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Pagan Christianity?
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Branwen
824 posts

Edited Oct 27, 2009, 02:04
Re: Bride/Brigit
Oct 27, 2009, 02:02
Scotland: Bride is a dualistic scottish goddess, her other half is the hag, the Cailleach. It would be clearer to say Bride was the goddess and Bridget was her priestess, in earliest times, I guess.

Bridget in Ireland was a goddess though. A triple goddess. Which is why the two have become confused as the same goddess, in the end. I think christianity tried to kill one bird with two stones, the cult of the nine maidens and the goddess bridget, with one stone: St Bridget. The Scots stayed pagan a lot longer, and kept Bride as she was, dualistic and with all the old attributes she had before.

Originally there was probably one neolithic goddess of dual aspect, and she was humanised differently in Scotland and Ireland. Scotland retaining the dualistic aspects, especially amongst the picts who had no problem keeping older ways and language when they came, and Ireland going into a more triple aspected goddess preferable to the celts that settled there.

Bridget is also connected to the cult of the nine maidens then. They had groups of nine or eighteen, sometimes with an extra widow figure,and sometimes a male figure whose role is less clear. A pre-christian, pre-celtic cult practicing all over Europe, they were associated with eternal flames, single women and widows, (maiden not meaning virgin as it does later) sacred wells and springs and the trees that go with them, healing, especially of the eyes, stone circles orientated to the Pleiades, dancing, the bear/serpent goddess, the white serpent god, kingmaking, the cup of life and stone of immortality, the arts, judgement, plus all the other arthurian connections before they were christianised.

Nine and Eighteen have plenty of astrological connections above and beyond the number of stars which used to shine strongly in the pleiades, like the metonic cycles and lunar cycles ect. The legends of nine maidens all slowly changed to seven maidens, as only seven stars continued to shine, so I'm thinking the pleiadian cause was the one that had the numbers set at 9 or 18 plus the extra widow or male consort (Orian?). The dualistic aspect of the older Bride/Cailleach backs this up too. She is old, dark hag when the pleiades walk the night skies, and the lovely, young maiden when they walk the day skies.
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