Mary
Hayes Grieco Newsletter
February, 2004
Hi,
friends!
 Well,
it’s February, which in Minnesota is “The
Month of Geographical Re-evaluation.” (See this
month’s story of the month.) It’s 25 below
0 wind chill out there, so in keeping with the practice
of unconditional love which encourages one “to
see the good”, I’m contemplating what’s
good about that. One of the good things about living
in an utterly inhospitable climate is that it encourages
writers to hole up and write. So here I am, writing
to you, wherever you may be, to wish you well and send
you along some warm thoughts for the month.
Celebrating
the Return of the Divine Feminine
in Kildare, Ireland
Last
year at this time I traveled to Ireland with my husband
and seven year old daughter, and was privileged to take
part in an event I’d like you to know about. Every
year around February 1 the Catholic Church celebrates
the feast of St. Brigid, a wise spiritual leader who
was head of her own abbey in Kildare, Ireland in the
5th century. Feb 1 was the traditional time for a pagan
festival of light, Imbolc. Brigid’s abbey was
built on a site on a hill that had been the location
of an older pagan temple dedicated to the Goddess Brigid,
the Goddess of poetry, healing, and smithy. (The making
of swords and jewelry) A perpetual flame to Brigid was
tended for centuries by priestesses at that temple,
and later at the Abbey by Brigid’s nuns, until
it was quenched in the 12th century by the Church because
it was considered too pagan.
Interestingly,
in 1993, the Brigidine nuns returned to Kildare and
opened up a new center dedicated to fostering the return
of the feminine energy to the Church. They re-lit the
flame of Brigid after eight centuries, and I am quite
sure they did not write to the Pope and ask permission
to do it. Every year now they sponsor a week long event
celebrating Brigid, the Divine Feminine, and Peacemaking.
It was fabulous for me to be there with several hundred
people from around the world, and feel the fresh spirit
of the rise of the Feminine once again. I participated
in a world peace ceremony in which a flame was lit in
the foundations of the ancient temple, and in their
generous way, the Irish leader of the group requested
that an American step forward to light the flame. (America
was on the brink of invading Iraq.) I was moved by the
friendly concern the Irish folks I met had for the mental
health of most Americans, in the light of how are current
leadership behaves. “What can they be thinking?,”
they asked me, again and again. “Can our American
friends possibly think George Bush is doing the right
thing?” I had to explain to them that I don’t
get it either.
Now here’s a wonderful story for you about the
return of the Divine Feminine, straight from the magic
of Kildare’s renaiisance as the seat of Brigid.
A sculptress was hired to carve a sculpture of St. Brigid
teaching the children, to be displayed in front of a
local church. The statue was carved out of one monolithic
piece of granite, and the artist chose to carve a Celtic
Cross necklace resting on Brigid’s breast. As
she hacked out the shape of the cross on the torso of
the statue, she was intrigued to see something white
emerging out of the rock, exactly in the middle of the
cross. To her amazement, a pure white fossilized sea
shell emerged from this otherwise plain rock, in the
shape of a crescent moon, an ancient symbol of the Goddess!
So there stands Brigid in the churchyard today, hand
extended to the children at her feet, wearing a cross
with a crescent moon in the middle of it. What a lovely
sign for all to see that it’s time for the Divine
Mother and the Church to be in friendly union once again,
as gracefully as the Brigidine nuns have managed to
do it.
Upcoming
Events:
Unconditional
Love and Forgiveness Weekend Workshop
February 20-22, 2004
Heritage Methodist Church
New Prague, Mn. FFI 651-699-0142
Unconditional
Love and Forgiveness Weekend Workshop
March 5-7, 2004
Woodwinds Hospital
Woodbury, Mn. FFI: 612-874-6622
Toll free: 1877-377-6232
Unconditional
Love and Forgiveness Certificate Program October 2004
-June 2005
Registration is open and applications being taken for
next year’s in depth self-mastery program. To
receive a brochure, send me an e mail at mary@maryhayesgrieco.com
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