©Selina Fenech
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The Morrigan
Celtic

When I started looking around at who Wiccans were following, this is the one the surprised me the most. She's not a figure that's loudly advertised on flashy webpages, and she has so far managed to steer clear of Bunnying - that process in which Dark Goddesses like Kali and Hecate are so "reexamined" that they become cute, fuzzy, mothering entities that just want to cuddle with you.

The Morrigan's aspect is triplicate, most often seen as Macha ("Crow"), Badb ("Crow", "Frenzy" or "Venom") (pronounced Bav or Bave), and Nemain ("Fury" or "Frenzy"). Other sources, both Wiccan and historical, refer to the Morrigan and her two sisters - the two being any arrangement of the above three. Sometimes one (usually Nemain) is replaced with Anu, a form of Dana,¹ and sometimes the Morrigan and Dana are even used interchangeably. Historians such as T.W. Rolleston are against the comparison, and I personally agree. And yet, her name is unmistakably a title, translating as either "Great Queen" or "Phantom Queen".

Goddess of Death and Destruction - The Morrigan is known primarily as a goddess of death, war, and destruction, "who appears to embody all that is perverse and horrible among supernatural powers."² She prefers magic over weaponry, whipping warriors into battle frenzy and confounding the enemy. She is credited with generating great mists to conceal the arrival of the Tuatha de Danaan from the Fir Bolgs. She also was known to lead hosts of ghosts, most often those of slain warriors.

Celtic eschatology links the Morrigan to destruction in one other way. At the end of the world, Badb will overturn the primordial cauldron, destroying everything.

Goddess of Prophesy - The Morrigan is a powerful seer, although her prophesies generally relate to war. She makes one of peace and prosperity after the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. She is also equated with the Washer at the Ford, an old woman washing bloody clothes in the river, indicating who will die in an upcoming battle. Some view this ritual as choosing, not prophesying, who is to die. The Washer is sometimes specifically associated with Badb.

The Morrigan is frequently associated with the Bean Sidhe (Banshee), who wailed to announce approaching death.

Goddess of Fertility, Sexuality, the Land and Sovereignty - At Samhain the Morrigan and the Dagda meet at a river and engage in intercourse, symbolic of preparing the land to be fertile once more come spring. She tells the Dagda the location of their enemies, the Formorians, and later she steals away the strength of their king. So by working in tandem with her, the Dagda benefits. In contrast, she repeatedly attempts to seduce the hero Cu Cuchulain - and his refusals eventually hasten his own demise. Macha is sometimes compared with Queen Mab or Maeve, an independent warrior queen in her own right, with a sexual appetite large enough to exhaust 30 men a night and who bequeathed her favor within the bedchamber.

Goddess of Vengeance - Macha, heavy with child, was forced to race the king's horses. This she did, and won, at the end of which she collapsed and gave birth. Still strained from the pains of childbirth, Macha called down a curse upon the king's army. In their most dire hour, the soldiers collapsed with the weakness of a woman in labor, helpless before their enemies. This aspect also makes Macha a protectress of mothers, abused women, and children.

Other sources suggest that this Macha and the Macha involved with the Morrigan (also known as Macha the Red) are separate entities altogether.3 Wiccans generally treat the two as one in the same.

Goddess of Strength and Perseverance - The Morrigan is an entity of sheer physical force, best illuminated in Macha's story. But she is not merely the power - she is also the force that drives and pushes us past our limits to find our own strengths, test our limits, and reach further than we thought possible. She puts up roadblocks not to stop us but to strength our resolve.

In addition, the Morrigan is also associated with water, mostly through her fertility aspects although water can also be a symbol of wisdom, mystery and prophesy. Some associate her with the Welsh water spirit Morgan Le Fay.

Most often taking the form of a crow, the Morrigan is a powerful shape-shifter who takes numerous forms, both animal and human. She can appear as a shrieking hag or a beautiful woman, most often with red hair.

Why worship a deity such as the Morrigan? As previously stated, following a death deity doesn't mean you're interested in hastening the process. The Morrigan is a goddess of transformation and strength. She is invoked in defensive and banishing magic. I have heard she is popular with Wiccans in the military. "Her worship is not for the faint of heart. She is another transformative goddess, who is quite capable of shaking your world to its foundations in order to strengthen you." 4