My journey with Her....

Brigit-Brigantia-Britannia

When I started my journey with Brigit many years ago now, I wasn’t aware of the many ways in which She would show Herself to me. The first few years walking my path as Her priestess, She was mostly Brigit to me, more than just Bridie the Maiden, but still quite restricted in form and character.

Getting more and more acquainted with Her stories and energy, She started showing Herself as being present through the whole year, as Bridie, Bride, Bridget and Brighid, Maiden, Lover, Mother, Crone.  I also found She was more and more the land for me, more than any of her other character, She was The land. As such She started presenting Herself as Brigantia to me, a Goddess not to mess with. I felt Her power and beauty inside and outside me and that brought me to now call myself Priestess of Brigantia, with which I wanted to express my respect and connection to this ancient land.

I never had thought of Her as evolving even further, consciously that is... Later I found that She had been with me as Brigit-Ana, Lady Britannia, from the very beginning. But with working on the Priestess/Priest of Brighde, year training, the 2012 Goddess Conference approaching and me finding myself in a place of in-between, with time to connect to my soul and to the land even deeper, I really started to see Her: Britannia!

She started to ‘talk’ to me. In my case this mostly happens in poetry and images. And how She presented Herself to me that is how I put Her on paper, first in writing and then by painting Her. I found myself calling Her in and the words were full of power and full of empowerment:

Calling in Britannia

Hail Britannia

Sovereign Goddess of these lands

I am calling your stature into my life

embracing my own autonomy

in the knowledge that I am worthy

of love, abundance and joy;

and walk with you

in grace and power

Hail Britannia

Sovereign Goddess of these lands

I call your lion to my side

enhancing my own confidence

in the knowledge that I have the qualities

of passion, wisdom and strength

and walk with you

in pride and power

Hail Britannia

Sovereign Goddess of these lands

I call to me your sun shield and spear

Exposing my own radiance

in the knowledge that I have the abilities

to inspire, create and shine

and walk with you

in beauty and power

Hail Britannia

Sovereign Goddess of these lands

I am calling you into my life

into my heart, body, spirit and soul

rejoicing my own sovereignty

in the knowledge that I stand in my power;

and are one with you,

Britannia

And then I started painting Her. It was very clear that She wanted to be depicted as The Land, with Her Green Mantle, just like Bridget. In my mind I wanted Her to walk with Wolf, but that was clearly not how it was meant to be. Not even the lioness that I imagined came out, it was a young lion.

I called Her Britannia, but now I feel more and more that she is the Young Britannia, Brigantia transforming into Britannia and the ‘grown up’ Britannia is still out there to be depicted. Maybe by me, maybe by somebody else...

It was during the conference that I also found that She had been with me for longer than I knew She had. It was again something Kathy Jones said, about Britannia being in the elements and the people of this land. I remembered that during the Brighde Retreat in 2006 I had written a poem, so close to my soul that I couldn’t read it out loud without crying. I looked it up again and noticed immediately that it had been Britannia who had been calling me:

Britannia calling me

Brigit-Anna

my motherland,

is calling me.

I hear Her call in every day signs,

in smells and dreams that come to me.

Britannia,

my soul belongs to you;

Your hills, rocks and sacred stones,

your mantle, your fields of green

form the shapes of my body;

Your clear streams and wells,

your abundance of rain,

your dark lakes and wide rivers,

is the blood running through my veins;

Your stormy skies filled with

the scent of peat fires,

your white rushing clouds

through summer skies

is the air that fills my lungs;

Your strong hearted people,

the deep seated pride and courage,

the fire in their songs and traditions,

is the spirit of my being.

Brigit-Anna

take me in your loving arms

for I am your strayed child

and you are my mother,

Britannia

And three years later I answered that call and moved to Glastonbury. And six years later I returned the favour and called Her in!

I feel honoured to be Her Priestess in which ever name She presents herself to me: Brigit, Brigit-Anna, Brigantia, Britannia. She is Goddess and that is all that counts for me.  And I want to bring Her out into the world, Share Her healing, Her Fire! I want to inspire and call on people to experience Her, as the land and how She lives in us. I want to reclaim Her name as we did during the Conference, knowing all the pain and shame in British history is not done in Her name! But that She is Britannia, the Mother, she who loves unconditionally and supports us.  She inspires us to do great things, to heal, to nurture, to learn, to create, to protect what is holy! Not at the costs of others, but in unity, community...

It’s time to reclaim Britannia, to call Her back, to sing Her back :

Brigit-Ana, Lady Britannia; Brigit-Anna, Lady of this Land!
We are calling you, Britannia our mother

Free our world of ignorance and pain.

Mother Britannia, we reclaim your name

To mean love and forgiveness And healing of pain

BrigitAna, Lady Britannia, BrigitAna, Lady of our Lands                

(Sally Pullinger)

It is time to welcome Her back into our centre;

Into the Centre of The Wheel, where She has been placed many years ago by Kathy Jones,

It is time to lift the heavy bonds and set Her free...

Blessed be!
Marion van Eupen