Celtic women were often warriors alongside their men and, like all Celts, celebrated life and its warfare with wild Druidic ceremonies of drink, dance and song. Brighid, named after the goddess and the wife of Aengus, was one such. As a warrior she was admitted to the noble class and thus conversant with the druidic verses and knew the secret mathematics of their calendar which regulated the important holidays: Imbolg, which marked the earliest signs of the coming spring, Beltain, a time of community gatherings and moving of the herds to summer pasture, Lughnasadh to celebrate the ripening of first fruits, and Samhain to recognize the end of harvest, the time of sacrifice, and the lowering of the barrier between the world of the living and that of the dead.

Like most primitive religions the annual cycle and its holidays repeated endlessly; the only change being the births and deaths of animals and humans as celebrated at Samhain. There was no concept whatever of progress , that the next year might be different, conceivably even better. Brighid imagined such change, talked much about the possibilities, was stoned to death and buried here with her torcs around her neck.

Cushioning ourselves about with dreams, and hearing fairy-songs in the twilight, we ponder on the soul and on the dead. W.B. Yeats

George's selection of 66 Phlogs is available in print from People's Press.

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