Birch wand with healing snake motif made by James W. Maertens of the Bardic Institute.
Website: Bard Woodcrafts
There are many ways you can show your dedication to the Saint/Goddess Brigit and ask her for blessings, protection, and guidance:
Dedicate a white Brigit’s candle to her and light it whenever you perform a ceremony dedicated to her. Ask her for inspiration in poetry and any kind of artistic and craft work, ask her guidance for healing, ask her for protection from harm. Use the traditional prayers gathered by Alexander Carmichael in the Carmina Gadelica, research other prayers to her, or make up your own.
Float 19 small white candles in a basin on Candlemas, to represent Brighid’s 19 nuns who maintained her eternal fire in Kildare.
Hang ribbons (ribin Brighid – St. Brigid’s ribbons) or strips of cloth on a tree on Candlemas Eve for the saint to bless for healing. Her colors are white, red, blue and green.
In the pagan community, Brighid is a significant time for initiation 78. The Goddess acts as a guide to initiates. If you are a part of an initiatory religion or organization, this is an ideal time to perform the ceremony.
Create your own ritual on Imbolc. Have an intimate party for your family and closest friends. Serve wholesome foods made with milk products. Dedicate a white candle to her and leave it out overnight to be blest by the saint. Use that candle for the rest of the year in your Brigit rituals.
Make a Brighid’s crosses, or a corn dolly, dressed in white and place it in a basket bed. Flower shops sell “raffia” by the bundle, which works very well for making a “corn dolly”. Be sure to call out, “Bride, thy bed is ready!” See How to make a St. Brigid's Cross for instructions on how to make a Brighid’s Cross. Be sure to leave bread and fresh butter on your window sill for her on St. Brighid’s Eve, and a little straw or hay for the fairy cow that travels with her this holy night. This is also a good time to give generously to the poor.Keep a symbol of her (a corn dolly, a Catholic Saint Brigit statuette, a Brigit’s cross) near your hearth, for she is the hearth keeper. If you don’t have a hearth, keep it near your stove. Make sure it is safe from the heat! If you are lucky and have a hot tub, keep a symbol of her nearby, for she is the patroness of healing wells, and hot tubs are a modern version! Alternatively, some people keep it by their front door, or in the highest corner of their house
Create a rite of purification in your bathtub. Light white candles and ask the Goddess to bless the water. Let yourself soak in the healing water and focus on the candle flame while you meditate on her healing qualities. If you have a fireplace, dry off at the hearth, asking for her blessings with the element of fire. She is the Goddess of fire and water, and you have thus invoked both her properties in a healing rite.
Invoke Brigit’s guidance when you practice Frìth or divination. Put yourself in a receptive meditative state, and make a tube out of your hand. Peer through it with your mind’s eye and see what you can see. If you perform other types of divination, light her candle and ask for her guidance. Since Brigit’s elements are fire and water, pyromancy 79 and hyrdromancy 80 are particularly effective methods of divination to use under her guidance. In some legends, she is the sister of Ogmios, who invented the ogham, a traditional style of Celtic divination
Make and dedicate a wand in the service of Brigit. In legend, she used a white birch or willow wand. She is also associated with oak. Use this in rituals of healing to invoke her guidance. She was said to have owned a white snake, which aided her in healing, and the white wand represents the snake.
Birch wand with healing snake motif made by James W. Maertens of the Bardic
Institute.
Website: Bard Woodcrafts
Brigit wore a green or blue mantle so powerful that it spread itself over Kildare, forcing the king to grant the land to Brigit. Brigit once hung the magical cloak on a sun ray. Make a mantle (use the pattern for an Irish brat or cloak), and ask St. Brigit to bless this garment to use for healing. Spread it over the ailing person, and send healing prayers to Brigit. If you practice of the rite of “calling down the Goddess” use this cloak to call Brigit’s spirit into you.
Make a prayer necklace of 19 white beads. You can add a special symbol that represents Brigit to you – a Brigit’s cross, a Catholic Saint Brigit medal, a swan or snake pendant, etc. Use this necklace as a focal point for meditation with Brigit. Keep it with you when you need her inspiration or protection.
Meditate on Saint Brigit. You can find prayer cards of the Saint in Catholic supply shops. Meditating for 19 minutes acknowledges the 19 day cycle of her worship at Kildare.
There are many crafts, talents, and skills that Brighid patronizes. Ale and mead brewing, dying, cloth weaving, wheat weaving, smithcrafting, poetry, singing, harping, agriculture and animal husbandry, divination, midwifery, and healing. Explore these fields as a possible vocation or hobby, and see if it brings you deep satisfaction, with her guidance.
Be willing to volunteer your time and resources in her name when she calls to you. I volunteer as a harper to senior citizens and to the ill. There are many charitable organizations under the saint’s name as well.