Let’s be honest, by nature, when the weather goes bad, in Ireland, we tend to go inside. Candles, twinkle lights, fires, they all become popular.
And there’s times it appears like the gods go quiet as well. It’s rarely the case, of course. But it can appear that way.
When she goes quiet in winter
Normally, Brigid is a fairly active part of my life and I’m happy enough with that. But there are also the times she can go quiet.
Now, I don’t necessarily subscribe to the Scottish legends about the Cailleach kidnapping Brigid for the winter, until either Brigid escapes come Imbolc or Aengus rescues her. But I also know she’s a sensible practical woman, not wanting to be out and about too much needlessly in bad weather – not to mention she knows my habit of dreaming the future over the winter months. This which we are now in the middle of.
So, when/if she goes quiet this time of year, I’m usually ok with it.
What if she goes quiet and you weren’t expecting it?
But what if you don’t have this relationship with her, or she goes quiet when you’re not expecting it. (If you’re still working out whether she’s calling you at all, Is Brigid Calling Me? might help.)
Now, I honestly thought I had written about this before on the blog, but apparently not. So here we go.
First things first – don’t panic. (Don’t panic, Mr. Mainwaring!!)
Brigid, no more than the rest of us, takes a break every now and again. Of course, she probably handles about a million times more than any of us and takes fewer breaks, but y’know what? She’s supernatural. So, she has that going for her.
And look, this has happened to me too. I get it. The panic I felt when I realised I hadn’t heard from her in a while was deep. It was at a time when I had just finished a massive project in work, completed the first group coaching program I ever did, and I was exhausted. In that time, I was essentially a zombie. And a not very coherent one at that. So, really, looking back, it makes sense that she was taking a step back and letting me recover.
But did I get that at the time? Did I hell. I panicked. I reached out. If I’m 100% honest, I was almost begging her to get in touch. And I got a smack for it. (Not physical, obviously!) but a definite – look, pet, you’re wrecked, rest up, get back in the game and we can move forward then.
And then the Dagda stepped in with full on Daddy-energy to make sure I listened. It was a tough time. But one thing that Brigid made clear to me was I was still expected to keep up my daily-ish practice. She considered that my base level engagement and part of my recovery. Regardless of what the deities were doing. A warning, a lesson and a means to recover, all in one go…
Just because she goes quiet is no reason to discontinue your daily(ish) practice or radically change up what you do.
Maybe you don’t need her right now
It could quite honestly be that you don’t need her right now, you’ve got this (whatever “this” is) or you don’t need as much support from her as you think you do. Maybe she feels she’s given some really clear direction and now it’s up to you to carry it out.
The thing is – you don’t know. And maybe, she’s never been that loud in your life in the first place. There’s relief in that as well, sometimes. She trusts you to get done what needs done.
Those of us who are a bit more thick headed, or deaf – deity speaking anyway – may need a bit more from her to start us on the right path.
Have a think about what you actually need
Have a think about what you actually need from Brigid. Sit back, spend some time thinking, drawing, writing, however it is best for thoughts to be clear to you. Meditate. Pray – but be specific in your prayers to her.
Be careful asking for a sign
And if you’re asking for a sign she still loves you – be careful. Sometimes a deity’s love isn’t comfortable. And special snowflakes get melted first – to massacre a metaphor there.
If you feel like there are people out there getting massively more attention than you from Brigid, ask why it bothers you. Consider maybe they’re dealing with shit you don’t know about.
We don’t control the gods
Most of all – we don’t control the gods, so you really have very little choice. Our ancestors – from what I can gather – mostly went through the motions of religious practice. Show up, do the sacrifice, clean the house, feed the people, etc, etc, etc rather than assuming deities were at their beck and call.
And we need to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking deities are here to serve us. That’s not the case, if you look at the majority of spiritual practices. Of course we can ask for help. But we also need to recognise that help may come in a form we weren’t expecting.
Working out what you actually need from her is the hard bit, and it’s easier with someone beside you. If that’s what you’d like, the 1-2-1 page is here.
