Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The Tao of the Morrighan

The Tao of the Morrighan

     We all have our own Holy Grail adventure. The path of a priest that serves a goddess is by no means an easy one. Getting the calling is only the first step. Those that would be priests or priestess are built and strengthened by being brought to the point of near death or suicide only to be brought back stronger and more powerful. She will break you. It's like the martial artist who wants to learn to break bricks. The first step is to shatter the bones in the hand which is painful and takes time to heal. After it heals it is stronger and able to go through the brick. So in the same manner, those that have the calling to be a priest or priestess of a goddess who encompasses death and war must also be broken. You must be broken and go through a lot of pain and heartache in order to be rebuilt strong in all areas of the mind, body and soul. The stronger you get, the harder the tests get. You get to a point where you try to make a plea to the goddess for help only to be greeted with any even harder lesson. It is not that the Morrighan is unforgiving, cruel or heartless, it is that she wants to strengthen her children as warriors of the mind, body and soul. All in the order that the would be priest or priestess is unshaken in any circumstance, be it physical attack, psychic attack, negative entities, heartache, emotional turmoil, etc. However, at the same time it would make the outsiders view of us look like we are the ones who have become heartless, in truth it is the very opposite. We feel the love of our goddess and it will engulf our entire being and in turn will project outward into our aura. But now we are in control of our emotions and actions so that they do not control us we have control of ALL of our being.
     The work and philosophies that I am to present to you, which is a priesthood curriculum, comes not just from academic and literature research but also from magickal experience and experiments as well as the words and works with the Morrighan herself. Once at a certain level, magick becomes a science. Where you predict a certain outcome from a ritual, test it and see if it works. However, what works for some may not work for all. However still, it doesn't hurt for one to test it out and see before completely dismissing it. As the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh once wrote:

ALWAYS LISTEN WITH AN OPEN HEART AND OPEN MIND.
When we read or listen to a teacher speak, if we agree with them then we nod our head in agreeance and walk away. If we disagree with them then we shake our head in disagreeance and again walk away. In both ways we walk away and have not learned anything. So if we listen with an open heart open, open mind we will stop and try to understand even if we disagree because there must be some bit of truth or it wouldn't be presented and if we agree, listen as though you are a new beginner because you may just catch something new that you overlooked.”


     My work is not law but more guidelines for the readers to experiment with. This is what got 'Myself' to where I am and what I am continuing to work with. However every person I have offered this work to has felt it's benefits. I'm just sharing my own experience.
     You can read all the books in the world on the subject but until that knowledge is tested, what do you really know about it? I'm not speaking of the type of literary knowledge that you're tested on by S.A.T.'s or exams to see how much you remember of another persons writings but true wisdom. You can read up on sword fighting all you want but until you've been in a real sword fight, you really know nothing about it. So the question arises, how much information is genuinely yours? Meaning it's not “borrowed information” you read it or got it from someone else but YOU experienced it and it is now YOUR wisdom, regardless if someone else wrote about it.
     When more people start to do this work and follow the philosophies, a 'tradition' will begin to emerge. So in doing so, we start not an organization or hierarchy but a 'Tradition' that can be handed down to future generations and followers of The Morrighan. Tradition is a very important thing when dealing with spiritual practices. Mainly if a group consciousness is to form. An egregore. This egregore eventually becomes the consciousness of the Morrighan. It is not just something we experience individually outside of ourselves but WE become the consciousness known as the Morrighan. This is when the Microcosm and the Macrocosm merge together. One unified consciousness that is not just focused on the Morrighan but is actually part of the Morrighan. Each of us have a self consciousness of uniqueness until working your consciousness to become harmonious with the Morrighan and then you are able to see her in a much more clear way. This is how the secret, ancient priesthoods of olde operated and this how the coven I work with operates. So I am just passing along what I have learned. 

     This all starts with a deeper more mystical understanding of who the Morrighan is as a deity. In this series we will be examining her both as a Left Hand and Right Hand Path Goddess. I want to first state that your author does not follow either but walks a fine line between both. I am a Taoist at my foundation. The Morrighan herself is the Tao by very nature. The first passage of the Tao Te Ching states:

The Tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal name
The nameless is the boundary of
Heaven and Earth.
The Named is the mother of creation
Freed from desire, you can see
the hidden mystery.”

The meaning being this, it is life's experiences and emotions that make us who we are. The emotions you project are who you are, not your name or title but the energy you project from yourself. How do you know you're truly happy unless at one time you've been sad and depressed? And when you are sad it is a guarantee that you will laugh and be happy again or how do you know it is light outside unless who've been in darkness? You can not be inside unless there is an outside etc. What is it like to go to sleep and never wake up? Which is death and to go even deeper what is like to wake after never having been asleep? Which is birth. Upon the spoken name, we name things in order to communicate with each other but names are just nouns and sounds we make, it is not what they are. The world is not names it is a series of emotions that we perceive to our consciousness and interact with. You are as much of your environment as it is you. If we all communicated telepathically we would have no names which is why most deities and spirit guides show us images instead of words. The moment things have names they become part of this physical world.
     To expand on this, this is another reason why most of the Morrighan's children are empaths. She communicates to us through emotions which bring us to a deeper level with her. When you feel what seems like a panic attack or a gripping of the heart or anxiety it is her telling you to speak to her and to take moment and be in the here and now, that is the case most of the time.
      In order to keep oneself balanced one must identify with both a Masculine deity and a Feminine deity equally. When the masculine and feminine are looked at from a energy point of view it becomes more clear.
     Masculine is considered positive while feminine is considered negative. Now negative is by no means meaning bad or evil but the flow of energy. Positive energy flows outward while negative energy flows inward. Now for a male this means your masculine energy flows outward and when you are only dealing with the masculine and positive energy you will often feel drained and worn out at the end of the day and tend to forget things more often from constantly projecting out energy. This is also why males love to work on things with their hands and be good at math by projecting their energy.
For females constantly working with negative energy, (the drawing in of energy) this is why they may feel more emotional at times and seem to bring up arguments from some time ago from holding in this energy and not letting it flow out. This is also why women tend to be more psychic than men and keep a better memory.
So when one works with these energies equally you will be able to constantly draw in energy and then release it and also have a fresh new energy coming in and being released so it doesn't sit and get stagnate or being projected without being replaced.
     How this relates to the Morrighan is, for a Goddess a lot of her aspects are very masculine, such as her role as a War Goddess. The majority of most other pantheons the role of War is normally given to a male deity and usually associated with the masculine. With the Celtic pantheon it is the Morrighan.
This can symbolized many things but in this case it is balance. So with the Tao, within every female presence a male occurs and in every male the presence of female occurs. For how would you know you were female if there were no males and the other way around. 

     The Morrighan as a Left Hand Path or Right Hand Goddess? The truth is she is both. Let us examine both sides. Again, from a Taoist point of view you must experience one in order to understand the other. We'll start with the R.H.P. The end result of the R.H.P. Is complete oneness with the universe. It is also said it is to serve the gods and worship them like kings and queens. The R.H.P. Is associated with the white light energy and all that is good and selflessness. It is a means to have compassion for your fellow man and all sentient beings. However where there is light there will always be a bit of darkness, for when one 'worships' one puts the universe (or gods) above the self and tends to forget that they are already a part of it and automatically start to become separated from it. The term 'worship' usually implies to serve, thus is the role of The Great Queen, the translation of the name 'The Mor'rigan' which is why there is always a 'The' in front of her name. As I stated in my last blog, her name is a title. We serve queens as their disciples. I know there are a few different translations of her name but for now we will focus on 'The Great Queen.' This is also another reason why one should not address her as Anu until she gives you permission to. For example, it would be rude and out of etiquette to go up to the queen of England and greet her as Elizabeth, especially if you are one who honors her.
The L.H.P. and it's end result is to become separate from the universe and to become your own god head. To become your own light in the darkness and to be completely self sufficient. Now I want to start off saying that this is NOT the case with LaVey's Church of Satan, which is more of atheist form of self worship. Not that there is anything wrong with that if that is your path, it just doesn't happen to be mine. Now the very ideal of the L.H.P. is to become the same thing as your deity. Which you must go through darkness and chaos in order to achieve this. Many of us who ventured out to become witches, mystics and wizards had to start with Satanism which was our break away from Christian Programming which every one of us in this society falls into weather we like it or not but the deeper we get into our path the more we learn to separate it from our daily pagan practice.
Now on the surface the Morrighan does seem to appear as a L.H.P. Goddess being her title as 'Dark Goddess' and 'Goddess of Death' however to those that she has come to there is nothing dark about the energy felt from her. That is of course unless you cross her. I will speak briefly about her dark nature from my own experiences. She as my mother has always acted very protective over me. For example, there was one instance where I was in a very destructive relationship and The Morrighan began to haunt the poor girl as a black shadow scaring her away. It wasn't until I met a psychic woman who had also seen the shadow figure following me that I confirmed it. It wasn't long before the girl who I was dating told me she was seeing it more often as our relationship got passed due of seperation. She showed me one of the Morrighan pictures I have and said it resembled her and pretty much scared her away. And there have been other times in which she has told me to get what I need to out of a relationship and leave them. Now being that I have took several Buddhist classes, mainly to help develop my meditation skills, you can't help but also learn compassion for your fellow beings from those practices. This of course made things hard for me because if I didn't do it The Morrighan would do it for me. I try to see the best in people and in the world, I acknowledge that there is a dark side to everything but I don't focus on it because then I would be in world full of anger and confusion. However, in all cases when she has shown her dark side in this manner I would find out later that it has always been a good thing and for the best. As they say “mother knows best” and she has always shown me that, even if I didn't agree with it at the time. But don't get me wrong, I am no pacifist. It's just I am at a point where I chose my battles I do not let the world or any one person do it for me. I have not spent more than a decade learning the way of the sword just to not be able to use it if need be.
So with all that, that is just some of her dark nature that I myself have witnessed. Back to the the mystical side of things, While studying the Old Irish language I came across a word that had a big significance within the Morrighan. PĂșca. (pronounced: poo-ka) Which from older texts describes it as the shadow side or shape-shifting of the personality, which can be a dangerous aspect to become aware of at the wrong time. The PĂșca is itself a divine part of a person but also a terrifying aspect of a divinity. It can be an alternate persona often used for magical or martial purposes. It was equated as part of the individual soul in Celtic lore. Modern texts have equated it with an actual creature with the same attributes. They were known to shape-shift and were much like the the Fae. They were bringers of either good or bad fortune. But just like with Goetic Demons they are not only the objectivity of the universe but are also part of the subjectivity of the personality and of the soul. Which bring us back to the Microcosm. That miniature self that represents the universe as an individual consciousness. It isn't until we connect with our Great Mother or any deity for that matter that we begin to be a part of the Macrocosm or for a better term 'become awaken to realize it'
So the entire ideal of 'darkness' is more mundane then spiritual. Death is a natural part of the universe as much as is the sun that brings life to our planet. Most are afraid that consciousness will blink out and we will be locked in some dark box forever. You can't have an experience of nothingness. Even after death nothing truly ceases to exist. So after you die you'll have the same sort of experience as when you were born. Man will always be driven by war and the will to compete in order to be better. We all have different points of view of things as we all start out as individuals and there for we as humans will always have conflict of interests. But it's the abilty to accept our differences that make us civilized and to be a greater individual for the benefit the all. We have all seen life through different eyes and our choices and experiences have shape who we are and how we determine our judgements. A whole lot of people in the world are very happy living their entire lives with just experiencing the universe with the sensations that come through their five senses and what they project. However when one is spiritual you move beyond all that. We eventually realize that we are the Morrighan expressing herself through us and our emotions. That is the collective whole of what being a priest really is.
So I leave you with this: Not even the gods can please everyone in the world, so why would you think you could? Don't worry about pleasing the world because when you please yourself the world in itself will be pleased.



     On a personal side note I must mention, While I will continue to keep writing on this blog as frequently as I can, this will be the last one that I advertise on any of the social media sites. I'm not doing this for a popularity contest nor do I care about having everyone know who I am. I like to keep my magick life private. I am part of coven in which we utilize the techniques I have and will be presenting. Our coven is devoted to our great mother The Morrighan. We are structured in the ways of the ancient priesthoods and practice in secret. We are by no means wiccan which usually accompanies the term coven but we operate in a more ceremonial magick fashion. While our name is out there, as we do a lot of work for our local pagan community, we do not advertise or try to recruit members but we can be found by those who seek hard enough. We are very selective on who joins our coven and members have to have had a calling from the Morrighan. The Morrighan has requested that I put out this becon for myself and for the coven for those that seek the knowledge.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Work of the Symbol

 Devotional Practices of the Morrighan


 

"Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding, we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we can not define or fully comprehend. This one reason why all religions employ symbolic language or images. But this conscious use of symbols is only one aspect of a psychological fact of great importance: Man also produces symbols unconsciously and spontaneously, in the form of dreams."
                                                                                                                        -Carl G. Jung




The symbol you see above shall be the focal point of the first part of this working. This is the symbol of the Morrighan. To break it down, let us examine it. First, the Triangle. The upside down triangle with a line through it's center is the alchemical symbol for Earth. The Morrighan is associated with the Earth and is an earth Goddess. She is part of the land as much as she IS the land. She grants
sovereignty over it. In the guise of Macha, Macha means 'pasture' or 'field', which is a is clear indicator of her as an Earth Goddess. On Samhain, the Morrighan lays with The Dagda to fertilize the land. The Morrighan being the Goddess of Death and The Dagda being the God of Life and both are Earthly based, they mate at the time of year when we reap our harvest but the land is dying for the coming of winter, yet it will be reborn in spring. Our harvest gives us nourishment, sustenance and life through this time of year, through this time of death of the land. The three lines was an ancient symbol of the Morrighan as archeological records have indicated. Various ancient Celtic artifacts have been found with these three lines engraved on them that were translated as a symbol of the Morrighan.
    The Red Triangle in the middle has a few meanings. First, the Morrighan as a War Goddess is where the element of fire comes in. The Alchemical symbol for fire is a red riangle. Fire represents our courage, our actions and our desires. All the things the Morrighan embodies. Thus we have the element of Fire. Now to go even further into this, the red triangle in the center also is the light, the light of the sun, the light within our hearts which is Danu (Anu). Fire is the light. It has been said the Morrighan first appears as fearful and chaotic only to scare those away who are not serious about her.
For when they overcome this fear of her, they find a loving, compassionate mother. But one must go head first into the center and overcome your fears in order to be at peace.
    The triple spiral. Some will tell you it is a just a triple goddess symbol but is far more than just that. The symbol appears on most of the ancient megaliths through out Ireland. Most notably on Newgrange. While it is a triple goddess symbol it is the cycle of the universe, life death and rebirth. The Celts strongly believed in reincarnation, which is a main reason why they had no fear of death. They believed that they would be reborn in the same tribe. Then we have the guises of the Morrighan, Badb, Macha, Nemain. It could be suggested that each one is not just a guise but a reincarnation of
Danu, since the Morrighan herself is associated with reincarnation and rebirth. And when you start studying more into her family tree, this reincarnation into the tribe concept becomes more clear of her different guises. It is also suggested that there is a bit of numerological significance in the number of rings in the spirals that has several correspondences as well but that is a little more in depth than we will be covering at this time. Thus the triple spiral is one of her oldest symbols, the spirals all connect with each other to make a whole. Nemain, Macha, Badb together as one make up the
Morrigu with the light of Anu shining through the center.

Practice
The first practice with the symbol should be done over the period of 3 days each. When the moon is waxing and should not exceed past the full moon. To get started, use the picture of the symbol below and print it out if possible. It will help to hold it front of you or if you can manage to tape it to the wall to keep your hands free. It is a good meditation practice to stare at the picture for a period of time and then close your eyes and try to see it. Also you can stare at the picture for 20 seconds then close your eyes for 20 seconds seeing the symbol and then reopen your eyes for another 20 seconds and then closing them again, repeating this several times.

Always recite the 'Hymm to Morrighan' at the beginning of this work while facing North.

1. Your first meditation should be focused completely on the symbol. Go into a meditative state and see the symbol before you. Try to hold it in your minds eye for as long as you can. You can start with 3 minutes for the first 3 days, 6 minutes for 3 days after that and then 9 minutes for 3 days after that.

2. For the second part of this exorcize you will now focus on seeing the spirals in the symbol move. See them spiral into one another as if each spiral fills the other in a eternal circle. After a brief period see the red triangle in center begin to glow brightly. Be sure to record any sensations or feelings you get from this in your personal journal.

3. At the third part you will be doing a ritual for the symbol which is printed on the next page. This should be done on or near a full moon. It is always good to fast for the day before this ritual if you are able. Any corresponding incenses is also helpful during this ritual.










Ritual of the Morrighan Symbol
1. Do your customary opening ritual.

2. Stand facing North and recite the Hymm to Morrighan (I have the one we use on this blog or you could write your own)

3. See the Morrighan standing before you, then speak the following adoration:

Oh, Great Queen Mother
Morrighan
Anu
I stand before you this night,
to unite my consciousness with yours.
To feel your love, your power and your embrace
within my heart,
So that I may rejoice with you
as your child and your devoted follower.
I shall greet you with open arms and an open heart!
I shall now bring your symbol into myself.

4. While standing visualize the Morrighan symbol move in slowly from the West. See it as sparkling Silver color. It stops just in front of the heart.

5. Now see the symbol move in from the East and it is shiny gold Color. It moves slowly to rest just in front of the heart and mold into the silver symbol.

6. See the symbol down into the Earth where it is a dense black color. See it rise up slowly from the Earth where it rests just in front of the heart and molds into the previous symbol.

7. Now see the symbol up in heavens where it is a bright white light and it descends downward to rest in front of the heart and molds into the previous symbol so all 4 become one and begin to glow a brilliant cosmic light of unity.

8. As you gaze at this symbol vibrate the name 'ANU'

9. Stretch your hands out as if to grab the symbol but only to guide it to move into your heart. See the symbol dissolve into your heart and create shiny glow inside of your heart. Take a few moments in silence to feel the energy.

10. Speak the following:
Sacred, Great Queen Mother, Morrighan, May the union I have just created with you be sealed and flourish through every level of my being, bringing all the beneficial effects under your control. May I feel your love when needed, may I see your presence when lonely, may I hear your voice when you wish to communicate, may I be strong when you wish to test me,
may I have courage when you wish to show me fear, may my will stay focused when you show me my desires.


11. Cross your arms over your chest, right over left with each hand touching the shoulders. Right hand touching the left shoulder and left hand touching the right shoulder. Stay in this position for a few moments in silence.

12. Sit and meditate for a few moments and then record your experience in your journal.

13. Do your closing ritual

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Hymm to the Morrighan Anu

Hymm to the Morrighan Anu 
 

Daily Right of Dedication

I speak this prayer every morning at the start of the day and at the beginning of each ritual. I can really feel her power when it is spoken. It was conceived to be able to be spoken alone or with a group.

Peace to sky, Sky to Earth
Earth beneath Sky, strength in each;
Hail to thee, Oh Great Queen Mother!
Queen of Phantoms!
Queen of Faeries!
Queen of the Sea!
Nemain, Macha, Badb!
Morrigu!
Goddess of prophecies!
Goddess of Death, and keeper of the fallen!
Goddess of War and the blood of life!
The one who can change her shape
to cow, crow, wolf or serpent and grant transformatin.
Goddess of Earth, who is the land we rise from!
Goddess of Fate, who shows us our distant ways
Oh, Washer of the Ford,
Who tells prophecies of man
Who gives birth to our kin
Let thy crows flock and secrets unlock
You, who are the Mother!
You, who are Anu
(We are) I am your loving child(ren)
May (We) I honor you in this life saying :
Great are you, Anu and great are your works”

Peace to sky, Sky to Earth
Earth beneath Sky, strength in each;
Be might to the eternal much excellent woods,
Peace to sky be this
nine time eternal!-

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Awakening the Morrighan at the Great Serpent Mound Part 2

Awakening the Morrighan at the Great Serpent Mound




Part 2
In this part I will be going over the experience and the actual work performed at both times. Each time I had different experiences and with the second trip I was able to be a little more exploratory as you will see. Being a psychic and a strong empath has a great deal of merits when it comes to ancient sights but it also carries its curse in the mundane world. To be able to feel the land and all it's power and have it speak to you holds a great deal overwhelmingness and responsibility. However it also gives you a since alienation from your fellow man. One is able to feel one with them and feel their emotions but at the same time upon a hand shake THEIR life flashes before your eyes and you see their death and feel their heartache. That is the curse. I'm guessing the wizards of olde went through this same dilemma, in which I understand their solitude. That's why I have learned to put up pretty strong barriers to keep everyone’s 'ick' from coming in.
On a side note, The Morrighan often calls on me to drop everything I'm doing to do such things like travel to the middle of no where just to say hi. However, sometimes it serves a purpose, like sending me some where in which I don't know where I'm going I'm just following the crows in order to meet one of her followers in which I would have not otherwise.

December 21, 2012 Winter Solstice
There was a bit of blizzard that night. I had to leave around 4:00am in order to get there at sunrise. Getting there was quite the adventure due to all the snow. It was coming down pretty fast and the roads were becoming a mess. I wasn't about to let snow stop me. So as you all know, this date according to the Mayan calender was the end of the age of Pisces and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. So to be at an ancient sight of power was quite the necessity. Especially to greet it with the power and strength of our Great Mother, The Morrighan.
Once I got there the snow finally stopped and it was about a half an hour before sunrise. There were quite a few people there so I could really go all out but I could still do what was needed. I positioned myself at the curve of the snake that pointed to the rising of the winter solstice sun. Right at sunrise I began the God-Form Ritual. At this time I vibrated the name of Morrighan. It was a very powerful experience as I awaken the goddess within myself at that spot. I had successfully awaken her energy at an ancient monument, during the day that is considered a day of her birth. I felt an overwhelming feeling of love from her that lasted for days. 



October 8, 2014 Lunar Eclipse (the Blood Moon)
This one was a lot more extravagant and a lot more powerful. The lunar eclipse was just before sunrise so again I had to leave around 3:30am to get there in time. There was to be a total lunar eclipse and it was called a blood moon because of the reddish color it projected from the earths shadow and as luck would have it, it was completely visible from our region of the country.
When I first entered the town of Peeples (the town where Serpent Mound is) I noticed the entire town smelled like sulfur. Still not quite sure what that was about but it was also very foggy. The kind of fog where you can barley see in front of you. Once at Serpent Mound the sulfur smell vanished but the fog was still heavy. It was completely desolate. Myself and my partner were the only ones there. It looked rather creepy, just like out of the beginning of some horror movie. It is already out in the middle of no where and with out any other person around it really made you feel like you were isolated from the rest of the world. Not one person was there, none were around and none came the entire time. This was excellent because it aloud me to really indulge in the energy.
So I was able to work on the mound itself. Being a sacred spot, I removed my shoes before walking out on it. I went out into the middle of the egg portion of the mound. It felt like being in the middle of womb. Almost as if I was being initiated or being reborn. I did the calling to Morrighan and then proceeded with the God-Form ritual vibrating the name of Anu this time. I felt her enter my entire being. It was so strong inside the mound. After some time in this state, I began some astral work. I still to this day can not describe the amount of love I felt from the Morrighan. A love that is beyond any physical words or anything I have ever felt. In astral form I started to feel one with the land and again it was a very powerful feeling. After I came back to consciousness I went over to the tail end of the mound and stood in the middle of the spiral and again proceeded with the God-Form ritual with Anu being the name I vibrated. I found that one is able to project this goddess energy through the snake to the egg. Which would make a great feat of initiation if the projector is strong enough. This will be something for future works I'm sure.
At the spiral is where I soon started to watch the eclipse. An amazing sight it was. It was just as they said it would be. The pictures below are actual images of it. Again watching the eclipse from here was a overwhelming feeling. Never have I felt more one with the universe than at that moment. I walked away from the whole experience with a great since of love from the goddess.