The days are getting longer and the wheel of the year is turning toward Brigid time.
Whether you’re celebrating Imbolc in the Northern Hemisphere or Lammas in the Southern Hemisphere, there are beginnings and ending at our feel. Times of intention and celebration, all we have done — and all we have yet to do.
In Reclaiming, Brigid is a time of pledges. A time of offering to Brigid Herself an intention that will be carried throughout the year. And while I don’t always remember my pledges, I also recognize when I look back how I have held them anyway.
In a year with so much to hold, I think about how I have held myself too.
Last year, I pledged my resilience to community.
And while I haven’t landed on my pledge just yet, I look back and know my heart was always in that pledge.
The Magick of Pledges at Brigid, Witnessed and Not
Last year, I didn’t go to Brigid in person. I was under the weather and my body wasn’t having it. It wanted to stay in bed. To rest. To reboot. To not be in a group. (Little did I know this would be my last chance for a while.)
But I was home. And I could picture the ritual in my mind.
I dipped my mind into the water and the flame — and I offered to the world what I wanted to bring.
In the presence of Brigid, who often follows me and nourishing me, I uttered the pledge with the energy of the ordinary. The energy of less flashy, less rigid, less complex work. I offered showing up as I am. Showing up as I could. Being in the places of despair and longing, holding onto the moments of joy and wonder.
All of it. Everyday magick.
No one saw me pledge. But Brigid did. (And, later, social media because that helped me remember my pledge.)
I witnessed myself. Work that I ended up facing throughout the year.
Acting in Integrity, No Matter Who is Around
One of the sacred gifts of time away from community is seeing the patterns in the way I move in the world. Seeing them out of context with others, and squarely in context with myself. The less-than-helpful coping strategies, the double standards, the old stories that play out in everyday reactions.
I saw it all. I saw it in the well of my everyday. Reflected back to me.
There are harsh images when I take the time to reflect. To stop, to listen, to notice.
To forgive.
To change and shift.
A pledge is not a resolution for me. It is not a moment of ‘here’s how I will be better,’ but rather a moment of ‘here is what I offer because I have it to offer.’ It is not a moment of acknowledging mistakes. It is a moment of stepping forward into something else.
Something I can do now, that I can offer now BECAUSE of missteps.
Something I can offer no matter who is watching.
Integrity in a pledge.
Integrity in response to self, in response to the world.
Taking a Step Forward to Offer My Magick at Brigid
There have been so many conversations/arguments about how magick ‘should’ be done, held, offered, shared, etc.
I’m not going into that.
Instead, I want to extend to you that your magick can be a pledge to the world everyday, any day.
You don’t need to wait for Brigid. You don’t need to respond only when the Moon is one way or the planets are aligned just right.
The world needs you now. It needs the special you that knows how to love, how to hex, how to heal, and how to discern.
The world needs the way you breathe and the way you make someone feel welcomed.
The world needs the way you say the thing or share the information or just stay silent to hold space for the dead.
The world needs the you that responds in the way you know how.
The way you’ve always known because, perhaps, you needed that once too.
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I’m not sure there is a right way to pledge. Or a right way to move with the way of the wheel. What I do know is that I invite you to arrive anyway. Respond in some way.
For the smallest of actions feed the wells and light the flames.
Blessings of Brigid. Blessings of Lammas.
Blessings to you, to us, to the offerings we are.
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