Celtic Polytheism – Page 2

Crow Folks: Three Things for Lughnasadh

July 21, 2023
by Alexandra

I was planning to write up my experiences of Mystic South for this week’s blog, but while I was there I attended a ritual to the Morrigan and the Dagda (run by the same lovely people who put on the Morrigan’s Call Retreat), and I was reminded that my service usually starts on the dark moon closest to Lughnasadh, but that the timing was at Their discretion… and yep, that started this past weekend, and I’m already running a little behind on posting, as I try to catch up on sleep and get unpacked and the bunnies resettled from their vacation, and my house even remotely organized, while my child is doing his best impression of velcro.

So.

I did the journey to my usual place, and was given a set of three tasks to share with you all, for Lughnasadh, or perhaps more appropriately for Brón Trogain, the Earth’s Sorrowing:

Fearn: Renew your protections
Both shields and wards: on yourself, your children, your animals; on your house, your car, your place of work
Idad: Honor the Might Dead and your own personal allies
It’s a good time for renewing oaths but also for just coming together with those who are your kith and kin
Gort: Blessing the first fruits of the harvest
Whatever is coming into ripeness right now, collect some and hallow it and offer it to those same allies

Fairly simple, fairly straightforward, and honestly it seems very doable, even for a very busy practitioner. Reminder, however, that this is of course all UPG – I seek what wisdom they would have me share, and they tell me in a mixture of ogham, imagery, and words, and then I write it up and ask for their approval… and edit and tweak until they give it.

The Morrigan’s Call Retreat 2023

This past weekend, I attended the Morrigan’s Call Retreat in person for the first time. (Blog followers with a keen memory may remember that I had a presentation slated for the 2020 retreat, but that one ended up being virtual, for good reason!) It was also the first time I’d ever really been to New England (at least I assume Manhattan doesn’t count?), and the first time I ever met Morgan Daimler in person, so it was a weekend of firsts in a lot of ways, for me.

I had two presentations, and I’ll be uploading the notes from those to my Patreon for supporters as soon as I manage to find the time to finish editing them (but my time is a bit constrained now that my child is out of school for the summer, so patience is appreciated!) Anyone who was at the retreat but didn’t make my workshop is also welcome to email me to ask for the handouts or notes for either “Working with Deities of Battle” or “When the Morrigan Goes Quiet”.

I hadn’t been sure how I was going to get to the retreat itself as I don’t drive, but I trusted in Na Morrigna and it worked out — one of my sorta-local friends was also going and we rode up together, which was a really nice way to start the weekend. (Getting stuck on the train between DC and Baltimore was less nice, but all’s well that ends well.) We arrived on Friday during orientation, but the nice folks at registration and the regulars we ran into at lunch all helped us get oriented properly. I also first ran into Morgan at lunch, and met the whole crew in one pass! I got unpacked and prepped for my first workshop, “Deities of Battle”, made my introductions to the local Fair Folk, and then wandered over to the pavilion.

Way more people showed up than I expected, and it turned out that I hadn’t brought enough handouts. Whoops! People were pretty accommodating, though, sharing with neighbors and taking pictures on their phones, and I handed out a lot of business cards for folks to email me afterwards. It seemed to go over pretty well – even when I took a Deep Dive into UPG with a side dish of Extreme Woo, including the discussion of the Otherworldly War I mentioned here previously. I was really nervous about its reception, but when I later walked in on a conversation on how to use some of the types of battle sorcery I’d mentioned against A Certain Florida Man currently playing at Governator, I knew I’d found my people. Na Morrigna might not pick political parties, but They do stand for sovereignty, and right relationship, and I find most devotees take a stand against oppression and bigotry. After dinner I went to the first ritual, despite feeling a bit like my energies were tapped out. (Shout out to a tylwyth teg ally of mine for helping me actually stay upright through that!) It was pretty good, but I was focused a little too much on staying upright to get much of anything out of it. And, to my extreme disgrace, my attempt to turn off my phone earlier had apparently not taken — it was still on the “shut down or restart?” screen when the alarm went off at the very end of the ritual. Not the best omen! At least it was a pretty tinkly musical alarm and not blaring beeps…

On Saturday, I went to Morgan Daimler’s workshop “Offerings 101” and then Sionnain McLean’s workshop on “Spiritual Self-Care” and thoroughly enjoyed both. Morgan’s was a little oriented towards beginners but also had some fun anecdotes and a few things I hadn’t thought of. I think Sionnain’s flowed nicely into mine, on the topic of fallow times, and there were certainly some common themes. That workshop I’ve done a couple times before, and it opened up nicely into a discussion and sharing session where attendees were addressing each other and it really felt like we were building community. After lunch I went to “Pagan Priest/ess Work” also by Morgan, and got some great advice and also a little bit of validation for my own path, which is more spirit-focused than human-community-focused, though I still do work for the human community around me. Then my friend Katie and I just… stayed. We talked to Morgan and Mel for probably the next two hours, missing the ritual and instead going in deeply into some personal practice stuff and also veering into the weeds on a fair few other topics! It was probably more what I needed — sitting still, for one, as my spoons still weren’t quite full.

There had been a Kindred Crow concert planned for that night, but with Caine in the hospital and Irene deep in grief, that was not to be. (I share the grief, but our friend was not so central to my life, nor I so central to hers, though I miss her sorely and will be at the memorial service tomorrow.) I did attend the bonfire circle that night, though, and so was there to witness and take part in a raising of energy for the members of Kindred Crow, and managed to capture a small clip of it to send on. I also managed to finally connect with the land deeply that evening, and received a profoundly personal message — including the awareness that I was about an hour too far west to be on the land of my indigenous ancestors.

The next day, partly because of my intense experience leading to not-great sleep (and the suddenly chilly weather didn’t help) and partly just due to my energy expenditure, I spent most of the day just chatting with folks in the dining hall. I was a little disappointed at not feeling up to the ritual and workshops, but I wanted to be able to make it back to my friend’s house without fainting and that was already a tall ask. It was nice to connect with folks, though, and I managed to bond with people over my chronic illness, and over butterfly raising!

When we left, my friend graciously agreed to take me an hour east for me to greet the land my ancestors lived on when the first colonists arrived, and that was a complicated and powerful experience — one that I will probably be processing for a while. It is enough to say here: I was recognized, even as diluted and as distanced as I am. In so many ways, the Morrigan’s Call Retreat was a homecoming for me.

Crow Folks: Continue Defending

January 21, 2023
by Alexandra

This month, as I went to journey to Na Morrigna for the Dark Moon, I took my usual path, but instead of taking me to the usual cauldron outside a small house, the path swung left and continued until it emerged out of the forest, and led to a broad road. Beside this road, a horse stood waiting for me, and I swung on as I heard riders approaching from my left. I saw Macha, on a red mare, riding at the front, and her two sisters flanking her, one on either side. I joined the company of riders, and we rode together on further, across a plain and then up a large hill to a fort with impressively tall walls. We were hailed, and then let inside, festooned with ribbons and silk flowers on our way, through the winding streets to a large hill on the far side of the fort. Everywhere there were decorations, and I knew instinctively they had been made both in preparation for our coming and in preparation for the festival. As we dismounted and got our horses settled into the stables, we each made our own way into the large hall. Inside, there was food to eat, mead to drink, and much talking and laughing and even some gambling. As the night went on, however, the merriment gave way to more serious conversations and strategizing, preparation for the coming season. Always we must look onward, keep preparing for the next season, the next battle, but there is still time for celebration.

My vision then shifted forward in time, and I saw the warriors I had ridden in with defending the fort from the walls, making repairs, and keeping a watchful eye out across the plain, which was laid out before us on all sides, as the fort was on a lone hill. Another shift – and now a large force had been spotted coming towards the fort, and our warriors were preparing to go and meet the challenge, the most energetic and fierce preparing to engage in battle outside the walls, while others planned to shoot arrows and offer other support from behind the walls. “Two things are needed,” I was told, “to defend a fort soundly: blood-frenzied warriors, and stout walls.” This then, is the lesson I was meant to impart to my community, the advice for the coming months when I will not be journeying to meet Na Morrigna at the Dark Moon: we must continue to defend our walls.

Crow Folks: Tend to Your Vessel

This month, on an intuitive feeling, I drew ogham to ask what I should bring with me when I went to seek Na Morrigna around their Cauldron. I pulled Ailm, and so when I journeyed there I brought with me a pine sprig. What next followed unfolded a bit like a fable, a simple story with a deeper, metaphorical meaning and a moral, instruction in proper behaviour.

– – –

Na Morrigna turned my pine sprig into a spoon, and with that spoon They instructed me to stir the liquid in the great cauldron, clockwise around, a total of nine times. By the time I had finished, the liquid was a swift whirlpool, a vortex through which the bottom of the cauldron could be seen, just barely. One of the Sisters pointed, and I bent down, to look more closely. There was a tiny crack, a hairline fracture, in the base of the cauldron, and as I watched, the force of the whirlpool strained the cauldron, and the crack began to widen, and the liquid began to flow out so that the bottom was no longer visible, and then with a loud crack, the bottom broke in two and all the rest of the liquid was quickly absorbed by the land beneath, gone and leaving no trace. What a disaster came of such a small thing! “Protect your foundations.” They told me. “Tend to your vessel. But when it breaks…” I looked to Na Morrigna as They went silent again, wondering what They would have me do next. Instead, They each took their walking stick or spear and pounded the broken vessel with those, to break the cauldron further, into small pieces of rubble. When that was done They set down their sticks and raised their hands, using sorcery, and reduced the rubble to dust. As the dust settled, I reflected that it seemed like it had more potential this way than it had as rubble, and that was strange to me but also right, because this was more completely destroyed. Then each Sister took up a new task: One poured water on the dust to hydrate the clay, One shaped the clay with her hands into a new pot, and One piled wood around the new cauldron that was taking shape, taller than it was tall, and in a wide ring, surrounding it. When their work was complete, They all three took up a place around the wood ring, and bent to strike a fire, so that it might catch from all sides. The blaze began to fire the pot, and by the time it had burned down to coals, the new Cauldron was finished, and ready to once again be filled.

– – –

When it was finished, I was sent on my way with the memory of what I had seen, to share with my community. The experience reminded me in many ways of a dismemberment healing, a similarity that was somewhat underscored by their use of the word/concept “vessel”, as in the saying “you can’t pour from an empty vessel”, which means that we (the vessel) can’t help others if we don’t have enough energy for our own needs. I’ll leave the story as I saw it happen for you all to think about and interpret (and feel free to share any meaning you glean from it!) but my personal interpretation is along those lines: we need to take care of ourselves and our needs, in order to be able to do the Work that Na Morrigna are calling each of us to do. This time of the year, that can be really difficult for many of us – particularly those of us who have difficult family situations and many social obligations. But as that hairline fracture with the added stress of the whirlpool caused the whole cauldron to crack in two, so too can small issues in our own lives – when ignored for too long or stressed by difficult circumstances – cause upheaval. The message, I think, is that sometimes more destruction can actually be fruitful at that point, if you can get back to a place of potential and open possibilities. It’s given me things to think about, for sure.

Crow Folks: A Resting Place

November 26, 2022
by Alexandra

This month when I did my Dark Moon ritual (a few days ago, sorry for the delay posting), I began my journey at the cottage where I usually meet Bé Chuille and Dinand, and I spoke to them first, and then took the path out back which, in a meandering way, leads me to the place I normally meet Na Morrigna around their cauldron. I had a feeling, as I walked up, that we’d be doing prophetic poetry again this month, and sure enough, as I lowered my eyes to look in the cauldron, what I found was a small stick with ogham carved on it. Three feda: hÚath, Uir, and Tinne. My kennings for those three are, respectively: “Humanity’s Hedge”, “Unending Cycles”, and “Tested Resolve”.* I was told that we’d be working on poetic forms with specific numbers of syllables this time. Three lines of three syllables, followed by two lines of five syllables for each ogham fid, and then an ending couplet with three syllables on the first line and seven on the second.

Here is what I ended up with, when They were satisfied with my work:

hÚath

Held at bay,
At thorn-point:
Disaster.

It will not come if
it is not summoned.

Uir

Cycle turns.
Remember:
Prepare, breathe.

Not a finish line,
just a resting place.

Tinne

Hardened blade
Thorn-sharp edge
Clean and smooth

Forged in melting fire;
plunged in ice water.

Together:

Moon Cycle:
Time to reflect and to plan.

* I developed these kennings as part of the Ogham Intensive through the Irish Pagan School a few years ago.

Bé Chuille and Dinand: My Understanding of Two Obscure Irish Goddesses

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen the craft name I use at some point. I generally use my given first name, and a matronymic: Nic Bhé Chuille. This is a name I was told to use more publicly, as I’ve been using the matronymic for a while in the Otherworlds on account of my relationship with a fairy queen I publicly call “Starflower”, who I understand to be the daughter of the goddess Bé Chuille. UPG alert on that whole bit, because there is no lore about Bé Chuille’s children, and honestly UPG alert on most of the rest of this blog, because there just isn’t a lot of lore. So if that’s not your thing, read the next paragraph and then wander off or something.

The lore that we do have for Bé Chuille and Dinand is pretty sparse, and the main myth they appear in is the Lebor Gabála Érenn, commonly called the Book of Invasions in English. They are referred to as “she-farmers” (in most translations) and as daughters of the goddess Flidais near the beginning of the section on the Tuatha Dé Dannan, though the word translated as “she-farmers” bantuathig,¹ may instead mean a type of witch associated with north-turning or anti-clockwise movement (and likely with what we might call cursing and banework), which elsewhere is spelled bantuathaig². In the Cath Maige Tuired, where Lugh asks “his two witches” what power they will bring to the battle, the original text uses the second word/spelling, and most translators give it as “witches”. They respond “We will use our sorcery on the trees and stones and clods of earth, so they will be a host under arms against them and they will flee in fright and terror”.³ Bé Chuille and Dinand also appear in the Banshenchus (Lore of Women), named as sorceresses, along with Nemain, Morrigan, Badb, Macha and Etain, and in the Metrical Dinsenchas (Lore of Places) as adversaries of an evil Greek witch named Carmun. They are probably also meant to be the two “witches of Lugh” who are also called daughters of Flidais in the Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann (Fate of the Children of Turenn), where he gets revenge on the men who killed his father. And that’s basically it! Not a lot to go on.

So – UPG from here on out.

While the etymology for Bé Chuille’s name isn’t known for sure, and is made more complicated by the fact that Old Irish spelling and diacritical mark usage wasn’t standardized, Morgan Daimler suggests “woman of destruction”,⁴ and while I’m not a trained linguist, I personally wonder if it might not be related to modern Irish cuil, a fly or an angry or aggressive appearance.⁵ Those do seem to fit my experience of her magic – she seems to be particularly adept at magic relating to decay. Partly because of that, I associate her most with the season of autumn. She also seems to specialize in certain types of battle sorcery, especially related to land and to a lesser extent freshwater, as in the Cath Maige Tuired, where she raised the sods of the plain to fight on the side of the Tuatha Dé Danann. When I journey to see her, I meet her most often in a dark autumn pine forest on the edge of a river, and I associate her with those shades of dark green and black-brown, and with thorny thicket plants, fungus, and the cycles of autumn decay. When I see her, she is usually light complexioned, with dark wavy hair. I find her to be intense but somewhat lively, though quick to anger. Devotees of the Morrigan may feel some recognition at her untalkative and yet very expressive manner.

Dinand is possibly even more obscure, as there are three spellings used (Dinand, or Dianann, or Dinann), and it’s very hard to say what the etymological root might be. She is often there when I journey to see her sister, and she seems to be the elder of the two. I see her as light complexioned and dark haired as well, though her hair is thicker and less wavy. I associate her with the same dark autumn pine forest, but she seems to have more affinity with the river running through it, and so her colors in my practice are dark green and dark blue. She seems to also practice destructive magic, and of course the battle sorcery from the Cath Maige Tuired, and I associate her magic with the fierceness of river rapids, the water crashing against large boulders in its path. Like her sister, she is intense, and sparing with her words.

I tend to honor them together most of the time, and for offerings I suggest woodsy scented candles, coniferous or thorny plants, river stones, and I’ve yet to meet an Irish deity that doesn’t like whisky! For non-consumable offerings, maybe try going for a walk in the woods, swimming or boating in a river (safely!), bouldering, cleaning up trash in those areas, removing invasive plants, composting, fermentation, martial arts practice, or mastering a magical skill.

Let me know if you’ve met these goddesses – I’d love to hear others’ experiences! I really haven’t seen much of anyone discuss them in a modern pagan context.

Notes:

Full text is available online here: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/G800011A/text001.html . P. 35
Full text is available online here: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/G300011.html . P. 92
From Morgan Daimler’s translated volume “Cath Maige Tuired: A Full English Translation”, independently published, 2020. Lines 116-117. (Available on Amazon.) See also Daimler’s footnote #77 for more information on “bantuathaig”.
Daimler, “Cath Maige Tuired”, footnote #76.
https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/cuil

Crow Folks: We’ve Reached the Herald of Wands

A few months back, as part of my monthly ritual to Na Morrigna to seek a message for the coming moon cycle, I was guided to use tarot to connect, and since then we’ve been following the Suit of Wands, from the Seven to the Herald, the card that showed up in the original reading reversed. At this latest Dark Moon, we’ve now arrived at the Herald of Wands, finally upright, and thus bringing us some much-needed relief! Upright, the Herald speaks of good news, optimism, and satisfaction. It’s time for the last harvest, and we’ve done well for ourselves. I could personally use a little rest and relaxation! And it’s always nice to hear that our efforts have been successful. Being as this month is election month here in the US, and Election Day falls on the next full moon, I’m tentatively optimistic about that, as well. (But you can bet I did another round of politically-focused magic this dark moon!) Time will tell. (But please – vote!)

This month when I went to journey to Na Morrigna, I found myself led not to the place I usually go to see the three sisters, but to Ráth Cruachan, a place I have only seen photographs of, and ruins at that. But it was unmistakably clear to me, in the way things sometimes are in journeys. The fort itself was standing, not a ruin, but I did not go inside the walls. Instead, I was drawn to a small cauldron hanging over a firepit in front of the walls, somewhat to the left of the gate. There, I found just one sister, whom I addressed as Morrigu, and with her was An Dagda, which was also somewhat unexpected. No poetry they asked of me this month, and no great news, just a request for my household Samhain celebration: when we feast, let it be meat that we cook outside over flame, and let one piece fall onto the coals and stay there, as an offering to Them.

So instead, I leave you with this piece of Old Irish poetry, translated by Morgan Daimler (and found in their book “Tales of the Tuatha De Dannan”). The full poem is about foods fit for each festival, and here is the stanza for Samhain:

Meat, beer, nuts, tripe,
They are suitable food for Samhain,
Bonfire on a hill with a company,
Buttermilk, a roll of new butter.

Samhain Season, Spooky Season, and Spicy Spirit Weather

This morning when I woke up, there was frost on the ground – the first frost I’ve seen this year. It’s earlier than the past two years I’ve lived here; previously it was just a few days before or after October 31st. The farmer’s almanac was close though – their prediction this year was the 18th, 3 days ago, and it got down close to freezing then but not quite. I took a few photos on my walk this morning and posted them to my instagram. It was early, just about sunrise, and the neighborhood smelled like woodsmoke – a lovely start to my personal Samhain Season.

While a lot of pagans and witches consider Samhain to be the one day most often celebrated as a neopagan high day (generally November 1st), my personal observance of Samhain includes October 31st (known in Irish as Oíche Shamhna, or November Eve), November 1st through at least the 7th or 8th (the astrological halfway point) and sometimes through the 11th (the adjusted old date, before the calendar shifted), and the first frost, wherever I am. It’s a little loose for a liturgical event, but it’s more than a single day holiday for me. The end of the summer half of the year and the transition to the winter half of the year is a liminal space and I let it take up space in my practice and in my life. Samhain is the name for the whole month of November in modern Irish, and there’s evidence that some of the fire festivals went two weeks in length, and that’s sort of the feel I’m going for. This period also usually coincides with a stellar date that’s important to my practice: the heliacal rising of the star Spica. She’ll rise just after the sun on November 2nd this year, after being gone from the sky for about the last six weeks, and that observance has also become part of my Samhain Season, marking a time of personal transition towards darkness, as I prepare for the winter months.

That transition towards darkness and winter is also a big part of why fall is sometimes called “Spooky Season”, I think. Some people only use “Spooky Season” to refer to the month of October and the run-up to Halloween, but lately I’ve been hearing it about September and November as well, and I think it’s sort of fitting. Autumn is a season of harvest and death and decay, and that can be a bit spooky – in a good way, in my opinion! It’s a good time to reflect on the past and engage with our shadows as the nights become longer and colder. Death is omnipresent, and not just because of Halloween decorations. I start to feel the stirrings of the Wild Hunt on the wind in September most years, and by the first frost at the end of October, they’re running strong most nights. Oiche Shamhna has long been associated with the proximity of otherworldly forces, or the “thinning of the veil” in modern parlance, and with the Dead especially. My own practice around Samhain focuses on the Morrigna, Be Chuille, and the Dead. In my new monthly calendar, I honor the Morrigna in October and Be Chuille (and her family) in November, and my Samhain practice transitions between those two in a way more overlapping than sharply delineated.

The Dead being more present and the Wild Hunt running around both contribute to the seeming uptick in supernatural events, paranormal activity, and general spirit weather that occurs this time of year. I’ve seen more than one post on Facebook reminding fellow witches and pagans to ground and shield and make sure your wards are tight – and with good reason. Not everything riding the wind wishes us well, or is friendly or favorable to our intentions and lives. Nor are they truly evil or even baneful, however – they just Are. I don’t assign moral meaning to forces of chaos or destruction, personally; they can be for good or for ill, just as forces of order and creation can also be used for good or for ill. Wards are fences – as much as I might enjoy the presence of my Local wind riders when I’m walking around at dusk, I do prefer them to stay outside! I stay out of their way, and I hope they’ll stay out of mine, and good neighbors may we be. How much to avoid them and how thick to build wards to feel safe inside is a matter of personal preference, and I recently saw these upticks referred to as “spicy”, which struck me as a perfect analogy! Some people (like me) like their food with a bit of a kick, and while sometimes we might bite into something a little hotter than we can manage, we know how to remedy that situation and generally we can handle it with good humor. Some people, when they bite into something spicy, find only pain and no enjoyment (and sometimes shake their heads at spice lovers in disbelief). There’s no need to engage with the wilder spirit weather if you don’t want to, but it’s my jam, personally, and one of the many reasons I love the fall. Samhain and Bealtaine are probably my two favorite holidays, mostly because of the wild and carnivalesque otherworldly tides of energy surrounding those two times of year, and because of how important both transitional periods are to the Fair Folk I’m connected to. It invigorates me and my practice in ways that steadier energies don’t. So don’t mind me, I’m just gonna take my hot apple cider and be off with the Fairies…

Healing the Morrigan’s Crows: A Recorded Ritual

October 12, 2022
by Alexandra

So, the other day, I did a healing ritual the Morrigna had me develop originally for the Morrigan’s Call Retreat 2020, which was going to be my first year heading up there… until Covid happened and it ended up being online instead. Still, nervous as I was, the ritual did work in an online format, and now I’ve done it twice more since then. I was asked by someone who couldn’t make this last one if I would record it, and while I opted not to record the entire Zoom session, I did do a stand alone recording of just the ritual and journey, and have now edited that and uploaded it as an unlisted Youtube video, which I’ve embedded below. The lighting isn’t great, and the quality isn’t great, and the titles are very basic, but it EXISTS, and if this works out well for folks, I’ll be doing more like it in the future.

This workshop has two main parts. In the first part, I normally discuss a few examples of battlefield healing from Irish mythology (including the use of the Well of Sláine in the Cath Maige Tuired, and the exchange of healing between Cuchulainn and the Morrigan in the Ulster Cycle), and talk about how that informs my own spiritual healing practice, as a healer called to serve the Morrigan and her community of Crows. I did not record that part; that information (as well as the entire ritual and journey script) is available in a shared PDF document I’ll put a download button for, below. In the video, I refer to this as the “packet”.

In the second part, which I did record. I lead a short healing ritual focused on cleansing away all wounds that prevent the Crows from doing their sacred work, so that we can return to the battlefield, renewed and ready. This includes invocations of deities of healing, a chant to help create focus, self-anointing or -asperging with blessed water, and then a journey to travel to the Well of Slaine. To follow along at home, you’ll need a few things on hand before you start:

Vessel to be the Well, full of water
Small dish to hold the salt
Small dish to hold the 9 pre-mixed healing herbs
Bottle to pour out offerings from
Vessel to pour offerings into
Stirring implement

For the herbs, I generally use nine that I have on hand and most of which I have grown myself, selected intuitively for the need I sense at the time, but the idea is mostly that whichever nine you pick will align themselves with the 365 that Dian Cecht and his children strew in the water, and allow for a resonance. Choose based on what your specific healing concern is, or based on whether you want to drink the water after rather than just anointing, or based on what you’ve got in your spice cabinet. It should work just fine!

Get the Packet

Crow Folks: Reflect and Plan

September 28, 2022
by Alexandra

This month everything happened nearly all at once: the equinox, and then the acronychal rising of the Pleiades, the Dark Moon, Rosh Hashana, and I got knocked flat by my own moon cycle. So this one is a few days late — apologies. When I went to see Na Morrigna this time, we talked about the tarot card from before, and I was also told that it’s time for more complicated poems again.

This month’s tarot card is the second-to-last one in the series They gave me: the 10 of Wands. This card can sometimes be a warning, but when I went to speak to Na Morrigna about it, I got the impression of completion of work, instead, something like a harvest. And, well. That card in this deck depicts a bunch of skulls on pikes — Macha’s acorn harvest. We’ve fought well, Crows, we’ve done the hard work, the training, the introspection. We’ve taken stock of our own shadows. We’ve learned to balance work and needful rest. We’re not perfect at all of this (there’s always room for improvement), but now we should reflect on how far we’ve come, and take a moment to be proud of that. Then it’s time to plan. We need to set goals for the coming season, to think about what tasks and responsibilities we can commit to, in preparation for rededication to Their Work. I am planning to begin my own rededication preparations on the next Dark Moon, October 25th, and then continue for nine days, ending on November 2nd.

As for the poem — this isn’t really a rosc but They appear to be happy with it, and hopefully it resonates with some of ya’ll.

Summer ending
A good harvest gathered in
Merriment and gratitude as seasons turn

Many turn to their craft this season
Flexing fingers, stretching will-wings
Proficiency gained through tasks and trials

A long road of trials already overcome
Powerful black wings will rise over new obstacles
Guided by Gods and Ancestors

Also, I’m repeating my (free) Healing the Morrigan’s Crows Ritual on Sunday, October 9th, at 2pm, so if you’re interested please reserve a space by going to the eventbrite page! Link here.

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