Aspen in an orange mood

How my ordinary day seemed remarkable

RE: How my ordinary day seemed remarkable

Yesterday I had a good day. It wasnt until last night when I was journeling, that I realized that it was a remarkable day.

It began as a usual work day. I got up went to work. It was raining and reminded me of the soft rains of Ireland.

My friend Karen wasn’t at work, so I was bored with no one to distract me. At lunchtime I ran to a new bank to open a new checking account. While standing in the lobby, I realized I only had $20 bucks rather than the $25 needed to open a new account. The young woman who was the account rep, said “Oh, that’s ok. We can still open a new account for you”. When I sat down she looked at my necklace and asked me if it were a Brigid’s Cross. I replied yes and she began a dialogue about how Saint Brigid was her confirmation Saint. I told her about visiting the Nuns in Kildare Ireland a year ago. She was wide eyed and interested as I told her about it. She summed up the conversations with “I think Brigid is the best Saint of them all!” I whole heartedly agreed. What a lovely and unusual conversation for a bank lobby in Fort Collins Colorado.

The rest of my work day went by slowly and was fairly mundane. That evening I zoomed off to find a house where Edie Stone was beginning a new shamanic journey group to meet here once a month. It was a nice sized group with two men and seven women. Edie began with describing the altar/mesa and calling in the directions. She spent a lot of time calling in the above/star energy. After this, the right top of my head became really cold. Edie did some more work on me to get me grounded and present. We then went around the circle and described our spiritual path up to this point, adding what we might like to see come through this group. The backgrounds were fairly varied but mainstream. When it came time for me to speak, I had wondered how much I would divulge, but dove right in. I still sometimes worry about peoples reaction to my being a Witch will be. I didn’t use the Witch word but described my journey through Faery Wicca onto Celtic shamanism. Touched on my 23 year relationship with Brigid and being a Flame keeper.

It was great being in circle with Edie again as we often giggle and animate. The journey she led was really great. We began by a basic tree grounding. For me it was a new experience. Once I had entered alternated reality, I found my cat Whiley and scooped him purring into my arms. As I became a tree and grew roots, Whiley settled into the branches of my tree-self. I looked up to see all of my kitties hanging out in the branches. It was thrilling and delightful.

At this point of the journey, I was greeted by Brigid of Kildare who offered me a visit to her ancient wooden church. When we entered, I found a circle of 18 women seated on the ground - with Brigid and I, that made 20. I was asked to sit down and join them. I was handed a small handmade taper. Brigid lit hers from the embers in the middle of the circle. She lit the candle of the Sister on her left. That sister then lit the next candle and so on around the circle. Each saying a line of prayer to each as it went around. I took my turn and felt humbled to be able to participate. Once all the candles were lit the prayer changed slightly and we all said it together three times.

I was invited to come back and promised I would. It seems that whenever I enter those gates of Kildare I don’t know if I am to be greeted by Brigid the Saint, Brigid the Woman, or Brigid the Faery Queen and Goddess. She truly is a triple goddess.

Later back in circle I recounted my two adventures, one as a tree full of cats and the other as a participant in a Flame keeping ritual. Other people had varied and amazing journeys. We also did more energy work and closed with enthusiasm to get together again.

As we were all saying goodbye, people I had never met before were so generous in their hugs and well wishes. I had a interesting conversation with June about her resistance to anything Celtic… she mentioned that she knew she had Celtic ancestors, she just shuts down when any related conversation pops up. I giggled and mentioned that she now had a trickster in her journey circle who would make sure that “anything Celtic” was thrown her way whenever I got the chance. She laughed and said that she had already figured that would happen with both Edie and I in the same group. WWWWWWWWeeeee.

On the way out the door, I was joined by an older tall woman. She had been very quiet all night and I don’t remember her name. As we said good night her eyes twinkled and she said in her ‘British’? accent that she would love to talk about Brigid with me sometime as she was very dear to her. I told her that I would love that. I did not get her contact info – so I sure hope she shows up at another journey circle.

My secret fantasy is to sometime in the future have enough Flame keepers on the north end up here, that I could facilitate a Brigids group. (A combination shamanic journey group and flame keeper circle.) I pretty much know enough about myself to realize that I just never have found it easy to work with large groups. Coordinating 19 women is not easy. Thus, I only organize the Imbolc gathering and don’t facilitate any other ceremonies during the year. If I had a core group of 5-8 women that would commit to meeting at least once a month, I would be thrilled. I just get so drained by the coordinating and planning.

Anyway, I got home late and was happy but not really putting any pieces together- until I began journaling. Once I filled in the details of my journey to the Flame keepers ritual, I realized I had just hashed out what I was going to do for this coming Imbolc. Its all so simple yet poignant. I then looked back in my journal to a year ago and how the messages I have been receiving from spirit are so very simple but amazingly powerful. It could be that before this phase of my life, that I never recognized these messages & prayers to be as important as they are. And now, here all in one day, I was inundated with people and experiences all having to do with Brigid.

What a perfect day. To have Brigid incorporated into my mundane life, going to the bank, to strengthening my relationship with her so much that I want to lead a new circle someday. I think that I will either do another workshop at the Moon Circle or at Earthstar early next year and see what the level of interest is up here in Fort Collins. It may be that within a year, I pass the reins of the Boulder Flamekeeprs group onto someone else. This may seem basic, but for me its enormous.