Please add your own commentary I would be delighted...
Brigid
was a young girl always looking for deeper meaning in her life and asking big
questions about things. Her simple life on the farm wasn't enough for her and
she was tired of digging around in the mud with her parents. One day she
decided to join the local monastery with the hope that the wise sisters and anam
cairdé (soul friends) could help her
on her search.
Commentary:
Like many of us Brigid wanted to
break away from the mundane aspects of her childhood and find her Self separate
from her family and who she is with them. Carl Jung would call this the
beginnings of individuation. In the wisdom tradition the monastery was seen as
a container for the expansion of the psyche, which is often missing today.
The
abbess, head of the monastery took Brigid under her wing and so Brigid began her
training. The most important thing to know she told Brigid was to avoid the
field of barley at the bottom of the hill. She told Brigid that the monastery
rented this land to a local farmer and he sprayed his barley with foreign
imported pesticide that would be poisonous for her.
Commentary:
All the advice in the world is great
to a young seeker of wisdom but those inner complexes will have their day.
Brigit is moving away from her mother complex toward a healthy mother archetype
as represented by the abbess. Complexes are the unconscious energies of parents
that children take on and pass from generation to generation if not released.
They can lead to narcissistic tendencies, mental health problems and all sorts
of suffering.
Taking Brigid under her wing
indicates an animistic link to the instincts. The abbess will guide Brigit in
directing her instincts in a healthy way. The language of the birds was also a
way of describing hidden meaning. The foreign pesticide represents knowledge or
experiences that Brigid isn’t ready for yet and this is held by the farmer a
male figure and also in the field of barley representing a connection to the
earth.
One
day while Brigid was out walking she saw the field of barley at the bottom of
the hill and even though she felt drawn to it she remembered what the wise abbess
had said and she walked the other way.
Commentary:
This is the first stage of Brigit’s
boundary lesson. The ability to recognise what isn’t good for us in the moment
and say ‘NO’. Brigit separates from her family and adopts the archetypical
identity and lessons of the abbess instead.
But
every night Brigid had dreams of the field and the mysterious farmer (or was he
a shepherd :) who tended it. She'd wake up with an intense longing to go there
highlighted by an image of the farmer in the field with his muddy boots (Brigid
didn’t like mud it reminded her of days on the farm and her father :)
Commentary:
The complexes are coming alive in
Brigid, the unconscious mother and father in her. Even though she has left the
farm and family behind the projections are still active in her new context. The
unconscious attractors in Brigids psyche inherited from her mother and father create
a projected longing that is hard to ignore.
One
day not long after she joined the monastery Brigid could no longer resist.
(Brigid was a spirited girl in more ways than one :) She went into the field of
barley at the bottom of the hill. Walking through the field she felt
exhilarated but after awhile she began to feel ill. She got so sick she was
later found by the sisters and had to be carried back to the monastery.
Commentary:
It’s often in life we engage with situations
that are harmful or we are unprepared for. Brigit is been drawn to the field
(her shadow complex projection as attractor) and while initially exhilarating
like all addiction it becomes her downfall. From Brigids point of view this is
a crisis but it’s often out of crisis that growth can come.
With
the wisdom and healing care of the wise abbess Brigid recovered from her plight
and resolved not to go into the field again. As the years went on she developed
her own ground through meditation, prayer and awareness. With her new strength
and positivity she once more went to the field of barley at the bottom of the
hill and facing her possible death
she took a big scythe (they didn’t have combine harvesters in those days :) cut
the barley down, not just for her but for any who passed this way. (The farmer
sent the invoice to the monastery later that month :)
Commentary:
When we recover our strength and
reflect and learn from our lessons it gives us the confidence to face our
fears. This time Brigit was able to challenge the poison in the field. The same
is true in all our relationships but most importantly the ability to challenge
the inner shadow complexes.
In
time Brigid began to have dreams of the farmer again where she would find
herself in the field in the moonlight dancing with him in his muddy boots under
the naked stars. She brought these dreams to her wise abbess and with spiritual
guidance began to integrate her own wise inner Self; the instincts, drives and
passions in her life.
Commentary:
This is a real time of integration.
The mother archetype is now active and the complex less so. It allows Brigit to
engage with the father complex especially around integrating her contra-sexual
other or animus. This process happens naturally around mid-life for women with
the decline of oestrogen in the body.
Many
more years went by and Brigid became more whole (some would even say holy :)
with the guidance of the wise abbess. She went out walking once more and one
day seeing the field of barley at the bottom of the hill she went in and began
to eat the barley (some stories say she used to distil it and turn it into
another type of spirit :)
Commentary:
In the movement of kenosis we empty
out the energy of these unconscious complexes and reach a stage where the inner
doorway of the soul can now be opened fully. The soul is a doorway to Greater
awareness or God. Brigid realises in herself that God can’t be poisoned or
Awareness isn’t dualistic and therefore is able to eat the barley.
As
she ate it she took all the foreign pesticide, negativity and knowledge into
herself and transformed in into love. She could do this because she had been
given the grace to do so, and she recognised her deep soul Self (connected to
God) couldn't be poisoned but only grow from the experience.
Commentary:
This is a high level of Transcendence
where we move from negativity to positivity to eventually awareness which is
the ultimate knowing and is neither positive nor negative. In moving beyond
negativity or positivity we connect like Brigid to the oneness in all things.
Slowly
Brigid built this awareness more and more into her body and one day was out
walking when she came by the field of barley again. Like the first time she
walked the other way, but as she passed the field it was transformed by her
passing. She had come home to herself and God and was no longer separate from
the field. She had been planted, grounded and anchored into life.
Commentary:
This is an important element in Spirituality.
The awareness that Brigid received in her training allowed her to embody a
different structure within. It’s not just a head exercise and Brigid is totally
transformed. As within so without and therefore Brigid is able to affect her
environment just through her presence.
Brigid
then approached the farmer and the legend goes she made an offer to take the
land as far as her cloak would stretch. The following morning he returned to
see that the mantle had covered a large tract of land surrounding the oak tree
where Brigid is said to have done her healing. The landowner was so
overwhelmed at what he saw that he gifted Brigid the land on which to build her
church.
Commentary:
Miracles are ways of describing
events that are beyond our rational understanding. When Brigid achieved this
level of awareness with the Divine then everything she did had a power that can
achieve great things. Some would say this is the mystical union as represented
by the outer farmer and Brigid but really taking place in Brigids psyche.
Eventually
Brigid became the head of her own monastery and did many good works throughout
the land transforming fields of barley into gold, and receiving much merit (and
even some fruits :) Often when the moon is full she can be seen dancing through
the field with joy, awareness and wild abandon, a living prayer to all those
who suffer in the world.
Commentary:
When there is inner freedom and we realise like Brigid
that happiness isn’t about our outer circumstances then life becomes a
celebration. Brigid message is to be brave enough to celebrate what you believe
and be free enough to dance it out into the world.
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