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#2 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Aug 2012
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In the pre-Christian religion of the Irish Celts, the goddess Brigit is patroness of
poets and prophets. Brigit has traded physical eyesight for poetic insight; she is typically portrayed as partially blind or possessing only one eye. Brigit is the bestower of poetic gifts: the fire in the head (that is at once perspicacity, acuity, and "associative mania"), mnemonic skills, the knowledge of mythology, and the ability of Dark Tongue. Her feast day, Imbolc (forty days after the winter solstice), celebrates gestation and birth, her poetic gifts, and a return of light and vision. The prophets and priests of the pagan Irish were thus associated with Brigit, who shared with her votaries the gifts in her possession. Occasionally Brigit selected a special emissary, marking him through the same sacrifice she underwent: eyesight for inner vision. Brigit's chosen prophet is mystically identified with her and with the rites of gestation and birth performed on her feast day. James Joyce, mythographer extraordinaire, exhibitor of astounding mnemonic skills, speaker of the Dark Tongue, possessor of associative mania, became partially blind from the years of sacrifice required for Finnegans Wake. Brigit's holy day of birth, Imbolc, is February 2—the birthday of James Joyce himself. James Joyce sincerely believed he was a prophet and priest assigned the enormous task of introducing a new religion to the West. According to Joyce, Finnegans Wake, in its most fundamental sense, is the sacred canon of this religion. from: Wake Rites: the Ancient Irish Rituals of Finnegans Wake, by George Cinclair Gibson |
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#3 (permalink) | |||
Music Addict
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: The Organized Mind
Posts: 2,044
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I seriously cannot love this post enough. Thank you so much for sharing this juicy knowledge with me!
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