Nineteen Candles Are Lit For Brigid
Note: Here are the 19 priestesses represented. In a dedication to Brigid, an invocation for healing, or prior to initiation where Brigid will be asked for blessing, or in celebration of Herself, spelled candles so imbued might be used. Packets of the 19 may be made for Bridgit dedicants, also, and so blessed.
Your first candle lit is your sunrise birth: the flame of your house reaching Ceugant's brow.
Second is the spark of your union with Bress, son of Elathan.
Third is the pillar of fire, as you took the veil, rising high and clear.
Fourth are brothers, Dagda the father, Broadb the Red, Medar, Ogma, and Aenghus.
Fifth is eternal life's spring: that sings your name, in crystal gaze.
Sixth is the flame on your Altar, that never dies.
Seventh is the grove at LLandwynwn, on Mora's shore, where lovers tryst.
Eight is the strength of your oxen of Dil - Fea and Fernea, the red and the black.
Ninth is the sigh of your breath, as new life grows from old, your bridge of truth.
Tenth is a milk white cow, of redden ears, the Earth Mother's nectar, sweet.
Eleventh is a girdle, that spans night and day, yet heals all and remains.
Twelfth is a veil of truth, in flowering thorn, your weary path.
Thirteen is your son Ruardan, to be reborn.
Fourteenth is the white light of the flowering word, born at sunrise - the molten sky.
Fifteenth is the grove at Kildare, with solid oak and crystal spring.
Sixteenth are the shrines throughout Aibion, in Church, Well, and Wall.
Seventeenth is your will, of black iron, forged in the determination of one thousand eyes.
Eighteenth is a healing - the white dog at the protal, the chalice of your smile.
Nineteenth is a clarach which spells - hours, days, and signs, all in a silver bough.
Your last is your first, the beginning of the turning sea, the ending of the three. The dancing sun in the hearts of all! The candle that never dies!
From The Druid Way by Philip Carr-Gomm.
