Imbolc 2014 Tarot Blog Hop: Tarot, Healing and Creativity

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Imbolc is also known as "Brigid" or "St. Brigid's Day." Brigid (often pronounced “Breed” or “Bride”) is the most tangible deity to me. I’m rarely comfortable putting human form to Spirit, although I love legends, myths and stories about deities. But Brigid, the triple Goddess of smithcraft, poetry and healing, feels almost corporeal to me.

Each Imbolc I journey in meditation to her forge. She takes from me my burdens, and transforms them into the tools I need to create my future.

When I was a very small child we lived next to Mr. Petty's blacksmith’s shop. Sometimes Mr. Petty would let me come in to the dark, hot, dusty shop. I would hold my aunt’s hand tightly, both excited and afraid. I remember the huge bellows, the heat, the sparks and flames. I remember the sound of his hammer, and the glow of the hot metal as he worked.

Maybe that is why Brigid, Goddess of Smithcraft, is so real to me now. Maybe Brigid had marked me, a six-year-old girl with hair the same color as her own, even then. Maybe Brigid arranged my trips to the blacksmith shop as a way of forging a connection between us.

In all the years I have celebrated Imbolc and read tarot, never have I devised a spread for my journey to Brigid’s Forge! This year, I’ll correct that.

Brigid’s Forge Three-Card Tarot Spread

Card one: The path I must take.

The journey to Brigid’s forge is the journey to release emotional burdens, to transform hurt into something valuable, and with it, to create something new. This card represents the mindset of this journey – what I must consider prior to the journey, or how I must prepare myself.

Card two: The burden I carry.

This card will speak to the hurts, disappointments and sadness I carry with me that no longer serve me.

Card Three: Brigid’s gift.

Brigid takes my burden in her forge. Heating and hammering, she forges it into something useful for me. This card will speak to that gift, and how I might use it.

Here is my interpretation of the cards I received. The deck I used is Ellen Dugan’s "Witches Tarot."

The Path: Karma (Judgment)

In Witches Tarot Judgment is renamed "Karma." That it falls in position to denote my path to the forge is pretty amazing. My path is my calling, and unavoidable. I am summoned to the forge. I bring with me the knowledge, wounds, failures and accomplishments of my past, fully ready to receive closure and rebirth.

The Burden: The Fool

I love the Major Arcana cards here – Judgment followed by the Fool is very powerful. The Fool  clearly represents the burden I carry. On one hand, I am healed and evolved enough to be very cognizant of my spiritual journey and to be unburdened by worldly concerns.  On the other hand, my natural Fool-like state causes me to live in a way that is very different than the norm. I accept and appreciate my journey, but I am sometimes burdened by the difficulties that come from being so different from societal expectations. The trick of truly being the Fool is to have no fear. Fear is my burden.

The Gift: Queen of Wands (Reversed)

For years the Queen of Wands has been my significator, specifically in regard to my spiritual path and my work as a tarotist. The Queen of Wands usually represents my highest ideals of who I can be and what I can achieve.

Sometimes I lose focus and fall short of what I know I can do. I think the reversal on this card reflects that disappointment – my next book isn’t getting finished quickly enough, I have so many projects to do and so little time.

Brigid’s gift is to help me be me, better than before. Brigid’s gift is to help me stay on my path and achieve what is already in motion, with greater  passion and energy. At her forge, Brigid transforms my fear into confidence.

Picture at top: Brigid, from "The Goddess Oracle" by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and Hrana Janto.

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Divining with Brigid

Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop. This time around we are wrangled by Aisling the Bard , who has given us a fitting Imbolc topic. She asks us "What is in your belly? What do you wish to give birth to, to nurture, during this new season? What is the Poet, the Healer, the Maker, within you longing to do, to Become?" Each Tarot Blog Hopper is asked to use a divination tool to answer this question.

Perhaps you are joining me from Joanne Ash's Sun Goddess Tarot.

When you finish here, please continue on to Joanne Sprott's Cosmic Whispers Tarot.

If you find a break in the chain, please visit the Master List.

Brigid's Day, or Imbolc, is one of my favorite holidays on the Wheel of the Year. I love rituals that involve fire, creativity and healing. I love the anticipation of the coming spring. Even though I now live in South Florida and no longer suffer through months of cold, snow and slush I enjoy the signs of spring. Just yesterday as I walked along a canal I saw anhinga and ibis each engaged in the dance of love.

 I feel called by Brigid, the Goddess of healing through creativity. She is my matron Goddess (note: I hate the term "patroness," and so I simply say "matron." It obviously means the same thing without the sexist overtones).

This holiday not only celebrates the rebirth around us; it celebrates the rebirth that wells up from within us.

And so as we approach the Feast of Brigid I approach tarot and ask my question directly of Brigid, my matron Goddess. I ask her to speak through the cards and answer this question. "To what shall I give birth this spring?"

Tarot is such a precise tool. The first card I pulled at random was the Ace of Wands. The second was the Three of Wands.

Since Brigid is a fire Goddess it is fitting that I should receive two such powerful cards from the suit of fire. The Three seems apt as a reference to Brigid's nature as a triple Goddess.

The Ace of Wands speaks of new creative projects and divine inspiration. The Three of Wands speaks of the success that comes from letting that inspiration take form.

But what form shall it take, I wonder. I pull another card. This time I receive the Page of Swords - the messenger of truth. I often see the Page of Swords as a writer.

I am currently working on two different books. One is my third book about tarot. Another is a more eclectic book about spirituality. I had set this spring as a deadline goal for finishing them both.

It seems Brigid has agreed to support me in these projects.

Hail, Brigid!

And, since Brigid is the Goddess of poetry, here is this year's offering.

 The Forge

Circle of love and devotion
Inner spark and blazing fire
Wild dance and somber journey
The forge flames hotter and higher.

To approach the forge takes courage
Anvil and bellows and heat
Bri'id smiles and beckons me forward
Enchanted, I dare not retreat.

Bri'id takes from me my burden
Striking hammer, sparking fire
She tempers the metal of my heart
To heal, renew and inspire.

Thanks for taking the Tarot Blog Hop with us. If you are working backward it is time to visit Joanne Ash's Sun Goddess Tarot.

Or you may proceed forward to Joanne Sprott's Cosmic Whispers Tarot.

If you find a break in the links, visit the Master List.