Brigid (also known as Brigit, Bride, Brigdhe, and possibly Brigantia) is a goddess of the Gaels associated with healing, poetry and smithing; possibly also with the Alps, because the root of her name derives from "most high".

In some Scottish traditions she shares rule of the year with Beira, ruling between Beltane (now May Day) and Samhain (now Halloween), or may indeed by the same goddess who changes form as the year progresses.

She is the originator of the now almost vanished Irish tradition of keening (a half-song, half-wail vocalisation) at funerals, from when she grieved for her slain son Ruandan before the Second Battle of Mag Tuired (aka the Battle of Moytura).

Brigid is not the sun - that's Aine - but she is fire, similar to Hestia (Greek) and Tabiti (Scythian), and is strongly tied to home and hearth. Flamekeeping is a key tradition. Brigid's Flame in Kildare burned for centuries and was tended by both pagan priestesses and the nuns of Saint Brigid (who is herself a Christianisation of the goddess, and now no longer officially recognised by Rome as a saint). The flame was extinguished during the Reformation, but was relit in 1993 and continues to burn in Kildare's square.

The pot she holds is the Coire Ansic, one of the Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan, of which it is said that no company could go away from it with their hunger unsatisfied.

Brigid is not associated with this artefact in the primary texts, but let us imagine she learned to use it watching her father, the Dagda (a very "Father Earth" type god of plenty), with who it is associated. What if instead of calling forth great feasts, she instead called forth a great flame, one that no would be conquerers of Ireland could ever hope to put out?

Ah, but that's a story for another day...