Brighid and Her Oracular Serpent
The Queen Rises from the Mound
European Grass Snake (similar to the North American Garter snake), British Adder
Divining with Brighid's oracular serpent. In Scottish lore, Brighid's serpent would emerge from winter hibernation on Imbolc. If the weather was auspicious, it would remain active, it's behavior and movement closely watched to determine how few days of winter remained. But if it returned to it's lair, then spring would be delayed by a month or more.
Invoking the serpent on Imbolc:
Alexei Kondratiev (The Apple Branch, p. 150-156?) surmises that healing temples dedicated to Brighid may have possessed an actual snake, kept by ritual leaders, to act as an oracle. The healing, fertility, and transformational powers of serpents also connected them to Brighid. As the serpent sheds its skin and is renewed, so is the Land renewed with the coming of spring. While climatic and captive care conditions make it seem unlikely that snakes were kept permanently at such temples, the discovery of a skeleton from a Barbary ape (Gibraltar macaque) at Tara in Ireland, may increase the likelihood.
The cthonic serpent is Brighid's connection to the land and soveriegnty. The serpent, especially the adder – the northernmost occurring snake in Scotland is referred to as 'rioghan' or queen. This serpent is Her divinatory animal and is consulted as an oracle, as noted above. But as was mentioned previously, the European grass snake, with it's torc collar markings indicating kingship – or queenship in this case, is just as likely.
From the Carmina Gadelica:
Moch maduinn Bhride
Thig an nimhir as an toll.
Cha bhean mise ris an nimhir,
Cha bhean an nimhir rium.
On Bride's morn,
The serpent will come out of the hole.
I will not harm the serpent,
Nor will the serpent harm me.'
In some versions, the serpent is addressed as rioghan (queen). Bride was sometimes known as 'the Serpent Queen'. There is a barrow at Glenelg associated with serpent worship that Bride was said to rise from on her festival day. And in many translations, the word 'mound' is substituted for 'hole'. Often referred to as a white snake, it was also related to the Salmon of Knowledge, and was called 'The Snake of the Hazel Grove'. It was said to hold its tail in its mouth, similar to the Ouroboros or the Germanic World Serpent. It's powers of regeneration and immortality were such that it could be cut into many pieces, that would then merge back into a single living serpent again.
In Ireland, the hedgehog replaced the serpent as cthonic oracle, due to the lack of serpents. At least one author, Seamus O Cathain, thinks that the line “the queen will come from the mound” may trace back to traditions regarding the awakening of a hibernating bear. In Irish tradition, Brighid is known as the daughter of the bear.
I would add that a badger emerging from her sett (a large mound with many interconnecting burrows), would also fit this pattern, and would be only relatively larger than the groundhog that has become the modern inheritor of this custom..
And so we come to the groundhog itself. If the morning is clear and the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. So the modern Groundhog Day hearkens back to the reverence held for a sacred serpent honored at Imbolc in Ireland and Scotland. It is also worth noting that at Imbolc, offerings of milk were especially potent, one wonders if an offering of milk was left at the mound of the queen, so that the appearance of the serpent would hasten the spring, perhaps also a long lost link back to the Vedic practice of offering milk to serpents....
Divining with Brighid's oracular serpent. In Scottish lore, Brighid's serpent would emerge from winter hibernation on Imbolc. If the weather was auspicious, it would remain active, it's behavior and movement closely watched to determine how few days of winter remained. But if it returned to it's lair, then spring would be delayed by a month or more.
Invoking the serpent on Imbolc:
Alexei Kondratiev (The Apple Branch, p. 150-156?) surmises that healing temples dedicated to Brighid may have possessed an actual snake, kept by ritual leaders, to act as an oracle. The healing, fertility, and transformational powers of serpents also connected them to Brighid. As the serpent sheds its skin and is renewed, so is the Land renewed with the coming of spring. While climatic and captive care conditions make it seem unlikely that snakes were kept permanently at such temples, the discovery of a skeleton from a Barbary ape (Gibraltar macaque) at Tara in Ireland, may increase the likelihood.
The cthonic serpent is Brighid's connection to the land and soveriegnty. The serpent, especially the adder – the northernmost occurring snake in Scotland is referred to as 'rioghan' or queen. This serpent is Her divinatory animal and is consulted as an oracle, as noted above. But as was mentioned previously, the European grass snake, with it's torc collar markings indicating kingship – or queenship in this case, is just as likely.
From the Carmina Gadelica:
Moch maduinn Bhride
Thig an nimhir as an toll.
Cha bhean mise ris an nimhir,
Cha bhean an nimhir rium.
On Bride's morn,
The serpent will come out of the hole.
I will not harm the serpent,
Nor will the serpent harm me.'
In some versions, the serpent is addressed as rioghan (queen). Bride was sometimes known as 'the Serpent Queen'. There is a barrow at Glenelg associated with serpent worship that Bride was said to rise from on her festival day. And in many translations, the word 'mound' is substituted for 'hole'. Often referred to as a white snake, it was also related to the Salmon of Knowledge, and was called 'The Snake of the Hazel Grove'. It was said to hold its tail in its mouth, similar to the Ouroboros or the Germanic World Serpent. It's powers of regeneration and immortality were such that it could be cut into many pieces, that would then merge back into a single living serpent again.
In Ireland, the hedgehog replaced the serpent as cthonic oracle, due to the lack of serpents. At least one author, Seamus O Cathain, thinks that the line “the queen will come from the mound” may trace back to traditions regarding the awakening of a hibernating bear. In Irish tradition, Brighid is known as the daughter of the bear.
I would add that a badger emerging from her sett (a large mound with many interconnecting burrows), would also fit this pattern, and would be only relatively larger than the groundhog that has become the modern inheritor of this custom..
And so we come to the groundhog itself. If the morning is clear and the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. So the modern Groundhog Day hearkens back to the reverence held for a sacred serpent honored at Imbolc in Ireland and Scotland. It is also worth noting that at Imbolc, offerings of milk were especially potent, one wonders if an offering of milk was left at the mound of the queen, so that the appearance of the serpent would hasten the spring, perhaps also a long lost link back to the Vedic practice of offering milk to serpents....