Ord Brighideach
LADY OF THE PERPETUAL FLAME AND SACRED WELLS,WE SEEK YOU.
Brighid & Cailleach
“Brigid and the Cailleach” depicts a legend in which the ancient grandmother Cailleach, at winter’s end, journeys to Brigid’s Well on the island of Iona. Through this meeting, the cycle turns, and Brigid is renewed as Spring.
— Sue Ellen Parkinson
The stories of Brighid and the Cailleach are held as beloved myths — not as requirements of belief, but as ways of understanding the rhythms of life, loss, and renewal.
These stories are offered as invitations. You are not asked to accept them as literal truth, only to listen and notice what stirs within you. Take what resonates. Gently leave what does not.
Some are drawn to the story of the Cailleach journeying to the well and transforming into youthful Brighid — a tale of rebirth and the turning of the year. Others feel more attuned to the Cailleach as the one who holds Brighid through the long winter, or to Brighid alone, honored as saint or flame-bringer. All of these ways of seeing are welcome here.
Brighid meets us where we are.
In the stories that speak to us most deeply, she makes herself known.
The Return of Bride
The Cailleach, Hag of Winter, had imprisoned a maiden named Bride within her high mountain home. She knew that her own son, Angus the Ever-Young — a radiant god of the sun — had fallen in love with the fair Bride. And she knew that should these two be joined, her dominion over winter would end, for Angus would rise as Summer King and Bride would shine as Summer Queen.
Yet love is not so easily bound.
Moved by devotion, Angus set out to find Bride. Knowing that February’s days were wild and unforgiving, he borrowed three days of warmth from August to aid his search. As he traveled through the woods, he followed the sound of Bride’s song. Though the Cailleach sought to keep her hidden, Bride had been sent out to gather wood in the brief return of sunshine.
When Angus found her, their hearts recognized one another, and together they fled. The Cailleach pursued them in fury, riding her black goat and casting storm after storm across the land in an effort to halt their escape. But the turning of the year could not be undone.
At last, the Cailleach cast down her great hammer in defeat. In that moment, she was transformed into stone — a boulder resting upon the mountainside — where she would remain until Winter’s return.
The Cailleach is an ancient being, far older than the Celts themselves, and this story reaches back into deep time. It is a telling of the eternal turning: the dark half of the year giving way to the light, the Winter Hag yielding to Bride, the Maiden of Summe
Artwork by Hamish Burgess
Artwork by Joanna Powell Colbert
The Turning of the Year
The Celtic understanding of the seasons was often told through the stories of Brighid and the Cailleach. In many of these tales, the Cailleach held Brighid through the long, cold months of winter — a time of darkness, stillness, and deep rest.
As the days grew lighter and the first signs of spring appeared, the Cailleach would turn to stone, lying dormant until her season returned. In that moment, Brighid was released to walk freely in the world once more. With her return, the land awakened — warmth and life rising again in her steps.
When winter came again, the Cailleach would rise from her stone form and reclaim her place, and the cycle would continue. Thus the wheel turned: Brighid as the bright, life-giving presence of the year; the Cailleach as the ancient keeper of winter’s depth and endurance.
Together, they express the dance of light and shadow, summer and winter, movement and rest — not as opposites in conflict, but as powers in relationship, shaping the turning of the world.
When Winter Releases the Light
The Celtic understanding of the seasons is often carried through the stories of Brighid and the Cailleach. In these tellings, the Cailleach holds Brighid through the long months of winter — not as punishment, but as guardianship. The earth rests. Life gathers inward. The world is held in stillness.
As the days begin to lengthen and the first signs of life stir beneath the soil, the Cailleach turns once more to stone, resting until her season returns. In that moment, Brighid is released — not in triumph, but in timing. With her return, spring awakens. Warmth follows. Life remembers how to rise.
When winter comes again, the cycle continues. Brighid and the Cailleach move together through the year — light and dark, youth and age, emergence and rest. Not enemies, but companions. Two faces of the same great mystery, each necessary, each sacred.
In these stories, we are reminded that nothing is lost to winter. What is held is not gone — it is becoming.
Cailleach Spirit Doll - Created by Abbess Tracy Lynn