Brigid does occasionally have a chat with me in my dreams. But it’s not hugely common for me. Now, to be fair, I have written before how even during January/February every year, there are folk out there who don’t even hear the word “Brigid”. So, we already know that we have different experiences with herself. Even starting from the same lore…
Téinm Láeda (gnawing the marrow)
It’s one of the three marks of a poet, the others being imbas forosnai (knowledge that illumnes) and dichetal do chennaib (extemporaneous composing – straight from the head). Now, the marks of a poet should be strongly linked to Brigid, given her role as goddess of poets. And sleeping and dreaming are heavily linked to health and wellbeing, so that’s linked to Brigid as well.
Why do I associate téinm laéda in particular with the dreaming? It might seem more obvious to associate imbas fosornai given it’s association with prophesising and sensory deprivation (loads of info on the net about this, but associated with the Fenian tales. Fenian as in Fionn MacCumhal, not as in later interpretations of the terms)
But gnawing the marrow is a specific term as well. And it’s not linked with prophesising as far as I know – which is good cos it’s not prophesies she gives me in my dreams. It is more like associations, or connections that I otherwise might not have made.
At night, our brains chew over the facts and happenings of the day and try and make sense of it all. Our dreams are essentially our brains keep track of what’s going on. And sometimes, for me, Brigid steps in and helps me make connections and links. Sometimes she loses all patience in my dreams and just gives me a massive download to process during the night.
These are times I wake up exhausted. Dreaming with Brigid is not the more restful night’s sleep you’ll have.
Why is dreaming important?
I said above that dreaming is important for health. But some people never, or hardly ever, remember their dreams. So why does Brigid worry about dreams?
Well, if you use Google Scholar and look up dreams and health, you get a lot of results. The most useful introductory paper I found was this one which gives a good overview of what dreams do for us, as well as some hints as to how to remember dreams.
We know from science that sleeping is essential for mental and physical health. Sleeping specifically, not just resting.
Most dramatically, prolonged sleep deprivation leads to death. Rats kept awake using the disk-over-water method develop a peripheral syndrome characterized by increased metabolic rate and decreased body weight, which culminates in death after 2–4 wks. Prolonged sleep deprivation is also fatal in flies, cockroaches, and humans with fatal familial insomnia, who die after developing a syndrome not unlike that seen in sleep-deprived rats. Pigeons, however, appear capable of surviving prolonged sleep deprivation. Prolonged sleep deprivation has not been studied in other species. Thus, it is unclear whether death, when it occurs, is due to loss of sleep per se or to other factors, such as forced arousals and the associated stress.
So, sleep is definitely essential, whether death occurs from associated conditions or from the lack of sleep specifically. I’m not risking going without sleep just to see what it feels like.
I like my sleep!!
And Brigid might not have a direct link to dreams or sleep, but she sure has a direct link to sleep. And frankly, if I find myself going off track healthwise, sleep is usually the first place to start.
So, maybe it’s not that dreaming is important per se, more that it happens as a result of sleep being a necessity.
Brigid and dreams
Now, I have said that Brigid sometimes uses dreams to communicate with me. It’s usually a last resort, because I tend to place less value on messages I download while dreaming, out of pure scepticism really. I mean, I know some of the imagery my mind can produce in a normal dream.
Why would I trust my dreams 100% with Brigid?
So, usually a dream leads to a lot of divination work on my part. If I can’t get a clearer message during meditation, it tends to be a lot of yes/no questions with some form of divination.
“Was this a real dream?”
“Were certain parts of it a real dream?”
“Was it this particular part that was a real dream?”
You can see how this gets tedious and how generally, both myself and herself prefer to communicate through other means.
But sometimes, she feels like it’s the only way. Or indeed that I’m not ready for the full story and need to put in the work to gain the full story. She’s not exactly here to make my life easier, unfortunately.
So…
Dreams are a form of communication. Not my favourite form, not necessarily the clearest form, but they can be a form of communication.
Not necessarily just from Brigid either. It can be communication from yourself to yourself. (This, if I remember correctly, is more along the lines of the Jungian theory of dreams). As in your subconscious is trying to tell you something and you’re just not listening.
The reason this all came up for me this morning as I type? I’ve been getting a lot of messages regarding a specific aspect of health lately. From Brigid, in dreams, from different sources. So this morning, I took the first steps to sort it out.
I can be stubborn. We all know that. So can Brigid. So if she’s resorting to dreams to tell you something? Then pay attention and do some work to find out more!
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