Brighid: Pledges, passion & purpose

On Friday night I anchored and facilitated a Reclaiming-style Brighid/Imbolc ritual. When I say anchor I mean I proposed the event, put my energy and will behind it, made sure it manifested and enlisted the help of others who were willing to participate and facilitate too. Others helped and collaborated in logistical ways: looking for a venue, sharing the event, helping to clean the hall afterwards; and also magical ways: taking on ritual roles and assisting with the overall coherence and intention of the ritual. That’s how we roll in Reclaiming.

I’ve heard it said that Reclaiming ritual is tight and well-functioning, and from my observation of various ritual styles and within various traditions (and a decade’s worth of experience in Reclaiming ritual in WitchCamps, core classes, circles, covens, public rites) I’d say that checks out. Certainly our form of ritual is clear and lucid and has the opportunity, with anchored and skilled facilitation, to produce “tight and clean” ritual. This means that certain things are contextualised and communicated in the beginning before ritual in what we call ritual conspiracy for new-comers. This means that there is a likely order: Acknowledge Country and Traditional Owners, Ground, Cast the Circle/Step between the Worlds/Create Working Container, Acknowledge/Invoke/Honour the Elements of Life, Invoke any other Allies/Mysterious Ones/Spirits if desired or needed. Then there is the “meat/tofu” of the ritual: things like trance-journeys of various kinds, divination, oracular work, moving meditations, visiting stations, aspecting and tending, power-raising, spellcraft, spiral-dances, stillness, silence… And…

…I am sure you’ve all had these moments, especially if you are a leader in community, ritual facilitator, priestess, professional spirit-worker, community witch or pagan… Sometimes, after everything, through it all, we might have thoughts and feelings that might resemble:

“What the fuck am I doing this for?”
“I don’t feel particularly into this right now?”
“Ugh…”
“This is lovely, but…”
“People suck.”

So, back to this Brighid ritual. There is a part in some Reclaiming Imbolc-time rituals in which we make pledges, either verbally or silently, before the flame and the well, or before the priestesses aspecting Brighid. We do this one at a time and the circle holds silence and witnesses these pledges. As I moved closer to the altar to model this process that had already been explained – but in Reclaiming we like to be as clear as possible – I felt the firm presence of Brighid the Smith and She transmitted this to me:

Sometimes we just do the work. Sometimes we just turn up. Sometimes we just cook the meal. Sometimes we just get out of bed. Sometimes we just pray. Sometimes we just ask for help. Sometimes we just walk. Sometimes we just listen. Sometimes we just sit there.

I sighed. Thank-you Great One, thank-you Brid, my Beloved. Sometimes we just do the thing. I don’t have to feel a certain way or have a certain thing happen, sometimes I just serve. I’ve been in this place before, know this well, and sometimes I need to be reminded.

A beloved approached me after the Circle had been magically released and people were grounding with food and chatter and asked how I thought it had gone. I replied, “It was solid service.” 

Sometimes it’s just solid service. And that’s more than enough. I could hear the whispers of witches and folk around me who had clearly had strong or intense experiences in the ritual or with Brighid, their pledges, the energy, etc. I have anchored and facilitated witchcraft ritual all over the world, in many lands, and with a variety of communities, traditions, covens, groups, and kin. Something always happens. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t continue to do it.

Lately I have been so overwrought with commitments that I have willingly assented to, responsibilities that I agree to, and work that I need to do in order to pay the bills and eat. This year is the 11th year I have been self-employed, spirits-led, and fully engaged in the work that I do. This work can be denigrated and ridiculed both from within pagan and witchcraft circles and from the “outside” world that doesn’t understand it. There are so many reasons why that is the case and they largely have to do with intersectional privilege, the impacts of capitalism and imperialism, the witch trials and their legacy, and an agenda to have as many people feel disempowered as possible to keep the cogs turning in the machine.

My pledge this Imbolc, this Feast of Mighty Brighid, was this, to love my passions and to make way for them. Three times this was sealed for me between the worlds by the ring of hammer on anvil.

And so my purpose then, this year and a day, is to meet that pledge and be met by the wonders, challenges, and wisdom that the making of this pledge will bring into my life.

I’m a little terrified, but then again, if I don’t leave a working of witchery not feeling some sense of awe or ecstatic communion, then… maybe I just turned up, and that is always more than enough.

Honour to those who continue to turn up to the work of “We don’t know.”