Irish Fourplay
"…something I once heard Charles M. Schulz say, 'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.'"
"Forewarned is four-armed."
— Folk saying
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The painting at left is by Mary B. Kelly, a 1958 graduate of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Kelly is an expert on portrayals of Goddess figures in art. |
Today in Australia is February First, the feast of St. Bridget. As several websites note, St. Bridget is a combination of Christian saint and Goddess figure… rather like St. Sara (patron saint of Gypsies, also known as Kali) or like Sara Pezzini in the classic TV series "Witchblade."
"Aww… Irish foreplay."
— Sara Pezzini in Witchblade, Episode 6
"Mighty in the gift of purity
She was pleasing unto the Bridegroom on high."
"Brace yourself, Bridget."
— Definition of Irish foreplay
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Four people can form this cross by joining hands as shown. Of course, a Goddess like Kali (shown above) or Sara Pezzini could do it all by herself. |
For futher details, see The Swastika Goddess, the history of Jews and the Roman Catholic Church, and the history of Irish neutrality in World War II.
Postscript of 11 PM —
The Goddess Bridget in Literature
The Goddess Bridget (or Brigid) is incarnated in two classic works of American literature —
- The American patriot and Communist Party supporter Dashiell Hammett gave an unflattering portrayal of Brigid (O'Shaughnessy) in The Maltese Falcon. For a Jungian analysis of the relationship between Sam Spade and Brigid, see the perceptive remarks of Ryan Benedetti:
"In Jungian terms, Brigid becomes a projection of Spade's anima, a contrasexual replica of his own face as expressed in someone of the opposite sex.
Spade wears a variety of masks in his work. Masking allows him to get underneath the scam most clients lay on him. He is closer to the darker side of his unconscious than any of the other characters in the book, and he is so, because of his role as shamus. His function in his society is to expose all of the underlying darkness of the human psyche."
One way of looking at animus and anima is through the following archetypes:
A diamond and its dual "whirl" figure —
or a "jewel-box and its mate"
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Mark Twain, in Life on the Mississippi, describes the way Goddess Bridget (again, O'Shaughnessy) arranged the conveyance of her late husband to the next world:
"D'ye mane to soy that Bridget O'Shaughnessy bought the mate to that joo-ul box to ship that dhrunken divil to Purgatory in?"
"Yes, madam."
"Then Pat shall go to heaven in the twin to it, if it takes the last rap the O'Flaherties can raise!"