This interview is taken from Ellen Evert Hopman’s book ‘A Legacy of Druids’.

Interview with Mael Brigde

Can you describe any rituals that you do?

Ooh. This is difficult to answer. For about a decade I had certain daily rituals such as “opening” my altar in the morning, giving offerings of smoke and clean water, thinking about what I would be doing that day, and then in the evening “closing” it, which was similar but also involved giving thanks for everything that had come to me during the day.

This demanded reviewing and seeing things through wider, less grumpy eyes, and was (and is) an extremely useful exercise. In addition, I celebrated the major holidays with research and with writing and performing rituals which were often but not always shared with others.

The rituals sprang from what I already knew and what I gleaned from my reading about the days and symbols and deities in question, and generally involved poetry, acts that would deepen the connection with the holiday, and an opportunity to relate the symbolism of the day to my own life and those of other participants. They were contemplative, affectionate rituals, whether I was alone or with others     however somber the theme, my affection for the universe generally managed to come through.

I also performed rituals for particular occasions — pleasure rituals, for instance, or rituals of healing, strengthening, firming of purpose, invoking assistance and dispatching fear when individual challenges arose. The pleasure rituals were completely nonsexual, although one was certainly welcome to feel sexual if that’s what arose; we just didn’t act on it. Instead, we were attempting to re-establish our connection with physical and emotional pleasure as separate from sex and performance, and there was not only a worshipful, thankful attitude, we were also encouraged to release any feelings that might come up as a result of connecting with each other and ourselves in this way.

The pleasures involved ranged from tactile: massage, rolling pebbles and pine cones or running silk or hair or feathers across the skin; to olfactory: oils, incenses, foods passed near the nose; to intellectual: poetry read, ideas discussed; to emotional: telling the recipient how loved she is and why, hugging, laughing, crying aloud…I truly enjoyed developing and hosting those rituals and strongly recommend them as an antidote to the anti-physical, anti-pleasure attitude so prevalent in our culture, and to the physical and emotional isolation that results, particularly but not exclusively for people without sexual partners or children. We need to touch, and to let ourselves feel and enjoy that touch, and to NOT have all our pleasant touch be sexual.

As I mentioned before, I have a commitment to burn Brighid’s flame once every twenty days for twenty-four hours, and I co-ordinate the efforts of other women who are involved. I perform my commitment in various ways. I light a kerosene lamp and hang it on the porch or change candles every few hours or burn a twenty-four-hour candle. I spend the day in contemplation or practically forget I’ve got the candle on the burn; the latter is not my most proud ritual, but let’s face it, it happens. I also write about the process in my newsletter and in letters to participants, which always feels like a sort of ritual to me. It certainly reconnects me with my intent, and my commitment.

But there are other kinds of rituals. For years I have taken everything I have known about life and re-examined it through what I learn about mysticism, ritual, symbol, worship, deity. I have taken everything I’ve learned about these and integrated them into my relationship with and perception of life. When I counsel a human being, I am not thinking “Goddess”, but I am seeing Goddess. When I aspire, I aspire in terms of what I know is possible, wider even than I have ever seen, and that is a connection of cosmic proportions, even when it feels prosaic and mundane.

About two years ago, I dismantled my altar and stopped my daily practice and most other rituals except for the flame and those called for by specific situations. I didn’t entirely understand why; it was just the appropriate thing to do. I have very recently constructed a small altar again, and begun making occasional small offerings. I am following my guts on this.

So much of my life is imbued with and builds on and adds to my connection to Brighid, to existence, to “the benign reality” that I don’t feel at all that I have stopped the process of connection, only changed the form. Much evolution happens in the shadows, and I’ve learned to trust the changes even when they are in their hidden form.

A few months ago, my friend Erynn sent me a candle lit from a candle lit from the flame of Brighid that’s burning at Kildare. I’m sending the flame along to everyone who’s burning for Her in our little circle, to share that increased closeness with other worshippers, with the Goddess we love, with life itself. It feels real good to do this on this day. I write an e-mail to Louise; “Let’s celebrate together”, I say. “Equinox, Solstice, Full Moon, Empty Moon, life…”

I put away my rituals, put away my props because I needed to wade out into life unrestricted by form, to see what fits and what no longer makes sense, and where I want to put more juice. Life is blossoming for me in a slow, subterranean, powerful way and shoots are pushing up through the earth. It’s spring in this weathered soul. Time to give thanks, to dance Beltaine way out of season, to pour out liters of creamy milk, to watch the candles burn in liveliness and glad of heart.

Who knows how my rituals will appear a year from now? But I look forward with wetted lips.

Ellen Evert Hopman is the author of a number of books and has been a teacher of Herbalism since 1983 and of Druidism since 1990. She has presented on Druidism, herbal lore, tree lore, Paganism and magic at conferences, festivals, and events in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and in the United States.

She has participated in numerous radio and television programs including National Public Radio’s “Vox Pop” and the Gary Null show in New York.

She presented a weekly “herb report” for WRSI radio out of Greenfield, MA for over a year and was a featured subject in a documentary about Druids on A&E Television’s; “The Unexplained” (Secret Societies, February 1999).

She is a Master Herbalist and professional member of the American Herbalists Guild (AHG) and lay Homeopath who holds an M.Ed. in Mental Health Counseling.

She is a founding member of The Order of the White Oak (Ord Na Darach Gile, http://www.whiteoakdruids.org) and its former Co-Chief, a Bard of the Gorsedd of Caer Abiri, and a Druidess of the Druid Clan of Dana.

She is currently ArchDruid of Tribe of the Oak, an international Druid teaching Order based in New England, USA (http://tribeoftheoak.org/)

She was Vice President of The Henge of Keltria, an international Druid Fellowship, for nine years and has been at times a member of

The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF).

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/ellen-evert-hopman