the triple flame,
Daughter of the Dagda,
Guardian of the sacred springs
Whose voice is the soul of the harp
We call on Thee.

Teach our hands to heal and our hearts to sing.
We entrust our life’s progress to your care
and ask that you shape us,
bending and turning our hearts on your bright anvil of flame
till we are made perfect jewels
fit to be set in the Eye of your timeless harp
to play for the Soul of the people in times of sorrow
and times of celebration.

We thank you for your gifts to us of Poetry and Music
of laughter and tears,
and for the healing balm of your Wisdom.

May we always remember to meditate
on the gift of your sacred waters,
which surround us at our birth
and sail us to our destiny.

Our hearts are open to receive your blessings.
Midwife of our souls, rain on us,
shower your inspiration in curtains of song
from sacred waterfalls in the realm where you dwell.

Come to us as Virgin with the soft smell of flowers.
Come to us as Mother and feed us your fruits.
Come to us as the Wise Woman in the stark blasts of Winter.
Help us to see your Mystery in all creation,
that we may know gratitude and reverence.
Our hearts sing to you with love.

Teach us to change like the revolving seasons.
Teach us to grow like the green corn that feeds the people.
Teach us to fashion beauty like the stillness of the forest pool
and the roar of the ocean wave.
Teach us to heal like the soothing gem which cools the eyes and
restores the limbs.

With humility and bright expectation
We invoke Thee this hour!

 by Ellen Evert Hopman  
from A Druid's Herbal For the Sacred Earth Year
http://www.elleneverthopman.com/


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One of the ways I spend the time while tending Brigit's flame is to read and write in my 'Brigit Devotional'. It's a plain book in which I put pictures and copy poems, prayers and invocations I've written or read elsewhere. It's not as beautifully written as I'd have liked - there are blotches and crossings-out - but it has a homemade feel to it which makes it unique and quite powerful in its own way.

I like to spend time looking through it, reading the poems and prayers, remembering where I found them, being inspired by them and the pictures. It connects me with past vigils, with words and with writing on paper. It dances through time and space, strengthening, enlightening, uplifting. Between dusk and dusk, accompanying the flame, it sings to Brigit.


1 comment:

  1. I think your "Brigit Devotional" is a wonderful idea. I've been trying to think of something I can do to honor her and it has been under my nose all along. I am writer and never thought to doing something like this. Thank you and Brighid for the inspiration :)

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