A collection of stories, songs and poetry
The third year of the Brighde-Brigantia training is focused entirely around the exploration of the
Goddess Brigantia, as Lady of the different aspects and areas of the Celtic Isles and its mythology.
In 2020, this exploration has not only taken these Priestesses and Priest of Brigantia to places they
were not physically able to travel, but also to the other worlds of these Celtic lands.
Do not be surprised if you encounter dragons and selkies and otherworldly beings in these songs,
poems and stories, and let yourself be carried away to the worldly and magical realms of Brigantia as
sovereign of the land!
We hope you will enjoy this experience!
With Bright Blessings!
The 3rd year students of the
Brighde-Brigantia training 2020
Review
Small book written by various authors, students of the Brigid's Priest/Priestesses course from Marion van Eupen.
You will not find any historical material about the Goddess Brigid in this book, but songs, poems and stories, as stated on the front and the back of the book.
A nice one was a fantasy story of three pages by Liz Nicholson, written as if she were a 9 years old girl in the year 939.
It takes place in Avalon where she meets Brigid of Kildare as the Lady of Avalon. After a few poems and prose by other authors, Liz Nicholson continues
her fantasy story further on in the book with another three pages. In this fantasy story, swans play an important role in relation to Brigid.
Swans appear more often in this book, in a poem by Maty Dominguez-Portillo Brigid even turns into a swan! (Page 25).
There are also wonderful stories about swans in ancient Celtic mythology, but unfortunately none in which the Goddess Brigid or Saint Brigid of Kildare appears.
This historical omission is attempted to be somewhat corrected here.
The book is alternated with short songs and short poems and then again a somewhat longer story of one page, or a bit longer.
I came across a phoenix a few times in the poems in the booklet
(page 16,17,18,19).
The phoenix is a mythical animal from ancient Greece
and a new modern association with Brigid, which is of course a poetic freedom.
On page 30-31 I found a short fantasy story by Mary Tidbury about a meeting between a woman and a seal pup.
Nice story but what it had to do with Brigid escaped me. On pages 36-37 we find another short fantasy story by Mary Tidbury
about how lime trees got their flowers. Again no connection with Brigid.
In short, a small book with stories, poems and songs that are sometimes very loosely inspired by the Goddess Brigid.
These are modern stories that do not always take historicity into account.
Perhaps nice if you like poems and stories, if you are looking for something about the Goddess Brigid you better leave this book alone...
I really thought it was a waste of my time and money!
Would this booklet be representative of Marion's course?
According to my personal experience with this course it is!
In the course material I also came across a phoenix, swans associated with the Goddess Brigid,
rituals using chakras and kundalini
and even something that was supposed to pass for ho'oponopono!
That is also why I dropped out this course halfway through the first year.
Because I had cancelled prematurely in August 2024, I had an email correspondence with Anna Bemelmans and Marion van Eupen about their course.
They were unwilling or unable to answer my questions about the course material, but
Marion van Eupen confirmed in an email to me that this is not a Celtic course, as I had wrongly assumed, about the Celtic Goddess Brigid.
It has some Celtic elements in it, but it is not Celtic according to Marion van Eupen.
A non-Celtic course around a Celtic Goddess...
How do you come up with that?
I would not recommend this vague book or this vague course, but I would recommend the Pagan Celtic courses of the
IrishPaganSchool.com
They provide good information and it is clear when information comes from old sources or from personal associations...
Martin