Being co-creators of our own reality is a supreme gift of our time. The freedom to engage in a personal spiritual practice has never been more possible. This freedom of choice coincides with an urgent call to align ourselves with the needs of our mother planet. From ancient Celtic Europe comes a way of embodying Mother Earth in the form of Bridget, both as an individual and as the very essence of the planet.
A classic triple goddess, Bridget is maiden, mother, and elder. She impregnated herself through her union with the sun on the winter solstice. She gave birth to herself in the spring on her feast day of February 1st. She matures into the mother/parent in the summer, and in the autumn and winter into the crone/elder. By following her from season to season, we shape-shift ourselves, planting the seeds of our nourishment on all levels.
When I was a child in Ireland, I was schooled in a convent by the sea. The moment of parting from my mother on the first day of school was astonishing, an unparalleled separation! In the subsequent days I made new friends and our little lives expanded. A great gift for my young soul was the proximity of the ocean, the seagulls, and one unique presence: in the middle of a field of wild grasses sloping down to the sea sat a gargantuan boulder atop its own stone altar. The Seneca Indians call rocks the Stone People, and now, five decades after my first encounter with that special rock, I feel what that means deep in my bones.
With Bridget as our guide, we co-create this landscape for ourselves initially, then for our communities. This co-creation moves out of us into our work and our relationships. We build from within, not the other way around. Today our world is super-saturated with images, sounds, and uncontrollable speed. In this context, we can only hold our ground if we already are grounded.