I'm dedicated to helping women in particular develop their spiritual path in life. I'm focused heavily on Brigid in Ireland, although not all my followers are! I teach, speak, coach and mentor people to help them along their own individual path, based on what lore we have, but also allowing for each individual path to develop as it needs to.
☠️Halloween fun - time's running out!
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For those of you who link to Instagram or the blog before checking email, you'll already know I'm wearing one of my new favourite t-shirts today. If you don't do that however, here's you're warning that my annual mission to bring joy and happiness to my colleagues through passive-aggressive t-shirts and outfits befitting the season has begun. I keep telling my senior management it's to help with morale. Mainly mine, but really, if I'm happy, it means fewer people are sad... As yet, no one officially has come out to say "stop wearing this shit", so I'm taking that as permission. And it brings me on to what my brain is marinating today: permission. I'm the only one on my site that wears stuff like this. I have dresses for Halloween and Christmas that most people would shudder at wearing, even outside work. But I love them and like to wear them. And the outfits bring smiles to people's faces. Now that I just do it - it's accepted as normal. Ish. But if I had asked for permission, or worse yet, waiting for someone to magically grant me permission, I would never have started wearing this at all. I'm pushing the boundaries, testing them, but not explicitly crossing them. And I use this approach, sometimes, in my spiritual practice as well. Irish lore has Samhain more closely related to the Morrigan and the Dagda than Brigid. But she's my main deity and she's who I work with in general, so she's my focus at Samhain as well. Would you believe it, since it's my private spiritual life, and rituals, no one's come down from the Pagan High Council yet to tell me not to do this? (Mainly cos the Pagan High Council doesn't exist, just to be clear!) Yes, my way is fraught with danger. It takes practice, skill, time, to be comfortable in testing boundaries like I do - whether in life, work or spirituality. But it's also important to do sometimes. Even if it's just testing your own limits. Is the reason you don't do something still valid or was it only valid in a given situation decades ago, but it's imprinted in your brain right now? Is there a rule written down somewhere to forbid you from doing something, or is it vague expectations and memories? As I move through menopause, the clearest way I'm doing this is with my clothes - I'm experimenting with all the clothes I would have loved to wear as a teenager, but wasn't allowed to or didn't have the courage to wear. I'm wearing bright colours, shorter skirts, tights that could take your eyes out... for fun!!! So, where are you waiting for permission to do something? What are you going to do about it? Do you really need permission? Bríd libh Órlagh P. S. Ok, blatant segue here, but maybe one of the things you need permission for is to sign up for Awakening the Flame? Or the payment option? (You can sign up today for $205!) I know... desperate isn't it. Enticing you with mad stories about not-quite-inappropriate work attire and then selling you something in the end... Check out the links below: |
Hi, I'm Orlagh, of Brigid's Forge
I'm dedicated to helping women in particular develop their spiritual path in life. I'm focused heavily on Brigid in Ireland, although not all my followers are! I teach, speak, coach and mentor people to help them along their own individual path, based on what lore we have, but also allowing for each individual path to develop as it needs to.
Yes, I'm still on about energy and things starting to grow today! I can't help it, I can feel the energy moving and shifting and it's fun! Plus, you know, it's that time of year when I get geared up for talking about Brigid non-stop, for 2 full months. (I know, you lot are used to listening to me all the time, but other people aren't!) Anyway, it's a quick email today, because I'm working on something very exciting. I'm putting together an Imbolc retreat. I did this last year, it was 6 hours,...
Today's blog post is about ascending into Imbolc. Now, I know - we don't usually think about ascending to Imbolc. We might consider descending around Samhain, but if there's a sense of descent into the earth for the winter, we really should counteract that with a period of ascent as well. And given Imbolc is about that period where we're looking at nature, new growth, rising energy in the world in general... it makes sense to me to link it to ascent. (It's also a great time to check out your...
Yes, I'm getting back into some sort of sensible routine now! Although I spent the entire weekend and my two days off last week on the couch, struggling with a cold. Or possibly flu and the vaccine was doing its job. (Yes, this is a pro-vaccine space, in case you were in any doubt!) But I've been having loads of conversations over the last few weeks over the guilt people feel around Christmas, and women in their 40's/ 50's in particular. So, that's what today's blog post is about. Guilt,...