MY JOURNEY WITH
BRIGHDE-BRIGANTIA-BRITANNIA
When I started my journey with Brighde many years ago now, I wasn’t aware of the many ways in which She would show Herself to me. The first few years walking my path as Her priestess, She was mostly Brighde to me, more than just Bridie the Maiden, but still quite restricted in form and character.
Getting more and more acquainted with Her stories and energy, She started showing Herself as being present through the whole year, as Bridie, Bride, Bridget and Brighid, Maiden, Lover, Mother, Crone. I also found She was more and more the land for me, more than any of her other character, She was The land. As such She started presenting Herself as Brigantia to me, a Goddess not to mess with and who invited me to stand strong in my life. I felt Her power and beauty inside and outside me and that brought me to adapt my priestess name: Marion Brigantia, with which I wanted to express my respect and connection to this ancient land.
I never had thought of Her as evolving even further, consciously that is... Later I found that She had been with me as Brighde-Ana, Lady Britannia, from the very beginning. But with working on the Priestess/Priest of Brighde, year training, the 2012 Goddess Conference approaching and me finding myself in a place of in-between, with time to connect to my soul and to the land even deeper, I really started to see Her: Britannia!
She started to ‘talk’ to me. In my case this mostly happens in poetry and images. And how She presented Herself to me that is how I put Her on paper, first in writing and then by painting Her. I found myself calling Her in and the words were full of power and full of empowerment:
Calling in Britannia
Hail Britannia
Sovereign Goddess of these lands
I am calling your stature into my life
embracing my own autonomy
in the knowledge that I am worthy
of love, abundance and joy;
and walk with you
in grace and power
Hail Britannia
Sovereign Goddess of these lands
I call your lion to my side
enhancing my own confidence
in the knowledge that I have the qualities
of passion, wisdom and strength
and walk with you
in pride and power
Hail Britannia
Sovereign Goddess of these lands
I call to me your sun shield and spear
Exposing my own radiance
in the knowledge that I have the abilities
to inspire, create and shine
and walk with you
in beauty and power
Hail Britannia
Sovereign Goddess of these lands
I am calling you into my life
into my heart, body, spirit and soul
rejoicing my own sovereignty
in the knowledge that I stand in my power;
and are one with you,
Britannia
And then I started painting Her. It was very clear that She wanted to be depicted as The Land, with Her Green Mantle, just like Bridget. In my mind I wanted Her to walk with Wolf, but that was clearly not how it was meant to be. Not even the lioness that I imagined came out, it was a young lion.
I called Her Britannia, but now I feel more and more that she is the Young Britannia, Brigantia transforming into Britannia and the ‘grown up’ Britannia is still out there to be depicted. Maybe by me, maybe by somebody else...
It was during the conference of 2012 that I also found that She had been with me for longer than I knew She had. It was again something Kathy Jones said, about Britannia being in the elements and the people of this land. I remembered that during the Brighde Retreat in 2006 I had written a poem, so close to my soul that I couldn’t read it out loud without crying. I looked it up again and noticed immediately that it had been Britannia, the land who had been calling me:
Britannia calling me
Brigit-Anna
my motherland,
is calling me.
I hear Her call in every day signs,
in smells and dreams that come to me.
Britannia,
my soul belongs to you;
Your hills, rocks and sacred stones,
your mantle, your fields of green
form the shapes of my body;
Your clear streams and wells,
your abundance of rain,
your dark lakes and wide rivers,
is the blood running through my veins;
Your stormy skies filled with
the scent of peat fires,
your white rushing clouds
through summer skies
is the air that fills my lungs;
Your strong hearted people,
the deep seated pride and courage,
the fire in their songs and traditions,
is the spirit of my being.
Brigit-Anna
take me in your loving arms
for I am your strayed child
and you are my mother,
Britannia
And three years later I answered that call and moved to Glastonbury. And six years later I returned the favour and called Her in! Because it is time to welcome Her back into our centre; Into the Centre of The Wheel, in the Avalon Wheel where She has been placed many years ago by Kathy Jones and in the Wheel of Brighde as taught in my trainings.
I feel honoured to be Her Priestess in which ever name She presents herself to me: Brighde, Brighde-Anna, Brigantia, Britannia. She is Goddess, for me and so many with me who answer her call and want to walk with Her. And as Her Priestess I to bring Her out into the world, Share Her healing, Her Fire and all the lessons She asks me to learn and teach! I want to inspire and call on people to experience Her, as the land, in ourselves and in the connection between each other. I want to reclaiming Brighde, Brigantia, Britannia, the Great Mother, She who loves unconditionally and protects Her people. She inspires us to do great things, to heal, to nurture, to learn, to create, to protect what is holy! Not at the costs of others, but in unity, community...
Marion Brigantia
November 2015
