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Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess
Brigid—mother, daughter, healer, bard, warrior, fire goddess, goddess of the oak, animals, and magic. Brigid of the spring, her festival Imbolc, oversees fertility of all kinds. Brigid is many things to many people. In this enticing book, Courtney Weber offers up a wide-ranging exposition and celebration of all things Brigid, who is arguably the most popular figure in Celtic mythology and religion. Meet Brigid in her various incarnations—Celtic Pagan Goddess, Christian Saint, and Voudon Loa .
Each chapter ends with guided meditations and exercises that help readers tap into Brigid’s healing powers. Inside you’ll find Brigid-focused spells, blessings, recipes, and rituals for love, harmony, protection, and much more.
Each chapter ends with guided meditations and exercises that help readers tap into Brigid’s healing powers. Inside you’ll find Brigid-focused spells, blessings, recipes, and rituals for love, harmony, protection, and much more.
256 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2015
176 people are currently reading
1676 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
May 5, 2015
Full disclosure: I know the author, and a poem I wrote is in this terrific book. :)
That being said, I found Courtney's book to an excellent resource for anyone with an interest in Brigid. I have studied and celebrated this goddess for many years and have read all I could find about Her, and I salute Courtney for compiling so much valuable information into one highly readable volume. It truly covers everything mentioned in the title, and has easy-to-follow instructions and guidelines for practices the reader can do to build a personal connection with Brigid. Buy a copy for yourself and anyone who is curious about this mythic figure, Celtic mythology, world religions and spirituality, and helpful magick.
That being said, I found Courtney's book to an excellent resource for anyone with an interest in Brigid. I have studied and celebrated this goddess for many years and have read all I could find about Her, and I salute Courtney for compiling so much valuable information into one highly readable volume. It truly covers everything mentioned in the title, and has easy-to-follow instructions and guidelines for practices the reader can do to build a personal connection with Brigid. Buy a copy for yourself and anyone who is curious about this mythic figure, Celtic mythology, world religions and spirituality, and helpful magick.
December 21, 2024
Brigid! ✨✨✨🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Such a great book with so much info & inspiring ideas! Brigid has a permanent altar in my home. I love these fresh ideas to work with her and the info on lesser known aspects and associations.
Such a great book with so much info & inspiring ideas! Brigid has a permanent altar in my home. I love these fresh ideas to work with her and the info on lesser known aspects and associations.
October 28, 2018
The author was not preachy; rather shared her experiences with Brigid in a friendly way. There was lots of history and details provided in this book, as well as ways to show devotion.
April 21, 2022
This is a decent book about Brigid. Though I strongly recommend against going into this thinking the material is fully based in lore or historical truth. There seems to be a hefty dollop of UPG, but that's not necessity bad, as I'll get to shortly.
The author doesn't attempt to make Brigid into someone she's not, which is more than I can say about other authors and other goddesses. She uses the concept of "mother, maiden, crone" for Brigid, which isn't an idea that seems to actually have been in practice by the Celts of the distant past, but she isn't trying to say Brigid's just a wholly different deity than she really is that I recall, so props for that.
Acknowledging the Christian saint without totally trying to be a Christian apologist was nice to see.
The rituals and spells seem easy enough for a beginner and adaptable enough for a seasoned witch. So it won't matter if you only got started a short time ago or you've been practicing for years. These should work for you.
Now, why do I not consider UPG wholly bad? This is why: I personally believe seeing how gods and spirits communicate with different people can be useful. You get a broad sense of how the deity or spirit works and what their personality might be like when you see how they engage with different humans. You should never take someone's UPG as official. No 2 people will have the same experience. But I highly recommend reading other people's experiences to broaden your view. In this case, I don't recall the author trying to claim her experiences are official and she seemed to note where she added to something, expanded on something, or otherwise was speaking from a place of UPG. So she was being honest.
Anyway, I say this one gets a solid 3 stars. You could likely find better books from a more scholarly source, but this one still has value.
The author doesn't attempt to make Brigid into someone she's not, which is more than I can say about other authors and other goddesses. She uses the concept of "mother, maiden, crone" for Brigid, which isn't an idea that seems to actually have been in practice by the Celts of the distant past, but she isn't trying to say Brigid's just a wholly different deity than she really is that I recall, so props for that.
Acknowledging the Christian saint without totally trying to be a Christian apologist was nice to see.
The rituals and spells seem easy enough for a beginner and adaptable enough for a seasoned witch. So it won't matter if you only got started a short time ago or you've been practicing for years. These should work for you.
Now, why do I not consider UPG wholly bad? This is why: I personally believe seeing how gods and spirits communicate with different people can be useful. You get a broad sense of how the deity or spirit works and what their personality might be like when you see how they engage with different humans. You should never take someone's UPG as official. No 2 people will have the same experience. But I highly recommend reading other people's experiences to broaden your view. In this case, I don't recall the author trying to claim her experiences are official and she seemed to note where she added to something, expanded on something, or otherwise was speaking from a place of UPG. So she was being honest.
Anyway, I say this one gets a solid 3 stars. You could likely find better books from a more scholarly source, but this one still has value.
October 4, 2019
Not as good as I hoped. Some information was incorrect, many citations simply listed as "Traditional tale". Disappointing.
April 30, 2019
Really good and well presented! Shows a very well rpunded view of Brigid in her many forms. Found out the author has another book on The Morrigan coming out later this year and I'm curious to read it when it does.
Two small issues I had with this book, and they a very minor:
1. She likes to paraphrase "traditional tales" without any source or reference. Kind of annoying if you're curious about the original.
2. There are a few points where she broadens the scope of Brigid to the point where it starts to feel like a "mary-sue" character (a character that is good at everything with no draw backs to the point where it makes them bland, well thats the basics of it at least). I understand that Brigid is a goddess with a wide area of atributes and domains, but this author sometimes takes it even further; almost as though she is trying to say Brigid is the only goddess you need to work with because any other would be redundant. Of course if you choose to do so thats your path and I'm happy for you, but to someone who feels called to work with others too it did feel a bit odd at times. Honestly, I might be the only one who feels that way though. It might just be my interpretation and how it came across to me. I leave you to be the judge.
Two small issues I had with this book, and they a very minor:
1. She likes to paraphrase "traditional tales" without any source or reference. Kind of annoying if you're curious about the original.
2. There are a few points where she broadens the scope of Brigid to the point where it starts to feel like a "mary-sue" character (a character that is good at everything with no draw backs to the point where it makes them bland, well thats the basics of it at least). I understand that Brigid is a goddess with a wide area of atributes and domains, but this author sometimes takes it even further; almost as though she is trying to say Brigid is the only goddess you need to work with because any other would be redundant. Of course if you choose to do so thats your path and I'm happy for you, but to someone who feels called to work with others too it did feel a bit odd at times. Honestly, I might be the only one who feels that way though. It might just be my interpretation and how it came across to me. I leave you to be the judge.
January 17, 2023
Courtney Weber wrote a well researched, collection of history and lore of Brigid as well as the practices of people in the past and present. However, she focused much of the book on the Celtic-Christian perspective, which distanced myself from the author and her experiences with Brigid.
dnf
December 27, 2024DNF at 16% because my library book expired and idk when I'll get back to it.
February 12, 2020
A wonderful book with a great balance of history, personal stories, and ritual ideas. I was excited to learn more about Brigid’s appearances in other cultures.
I really loved the author’s weaving together of Her many manifestations: goddess of the forge, the well, the warrior, the midwife, the healer. She elucidated the connection between the forge, the craft, and technology. My activist focus has been on water protection for the past few years, also making a connection between water wisdom, comfort, and healing. Brigid chimes so perfectly with all these things so me. I hear Her call.
It’s a classic that I will want to have in my library. My group used some ideas from this book in our Imbolc celebrations. Love that it has an index — Somehow, it’s a dealbreaker for me if the author doesn’t care enough to make an index.
I really loved the author’s weaving together of Her many manifestations: goddess of the forge, the well, the warrior, the midwife, the healer. She elucidated the connection between the forge, the craft, and technology. My activist focus has been on water protection for the past few years, also making a connection between water wisdom, comfort, and healing. Brigid chimes so perfectly with all these things so me. I hear Her call.
It’s a classic that I will want to have in my library. My group used some ideas from this book in our Imbolc celebrations. Love that it has an index — Somehow, it’s a dealbreaker for me if the author doesn’t care enough to make an index.
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March 9, 2020I would like to make a small warning of something in this book: The author is not an anthropologist, archaeologist, sociologist, or any sort of gist type person. The author makes that clear in the beginning of the book, but I feel it necessary to mention as well. A lot of the book was well researched and had a wealth of resources on Brigid that I was not aware of. She covered all aspects of this particular deity, even her saint archetype. The author's journey with this goddess is also well documented which I feel is an important thing to include in a book that you're personally writing out of a promise to said deity. It dragged in some sections and it was kind of annoying that she didn't include the sources, directly, of the small stories she would start the chapter out on, but other than that I would recommend this book for anyone interested Brigid.
June 12, 2020
There's some beautiful poetry in this book, and as a source of inspiration, I'd rate it 4/5 stars. There's also a lot of material asserted as fact without citing any sources or reference material, so as scholarly work, I'd give it 2/5 stars. The author often seems to conflate paganism and Wicca, which gets on my last nerve because it's just not true.
May 31, 2023
I first read Weber's Hekate book and I liked this one better. It is not as well sourced as that one was (changing pagan publishing culture?) but it was much more structured. I guess it spoke much more to me directly -- I highly enjoyed Weber's personal stories and experiences with Brigid.
Read (listened to) it a second time and stand by my previous review. Well done Courtney!
Read (listened to) it a second time and stand by my previous review. Well done Courtney!
March 31, 2021
I learned about the Irish goddess Brigit who morphed into a Catholic saint from a couple of different Facebook sites, and this book was highly recommended as a reputable source. Brigit has three aspects: the Bard (poet), the Smith, and the Healer. As a lover of words and as a retired pharmacist who is married to a tool-and-dye-maker and descendant of blacksmiths, you can see why I might be drawn to Brigit.
Anyway, this isn't a large book, but boy is it packed full of information! Many abbreviated versions of the Celtic legends about Brigit are included in the beginnings of chapters that address a particular aspect of Brigit's personality. I so enjoyed the historical look at the goddess/saint. The final chapter is filled with spells to appeal for Brigit's help, if one is interested in practicing paganism, Wicca, or devotional practices to a Catholic saint. I gave the book a full five stars b/c I liked the history, the practical aspects, and an excellent bibliography providing fodder for further exploration.
Anyway, this isn't a large book, but boy is it packed full of information! Many abbreviated versions of the Celtic legends about Brigit are included in the beginnings of chapters that address a particular aspect of Brigit's personality. I so enjoyed the historical look at the goddess/saint. The final chapter is filled with spells to appeal for Brigit's help, if one is interested in practicing paganism, Wicca, or devotional practices to a Catholic saint. I gave the book a full five stars b/c I liked the history, the practical aspects, and an excellent bibliography providing fodder for further exploration.
January 6, 2024
Love the history and how Brigid is in so many cultures.
February 1, 2022
I would give this book 4.5 stars if I could. It is a really great book for those who are new to learning about Brigid, wanting to work with her, and Imbolc. It talks about lore from different area, times, and in my opinion in different perspectives. The author writes a lot about her own experiences with Brigid and how she came about writing this book, which was kinda nice. Even though I'm not Christian, I like how she included St. Brigid because she writes about how Brigid became a Christian figure. Over all I think this is a really great book and a must have for those beginning to learn about Brigid.
The reason why I would take a half star off is because a lot of the references are "Traditional Lore". Which might be true but starting where she got this Traditional lore would have been nice.
The reason why I would take a half star off is because a lot of the references are "Traditional Lore". Which might be true but starting where she got this Traditional lore would have been nice.
January 20, 2020
Courtney Weber managed a rare feat for the genre by presenting a well-researched history of Brigid and practical guide to the Celtic Goddess’s magick. I’ve read other books by so-called practitioners and they generally lack grounding in historical accuracy. Ms. Weber is devoted to the study of Brigid and takes great care to cite references and indicate when she’s taken inspiration from ancient stories to create ritual. This work is a must-read for anyone interested in Brigid. Moreover, it’s a wonderful entry for those seeking a spiritual path.
Thank you, Courtney. Blessings be.
Thank you, Courtney. Blessings be.
February 13, 2021
An in depth introduction to Brigid. I liked that each section ended with a reflection that could be used as a journal prompt. Goes through the many aspects of Brigid, information on and rituals for Imbolg, and has a bunch of rituals for using Brigid Magick. It seemed very personal to the author but was much more than just a grimoire. I gave 4 instead of 5 because I would have liked to known the sources for some of the info and stories.
June 10, 2023
Uno dei libri migliori sulla storia della Dea Brigid. La presenza di fonti storiche mi portano ad apprezzare maggiormente il testo. La presenza delle esperienze personali dell'autrice è in questo caso apprezzata, in quanto non particolarmente invadenti e ben dosate.
Come hanno fatto notare altri lettori, si concentra molto anche sulla Brigid cristiana. La cosa può essere un malus, ma dal mio punto di vista è invece interessante, perché sono le fonti più prossime a noi per poter risalire agli attributi originari.
Come hanno fatto notare altri lettori, si concentra molto anche sulla Brigid cristiana. La cosa può essere un malus, ma dal mio punto di vista è invece interessante, perché sono le fonti più prossime a noi per poter risalire agli attributi originari.
March 12, 2021
Courtney Weber has been a fantastic resource for me as I've begun to familiarize myself with the Celtic pantheon. She breaks things down in easy-to-digest portions and does a fantastic job of connecting ideas. I also enjoy how she shares her methods of engaging with the deities she writes about.
This is an excellent book to start with as you learn about this pantheon and the magnificent Goddess Brigid (whom I absolutely adore).
This is an excellent book to start with as you learn about this pantheon and the magnificent Goddess Brigid (whom I absolutely adore).
February 2, 2022
I’m a pagan, so I always research authors who write books in the “New Age” “Witchy” genre. I really began to admired this author by all the reviews and her work seemed very well researched. I ended up buying this book and Hekate.
This book first: It was extremely well written. I feel that it covered what I already knew and I learned WAY more that I didn’t know. I will ALWAYS buy books from this author. I hope she writes about all the Goddesses and Gods! 💜
This book first: It was extremely well written. I feel that it covered what I already knew and I learned WAY more that I didn’t know. I will ALWAYS buy books from this author. I hope she writes about all the Goddesses and Gods! 💜
February 1, 2024
It feels fitting that I finished this book on the day of Imbolc. I have felt drawn to Brigid for the past year, but only now took it upon myself to learn more about her. This book dives into every aspect and version of Brigid and painted such a beautiful picture of her as a Goddess and Saint. The reflections and rituals included are most helpful in where to start in communicating and connecting with Brigid and I can’t wait to try my first one today.
October 22, 2024
I'm a huge fan of Courtney Weber and I had been wanting to ready this book for a while. Just like her other books her warm, and uplifting style sets the tone of the book.
It was fascinating to read about other versions of Brigid and having the tales spread throughout the book to show the versatility of this goddess was a clever way to arrange the probably boundless stories related to the goddess.
It was fascinating to read about other versions of Brigid and having the tales spread throughout the book to show the versatility of this goddess was a clever way to arrange the probably boundless stories related to the goddess.
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November 26, 2025I wanted a more thorough historical understanding of this goddess, which this book definitely gives, but there are sort of devotional exercises in here with no lead up, so I have mixed feelings. I don't know if I will continue with the presumption I would do all the exercises. it can be harder to skip around on audio depending on the structure of the book. I'm grateful to my library for picking up this audio for me though! Yay library suggestions!
February 15, 2021
An OKish introduction for those wanting to have a broad overview of the Goddess.
The spells, guided meditations and rituals are well worth reading and using or adapting.
The history and folklore sections really need footnotes and references for their sources as it's hard to separate the authors opinion from something she has read elsewhere which makes for frustrating reading.
The spells, guided meditations and rituals are well worth reading and using or adapting.
The history and folklore sections really need footnotes and references for their sources as it's hard to separate the authors opinion from something she has read elsewhere which makes for frustrating reading.
January 5, 2023
An easy book to read & understand with stories or legends that explain how the Goddess became associated with various attributes. There are meditations, spells & suggestions on how to set up a Brigid Altar. I recommend the book to anyone interested in exploring Celtic deities, & Brigid in particular.
December 6, 2024
First book I read from the author and nowadays I even follow her on Instagram. She's a lovely person, and I think it's even possible to feel through her writing how much she ressonates with Brigid, which is one of the reasons I love this book so much. Already used a spell from it, and worked wonderfully. Regarding the myths, symbols and etc, it's an excellent source to get to know the Goddess. <3
February 2, 2019
Courtney Weber writes a fairly comprehensive book about Brigid, discussing bits of the history and the various cultures who have incorporated these beliefs. She also gives suggestions of various rituals and practices that the reader might be interested in
March 21, 2020
Interesting for a brief history of stories about Brigid, but written more for working with her and magick. There are plenty of examples of ceremonies and prayers in the second half of the chapters of the book.
June 22, 2022
Pretty good introduction to Brigid. I enjoyed the examples of how She has blended into multiple cultures and beliefs, though I do wish there were more areas to guide new Brigid followers on how to begin working with Her and how to honor her.
August 18, 2022
Courtney Weber's book about Brigid is unpretentious and inspiring.
If you are inspired by a book,while it also speaks directly to your heart-so that you can work WITH it-you're fortunate to have found that book.
If you are inspired by a book,while it also speaks directly to your heart-so that you can work WITH it-you're fortunate to have found that book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews