NOT SO RIGID BRIGID

In the music industry, a “crossover” is a term used for a tune or an artist that “crosses over” from one musical market to another: a big country tune that also rocks with the rock n’ roll audience, or a pop artist that pops up in the inspirational sales department. Crossovers are very popular in the song biz, of course, because they sell more CD’s, DVD’s, sheet music and concert tickets. Crossovers make record producers, song-writers, musicians and a bunch of lawyers very rich. If you can get someone to be the twang-king idol of country-western listeners and the hunka-monka wailer of MTV pop rockers, honey, you got your self some honkin’ assets and affluence comin’ your way. Willie Nelson is a crossover artist, as was Elvis Presley. Shania Twain, Andrea Bocelli, Paul Simon and Amy Grant have all had crossover hits. In the melody marketplace, crossovers are a reason to party big.
Not so in the religion biz. Crossovers from one religion to another or even from one expression of a single religion to another are not greeted with such warm enthusiasm as in the musical money menagerie. Maybe it’s because religious crossovers are not so lucrative as the musical. Maybe if the saintly switchers could generate a few more buckaroos in the process, then their crosses might be a bit more easy to bear.
But, if a member of one religious tradition decides to get chummy with those of another, it doesn’t usually set well with the original group. At least, not in the past two or three thousand years. When a member of one holy order has sneaked out on a Saturday night and boogied with the beliefs of another blessed bunch, everybody has tended to get all grumpy and want to do things like burn the dancing bozo at the stake. That was Jesus’ problem, of course. He saw a bigger picture than his culture or religion offered. He tried it out and they nailed him up.
There was a Celtic goddess, however, who pulled it off. When it comes to religious crossovers, Brigid was the queen. Brigid (also called Brighide, Brigan or Brigantia) was a Celtic goddess of fire and the poetic arts: music dance, verse. Likewise, she was goddess of nature, prophecy and divination. In some areas of Britain, she was connected with water and referred to as the “nymph goddess;” but fire was her strong suit. In Druid mythology, she was said to have been born at daybreak and fed with the milk from a sacred cow from the Otherworld. She was the Celtic equivalent of the Roman Minerva or the Greek Athena. She was highly revered, honored and worshipped in the ancient Celtic world.
When Christian missionaries came scooting up the western European coast looking for converts, they landed in what is now Ireland, England and Scotland. There, they found themselves up to their eyeballs in Celt-world. Some Celts converted. Some didn’t. But instead of running around and slaughtering the pagan holdouts (like it must say to do in the standard missionary manual), these early theo-touting tourists began to appropriate Celtic traditions and give them a Christian spin. Maybe it was the gentle nature of these missionary monks or maybe it was the good Irish whiskey; but rather than burning and pillaging ancient places and customs, these wise old abbots stirred them together with their own religious ingredients to cook up a kind of Celtic/Christian stew. Brigid was part of that stew.
In the 5th century, there was an actual woman named Brigid. Daughter of an Irish chieftain and Christian-convert slave, Brigid became a nun, abbess and eventually saint. Goddess Brigit became St. Brigid; but she retained her essential nature. She was still worshipped and revered. She was still a poetic and pastoral saint. But, now, her legendary reputation included being the midwife of the Virgin Mary. Her Christian feast day became February 1-2, Celtic Imbolc, which originally celebrated ewes coming into milk. A large monastery was established in her name at Kildare, Ireland, where her sacred fire burned continually. Brigid became a delightful mythical blend of two very diverse religions. So, rather than losing Brigdt from their tradition, the Celts gained an even more expansive Brigid in the process and the Christians got a new saint.
Religions were not created by God. They are all human made. God didn’t create prayer-books, hymnals or doctrines, much less crusades and inquisitions. Religions are there for humans to find ways of approaching the divine and learning to live better. Like everything else on earth, religions can evolve. Must evolve or die. Religions can learn from other and grow with each other, blend with each other. Maybe someday we’ll rediscover that you don’t have to destroy a goddess to create saint; and that, when it comes to settling religious differences, crossovers beat the hell out of guns.
Brigid’s Way is a way of peace. Of delight in the earth. Of fire and the music and poetry of all creation. Of adaptability. Our culture, religion and world might just need a little more Brigid in our britches.