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Comment by Jenn on April 7, 2009 at 4:54am

yes, the snake is one of her very ancient symbols ... there are a good many Gaelic chants/prayers to her calling her "Brighid of the Snake" .... it's really an asp more than a snake though, and of course after St. Patrick, apparently all the "snakes" were driven out. I look at the snake to represent an older wisdom, perhaps connected to the druids or who knows. The snake aspect can be thought to represent the disillusionment and ritual dismemberment that typically befalls those undergoing esoteric initiation.

She's also associated with the swan and with the cormorant. Both are, in folklore, like her messengers. Also her psychopomp aspect. This aspect of her can be thought of as the empty space, the place where visions begin, where the soul lives purest, which happens after death or after ritual death in esoteric initiation.

Then in her earth-goddess aspect, she's associated closely with any herded animals--for the Gaels, this meant cattle and sheep. And this aspect represents her midwifing powers, as she helps us birth the spirit/soul into deeper truths, at the end of the initiation process.

The snowdrop and birch are her tree too because her festival is Imbolc, Candlemass, the time of reawakening earth, reawakening consciousness, and the beginning and then completion of the Hero's Journey.

And I wouldn't be surprised if she was helping you! Or one of her sisters, because "she" has been a soul-mother to many.