When I began the research for this essay, I must admit it had been sometime since I dug deep into the fonts of history and myth. In truth, as the oldest and quote”end”quote more experienced of the three of us, I felt I’d delved enough in my early years to simply refresh and pontificate. I was most sorely wrong.
So much information and dissection of the old stories and myths has taken place since my first forays into this subject that I find myself quite the pupil, rather than the teacher. Despite what others might think, that is not displeasing place to be in. Au Contraire, I am delighted to have my assumptions tested, my recollections re-collected and my knowledge broadened, even if by a mile.
There is a dearth of information out there for the serious seeker and and I found myself overwhelmed rather swiftly. Coming at this essay I initially wished to discuss the relationship of Macha to prophecy and swiftly found myself up against some rocks. Primarily, that there is an important distinction to be made between Divination, Prophecy and Omens. In those distinctions the stories I initially cut my teeth upon as a devotee of The Morrigan, take on an entirely new flavor and require deeper reading and thought, than I had previously believed.
I had wanted to segue the entire conversation into a short discourse on the appropriateness of divination during Samhain, on the historical and spiritual underpinnings of it in particular for those of us who have as has been coined within our community, as “The Call.”
Upon reacquainting myself with the stories, myths and with modern research I find that it may be best, for my own learning and retention to stick to a conversation about these three different aspects of “sight” or “second sight” as is or at least was fashionable at one time to refer to them.
I prefer to see The Morrigan very much as those in Coru Cathubodua priesthood do, though not a member, I respect their work immensely and it coalesces around some instinctual takes I have had on the Goddess herself for many years.
When one dives into the stories and the myths it is easy to become lost in the multiplicity of names given to The Morrigan. In fact it has been argued, that she is comprised of as many as 9 separate entities all of which function in slightly different ways depending upon context. The Coru Cathubodua have done their homework and derived their working to focus on three:
Nemain, Macha and Badb Catha.
I am not here to argue their research or to scuttle anyone else’s Gnosis, but I will say that this distillation works for me, I have framed most of my work around it for the last year, and in all years previous I spoke to her and of her simply as: The Morrigan.
I understood even before I chose to work with this distillation that she was a multi-form Deity, that there were no easy equivalencies and that she on the whole steps outside the “norm” of triune Goddesses as a stereotype of “Mother, Maiden, Crone.”
There is a great deal of overlap between Nemain, Macha and Badb Catha, perhaps not in action but in intent and focus. It is that unity of purpose that attracts me, and the mystery of how it weaves together that keeps all aspects of service and dedication to her vibrant and alive for me.
So, in the spirit of that unity, I am going to speak about the general idea of The Morrigan in Prophecy, but also make some distinctions about what that is exactly and where it differs from what we today practice as Divination. It is a timely discussion all the way around, as the wheel of the year turns and the veil between worlds grows thinner.
For myself, Samhain, both the event and the season is the time for reflection, meditation, taking stock, and cleansing in preparation for new growth. It is when I give thanks for the bounty of the harvest, when I honor my dead, and commune with my ancestors. It is the fallow time, the rest before the re-emergence of the sun and gestational energies come Winter Solstice.
And in particular, it is the season of the year I set my intentions for the next. It is when I enter into long meditations and conversations with The Morrigan, when I seek out her wisdom both in divination and with a keen eye on nature; flights of birds – particularly corvids and my natural desire for silence and stillness beneath the falling leaves and infrequent fall of snowflakes.
Historically, divination has been an integral part of the Irish celebration of Samhain. The most common versionwas the use of charms placed in bowls of colcannon, meant to determine who among a family or community would marry in the coming year. I have attended gatherings where other charms were added as well, symbolizing everything from finding a new job, to general prosperity.
My own divination at this time of year is tarot. I like to use the 12 Houses/12 Month spread, which gives me a peek into the theme of my year ahead. In a later blogpost I’ll be detailing my reading for the year. But I have seen Ogham used, runes, pendulums and other hands on, folk methods.
Prophesy is however another matter, it is focused less upon the individual and more upon the larger picture. It pertains to the whole of a group, a tribe, a people and in most traditions, even those outside the Celtic umbrella – the world.
This is where we see more of the finger of our Patron, the Morrigan as Prophet, “Seer” and in her role as one, (perhaps the primary) filid/ Poet of the Tuatha de Dannan. From my understanding, in this context, The Morrigan is both prophet and poet, melding her visions into verse for posterity and the keeping of the history of the Tuatha.
There are two primary verses of prophecy delivered by The Morrigan during The Battle of Moytura. The first at the battle’s conclusion when the Fomorians were bested and driven back under the sea from which they originated.
A great deal has been made of the first of these verses, The Morrigan’s Prophecy of peace, her description of the land of Eire, upon its liberation and about the benefits of the peace which the Tuatha de Dannan had fought to bring about. Some see it as an indication of her as a goddess of Peace.
It is my personal opinion based on what I have read and intuited, that it is more so a general prophecy of the spoils of battle to those who win. It speaks of a land well cared for, of a prosperous people and of a lineage of strength and pride. These things are all major themes in most every myth I can remember, as relates to the Irish and Eire itself.
Below I provide two versions, the first is a translation provided at Story Archeology, and is featured in an article written by Isolde Óbrochláin Carmody, entitled “The Morrigan Speaks,” published on 23/06/2016. Isolde has chosen to work from a text edited and translated by Elizabeth A. Gray, and available at CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts.
The second version also comes from Story Archeology, but is a slightly modernized version of the original adapted by Isolde’s Partner, Chris Thompson.
The first version is my preference, and is taken from Section 166, Lines 819-827 of E. Gray’s Translation of the Battle of Moytura. I like the subtle chained verse structure. It feels almost chant like. The example I put below is edited, to see the full version please visit Story Archeology.
“Peace to the heavens,
Heaven to the earth
Earth under sky
Strength in each
Cup on a plate
Full of honey
Mead to one’s satisfaction
Summer in winter
Spear upon a shield
Shield upon a fist
Blade-bristling fort
Consumption of solid earth
Rights of the grandchildren
Forest on a point
Horns from a cow
Encircling fence
Mast upon trees
Weary its bough
Weary from growth
Wealth for a boy
Boy on a neck
Neck of a bull
Bull from a watch-dog
Knot for on a tree
Tree for fire
Fire from a stone
Stone from earth
Young from cows
Cows from a womb
River Bank with birdsong
Grey deer before spring
Autumn whence grows corn
Flock of birds, warriors, people for the land
Land extending to the shore
With sharp edges
The great run to the eternal woods
‘Have you any story?’
Peace to the heavens
It will be eternal peace.”
Isolde Óbrochláin Carmody
Here is the second version revised and updated by Chris Thompson, available on Story Archeology.
“Beneath the peaceful heavens lies the land.
It rests beneath the bowl of the bright sky.
The land lies, itself a dish, a cup of honeyed strength, there, for the taking, offering strength to each
There it lies, the splendour of the land.
The land is like a mead worth the brewing, worth the drinking.
It stores for us the gifts of summer even in winter.
It protects and armours us, a spear upon a shield
Here we can make for ourselves strong places, the fist holding the shield
Here we can build safe places, our spear-bristling enclosures.
This is where we will turn the earth.
This is where we will stay.
And here will our children live to the third of three generations
Here there will be a forest point of field fences
The horn counting of many cows
And the encircling of many fields
There will be sheltering trees So fodderful of beech mast that the trees themselves will be weary with the weight.
In this land will come abundance bringing:
Wealth for our children Every boy a warrior,
Every watchdog, warrior-fierce
The wood of every tree, spear-worthy
The fire from every stone a molten spear-stream
Every stone a firm foundation
Every field full of cows
Every cow calf-fertile.
Our land shall be rich with banks in birdsong
Grey deer before Spring And fruitful Autumns
The plain shall be thronged from the hills to the shore.
Full and fertile.
And as time runs its sharp and shadowy journey, this shall be true.
This shall be the story of the land and its people
We shall have peace beneath the heavens. Forever”
Chris Thompson
And then there is the final verse poem of prophecy The Morrigan delivers at the conclusion of the tale. It is dark, foreboding and this year I feel this verse like a cold finger run down my spine:
It brings to mind the cycles of things, eras, lives, the year, time in all its expanse. It draws my attention to the inequality, suffering, and the many peoples all over our world who are right now fighting their own “Battle of Moytura,” who have run up against what follows and are, with their own hands attempting to overturn it, to return to peace.
Isolde takes this poem from section 167, lines 831 thru 840, of Gray’s edition and translation. Again, I edit here for brevity sake, but the full version and explanations of the translation are available on Story Archaeology.
“I do not see a world of the living:
Summer will be without flowers
Cows will be without milk
Women without modesty
Men without valor
Conquests without a king
walls of spear-points on every plain
Sad mouths
Forests without mast
Sea without fruit
Tower-wall of white metal /// A multitude of storms
around bare fortresses
Empty their dark buildings
High places cannot endure
A lake has attempted
to flood past a multitude of kingdoms
Welcome to its evil
Howling occupies
every face
Great unbelievable torments
many crimes
Battles waged everywhere
Trust in spiked horses
Many hostile meetings
treacherous princelings
A shroud of sorrows
on old high judgements
False maxims of judges
Every man a betrayer
Every son a brigand.
People will be born without surviving
Evil time
in which the son will derange his father
In which the daughter will derange…”
Isolde Óbrochláin Carmody
As myself and my compatriots and fellow pagans here discussed the schedule for this podcast it came very clear to us that nearly all the Feasts and Fire days from here through 2020 will intersect with the New Moon each month. I tried to puzzle out and research what that might mean to all of us, particularly those of us pagans (of our various traditions) dedicated to The Morrigan and or other War and Prophecy deities in general.
With all that is going on right now, from Chile to China, and Turkey to the Philippines, it seems to suggest that great change is afoot, that while the pendulum may have swung in the direction of that last poem of prophecy from The Morrigan, that we who wear the mantle of Warrior are being called to the bosom of those from whom our strength arises, will be asked to do more, to work, to fight, and to uplift and defend those in need.
This work, the Podcast is a calling, a drawing together of myself and my partners that I feel now, more than ever represents this energy. Rialtan, aka: 7serendipties, from 7serendipities.com, wrote about a deeply moving message they received from The Morrigan that touches heavily on this sense, that I myself and my co-creators have had as we begin this podcast.
It seems “The Call,” as it has been coined is purposed and in that call we are being asked to dedicate ourselves anew, both to The Morrigan, but also to each other and the world. It is my hope that this podcast is our little part of it, that it finds its way to the hearts and ears of those who need it most. And that it feeds and enriches our little collective, an act of magic, reverence and offering to She.
Attempting Murder Podcast 
Thanks so much for the mention!
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