Celtic Polytheism – Page 7

Crow Folk: Solstice Work

The Dark Moon was yesterday, so here’s your next message from the Morrigan:

You’re losing focus. Do I bore you? The work has not yet come to its pinnacle. Get out of your own way, and RISE! See things the way they truly are, and work to expose that which will perish once brought to light. Harness the light of the coming Bright Moon to dispel illusion and glamour. We’ll shift the world again.

This begins a little harsh, perhaps, but I invite those who immediately react with the thought that it’s not aimed at them, of course not, to sit with it for a moment, and reflect. I haven’t completely lost focus, no. But I was beginning to lose it: under my ill health, under my holiday plans. Make time. Make space. And jettison your excuses, your insecurities, and your feelings of helplessness.

The next full moon is Dec 22nd, so I recommend incorporating these suggestions into your Solstice work. I think I may create a ritual to do over the course of three days, Dec 20-22nd. Probably no more than a half hour each day, but I want it to build and then set to rise, like a loaf of bread.

A New Wave of Crows

As I have on several previous Dark Moons, I have asked for and received a message from the Morrigna, and this time I was given and answer with three instructions. It is not as completely channeled this time as it has been on previous occasions, so the next few paragraphs are more in my own voice, with Theirs in my ear. As such, I have left it unformatted.

Crow Folks, those of you who have been fighting and doing the work, I know that many of you are close to burn-out. I am on the edge of it, too. So it’s time to rest, recuperate, recharge. Enjoy this moment of relative peace, and do something that will please your soul. Something creative, something that will make you feel relaxed and renewed. We are not going to rest on our laurels, for the work is not yet done, but the compassion that burns fiercely within us must be tended, lest the flame die out. So do your tending. For my part, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo again this year, and I’ve also made plans to go to a Korean bathhouse with friends. I’m going to get a massage, and try to do a few more chapters in an anxiety workbook. Self care and shadow work aren’t always easy, but they are always necessary, so find the time and heal yourself. That is your first instruction.

Your second instruction starts with something like a notification: a new wave of Crows is coming. Some of us started on this path one, two, or even twenty years ago, but more will be joining us this winter. Find them. Reach out to others around you who are already traveling this path. Create a net of branches, so that the new Crows will have somewhere to land. Look for the lost ones, the solitary, the stragglers. Welcome them into your groups; offer them friendship. Some of them will prefer to learn on their own for a while, supported by the net. That is fine; let them do as they will. Others will have questions, and will want guidance.

This is your third instruction: guide them. Share everything you know, everything you’ve learned, every experience. Share the good and the bad, for they must choose this path with their eyes fully open, with deep knowing in their hearts. Be as patient as you can: they are learning, they are transforming, they are beginning to sprout wings. And in the spring, we will all fly together.

I know I still owe many of you cards. I am getting to them, slowly but surely. Anyone who has not asked for their next six cards, please email me. Anyone new to the path is welcome to start with the nine card spread, adjusted for the change in time of year. This is also a good time to remind you all that the other part of my work is healing. I’m trained in distance energy healing methodologies, and am available to you free of charge as an “on-site medic”, so to speak, if your need for healing is related to the work you’re doing for the Morrigna (ie, if it could be a line-of-duty injury, or if it is preventing you from doing your best work). If you’re not sure, I am more than happy to ask on your behalf. I can do these over text chat media, as time and energy allows.

Also, some of you already got this in the newsletter, but here is the journey prompt from the class I taught at Hallowed Homecoming:

Breathe yourselves into stillness, children of earth. Breathe deep. Breathe in relaxation… and breathe out the worries and cares of the world. Breathe until you reach that space between, the space that lets us walk between the worlds. We will all go together. Feel as mists steam up from the ground and surround us here. Pay attention to notice the shift – we are leaving the campground, and coming into another place. When you are ready, open your inner eyes and see the dirt road beneath your feet. On either side grow trees, and many have already begun to lose their autumn-bright leaves. Continue forward to the crossroads where I stand, and behind me, to one side of the dirt road, a table piled with offerings. There are things to drink and eat, weapons of war, representations of your battles and efforts, and more. Find the gift you are meant to give, and bring it with you as we continue forward. [Count to 10.] Walk farther along the dirt road, until you begin to smell roasting food, and woodsmoke, and begin to hear the crackling of a fire, and voices talking quietly. A gap in the trees shows you a narrow track that runs uphill, towards the things you hear and smell. Follow it, and as you crest the hill, the trees thin to an open plain. You can see the fire, now – it is a large cooking fire, and over the fire hangs a giant steaming cauldron, while food roasts on the coals at the edges. Three figures surround the cauldron, and they turn to you as you approach. Give them the gift you have brought, and ask the question you carry in your heart. [WAIT for 5-10 minutes]. When you have finished, thank them for their time, and leave the way you came. [10 secs] Back across the plain… to the hill, [3] down the hill… to the road, [3] and along the road… back to the swirling mists… and into your body. [3] Welcome Home.

Take care of yourselves, everyone.

Samhain 2018

My Samhain Season began with my transition into darkness, timed to the heliacal rise of Spica (a star or multi-star system in the constellation Virgo) on October 24th, the same day as the full moon. The timing was something I discovered by accident, as I fell down a rabbit hole of faery holidays and stellar timing following Morgan Daimler’s revelations about the Pleaides. Spica seems to be closely associated with my Faery Queen, whom I call The Starflower Queen, and she has a sort of light-in-darkness and darkness-in-light balance to her energies that reminds me of the Chinese yin yang symbol. I had noticed on previous years that her transition into darkness happened before November Eve, but this year I really dove into star charts and paid careful attention and though I believe her transition from light to darkness is somewhat gradual, the bulk of the transition seems to occur between the heliacal rise of Spica (when it rises before the sun) and when Spica is at its zenith in conjunction with the sun, which happens much closer to November Eve. (I’m still not 100% clear on whether it’s the zenith at noon or the sun conjunction that matters more, but the zenith at noon was easier to calculate: October 30th this year.)

Hallowed Homecoming, which was the subject of my previous blog post, began my ancestor work and my work with the Morrigna. For the Ancestor Altar there, I prepared a small charm box, in a repurposed Sucrets container. (I’m a huge fan of witchy upcycling.) Inside I placed a sodalite stone from an incomplete rune set carved with Othala, a fortune from a fortune cookie that bore the phrase “missing you” in English and Chinese, and a purple paper heart into which I spoke the names of some of my most beloved ancestors. It spent the weekend on that altar, among other tokens and pictures, and then it came home with me to my own ancestor shrine.

I did very little on the 31st. We passed out candy, and though I expected to pull cards for my Crow Folk, I was told I had to Wait. So, I worked on memorizing some more of the chants for the ritual I was helping plan, and I waited. I did not feel called to pull cards to speak to any of my ancestors, either – I had received the messages that were most important during the main ritual at Hallowed Homecoming.

On the 2nd of November, I attended a Memorial and solidarity Shabbat Service at a local synagogue with my husband’s family, and that was an especially poignant evening of Ancestral Communion. It was also a much needed balm for my grief, and I came away glad for the community I live in, and wishing that my own faith was better represented in it.

On the 3rd, I gathered with some friends at a friend’s house, and together the nine of us had a ritual to the Morrigna, which was powerful despite our greenness and small number. Afterwards we had a pot luck, and there was an ancestor shrine set up in one room for people to visit and take time at. My little sucrets container sat among other tokens for another evening.

Now it is the 7th, the day of the Dark Moon, and my Samhain season comes to a close. I am finishing these blogs as the sun goes down, and then I will pull cards and dream on them, seeking a message from the Morrigna. Tomorrow, I will write up a blog for the Dark Moon, and I will begin to pull cards for all the Crow Folks who have requested them.

Crow Folk: Be Daring

The Dark Moon was a few days ago, and once again I spoke to Na Morrigna. The sense of urgency is building as we get closer to Samhain, and I must once again remind you that if you are planning a celebration for the holiday, do not forget Them. Do something small if you must, but do SOMETHING. For those of you who requested I do the 9 card Morrigan Spread I shared here, or those who did it for themselves, make sure you are following through and completing the tasks in those last three cards. After Samhain I will be following up with six more cards, three to cover the time period to Yule on Dec 21st, and three for the period from then to Imbolc on Feb 2nd.

The message this Dark Moon is as follows:

The way forward will take both strength and courage: you must rise to the occasion and do what you think you cannot. Draw on your convictions, and use them to act with resolve. The race will be long, but you will persevere – and perseverance brings triumph. The Morrigna are the High Queens of your striving. They guide your every move, and if you trust in Them you will achieve more than you dream is possible. The way will not be easy, but the result will be worth the battle. You must re-balance this world, re-balance the connection between the Mundane World and the Otherworlds. There is a plan larger than you can individually conceive, larger than you can individually affect, but change starts within each of you. Find your role and play your part. Change yourself to change the world.

I personally like to celebrate the Fire Festivals as three-day affairs, and my dates for Samhain this year are sundown on Oct 31 through sundown on Nov 3, though the ritual we are planning will be just after sundown on the 3rd. Any time in there would be appropriate to add your magic or ritual to the Work of the Morrigna. The moon will be waning, the New Year beginning, and it’s a perfect time to do magic that sweeps out the old and brings in the new.

And please – if you are in the US, don’t forget to vote the following week. It’s on the 6th, the day before the Dark Moon. I think that bodes well for the turning of the political tide.

If you are interested in receiving the Crow Calls newsletter, please submit your email address here, and type “Morrigan” into the interests box.

Crow Folk: Stand Your Ground

The dark moon was a few days ago, and I have another update to pass along from Na Morrigna, to my little patch of pagan blogosphere. This time the message itself is very short and very specific:

The Wild Hunt is riding; stand your ground. That which runs away is prey.

Although in previous years I haven’t noticed the Hunt riding in this area until about mid-September,* this year I first noticed them on the days surrounding Lughnasadh, and though the intensity was fairly light and the activity wasn’t consistent. In the past few days, however, especially with the storms rolling through and the rain we’ve been having, I’ve felt the power of the Hunt much more strongly, similar to the strength I normally feel around the equinox. So yes, they are riding. They are here. So take your usual precautions, whatever those may be: ward your homes, shield yourselves, leave out appeasements that you may be passed by. But if you encounter them directly, do not stare and Do Not Run. You do not want the Wild Hunt to consider you prey. Morgan Daimler has a good blog about the Slua Sí, which includes a few suggested charms to keep yourself safe. This is all included in the top level of the message and warning.

Beneath that, there’s another level of meaning, where the Hunt becomes a metaphor for the destructive change in our lives. Such destruction can be cleansing, but we need to know where to make our stand so that we can build up again from the ashes, stronger than we were before. We need to decide where our boundaries lie, and then we need to defend them. What is acceptable, and what can not be tolerated? How far can you bend before you lose yourself? If you have something worth keeping, “you better hang on, tooth and nail,” as the song goes, for “the wolf is always at the door.”**

Keep hanging on, Crow Folk. And brace yourselves. Things will get harder before they get easier.

*Having only lived here since 2012 I can’t comment on when they “normally” ride, as “normal” seems to have gone out the window around then.

** “New York Minute”, by The Eagles.

Crow Folk: Are You Doing the Work?

August 17, 2018
by Alexandra

Hello again, my fellow Crows: warriors, clerics, healers, and witches, we are many things but we have all been called by Na Morrigna to join their legions. You have heard the call. You have answered it. Are you doing the work?

Many of us have self-work to do in preparation for the coming months, and that is good and right. What skills are you honing? What personal revelations unfolding? Do you feel your wings grow as you live a life truer to yourself? You need to be sure of your foundations, because each of us is a stone, supporting the others in our mutual work. Find and embrace your role in the greater scheme, and embody it as fully as you can. For most of you, the training period is almost over. By the equinox, you need to be at a transition point: finishing your internal work, and ready to plan external workings.

The equinox is likely to be a more gentle shift, an ombré blending the colors of the early harvest with the late. We’ll be shifting from interior worlds to the exterior, making plans for Samhain. Some rituals and workings go well when they are done off the cuff, but this one is too big, too broad, and has too many moving parts to be done that way. To the furthest extent possible, we need to be working in concert. Trust Na Morrigna to guide you: ask what you should be doing for Samhain, be it ritual, witchcraft, mundane, or something other. They know. They will guide you. They see the whole pattern, the entire map of the battlefield, too vast and too complex for our consciousness. Trust, trust, and plan to Do.

For my part, I’ll be gathering with a few friends to have a small ritual at one of their houses. We are asking Na Morrigna for guidance every step of the way, and we are crafting a ritual that will allow us to serve the best ways we can. It is not an easy thing to craft a ritual that truly harnesses all the energy raised and sends it towards its target straight and true. Planning is needed. Rehearsal is needed. Some things will happen spontaneously during the ritual itself, yes, but the structure must already exist, so that we know, the group knows, what is expected and what our target is.

Find your target. Figure out what is expected of you. Make sure that the work you are doing now will lead you to where you need to be. The autumn winds are stirring, ready to pare back anything extraneous, anything we can do without. The Wild Hunt is awakening, and change is in the air. There will be a powerful shift at Samhain, and as of now the outcome is still uncertain. We can push it. We must push it. We will do the work.

[[As a note – I am still offering these readings to anyone who wishes for a little help elucidating their role in all this.]]

Lughnasadh 2018

This year for Lughnasadh, instead of continuing our theme of having a family meal, we were involved in a lay-led worship service at our local UU Church, focusing on Lugh and the bounty of the first harvest. I was part of a team that called the quarters (using the traditional elements this time, instead of my local cultus river goddesses) and presented representations of the harvest on a central table, around which we’d put the chairs for seating in two half circles.

I didn’t have a large role in part because I’d missed the second-to-last planning session, when we went to Wisconsin to visit my family and present the Acorn at the tribal picnic for enrollment. That was nice – seeing everyone, including my brothers, whom I haven’t seen since last August, and before then not for almost two years. With all the talk of community and coming together at the harvest, it’s hard not to think about how much of my community doesn’t live close by. Still, this pagan group and the rest of local UU Church is slowly becoming the community I want and need, somewhere I can raise a child, somewhere I can find help when I need it.

I usually find myself more reflective as we move into autumn, but it seems to be starting early this year. It makes sense, though – with Wep Ronpet following closely afterwards, Lughnasadh is the beginning of the end of my year, with a number of new year’s days of different traditions occurring between now and the secular new year on Jan 1st.

Morrigan Tarot Spread

I’ve been reading John Beckett’s posts on Patheos about the Coming Storm for a while, now, and a lot of what he’s hearing from the Morrigan lines up with my own UPG from Na Morrigna and that of other people in my network (including this piece on humanity’s initiatory challenge by Gwendolyn Reece), though for a while I was personally more focused on the Faery Weather. There has been a shift, however, and this year as the wheel turned at Beltane and again at Midsummer I have really been feeling a need to reach out to my networks and acquaintances, especially those who work closely with Na Morrigna, and check in. That, it has become apparent, is part of my role in all this. Check ins, and helping others figure out what part they are to play, when they hear the call but can’t quite put their finger on the details. Later on, I’ll be providing other kinds of support – healing, holding space, providing magical back-up. As part of my work with assisting others right now, I’ve developed the tarot spread, below, to help flesh out details when someone’s path seems unclear.

morrigan 9card

The first three cards (1-3) are the querent’s role, in a nutshell. That top card ought to be an archetype of some sort: a court card or one of the major arcana. The second and third give it more depth and potentially a focus, or something for the querent to work on in order to embody that role.

The next three cards (4-6) are tasks that should be the querent’s current focus. These often repeat themes from cards 2 and 3.

The last three cards (7-9) are tasks for the future, around Samhain, when I believe there will be another large shift. I’m seeing a lot of cards in these positions that call for a change in focus or roles around this time.

I stop the spread at Samhain partly because 9 is a good number for Morrigan reading, but also because I’ve found that I’m running up against blockages when I try to divine things that happen after Samhain. The future seems very uncertain, and thus shrouded from my view in a way it often hasn’t been before. The future is never absolutely certain of course, but previously my readings have given me a number of possibilities that outline the most likely events. However, when I ask about the Storm and the Morrigan and the world events I believe are part of the pattern, after Samhain I run into a stone wall. I’ve stopped asking, for now. I will wait and see, and hopefully it will become clearer. But the wall is reason enough to focus on the here and now, and one of the things I can do now is this: reach out to my networks and contacts.

I’m offering this spread for free to Morrigan/na devotees who have heard the call, and are willing to owe Her/Them for it. If you want me to lay the cards, email me, but I recommend asking Morrigan/na in advance what She/They expect/s in return. For the most part I think the expected payment is an oath to do what the cards advise, but as in all things, it’s best to read the fine print. If you do not wish to owe Her/Them, I am offering this spread for money or barter – again, email me. If you do cartomancy, yourself, feel free to use this spread for yourself or a friend. I just ask that if you offer it for money, you also allow for the Morrigan/na to pay you and the client to owe Her/Them, as I am doing. I also encourage people to use this as a prompt to speak with Na Morrigna in their usual way, whatever that may be.

For my part, I’ll be trying to blog about things as they come up, and I’ll be pulling general advice cards around the New Moon. I have a new tag for all of this for those who want to follow along: “Crow Calls”. Don’t worry too much if you feel unprepared. Many of us are already prepared, and you’ll get there. We’re coming to this in waves, and it won’t be over quickly.

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