Goddesses and Gods.wps - Welcome to Our Temple

allowed them to be converted in a similar way.
They reacted like people all over the world did. Make my god a Christian saint and
I'll become a Christian.
Interestingly, the Irish goddess converted to Christianity was the same as Pallas
Athena, it was the maiden aspect of the Goddess. Where in continental Europe, the
Mother aspect was chosen -- witness all the cathedrals built to the Virgin Mary,
Mother of God -- in Ireland, as in Asia Minor, it was the maiden goddess honored.
The Irish goddess was called Brigid (pronounced "breed") or Brigit. She was a triple
goddess (some said all three were named Brigid!) and she was the goddess of wisdom
(like her Asia Minor counterpart). Her sisters were the goddesses of healing and
smithcraft respectively.
At Kildare there was a temple to Brigid, with a perpetual fire kept by 19 priestesses.
The number 19 was used because there are 19 years in the Celtic "great year," when
the solar and lunar calendars coincide. Brigid was always called "The Three Blessed
Ladies of Britain" or "The Three Mothers" and she was identified with the moon and
the three phases of the moon. (As such, she is also identical to the ancient earth
goddess, Hecate.) It was common for the ancients to accept their goddess as being
three people. This is where the Christians got their concept of the trinity.
Actually, Brigid can be traced back to Illyricum, the ancient land now occupied by
Croatia (and extending over Serbia, Bulgaria, and Austria). Her shrine was in the city
of Brigeto and she was called Brigantes, accepted by the Romans as identical to Juno
Regina, Queen of Heaven. Her followers were often called Brigands, or outlaws, and
Robin Hood was most likely the title of a leader of "brigands" fighting against the
Christian conquerors.
The Gaelic Celts brought Brigid with them when they left their original home in
Galatia -- in Asia Minor, no less, and moved across Europe to settle in what is now
Ireland.
In Ireland, the Church could not talk the people into giving up the worship of Brigid,
so they "converted" her to St. Bridget, claiming she was a nun who founded a convent
in Kildare (where the goddess' temple already was located.) The stories about "St.
Bridget" were the same stories told about the goddess: that everywhere she walked,
flowers and shamrocks sprang up (the three-leafed shamrock, of course, was the
symbol of the triple Brigid), that in her shrine it was always springtime and that in
her convent the cows never went dry -- all fertility stories.