Flower offering to the Celtic Goddess Brigit, Brigid, Brighid

Here in my dining room (also called the Herb-Craft room) is the heart of my life, my altar.  My husband, Jamey, and I named our big, old, built in 1922, house, Brugh na Bhride (taken from the old Celtic name of Newgrange or Brugh na Boinne, a Neolithic architectural monument and one of the most famous antiquities in Ireland.) 

What activities, sacred and mundane, that we do in our home are all dedicated to the honor of the Goddess Brighid who is also known as Brid, Bhride, Breo-Sagit and by many other names.  She is the triple Celtic Goddess of poetry and writing; healing and midwifery; and smithing (black-smithing, gold-smithing, silver-smithing) or the making of crafts.  She is often called the Goddess of the Forge and fire (bonfires, candles and other burning things) and water (holy wells, rivers, and springs) are her sacred elements.  Her main shrine is in Kildare, Ireland where her worship is centered around her sacred flame and holy well.  A large center has recently been built in honor of Brighid in Kildare. I hope to go there next year to celebrate Imbolc with all the other "Keepers of Her Sacred Flame."

The beautiful vase of flowers on my altar at home is made up of flowers that I grow in my own gardens.  We only have a tiny end lot on a corner in our small city, but we raise a lot of vegetables and even more herbs.  I make all sorts of herbal things with these herbs and I use the dried herbs in magick because I am mainly a Hedge Witch or a Kitchen Witch.

The altar where I do my magickal workings is featured in the picture below.  Above and behind the altar are my dried herbs for healing and magick that I have gathered from my gardens and from my journeys around this world, our Mother Earth or Gaia. 

The statue to the left on my altar is a wonderful sculpture of Brighid given to me by my husband and soulmate this year as my Beltane gift. She is so beautiful.  She stands with Celtic symbols all around her and at the bottom of by her feet and in her hands are the tools of her three incarnations. She holds fire in her hands. 

I also use the stand that I have my herbs stacked upon to hold my seedlings in the spring and on which to dry my herbs in the fall when I plant my gardens and put up the harvest for the next year.  Behind the row of jars on the top shelf is a line of white security candles that I inscribe, anoint and light when someone asks me to light a candle for healing energy.

Above is a better picture of the jars of herbs I have behind my altar.  From these rows of jars plus the other magickal tools and implements on my altar, I form spells and incantations which I offer up to the Gods and Goddesses to help heal this world and its inhabitants, my dear friends and myself.  I celebrate the eight special holidays of Wicca called Sabbats.  These are Samhain, Yule or Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox or Ostara, Beltane, Summer Solstice or Litha, Lammas or Lughnassadh, and Autumn Equinox or Mabon.  I also celebrate the full and new moons every month and honor the Old Ways and the Old Gods and Goddesses in my life.