To, Brighid, Patroness of the Druids and Bards
Beloved Brighid of the triple flame
Daughter of the Dagda
Guardian of the sacred spring
Whose voice is the soul of the harp
We call on thee.
Teach our hands to heal and our hearts to sing
We entrust our life’s progress to your care
and ask that you shape us
bending and turning our hearts on your bright anvil of flame
till we are made perfect jewels
fit to be set in the eye of your timeless harp
to play for the soul of the people in times of sorrow
and times of celebration
We thank you for your gifts to us of poetry and music
of laughter and tears
and for the healing balm of your wisdom
May we always remember to meditate
on the gift of your sacred waters
which surround us at our birth
and sail us to our destiny
Our hearts are open to receive your blessing
Midwife of our souls, rain on us
Shower your inspiration in curtains of song
from sacred waterfalls in the realm where you dwell
Come to us as Virgin with the soft smell of flowers
Come to us as Mother and feed us your fruits
Come to us as the Wise Women in the stark blasts of Winter
Help us to see your Mystery in all creation
that we may know gratitude and reverence
Our hearts sing to you with love
Teach us to change like the revolving seasons
Teach us to grow like the green corn that feeds the people.
Teach us to fashion beauty like the stillness of the forest pool
and the roar of the ocean wave.
Teach us to heal like the soothing gem which cools the eyes and
Restores the limbs
With humility and bright expectation
We invoke thee this hour!
(Ellen Evert Hopman, from A DRUIDS HERBAL – FOR THE SACRED EARTH YEAR,
Destiny Books, Rochester, VT, 1995)
Druid links
- Celtic Cosmology
- Evidence for Female Druids
- Levels of Druids (the Aes Dana)
- Druids and Battle Magic
- Druids – Brahmins of the Ancient Celts
- 10 Important Druids
- Druid Texts
- British Druids
Part the first
Part the second
- Irish Druids
- What is a Druid Anyway?
- What Do We Really Know About Druids?
- Druid Magic
- Female Druids
- Druid Priests
“Every great family of the Western Islands kept a Druid priest, whose duty it was to foretell future events, and decide all causes, civil and ecclesiastical. Dr. Wise says, “In the Book of Deer we meet with Matadan, ‘The Brehon,’ as a witness in a particular case. The laws found in the legal code of the Irish people were administered by these Brehons. They were hereditary judges of the tribes, and had certain lands which were attached to the office. The successors of this important class are the Sheriffs of counties.”
- Tribe of the Oak
- Ord na Darach Gile: Order of the White Oak
- The Henge of Keltria
- The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids
- Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship
- Ord Brighideach A Brigidine Order of Flamekeepers
- RDNA – Reformed Druids of North America
- ArkOkla Druids
- Sacred Texts: Legends and Sagas
- The Ulster Cycle | Complete Contents
- Trecheng Breth Féne – The Triads of Ireland
- The Summerlands
- Irish Literature, Mythology, Folklore, and Drama
- Isaac Bonewits’ Homepage
- A Welsh Literature
- Clans and Families of Ireland and Scotland – An Ethnography of the Gael
- CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts (home page)
- The Elements of the Dúile
- Celts, Karma and Reincarnation
- Carmina Gadelica – Ortha nan Gaidheal
- Brehon Law Project
- Celtic Astrology — The Fabrication of ‘Celtic’ Astrology by Peter Berresford Ellis
- Celtic Astrology — Early Irish Astrology: An Historical Argument by Peter Berresford Ellis
- Bad Celtic Page