What the Celtic Goddess Brighid Teaches Us About Leading Through Crisis
Ancient wisdom for Sacred Passages leadership in modern times
We've all been there. That moment when everything falls apart—personally or professionally—and we're supposed to lead others through the chaos while we're barely holding it together ourselves. The board meeting where you have to announce layoffs while processing your own grief. The team crisis that hits right when your personal life is imploding. The moment when your carefully constructed leadership persona crumbles and you're left wondering if you're cut out for this.
As someone who has navigated profound crisis in my own leadership journey—from the depths of addiction to the heights of authentic power—I've discovered that the ancient Celtic goddess Brighid offers profound wisdom for leading through our darkest passages. Known as the keeper of the sacred flame, forge master, and goddess of transformation, Brighid teaches us that crisis isn't the end of our leadership story—it's often the beginning of our most authentic power.
In Celtic tradition, Brighid presides over three sacred fires: the fire of inspiration (creativity and vision), the fire of the hearth (nurturing and community), and the fire of the forge (transformation through challenge). It's this third fire—the forge—that calls to us as leaders facing crisis. For it's in the forge that raw materials are transformed into something both beautiful and useful, strong enough to withstand whatever comes next.
The Sacred Fire of Honest Self-Examination
Brighid's first teaching: Suspend judgment to see clearly.
When crisis hits, our inner critic goes into overdrive. We fear looking honestly at our situation because of the harsh judgment we heap upon ourselves. What does this crisis say about our worthiness as leaders? Our competence? Our value as human beings in our professional roles, our familial roles, our communities?
This fear of honest examination feels risky—dangerous, even. So instead of facing reality, we craft stories to make everything more socially acceptable and palatable. We blame circumstances beyond our control. We focus on others' actions rather than our own responses. We spin narratives that preserve our ego but prevent us from learning.
But Brighid's wisdom demands something different: radical self-honesty without self-destruction.
Sacred Flame Practice: Meeting Your Inner Critic
Here's an exercise I've used with countless leaders (and in my own Sacred Passages work) to transform the relationship with that harsh inner voice:
Step 1: Creative Expression Take out a pen and paper—yes, actual paper. I know it may have been years, even decades, since you tried drawing something, but this in itself will help you get past judgment. Draw a character who holds that inner voice of criticism. A stick figure is good enough.
Who is it? Often it's a parental or authority figure from our past. Give it a name. I've named mine "Judy McJudge Judge"—she looks remarkably like Jane Jetson with her perfectly coiffed hair and judgmental expression.
Spend as much time as you'd like crafting their image. Get playful. Add details, embellish, make it ridiculous if you want. Give yourself permission to make "bad art"—there's no way you can get this wrong.
Step 2: Getting Acquainted Now have a conversation with your character through journaling. While this voice has probably been with you a long time, you may not have gotten to know them consciously. Ask them:
What is your job here? What are you trying to accomplish?
What are you protecting me from?
Are you holding anything? What does it represent?
How old was I when you first appeared? What was happening then?
When do you show up now? What circumstances or people seem to activate you?
How do I feel in my body when you appear?
Write out their responses along with anything else they want to tell you.
Step 3: Integration and Collaboration When you're done, thank them for their service. Ask them what they need. Give them a new job to do—I like to give Judy a coloring book and plenty of space to color. Then reassure them that you've got this. You're in charge, and while you appreciate all the ways they've worked to help and protect you, you are strong enough and wise enough to take things from here.
Finally—and this is crucial—welcome them in. Tell them they are welcome to be here with you. Picture a place in your inner landscape for your character to live comfortably. Feel free to explore this through art: painting, drawing, collage, whatever calls to you. The more clearly you create this environment, the more agency you have within this aspect of your experience.
This practice embodies one of Brighid's key aspects as goddess of hearth and home—creating sacred space where all parts of ourselves can exist without shame.
The Forge of Fearless Inventory
Brighid's second teaching: Take ownership to reclaim power.
Many recovery models invite what's called "a fearless and thorough moral inventory"—an honest examination of what led to crisis. It's so human to want to place focus—and blame—on circumstances beyond our control or people who inflicted harm. And indeed, those aspects may be true and valid.
But limiting our perspective to things outside our control keeps us locked in a victim role, powerless to create different outcomes in the future.
What becomes possible when we shift focus to examining our own part, our own agency, our own choices?
Sacred Flame Practice: The Leadership Inventory
Before beginning this practice, take a few minutes to center yourself. Sit quietly and pay attention to your breath. Become aware of your inhale, hold for a moment, then fully release. Take several rounds of conscious breathing. When you feel grounded, continue.
This isn't about self-flagellation or taking responsibility for things genuinely outside your control. This is about reclaiming your power by identifying where you did have choice and agency, even in difficult circumstances.
Journal on these questions, paying attention to what's happening in your body as you write:
The Situation:
What was the triggering action or event?
What circumstances were genuinely outside my control?
What circumstances were within my influence?
Your Internal Response:
What in me was triggered by this situation?
What old wounds, fears, or patterns got activated?
What was I telling myself about what was happening?
Your External Response:
How did I respond, and why did I choose those responses?
Did I show up as the leader I intended to be?
Or did unconscious patterns take over like a horse bolting from a gate?
What actions did I take or not take?
The Aftermath:
What was the outcome of my responses?
Did I cause harm to others (including myself)?
When I saw or realized the impact, what did I do?
Did I own my actions, or did I justify and defend them?
How did I handle making amends where needed?
These are challenging questions that can only be accessed after you've released self-judgment. Expect moments of criticism to arise—meet them with kindness and curiosity rather than resistance.
Allow yourself to take breaks and return to this work when ready. But don't delay indefinitely. There is wisdom in each of these very human experiences, and the discipline you give yourself in this process serves to strengthen your awareness and agency as you encounter future challenges.
The goal isn't perfection—it's integration. We're building your capacity to respond rather than react, to lead consciously rather than unconsciously.
The Hearth of Vulnerable Connection
Brighid's third teaching: Share your humanity to strengthen your authority.
When you feel you've fully examined your experience in writing, find a trusted person to share your discoveries with in confidence. This could be your partner, a trusted friend, a therapist, coach, or mentor—someone who can hold space for your complete truth without judgment.
In sharing this experience with a trusted person, you create the opportunity to experience several profound shifts:
Unconditional Acceptance: You discover that you can be loved and valued even when you've made mistakes or shown your imperfections.
Universal Humanity: You learn that you're not alone in how you struggled in that moment—that your responses were deeply human and understandable.
Outside Perspective: You receive affirmation, new viewpoints, and support from someone not caught in your internal narrative.
Relational Healing: You have a lived experience that you don't have to walk these challenging paths alone.
As leaders, we often wrestle with enormous amounts of stress and overwhelm while falling into common thinking traps: "I have to figure this out alone." "Everyone depends on me to be rock-solid; there's no room for mistakes." "If people see my struggles, they'll lose confidence in my leadership."
This creates a lonely and isolated place from which to lead—and isolation breeds distorted thinking and poor decision-making.
How healing it is to have the lived experience of being vulnerable with a trusted person and discovering that your mistake or misstep isn't nearly as catastrophic as you imagined. How liberating to realize how normal and human your responses were, how much wisdom you've gained, and how much stronger you've become.
We all need this level of comfort and acceptance. And paradoxically, leaders who can share their growth edges appropriately create more trust and psychological safety, not less.
The Sacred Flame of Integrated Leadership
Like Brighid who forges iron in fire, this process cuts away the shame and judgment that hampers our leadership effectiveness. Shame and judgment increase our blind spots, narrow our perspective, and limit our range of responses. Instead, we use the fire of deep reflection coupled with present-moment body awareness to create more spaciousness, agency, and wisdom in our leadership.
This is the essence of Sacred Passages leadership—transforming our most challenging experiences into the foundation for our most authentic power.
The leaders I most respect aren't those who've never faced crisis. They're the ones who've done the deep work of transformation, who've alchemized their breakdowns into breakthroughs, and who now lead with the hard-won wisdom that only comes from walking through fire and emerging with their Sacred Flame burning brighter than ever.
This is the path of the Sacred Flame leader:
Suspending self-judgment to see clearly and respond wisely
Taking fearless inventory to reclaim agency and personal power
Sharing vulnerably to strengthen authentic connection and trust
Using crisis as a forge for integrated, authentic leadership
Your crisis isn't evidence of failed leadership—it's your invitation to lead from a deeper place of truth, wisdom, and strength.
In Celtic tradition, Brighid's flame was never allowed to die because it represented the eternal fire of transformation—the divine energy that continuously creates, destroys, and recreates life in increasingly authentic forms. Every leader carries their own sacred flame. Sometimes circumstances require us to tend it as a small, barely visible flicker. But crisis—those moments when everything gets called into question—offers us the opportunity to feed that flame until it becomes a bonfire of authentic power.
The choice is always ours: We can let crisis diminish our light, or we can use it as fuel for our Sacred Flame to burn brighter than ever before.
What sacred passage is your leadership calling you toward right now? And what would become possible if you met that passage with Brighid's wisdom rather than resistance?
Ready to explore your own Sacred Passages transformation? I guide accomplished women through these profound leadership passages using ancient Celtic wisdom and modern transformation practices. [Learn more about Sacred Passages Leadership programs here.] [Join my Sacred Flame newsletter for weekly wisdom.] [Schedule a Sacred Passages discovery call.]