Category: Spirituality

Brigid and dreams

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.

A picture of a person lying on a field of grass and yellow dandelions, with grey skies above and mountains in the distance. Day-dreaming is dreaming too!!
Day-dreaming is dreaming too!
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.

Is Sleep Essential? | PLOS Biology

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!

Spiritual practice – the basics

We talk a lot about setting up a daily spiritual practice with Brigid, but what does a spiritual practice involve?

I’ve written before about what a daily spiritual practice is. But that starts off from the position that you already know what a spiritual practice is. And not every one. I know I didn’t starting off.

Hell, it took a while for me to figure out what spirituality was, never mind the practice bit. And then, I realised I had kinda skipped over the basics. Seriously. So here we go.

What is a spiritual practice?

A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual development.

Spiritual practice – Wikipedia

Yes, I know, I keep saying Wikipedia isn’t a great source. And it isn’t. But it’s a good place to start sometimes. So there you go!

A green circle divided into 6 sections by black lines and the following in each section in black writing: Incarnational (sacramental life, the divine manifest in everyday life); Contemplative (prayer-filled life, the desert journey, the practice of presence); Holiness (virtuous life, transformed inner heart and outer habits); Spirit-filled (spirit empowered life, charismatic); Social Justice (compassionate life, kingdom change agent); Proclamation (word-centred life, evangelistic witness)
I robbed this from here: Six Spiritual Traditions | (spiritualpractice.ca) It’s the closest graphic I can find that matches my own ideas around spirituality

Now, for both the quote from Wikipedia and the graphic, there’s a bit of circular thinking here. Outlining spiritual practice as the practice of spirituality is… not very helpful! So what do we do?

Remember what spirituality is?

I wrote a post about it a few weeks ago. And fundamentally, I came back to it being personal. But there were some common elements: sense of interconnectedness; reverence for life; transcendence (which, yes, I still have issues with!); exploring the meaning of life…

Small issues. Nothing like the Big Questions raised by philosophers at all at all.

But here’s the thing. How you embody and live that spirituality is up to you.

There are plenty of examples of nuns and monks and religious orders who don’t hold those titles leading lives of contemplative prayer. (Not just Christian either!) There are examples of religious people, not necessarily part of any orders who proclaim their spirituality (I could be included in this myself, to be honest. Although hopefully I’m less pushy that some of the ones you see on the telly…) Whichever section of the circle you pick above, there are examples in modern life of those who live it.

But what does that mean when you are building a spiritual practice from scratch? Or worse, trying to unlearn less-than-helpful habits that we may have left over from previous religious or spiritual experience?

You don’t have to choose!

I mean it. You don’t have to choose one specific area that you practice your spirituality in. In fact, I’d say if you’re not following your spiritual beliefs in all areas of your life, life becomes harder!

What do I mean by this?

Well, you may find that prayer is helpful at times. Meditation might be a strengthening daily practice to help you survive life. Social activism might be a way to express how your spirituality feeds your morals, your ethics and your sense of right and wrong.

In saying that, you don’t have to tackle everything at once. In fact, I suggest trying one thing, one single thing, that feels really, really easy to start with.

And, when I say easy, I mean the sort of task or action that you’re thinking: “This can’t count, surely?”

It definitely does. This might be lighting a candle once a week. Reading something related to your spirituality for 10mins a week. Really, tiny, small steps.

The smaller the better

You might sign up for a course. You might read a blog post (ahem). It’s possible you might spend a few seconds just breathing.

The idea is, commit to something very, very small. That’s why I mention the single deep breath in my beginners course. Because, sometimes, that’s all you can commit to. And that’s ok.

You might explore some of the pathways mentioned above and see what ones appeal and what ones really aren’t for you. That’s ok. Seriously, not everything is for everyone. This path is personal!!

What “counts” as spiritual practice?

Honestly? A few mins every day where you focus on your spirituality. Whether it’s a deep breath, a prayer, meditation, lighting a candle, growing a Brigid garden… whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. What “counts” is that you show up, continually and consistently and develop your spiritual life.

And it’s ok to stay that way as well. Not everyone needs or can complete an hours long spiritual practice every day. I mean, I barely manage an hours long practice for Imbolc… so y’know, do what suits.

But ask Brigid as well. She may want something really small and easy from you – don’t let go of that option!!

Self-care, Brigid – again!

It wasn’t that long ago I started talking about self care as a spiritual practice (last April to be exact!) Now, there are of course mentions of self care previously on the blog and if you do a search on the side bar, you’ll see all that.

But in relation to this as a specifically spiritual practice, not so much. So today, for a few different reasons (one being it’s my first day back in work after a week off so my brain needs time to settle…) I’m going to dive into what my self care looks like. I’ll also throw some practical ideas at you to see about getting you started.

To get us started, here’s a definition of self-care from dictionary.com

the act of attending to one’s physical or mental health, generally without medical or other professional consultation (often used attributively):

How do I work my self care
There are two images side by side here. The first is of a dark haired woman sitting in the bath with a bath shelf full of lotions, potions, lit candles, greenery, that sort of thing. And she's smiling and it all looks lovely and calm and soothing. The second pic is of a different dark haired woman sitting with bills and a calculator in front of her, marking out days on the calendar. First woman is wearing what looks like a dark swimming togs, the second is wearing a yellow top and jeans. For me - both of these images could be self care. The latter more than the former to be honest!
I have to admit, my self care sometimes looks more like the second image there than the first!!

Above are two images of what self care might look like. And, I’ll be honest, the second one happens more often than the first for me.

Here’s the thing. I looked at the various sources on the internet and looked at what my health needs on a regular basis. And by health, I took a seriously holistic view here.

I looked as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, started at the bottom and worked my way up. No, seriously, this is what I did. And I defined for myself and my darlin’ husband, what that meant for us. Both in terms of self-care and in terms of what we need for daily life!

Image shows a visualisation of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. There are 5 layers to the pyramid: Bottom, red, physiological needs (air, water, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction); next, organse safety needs (personal security, employment, resources, health, prosperity); middle, lighter orange Love and belonging (friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection); Second to top, green, Esteem (respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom); top, self-actualisation, blue (desire to become the most that one can be)
Image of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

So, yes, we started at the bottom. Air, despite the rain we have in Ireland, isn’t a massive issue in Ireland. Most of the time anyway. Particularly when you live in the Irish countryside. Obviously air pollution is an issue world wide, but we are in a better position than most!

About eight years ago, we moved to a different house. Bigger, suits us better, in an environment that allows us to sleep better and get the peace we need in life. Even my darlin’ husband admits he sleeps better in our semi-rural location than he did in the middle of town. For some reason, cattle lowing is a lot easier to sleep with than motor bikes revving up and down the street…

When we realised how much of a difference that had made to our lives we worked further up the chart. While money isn’t mentioned specifically here, “resources” appear in the second tier – looking at clearing our debt was an early action. Feeling that we had enough money and resources to live made a massive difference to us and it took a combination of things. Mainly clearing debt and earning more, but there were other things as well.

My four pillars of self-care

I came down to 4 pillars of self care for us. And I’ll throw some ideas for each as I go.

First is sleep. This is absolutely foundational to my health and well being. When I start going off track on pretty much anything, it comes back to sleep. Part of this is making sure the bedroom is at the right temperature; it’s (relatively) tidy; dark; calm; I’m wearing comfy jammies; sheets are clean.

It sounds a lot, but it’s worth it. And when I start feeling off, or disgruntled, or whatever, sleep is where I look at first. This also includes struggling to get up in the morning, or waiting until my 3rd or 4th alarm to get out of bed. This usually means I need to go back to looking at my bedtime, making sure the last hour before bed is conducive to calming down.

Second is water. Now, because I spent many years using water to suppress my appetite, water can be a bit difficult for me to maintain in moderation. But equally, as part of self-care, hydration is important. And, to be fair, I usually drink 1 cup of coffee a day and other than that, it’s water. So, drinking 3 L a day isn’t the end of the world. However, I am also really bad at recognising cues from my body until they get extreme, so to an outsider, I can go from “absolutely grand” to “holy hell, dehydration headache from hell” in a split second.

I don’t of course. I can just ignore most of my body signals for a long time!!

Next comes food. Now, I’ve mentioned before that I have had some issues in the past with disordered eating. Food is a major problem for me a lot of the time. It’s easier to push it all out to someone else. Or ignore food until I’m starving and then I just grab a chocolate bar. Seriously – if I feel nauseous, the answer is usually to eat something. But, there are other complications. I know I feel better when I eat a broad range of fruit and veggies. When my food intake is based around “eating a rainbow” and making sure I get lots of protein, rather than basing it on carbs. I tend to have more energy that way. But it’s hard. And usually require prep work.

Finally, movement. This is another one that’s tough for me. It’s another way of expressing self-care to use “movement” rather than “exercise”, by the way. Another hangover from my disordered eating days. Because to me, movement encompasses more than exercise. But it’s also less scary. It doesn’t mean exercising til I throw up. It means dancing, yoga, stretching, walking. So much more.

Time for some solid ideas

So here some ideas.

  • Sleep: Do you get enough sleep? There are times in life that no one gets enough sleep. If you have a small baby, even 2 hrs in a row might seem like luxury. So don’t take this as gospel. But a bit of journaling around what helps you sleep might help bring some ideas to light. I’ve mentioned what I need above – it’s a nice short-ish, succint-ish list. It has also taken years to compile. So why not take a few mins and journal around sleep, how you feel about sleep and what you want from your sleep?
  • Water: I understand that not everyone drinks water like I do. And indeed, as part of self care, there are a lot of time, especially when I get too hot, that a fizzy drink is really what I want, so I get it. And I do occasionally enjoy an alcoholic drink or two. (Ahem, there are friends of mine reading this that will actually LOL at that. But my drinking has reduced dramatically in recent years!) So maybe “hydration” will work better for you than “water” here. Make these ideas work for you!
  • Food: Again, there is no One True way with food. You may have eating habits that work extremely well for you, support you, fit with your life… which is brilliant and I’m delighted that food isn’t an issue for you. But you might also be like me where eating is a massive challenge at times. it helps to have snacks around that taste good, are easy to eat, fit in with your view of good eating, that sort of thing.
  • Movement: This varies a lot for me. There are days when it feels really good to get all sweaty, and tired, and achy. There are other days when it’s as much as I can do to get my physio exercises done. And there are days where no amount of self-care or motivation will have me engage with movement at all. But this is about what you do most days, rather than once in a while. What does a nice self-care-y movement practice look like for you?
Moving on from here

I do have a five day challenge that’s run by email and gives you 5 days of journal prompts – closely following the four pillars above, with a few extra bits thrown in. You can sign up here and see what it’s about.

The most important thing is to see what works for you. Yes, of course, there are times when a nice massage or body treatment is exactly the best self care for you. But there are other times when putting that money or energy towards paying bills or cleaning the house would be better for you.

You are the important thing though. You are the centre of this work. Brigid needs you to look after yourself, so you can do the work she has for you. But you get to determine what that self-care looks like. No one else.

And if all of that is just too much, that’s ok. Go back to one deep breath a day. If all you have is those 5 seconds before the baby starts crying or the phone starts ringing or whatever it is that starts your adrenaline pumping: take one single deep breath. And commit to it. And work on from there.

Don’t feel spiritual?

What to do when you just don’t feel spiritual? Honestly, happens to the best of us. Let’s take a look at what’s possible and what we can do to help ourselves.

What to do when you just don’t feel spiritual? Honestly, happens to the best of us. Let’s take a look at what’s possible and what we can do to help ourselves. I know last week, I spoke about the importance of silence in my spiritual practice. And it’s many benefits. But sometimes, I just don’t feel spiritual enough…

It’s not the end of the world, and a lot of the time, the gods don’t worry too much about how we’re feeling when we do something. So, if you light a candle in a grumpy mood, that’s probably ok. In the paragraphs below, we’ll discuss a few things we can do when we’re just not feeling spiritual.

Show up anyway
Image of a very grumpy looking black and white eagle stalking along the beach, with the words "me going on a stupid little daily walk for my stupid physical and mental health" written in black across the top. I say beach, but it does kinda look like he's walking in the very shallow bit of the beach, no sign of sand. But it does capture my general feelings on the days I just don't feel spiritual.
I think of this meme frequently, when doing this for my mental and physical health!

There are reasons why we all do things we don’t want to do. That meme above is one I return to time and time again. I may not always want to do weights or I may not always want to meditate. But I also know when I don’t do those things, I suffer. Mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally… I suffer.

So, sometimes, just showing up and doing the thing works. As in, you get some benefit from it. Just because you don’t feel spiritual, doesn’t mean you aren’t getting the benefit from it. Trust me. I mentioned above lighting a candle grumpily. And that eagle is a perfect picture of how I feel those days.

I don’t feel spiritual. I’m still going to sit here and be silent, but I don’t feel spiritual. And I’m not going to. And you can’t make me. So there. (If you could imagine this in the fashion of a 2yr old, sitting with arms crossed, scowling and pouting, you’ve got the image!)

But you will still get benefit from it. I swear. Even if it’s a time out from your own head for a bit.

Change your clothes

Yeah, I know, I rarely talk about the clothes I wear for rituals, aside from being unbound and without any binding I can remove. But there are clothes that help me feel more spiritual. Green dresses work very well for me.

I know, you’re looking at me going, “what the hell?” But seriously. If you are very much not feeling spiritual and need or want to get in the groove… Change your clothes. (And also, if you want a nice little rabbit hole to dive into: go use Google Scholar to search for “spiritual clothes“. It’s amazing the research you come across!)

But seriously, clothing can change your mindset. And for those days when you just don’t feel the spirituality – try clothes that you usually use for rituals. Or spiritual activities. Or indeed the extra special clothes that you are planning to wear at some point for a spiritual exercise, but nothing special enough has come up yet.

Today is the day for trying them. Trust me.

Have a shower

Seriously – even a normal shower is a really great way for an energetical cleanse. A good scrub does wonders for resetting the mind and the spirit. Especially if you feed grubby in general – which doesn’t always have anything to do with your physical state of cleanliness.

When you’re not feeling spiritual, a good shower can help wash away the mundane world. If you’re really adventurous, you can always go for a wild water bathe, in a river or a lake. Although, check the weather. I’d personally rule this out for most of the year in Ireland!

This is a pic of the river Shannon a few years ago, surrounded by trees covered in frost, with a small weird in the foreground. While outdoor bathing is great for reigniting your spirituality - maybe avoid it on days like this!)
Picture of the Shannon in winter a few years ago. I’m not advising outdoor bathing in this type of scenario, ok?

Water is healing and wonderful. And in my opinion, even a simple hand wash can be made spiritual.

Brush your hair!

I know, this is almost all personal care, but seriously, a good hair brushing is a great way to awaken energy. And it doesn’t look or feel overtly spiritual, so it feels a bit more realistic or achievable sometimes for me than some of the overtly spiritual stuff.

I mean, I don’t brush my hair every day. I have curly hair and brushing makes it frizzy. I do de-knot it every day, but that’s different! But I do know that brushing my hair, in the same way as the washing mentioned above, helps me reset my brain a bit. And then, putting into a style I associate more with spiritual activities (read: loose), helps me get in the frame of mind, I need.

Go for a walk or do something to get you sweaty

This is also a great way to help reset your mind when you just don’t feel spiritual. Seriously – getting sweaty by doing something. It doesn’t need to be walking, but something that moves your body and gets the blood pumping. And yes, sex is a great way to do this, either solo or with partners.

Again, the thought here is to get out of your own way. I’ve yet to meet someone who can maintain a coherent thought process through orgasm. And if you are maintaining a coherent thought process, are you really orgasming? Seriously now…

But just that body movement will help things. Even if it doesn’t result in orgasm.

Pray

Yeah, I know, you’re not feeling spiritual in any way, shape, or form and here I am suggesting prayer of all things. But it can help. I mean, you can pray to help you feel more spiritual…

This is a bit of an offshoot of “Show up anyway” I mention above, I get that. But sometimes, just repeating the words of a familiar prayer can help you get in the right frame of mind. And again, you don’t need to be praying with any great intention in mind. Simply repeating the words can be enough sometimes to help you move mindset.

There ye go

There’s six options to try when you just don’t feel spiritual. I hope you find them helpful, but if you have others, sure throw me an email or a comment below! And don’t forget, the First Steps on Brigid’s Path is starting 1st August, (so this is no good to you if you’re only seeing this on the 5th!!) but this is the sort of thing we work through there as well.

Spiritual values and Brigid

We’re talking about spiritual values in the Brigid’s Path Collective right now and I thought it a discussion worth bringing to a wider sphere. So, in this post, I’ll be exploring what are spiritual values, why they’re important and how you figure out what yours are!

Y’see, a lot of coaches (and trust me, I’ve been through many of them) start off with highlighting what are your personal values. It helps to hone in on what areas of life you want to focus on with regard to the coaching. So, you can see how I’d be concerned with determining someone’s spiritual values when engaging with spiritual coaching.

What are spiritual values?

We’re going dictionary definitions here. Collins dictionary just for a change.

The value of something such as a quality, attitude, or method is its importance or usefulness. If you place a particular value on something, that is the importance or usefulness you think it has.

Spiritual means relating to people’s thoughts and beliefs, rather than to their bodies and physical surroundings. 

– Collins Dictionary

Now, we’ve talking about what spirituality is before on this blog. I won’t go through all that again. But, it is worth a read, or indeed a re-read if it’s something you want to revisit.

Here though, I looking at specifically spiritual values. Our values are things we hold dear and being clear on our values and committing to living our lives in line with these values makes life more coherent and decision-making easier. Honestly.

For example, one of my general values in honesty. I say pretty often that what you see is mostly what you get with me. This isn’t necessarily a spiritual value as such. But I use it in my spiritual life as well. And it makes life easier not having to remember what I told to who whenever I’m speaking to people.

Now, it could be said that honesty is a spiritual value, in that it related to my thoughts and beliefs, rather than anything physical. But y’know, it’s a value I hold dear and not specifically just in a spiritual sense. And the same could be said about many values.

Gonna be honest, I tried to find a relevant pic for "spiritual values" and couldn't find one. So, here's a nice relaxing pic of a pile of three pale coloured stones sitting one on top of another in 3 concentric circles drawn in what looks like sand
Gonna be honest, I tried to find a relevant pic for “spiritual values” and couldn’t find one. So, here’s a nice relaxing pic of a pile of three pale coloured stones sitting one on top of another in 3 concentric circles drawn in what looks like sand

There are loads of lists for this sort of thing on google. Go have a search.

I have found some I find particularly related to my spiritual work though.

Values I consider predominantly spiritual
  • Clarity about teaching: Some of ye will be aware of this already, but when I’m writing anything or teaching anything, I am careful to highlight what I’m basing on fact, lore or other firm foundations and what is personal gnosis. This is important, particularly in spirituality, because personal gnosis is absolutely valid – but only to me. Not necessarily to everyone else.
  • Honesty: Yes I know, I said honesty was a general value. But it’s also a spiritual value. The difference is, that with spiritual stuff, I have to be honest with myself. If I know why I’m doing something, or why something is important, then I can make better decisions. This doesn’t mean I make decisions because of altruistic reasons. I am aware that, actually, I like the attention I get from teaching, coaching and mentoring. And it’s ok to like it. I have to be careful not to let it be my only source of validation though.
  • Standing up for the cowless: The less powerful, or indeed the powerless, in any society need people to stand up for them. Brigid has made it clear this is part of my work and it is something I take seriously. This means writing to my TDs and senators sometimes. Sometimes it means donating time or money. Sometimes it means just talking to people. (even if I hadn’t mentioned Brigid, ye’d hve copped the spiritual value connection here, right? Right?)
  • Rarely is something black and white: Y’see, I can’t even make this statement black and white. “always”, “never” are two words I rarely use anymore. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, but it ties into my honesty stuff. It’s so rare that any situation is black and white. (I mean, we can all agree that killing children is wrong right?) But there is nearly always context, grey areas, history, etc, etc, etc to consider.
Why are spiritual values important?

Well, I said earlier that spiritual values help us live our lives without having to make decisions without guidance. We can sometimes depend on other people for guidance, sure. But we can’t always be sure on what their agendas are. What are their goals for your decision?

Having a list of spiritual values you hold dear and have gathered for yourself offers that guidance. And you know they’re in line with your values and how you want to live your life, because you’ve determined them. Well – hopefully after reading this blog post, you’ll sit down and spend some time considering what are your spiritual values, anyway.

Because, our spiritual values, no more than our non-spiritual ones, can creep into our lives un-noticed. I used to have extremely strong values around attending Mass. That’s purely from my childhood where – as far as I can remember – I missed Mass once in the first 18years of my life and that’s when I was so sick from tonsilitis, my parents were concerned about leaving me alone in the house for the hour it took them to get to Mass and get home. They even skipped the Sunday papers that week to get home to me quicker. (I had slept for the entire time and I’m not sure I was really aware they were gone…)

For me, being aware of my spiritual values and reconnecting with them regularly helps me live my life in a way I’m happy with. I was miserable when I was working in the defence industry. It was only years afterwards that I considered it went completely against my (mostly) pacifist values. No wonder I was unhappy!

What are your spiritual values?

And how do you figure out what they are?

Well, what things guide your choices in life? If you look at a long list of values (seriously, millions of the damn things available on the internet), what resonates? What doesn’t?

If you look at what guides your decisions in life, you may find that sometimes, or indeed, often, you make decisions that are not in-line with your values. Spiritual or otherwise. That possibly might indicate the list of values you profess to be important are not, in actual fact, more important that the ones you use to guide your decisions. This isn’t the end of the world. Maybe you view your values as aspirational rather than current?

Be careful on that slope though. There’s no point in saying that ethical treatment of animals is important to you, if you then go and consistently buy meat regardless of how you know the animals are being treated. And in the modern age, there’s very little excuse for not educating yourself on how animals are treated in any given area or country.

Now that doesn’t mean you can never buy meat again. Perhaps you place the value of the nutrition the meat provides above the treatment of animals. That is a valid and ok choice to make. (Before everyone starts crowding in with “there’s loads of alternatives”, sure, maybe there are for you, but there may not be in every area of the world. Compassion is also a spiritual value people… one that’s ignored far too much!)

Honestly, I tend to find a bit of mediation and spending time with Brigid helps with this.

How to figure it out?

To a certain extent, separating your spiritual values from your normal, everyday ones might not be the biggest use of your time. For you, having a general list of values might be grand and fine.

But you might like to spend a bit of time uncovering what values you are espousing, consciously or not, and whether these are the values you want to espouse in the future. So here we go.

Sit down. I find sitting better than standing or lying, same as I find writing better than typing or speaking for this. But, as always, you do you. You can use the meditation to meet Brigid as a basis for this meditation, or indeed any other meditation you enjoy. The important thing is you get in touch with the core of who you are.

Spend some time looking back over decisions you’ve made and look at the driving factors that influenced them. This will almost certainly help you out with what values you were working with at that time. List them out. See how you feel about them.

It’s ok to not feel 100% happy. Seriously, it’s ok. We grow and learn. People change over time and what was ok 10 years ago probably isn’t ok now. The important thing is to recognise that you’ve changed and grown.

See how you feel about the list you come out with. See how you want to change it. Maybe put the list up on your desk or in your journal – somewhere you can see it regularly.

Then live your life.

You’ll be amazed at how easy some things get.

Brigid Catholicism Paganism

I’ve written about a Brigid practice mixing Catholicism and Paganism before. (Check out those posts here) But it has been coming up again recently and I thought I’d write about it again. So here we go. Brigid Catholicism Paganism might seem controversial as a title, but trust me…

I’m going to put a warning in here that while what I’m writing about here is based on my study and experience, the whole damn post needs to be considered UPG. OK?

It has to be admitted, there are some clear conflicts between the Roman Catholic teachings and paganism. The first and main one is the first commandment: I am the Lord, your God, you shall have no other gods before me”. (I will be referring to the Roman Catholic Church as RCC for the rest of the post to save myself typing it out!)

An image showing the Brigid mural in Dundalk, with the left hand side showing the nun/saint in a green cloak, white wimple and brown sleeve and the right hand side showing the pagan deity, with loose red hair, a white quill and flames in the background, wearing a torque around her neck. Brigid Catholicism and Paganism in the public eye in Ireland.
An image of the Brigid mural in Dundalk, showing pagan deity and Christian saint, by artist Friz. Brigid Catholicism and Paganism in the public eye in Ireland.

The engineer in me says this doesn’t preclude the existence of other gods, just that the RCC God wants to be first in our devotions. That’s not the mainstream view of things however. So, let’s dive into this.

One God

See, I do actually believe that there is one divine power in this world. This makes me definitely not a hard polytheist. But equally, I don’t fully align with soft polytheism either. And, while this belief appears to be very convenient, I have come to this after many years of thought, study, engagement, etc. I’m hesitant to even type it out, to be honest, because this will not work for everyone. But, I work with Brigid, Catholicism and Paganism, and that colours my beliefs in ways that I do sometimes struggle to explain.

For me, there is one Divine force in the universe. Similar to gravity. I don’t believe that any deity is pulling from a wholly unique power to activate their godhood. Or deification. I firmly believe that any being regarded as a deity in this world is pulling from this Divine Power. There is only one of them. This is where I agree with the RCC.

Where I disagree? Is that their depiction of deity is One True Way. The only right depiction of deity. From working with Brigid, as a Catholic and as a pagan, I know this not to be true. In my experience.

My own path

I have been working on developing the framework I’m calling “Brigid’s Path” for several years. In fact, the first introductory course is available now, but we won’t be starting classes until August. (It’s six months, so leads us nicely into Imbolc!) And I have arrived at a mix of Brigid, Catholicism and paganism that works for me. Right now, anyway!

But I started off firmly in the RCC camp. As a teenager and young adult, I didn’t even consider being pagan, it just wasn’t part of my worldview. Being Catholic was an inherent part of my identity. When I moved to England, I considered the differences between my practice and the English Catholics to be because I was Irish.

Then I started learning about synchronicity. And I started looking into just how Christianity had spread to Ireland. And about how many of our folk practices most likely hark back to pagan practices.

Then I started engaging with my own experiences with Brigid in particular, but also with Mary, St. Therese of Lisieux, the rest of the Tuatha de Danann… Things just aren’t clear cut. And I questioned some of the RCC teachings even more. I did a lot of reading around how the church managed it’s affairs throughout the centuries. Honestly, power appeared to be more important a lot of the time than spirituality.

Liminal saint

Brigid straddles the line between Catholicism and paganism. I’ve worked with her as saint and deity. She’s forced me to look at things different and less as black and white. And it’s forced me to look at the fundamental teachings of the church. As in, what Jesus actually said, as opposed to the centuries of arguing that have followed.

I also looked at other holy books, from other religions. And honestly, most of them preach similar fundamentals. Be decent. Treat others properly. Work to your conscience and ethics. Do the thinking and work required to develop that conscience and the ethics.

So, when I see the basic truths there, I don’t see a major problem with engaging with Brigid in Catholicism and Paganism. She is as she is and I am as I am. Neither of us really go towards clear cut delineation.

This isn’t an easy path. And honestly, it’s a lot easier to write about at this stage in my life than it would have been 5, 10, 15 years ago.

Before you jump in

There are a few things to consider before you jump into a path similar to mine.

People will and do judge. People have referred to my path as “pick and mix”, “new agey”, “diddering”, etc, etc, etc. These are not meant as compliments. And they ignore the work done to get to where I am.

But neither am I really concerned with these people. The people who think my path is less valid or less thoughtful, are not the people who are meant to engage with me. At least, not right now. I have said before that anyone engaging with Brigid will struggle to deal with purely the saint or purely the deity. Brigid takes Catholicism and paganism and works in both spheres.

So, be aware of this. Be aware of the backlash you may experience. You may not, or the backlash you experience may be from people you don’t really care about (I mean, there are loads of people talking about me a lot of the time. Mostly, they don’t bother me!) Be prepared for people to question these things and that the questions they ask may send you down a route of investigation that lands you somewhere new.

The point is to be open and receptive, but also use your critical thinking skills. Not everyone has a valid point to make. And the point they make, you may even have considered and reconciled for yourself already. So, trust yourself – do the work, complete what you need to complete, listen to who you need to listen to and make up your own mind.

Brigid’s Path

I’ve designed Brigid’s Path for those of us who don’t sit fully in one bucket or the other. Or perhaps, like Brigid herself, feel a calling towards both Christianity and Paganism. Or think you might be in one place but want to be more certain…

The steps are, on the face of it, fairly simple.

Core beliefs and self-knowledge: Brigid asks you to explore the places you are limiting yourself. And to know yourself, deeply and thoroughly.
Reconciling the past: Here, Brigid asks you to face and deal with the elements of past spiritual practice that has not been beneficial to you.
Joy: Brigid is not opposed to joy. It’s important to take a look at what makes your soul sing, whether it be human, divine or Brigid herself!
Three marks of a poet: Brigid doesn’t call everyone to be a poet, but there are elements of the poet to be felt on this path. This means delving deep into the knowledge that illuminates, words when needed and true knowing of things.
The path forward: Brigid isn’t just pulling you to her path, she’s pulling you to the path you need to walk. It’s important to explore more deeply the path of learning, the path of knowing and the path of exploring so that you know which path is best for you right now.
Your cauldron: There is no One True Way to follow Brigid, and here, she is calling you to create, nurture and grow your own cauldron. It’s important to set regular time aside to explore what has changed for you over this time, what you still want to change and confirm for you your path forward with Brigid. Or indeed, without Brigid!

But if you do this work, it’s hard. It’s worthwhile. Also, it’s never ending… It’s massively helpful in defining your beliefs, whether you’re interested in Brigid, Catholicism and Paganism or some other path entirely. But my expertise, such as it is, is with Brigid, Catholicism and Paganism. So I’m teaching and coaching from that perspective.

Hope this helps!

Ireland is not full

I know, controversial topic. But, seriously, Ireland is not full. And not only are we not full, but there is a serious history in this country of emigration being the problem, not immigration.

According to studies referenced at least, if not researched there, in UCC, about ten million people have emigrated from Ireland since 1800. 10 million. It’s no wonder our population is so low, even now.

And, yes, it is traditional to blame the Great Famine, An Gorta Mór, but it’s not just the famine at fault here. We were a colony of England, and later Britain, from the 16th century on. (Well, from the 12th century on if you’re being very accurate) Colonies don’t tend to get a lot of immigration… unless you count the small number of overlords trying to control the population.

Lebor Gabála Érenn

Yup, we’re heading back to our mythology to defend the “Ireland is not full” position.

Images reads: Ireland is not full! Ní tír lán í Éireann (means Ireland is not full in Irish) in red text on a white background

Our foundation myths are basically about invasions. Now, I cover a lot of this in the course on Brig in LGE. But here’s the thing: In this country we have a history of people invading us. And LGE has an entire list of the invasions – in this instance Wikipedia actually has a decent article on this!

But nowhere in the literature here do the writers suggest that Ireland was too full to accept them. Whether the Tuatha de Danann, Fir Bolg, Milesians… they all came in waves, settled, and were absorbed into the population. Or, conquered the existing population, and there was a blend of customs and happenings.

Now, of course, we don’t know for definite that this is exactly what happened, but it appears to be the way of things from archaeology and mythology.

An Górta Mór

The Famine is a great example of just how many people this land could support. Approx running from 1845 – 1850 ish (Listen to Finn Dwyer’s series on the podcast to see why even the dates are a bit wandery…) But in that series, or in one of his many Famine related epsiodes, he mentioned that ok, the 1841 census called out approx 8.2m people on the island. But because of the census takers being reluctant to investigate fully the more rural or isolated areas of the country, there are some suspicions that the census was actually underestimating population by about a third, meaning the population was closer to 12million.

Seriously, it makes our current population of approx 7million on the island a bit pathetic. Ireland is full? And it not even at the level of the famine? Ireland is not full.

Now, there are those who point out that most of the Irish were living on potatoes at that point, which is fair. But Ireland was also feeding Britain at the time as well. All those ships we hear stories of leaving the island?

Check out this website for more details. I mean, it looks like 822,681 gallons of butter left Ireland for Britain in the first 9 months of 1847. Yes, Black ’47, the worst year of the Famine. So, Ireland, even with the shortage of spuds, could still feed Britain. We’re not short of food for our people, if we manage our land corrently.

Emigration

When I was growing up, I never head the term “immigration” in relation to Ireland. The problem was always “emigration”. Seriously, no one can wander around the west of Ireland in particular and claim “Ireland is full”. That’s just ridiculous. I’ve written a little bit about this before as well.

For years, we have been a very insular society and our major issue was the leaking of bright young people (and some not-so-bright and some not-so-young) from our shores. The de-population of certain areas of the country, in particular Connacht, Munster and other highly rural areas, has been the topic of concern for generations. Now, I can guarantee the accuracy of this report, but I found it extremely interesting reading.

Emigration in Ireland comes in waves, but it’s also pretty much constant. I myself emigrated to England for 11 years, then came home. And that’s one bonus since the 80’s. Before the “Celtic Tiger” years (1995 – 2007 roughly speaking) emigrants left and never returned. But the Celtic Tiger brought some emigrants home.

And even today, with many emigrant leaving on temporary visas (and, if we’re honest, with increased ability to track them in different countries around the world), more emigrants are returning home. It’s brilliant to see.

And, yes, I’m including myself in this.

The problem currently

The problem currently is that Ireland is accepting people from very different ethnicities and cultures and it’s coming as a bit of a shock to certain elements of the population. I will reiterate: Ireland is not full.

But there is a lot of right wing rhetoric coming from the UK and the US about Schrödinger’s immigrant: they’re coming both to eat up all the benefits and take all the jobs. Honestly, amazing people these.

This isn’t the way Ireland usually deals with people coming in. But then, we’re not usually welcoming people who don’t speak English, who have very little obvious cultural commonalities and who appear shocked at the sheer volume of rain we get. There is also the issue that there is significant confusion between immigrants and asylum seekers. I mean, there are significant differences.

My husband is an immigrant. He doesn’t even need a visa, because of the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland. Equally, since he’s long term sick, he doesn’t pay taxes. But he does benefit from the Drugs Payment Scheme. For some reason though, people don’t appear to have the same issues with him as they do with other immigrants… I wonder why? Ireland definitely isn’t full when it comes to people like him…

Part of it is racism. Part of it is ignorance. Part of it is concern about the way the country is not supporting the people already here. Part of it is fear.

Asylum seekers

To be clear. An asylum seeker is someone who is seeking refugee status. You can’t apply for asylum from abroad. There is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker. If you are seeking asylum in Ireland, you must be physically here to do so.

Check out this link. 2022 was the first year Ireland took more than 10,000 asylum seekers from abroad and they were predominantly from Ukraine. Ireland is not full.

The poor sods in Direct Provision, which I’ve written about before, are another story entirely. They are trapped in a horrible situation and bluntly, anyone in Ireland saying they are not welcome because Ireland is full, is missing out on a lot of our own history!

Where does this leave us?

There is a lot of rhetoric going around this country about Ireland being full. I hope in the above post, I’ve explained how not true that is.

When you hear this sort of rubbish, please challenge it. Of course we can’t accept every single refugee and asylum seeker from all over the world. That’s no problem. And, no one is suggesting that.

But equally, given the number of emigrants from this country over the centuries, maybe it’s time we started taking our fair share.

If 800 years of colonisation, brutalisation and discrimination from the Brits didn’t eradicate our culture, taking in a few poor sods fleeing death won’t either!

If you can’t see the connection between this and our spirituality… well, I’m not sure I can help with that. How we treat people should be inherent in our spirituality. Think of Brig Ambue, if nothing else.

Rigid Spirituality

I don’t associate Brigid with rigid spirituality. At all. But she is linked with some rigid spiritual structures (ahem, Roman Catholic Church…) and it can be so difficult for people coming from these rigid spiritualities to then explore a looser form of spirituality. So, I’m going to talk about it.

What do I mean by “rigid spirituality”?

Honestly, the most common measure I use for this, is assessing whether people within this spirituality expect everyone to adhere to their social, religious and moral mores.

It sounds easy right? It’s not necessarily a clear rule, but it’s reasonable. I mean, I know plenty of Catholics, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc, etc, etc, who don’t expect anyone to live by their rules. Which is good, cos there are some conflicts even within the broad categories of religious organisations.

A picture of what I think is a nebula, white circle in top of the pic with a blueish background and a wider cloud like corona around it. Towards the bottom right, there's a ray-like red wash of colour. And dots of white/ star like images scattering the background. Got it when searching for "rigid spirituality".
Nebula? Not sure. But this is one of the pics that came up when I searched for “rigid spirituality”

So, for a bit more of a concrete definition of “rigid spirituality”, here we go. First off, there are likely to be a lot of rules. Not just about how to worship, but what to wear, eat, who you may engage with, how you interact with the world.

When I think of these sort of rules, I kinda think of documentaries on the various “family compounds” in Utah. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Utah, it’s just most of the documentaries I’ve seen are based there.) These are usually one man as head of the household and multiple wives. (In the documentaries. Not in Utah in general. Nothing against Utah ok?)

There are strict lines of authority in these religious organisations. There can be very strict control over finances, even outside the family home. Huge emphasis on socialising and engaging with the religious community above secular community or those outside the community. Marriage within the community. Family only within the community. Rigid spiritual structures.

This seems focused on one particular type of spirituality.

Yeah you’re right There are other ways to express rigid spirituality. I mean, if you follow the Roman Catholic Catechism to the letter, it’s fairly strict. Over the years, various things have dropped off the list. It’s no longer a requirement in Ireland anyway for a woman to cover her hair when entering a church, although you do see the remnants of this tradition in the whole “hats for weddings” thing.

When I was growing up, I never considered Catholicism that rigid. The rules didn’t really appear to intrude on my life at all. But when I look back, there were some fairly rigid spirituality rules that kinda permeated my life.

For example, I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times I missed Mass as a child. Because it was family routine, I never considered it rigid, until I started looking around me.

The Catholic messages around abortion and having multiple sexual partners entered my subconscious, although probably not with the intentions the church had. I figured having been assaulted at a young age, I was useless as a life partner. Might as well have fun then…

I have a whole series on Catholicism, so check it out…

Why is this a problem?

Well, here’s the thing. Many people leaving rigid spirituality structures can struggle a bit with their new “freedom”. Indeed, the freedom can feel as restricting as the previous restrictions from fear if nothing else.

There can appear to be unspoken rules everywhere in general life. And this affects women more than men, because, patriarchy is inherent in the majority (read: all) of the rigid spirituality structures I’ve come across. So, when you are leaving a strict set of rules, where you always knew how to behave because the rules were usual explicit, it can be really difficult to move into a less rigid, more secular role in society.

For example, if you have always been restricted in your clothing, so that there really was very little choice in what you wore, choosing what to wear in the morning could be reasonably straight forward. Then you leave that environment and there appear to be zero rules. Except there are. Lots of rules really. But no one makes them obvious. No one hands you a rule book. You have to figure it out as you go.

Now take that uncertainty, and think of your spiritual life. There may be parts of your previous spirituality, no matter how rigid, that were comforting and helpful to you. But now, because you have left that community, you’ve lost that connection and those supports.

What do you do?

Well, honestly, this is part of my work and part of what Brigid’s Path Collective is about. It does start with getting to know yourself, as I wrote about in the last post. We move forward in deciding what’s important for you on your spiritual path. How can we develop a path for you that helps you, comforts you, supports you?

Breaking free from rigid spirituality

This work isn’t easy. And many people go their whole lives without even questioning their spirituality. This isn’t work that everyone is drawn to. Most people will just trundle along.

But for some of us, this isn’t enough. We’re not willing to just go with the flow. Not in terms of spirituality. Because it’s too important to leave to chance, or the community you were born into.

Start by questioning. Are questions allowed in your community? If not, that is a major red flag. Do you feel restricted in your current path? Another reason to start questioning.

What do you want from your spiritual life? It’s a real tough one and not one with a quippy, one-line answer. But with hard work, you can get there!

Know yourself

It’s been a while since I posted, and I’m sorry about that. But today, the message that’s coming to me is to help you get to know yourself. And looking at some questions to get to know yourself.

Seems a bit strange, right? After all, how could you not know yourself? You’ve been living with yourself for decades at this point! And it is a bit of a natural lead on from the last set of posts on getting to know Brigid. (Check out here, here and here for starters!)

But really, getting to know yourself, really know yourself, is a good first step on any spiritual path. Otherwise, you run the risk of straying from the path that suits you best, or possibly getting bound into something that’s wrong for you.

Where do I start?

Well, for me, I like to encourage people to start with a list of journaling prompts or questions to get to know yourself. If you google “questions to get to know yourself”, you will come up with millions of pages (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration) with lists of questions to get started. Here are ten of my favourites:

  • Who am I?
  • What am I?
  • What am I proud of?
  • What do I regret?
  • What am I really glad I finished, completed or achieved?
  • What am I worried about?
  • Who or what gives me comfort?
  • How can I show myself compassion?
  • What is my biggest short term goal?
  • What is my biggest long term goal?

I know. You’re looking at this right now and thinking “how in hell do I even start?”

A cartoon image of a figure with blonde hair, a hijabi with black hijab and green dress, dark hair with blue top, dark hair with yellow top and slightly less dark hair with blue top, all showing quizzical expressions and with question marks floating around their heads. How do you get to know yourself better?
How do you start getting to know yourself?
Seriously though, I don’t even know where to start with these questions.

Fair. It’s not easy at all. So here’s some help.

Make a ritual of it. Light a candle, do some meditation to start with, really ground and centre yourself. It’s easier not to go into this cold. Honestly, I’ve done this cold and it’s not worth my time.

But it can be really helpful to push yourself to make a real event for yourself here. Plan the occasion. Maybe have a sacred bath or shower beforehand. Dress comfortably. Engage with your favourite colour pen or fancy paper. Use a divination method to decide what questions to get to know yourself with!

Now, none of this is necessary. Of course, you can plop yourself down at your desk last minute and use whatever is to hand. That is always an option.

But if you are struggling to start with the questions, making a bit of ritual about it can help.

Ask Brigid

In life, we can forget about asking for help. I mean, I can’t guarantee she will appear in a flash of light, akin to what we think of when we think of the Madonna appearances. But she usually does respond to requests for help!

In a pinch, this can be a really simple, “I don’t know where to start, please help me!”

It can be a more complicated ritual all of its own. Depending on your relationship with Brigid, you will have different preferences and practices here and there’s nothing wrong with either approach. We tend to think that the Irish deities want us to be self-reliant, and they do! But they also will help us when needed.

Please, don’t worry about asking for help!

I feel like I know myself quite well

Brilliant. Then this exercise will be really easy for you! But I would argue that it’s still worthwhile.

Learning about ourselves is always valuable, in my opinion. And it’s possible, hell no, it’s probable that things will come up that are different. As people, we learn and grow throughout our lives. Your biggest regret may change over time – I know mine has! As I grow older, I find new regrets popping up all the time. And, old regrets just don’t seem that big a deal any more. Sometimes this is maturity. Sometimes it’s just the healing power of time.

We all know that life isn’t fair sometimes. And, we know that as we grow older, our outlooks change. If we are honest with ourselves, we can learn a lot about ourselves. I believe that this is a live long experience. Feel free to disagree! But it won’t change my mind about the exercise being valuable.

Are some questions better than others?

Well, here’s the thing. The best questions are those that you engage with. What suits your worldview? If you look at a list of questions, are there ones that you react strongly to? Being honest, if you are looking at a list of questions and you react either really positively or really negatively in your heart… probably a good idea to engage with that question.

But sometimes this is hard work. It sounds easy. Basically, you are sitting down and writing. Sure, what could be so difficult about that? Ye already know the answer here. In my practice, this is serious, worthwhile work. It’s not easy. Even just asking yourself to sit down with yourself and get to know yourself better… it’s hard.

So, go with your gut. Spend the time. Get to know yourself.

Then you can start tackling the really tough stuff!!

Irish Wish, Brigid, I suffered…

… so you don’t have to. I’m talking about the film, Irish Wish, and in particular, it’s portrayal of Brigid. As a bloody fairy. And then referred to as a saint. FFS.

I did not like this film. Seriously. It’s another one in the style of Rosemary and Thyme, or Darby O’Gill, etc, etc, etc.

Irish Wish is described on Wikipedia as an American fantasy and by any god you care to swear by, that’s true. Cos this isn’t Irish.

The poster for Irish Wish. Lindsay Lohan in the centre with hands at shoulder height, palms upward, shoulders shrugged in a "what to do" gesture. On either side are Ed Speleers as James Thomas and Alexander Vlahos as Paul Kennedy, trying to both look handsome.
The poster for Irish Wish
The plot

Irish Wish doesn’t want to complicate things too much, to be fair to it. Maddie Kelly (Lohan) has been secretly in love with the author (Paul Kennedy, played by Vlahos) whose book she’s editing for over a year. But he starts up with one of her best friends and three months later, they’re off to Ireland to get married. I’m presuming cos Kennedy is Irish (there are other Irish surnames, but Kennedy is a reasonably common one so I can’t really complain about this)

Shenanigans (of both the modern US definition and the darker, more traditional Irish definition I grew up with) ensue. (I’m not sure the makers of Irish Wish know about that other definition though!)

Essentially, Kelly meets a fairy (later described as “St. Brigid”) who grants her wish that she’ll be the one to marry Kennedy, even though she keeps bumping into this other lad (Speelers as James Thomas) who is brilliant and wonderful, etc, etc, etc.

Don’t worry, it all comes right in the end.

OK, this is small, I know, but really, people getting on and off buses without their tickets being checked or, indeed bought??? Bus travel isn’t free in this country unless you have the Free Travel Scheme approved. But then, this film isn’t really focused on the authenticity I think.

Then we have the women in scarves tied under their chins in a style I’ve not seen in at least three decades. It’s not that it never happens. But really, Irish Wish, do better. This is meant to be the modern Ireland right? At least the damn thing was filmed in Ireland I suppose.

Look, yes we have rain in this country. So a convertible is just plain impractical most of the time, but they do exist. The times they have the hood down? Extremely rare. Seriously. If it’s not for the rain, there’s the wind, the cold, the weather in general just isn’t that good. (Hence why I got so excited driving down a Californian highway last weekend ion a convertible with the top down!! Most on that to come) I get the fact that Irish Wish needed this convertible, but honestly, a tractor would have been more believable.

Accents

(Yes, they deserve a separate heading!)

The accents. Just… the accents. I saw a video on Youtube over the weekend that said when Judy Dench does an Irish accent, she chooses a specific Irish accent to learn. And our accents are fairly local. Seriously. There just isn’t a “generic Irish accent”. And that doesn’t help this film at all.

There are people who suggest that if they used “proper” Irish accents (read: the way we actually speak in this country) no one would understand them. Well, we manager understand English from all over the world in this country, so why not show us the same respect? I mean, we can even tell the difference between an East Coast and West Coast accent from the States… Surely ye can tell the difference between Donegal and Kerry…

The Brigid stuff – to start with

This is the bit where I do feel very strongly from a spiritual point of view. As ye might imagine.

Now, ok Irish Wish got so much else not-right, I wasn’t expecting any Brigid related content to be correct. But really – did anyone even speak to an Irish person about Brigid?

Describing her as a fairy was their first mistake. One the one hand, I get it, she’s a member of the Tuatha De Dannan, and presumably went under the hills with the rest of them when the time came. But she didn’t stay there. And she’s not a fairy in the twee, modern, Victorian sense of the world – as she appears to be presented here.

While, I can see how she would be included in the Aos Sí, or people of the fairy hills, she is also out in the country protecting and supporting the people. She has supported the people more publicly than any of the other TDD over the generations, appearing as saint when needed to do so.

Now, I know, this gets into debates far beyond the remit of Irish Wish, but still. This is important. Either we respect our deities or we don’t. If you look at Monty Python’s Life of Brian, they take the piss out of the Christ story a lot, but Christ himself is treated with an element of reverence. And the comedy comes more from Brian’s escapades copying Christ inadvertently, than anything else.

In Irish Wish, Brigid is specifically named as both fairy and St. Brigid. This shows a basic misunderstanding at best…

Mischievous???

Towards the end of the film, it is revealed that this “fairy” is St. Brigid and she’s known to be mischievous. Seriously? And that she regularly grants wishes, but only gives you what you need and not what you want.

Reducing one of our powerful saints and deities to someone who grants wishes really plays in to a part of the US ideas around Ireland that I struggle with. I could start swearing here, but I think I’d never stop, so I’ll try and refrain.

The fairies in Ireland don’t grant wishes, they make bargains. They do nothing for nothing. And usually the bargains not in the human’s favour. Read our bloody lore to find this out. And yes, ok, describing the fairies as mischievous isn’t unheard of. But it’s usually darker than simply mischievous. They don’t make good bargains.

Irish Wish is simply playing into the modern notions of twee fairies again here.

Why this affects me for Brigid in particular

Then we come to describing Brigid in particular as mischievous. This hurt. I mean, really, physically hurt. Yeah, I know, it’s a piece of fiction, but really. This is infantilising my deity and saint. This is pushing her into a box to make her easier to laugh at, to ridicule, to make less. And the worst part about it it, I doubt the writers even thought that deeply about it. They figured having St. Brigid in the film would be “topical” because of the recent introduction of our February bank holiday. Or they came across the book Bad Bridget by Elaine Farrell & Leanne McCormick.

Or maybe they just had this idea that Brigid is a common name in Ireland. (Not so common as it used to be, just FYI).

Brigid is a serious, powerful force in this world and in this country. Belittling her like this as a comedic affect is painful to watch. May no good come of it!

Conclusions

Look, Irish Wish isn’t the worst of it’s sort. I get that. They at least managed to film in Ireland. And made some attempts at accents. But the way they’ve treated my deity and saint? I can’t forgive (thankfully, my spirituality doesn’t require forgiveness of me!)

It’s not a great film anyway, even by romantic comedy standards, but the treatment of Brigid tips it over the edge for me. I can’t recommend it. Can’t ask that you watch it. I can’t support it in any way.

I appear to be irreverent at times with Brigid, I know that. But there are some basic lines I don’t cross. There are basic lines anyone working with Irish deity doesn’t cross. This film crosses a lot of them, in fact, in implication, in practice. Either we treat our deities as deities, or what are we doing here?

And yeah, I know, a lot of people watching this won’t care about these things. That’s ok, not everyone has to care about everything. But I care. And if you’re reading this blog, I hope you care as well!