How to make Brigit's Bed
(Craft project for Imbolc)
Materials:
Directions:
Dress up the basket, box, or cradle like a bed, and make it comfortable. Put it by the fireplace or the most desirable, warm spot in the house, as if you were waiting for a visitor to lie in it. Make a figurine to represent Brigit; this can be made with a bundle of oats, rushes, straw, or any grain or craft material fashioned into a loop or slightly human shape, and can be simple or ornate, and even can be decorated with clothes of any sort, preferably white with red ribbons. (One traditional adornment is a sparkling crystal around her neck.) You can make a god figurine by making a fruitwood wand with a pinecone attached to the end, decorated with ribbons, or any male-oriented symbol that works for you.
Ritual use:
Place the Brigit's Bed in the most inviting, warmest place in the house and imagine that you will really be visited by Brigit, the night before or night of Imbolc. Leave an aromatic, hot snack out for her by the bed. As you invite the spirit of the goddess to inhabit the bed, ask for her blessings of fertility and healing. Put the dolly in the bed, and offer the company of the god-wand. For an extra ounce of fertility blessing, the wand can be crossed like an X over the dolly to form the Norse rune Gifu. Add nuts to the bed to stimulate fertility. Use the Brigit dolly as a talisman of protection and fertility through the winter, and either recycle her for Lughnasadh or return her to the earth if she is made of grain.
Pagan craft projects