[Pagan] Encountering the Morrigan

I've talked about the Morrigan before. On May 17, 2018, she Called me.
"Come home. You've played with the Greeks long enough, come home, Son of Nial."

Except, as I read more, perhaps she doesn't need me as the Son of Nial. Perhaps she needs me as the Daughter of Nial. The Morrigan is one of the Crone goddesses, the one who aids those in transition between life and death and life again.

She has always been a part of my life, although i didn't know it, the Great Queen and the guardian of witches. Autumn is her time. Red and violet are her colors (as well as black).  Her elements are fire, which i love and water which I am.

I have been reading and learning and will continue to learn more.

The Queen of Ghosts and Shadows has summoned me. But not, I think, as a warrior. As a spell-slinger and bard, as a psychopomp.

I have not yet begun writing her poetry, but this spoke to me.
Song to the Morrigan
Queen of Phantoms,
Blood soaked earth
and rushing river ford
are your domain
Your gifts are madness,
death, and battle-frenzy
You appear, dancing
from sword point
to shield rim,
I sing to you with
a crow's voice, shrieking
I sing to you with
strength and anger

Queen of Nightmares
The joining of rivers
and deep delving caves
are your domain
Your gifts are prophecy,
destruction, or victory
You appear, washing
the clothes of the doomed,
red with gore,
I sing to you with
a voice of blood, crimson
I sing to you with
pain and sorrow

Great Queen
The boiling whirlpool
and fertile field
are your domain
Your gifts are sovereignty,
success, and victory
You appear, offering
your blessing to those
willing to pay the price
I sing to you with
a wolf's voice, howling
I sing to you with
passion and purpose

Copyright Morgan Daimler, 2013

Pagan: Spell for the Full Blood Moon

This is for my household. Make adjustments in deities as you see fit.

Pre rit meditation:
Think seriously about the job you want.

Cast circle:
The year wheel goes round and so do we
Mother comes round, and so do we
All around and around
and round about,
power within
doubt without.

Call Quarters:

Hail, Spirits of the East and Air.
Rulers of mind and intellect, join us for this rite
Sharpen our wits and skills,
For we must know what to do and how to do it
hail and welcome

Hail, Spirits of the South and Fire
Rulers of passion and desire, join us for this rite
Inflame our needs and spark our passions
For talent and skill without passion are soulless
hail and welcome

Hail, Spirits of the West and Water.
Rulers of emotion and creativity, join us for this rite
Let our feelings and abilities flow
For without these, skill and passion turn out nothing
hail and welcome

Hail, Spirits of the North and Earth
Rulers of strength and stability, join us for this rite
Ground us in our reality and give us power to carry forth
For we must have the ability to DO our will.
hail and welcome

Tonight is the Full Moon in Leo, the Blood moon and a blue moon. This hasn’t happened since 1861.
Creativity, performance and power are all at their peak. So we draw on that. Tonight is about will. About doing what we will, about knowing our will and making it manifest, with some outside aid.

Light green candle
Thoth, lord of writing, lord of story, lord of the Moon,
grant us your gifts this night
To you belongs contentment, Thoth who overwhelms the earth with beauty

Light blue candle
Khnum, lord of all that is made,
aid us with our poor skills,
for the lord of the wheel is our father also.

Light gold candle
Swift Hermes, lord of travel and writing and commerce,
who give us songs and an open road,
join us with your gifts.

Light black candle
All-father Odin, who sees the wyrds of mortals,
Whsiperer of secrets who set Mani on his silver course in the night
join us with your wisdom.

Light white candle
Arianrhod, lady of the silver wheel,
from whom all come and to whom all return
We stand beneath your light, join us with your power

Tonight, we are here to work. We have work. We need work. Right now, you get to do work.

Your preparatory meditation was on the job you desire.
Now, shut your eyes. Relax. Think of that job, only of that job.
Think of applying, of sending your resume with the skills well highlighted, so that it leaps out at them.
Think of interviewing. See the interviewer. Make eye contact. Feel the handshake.
Think of getting the job, and doing intake paperwork. See the I9, the W4, the direct deposit paperwork.
Think of working at the job. See yourself carryng out the tasks, seeing others, doing the work.
Think of seeing the paystub in your hands.

Now, listen to me, you have a fire within you. Deep in you it burns.
The Gotterfunken, the spark of the gods within us.
I want you to see your fire.
It may look like a bonfire or an Olympic flame or any sort of fire.
The important thing is that it is your fire.
But see it.
Observe it.
And when you are ready, step into the middle of it.
The fire will not hurt you. It licks over your skin with a pleasant sensation.
Stand there. Let the fire rise back up, higher, higher, until it is over your head.
Open your eyes and your mouth. Breathe in and let the fire enter you.
Let it fill you.
Now it begins to burn, but the pain is not unendurable.
Breathe it out.
See the things that came with it. See your doubts, your fears. See your bad habits and other things.
Let the fire burn those away.
There they go, charred cinders up in smoke
Breathe the fire in again, let it wash through you and over you.
It purifies you, and makes you what you should become.
When you are ready, step out of the fire and into the patch of moonlight at your feet.
You’ve burned yourself clean.
Now let the Moon fill you up. Whether god or goddess, lord or lady, let this, a once-in-a-lifetime event, fill you.
I see the moon
the moon sees me
gods bless the moon-
and gods bless me. (3 times)
Come back slowly.


You have all the tools you need. You know what you need to know.
Your gods are with you.
Go and find work.

Lords and Lady, of your grace,
we thank you for your aid and love.
Guide us in the days to come as we use what we have done here tonight.
Lords and lady, you who hold both the moon and work together in your hands, you have aided us many times before, we thank you for your presence tonight. We are grateful for the gifts you have given us.. Bless us, bless the work of our hands and days.
Go if you must, stay if you will.
Hail and farewell

Spirits of the North,
we thank you for the stability and strength,
hail and farewell

Spirits of the West,
we thank you for the cereativity and emotion,
hail and farewell

Spirits of the south,
we thank you for the passion and desire,
hail and farewell

Spirits of the east,
we thank you for the wit and skills,
hail and farewell

Witch School: Wheel of the year

This is a new feature. The kids of our grove (all 17 and up) needed basic home training before being sent out to the bigger pagan community. We hold witch school, every Sunday 3-5. This week's was 12-2 because of a couple of birthdays.

This week's topic was the Wheel of the Year.
Or you can't celebrate holidays if you don't know them.

The year has two solstices, the summer and winter. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year and the winter solstice is the longest night.

There are two equinoxes, when day and night are exactly equal. These happen in spring and fall.

And half-way between these four days are cross-quarter days that fall on the first of the months.

Our calendar is very pagan. The months are named for Roman Gods in some cases.
January is Janus, the god of doorways, of beginnings and endings.
February is from februa, purification. It was a time of cleaning and purifying the home and self
March comes from Mars, the god of war. This was the first month you could field an army.
April is from avrilla, to open. It was a time when buds and flowers opened
May is from Maia, the goddess of the spring time
June is for Juno, queen of the gods. This is why being a June bride is such a blessed estate even today. If you married in her month, Juno, patron of marriage, would bless you. 11% of all weddings happen in June.
July is named for Julius Caesar. He took the month Quintilus (fifth  month, the Roman Calendar started in March) and renamed it on the Julian Calendar.
August is for August Caesar. Not to be outdone by his uncle, he demanded Sextilus become his own month and stole two days of February to make it 31 days as well.
September means Seventh Month
October= Eighth Month
November =Ninth Month
December= Tenth Month

The kids said "So they got tired of naming things and just numbered the rest. DANG!"

Then came the holidays. The holidays move in a basic cycle, called the Wheel of the Year and we ride the Wheel and turn the Wheel as well. (The links are to my Pinterest Boards on the holidays)


We started with Mabon, because that is where we are in the calendar
Mabon, the Autumn Equinox, around Sept 22, is the second harvest, grains and fruit. Vegetables and wheat were caught at Lughnasadh. Every day, I pass a pear tree on my route that is heavy with fruit and growing riper by the day. This is basically the pagan Thanksgiving. We are grateful to the gods, to the land and sky and to the workers as well for the food that has grown this year. This is the time of winemaking and preserving, of winnowing and storing.

Samhain, November 1, is the final harvest, the end of summer (Samhain, "Sow-in" means summer's end). This is when animals were butchered and preserved for the long months ahead. At this time, the veil is thinnest and ancestors often come back for a visit. The Church made it All Hallows and All Saints to honor the Martyrs. Hence All Hallows Eve or Halloween. The legend of Jack of the Lantern was retold, and pumpkins are easier to carve than turnips. Sex magic is also done at this time, since Scorpio rules both sex and death.  Gabriel is running our Samhain rit

Yule, the winter solstice Dec 20, is the time of the Oak King being reborn, and the days begin to grow longer again. We celebrate because midwinter is bleak, and needs a part to get through it. Every cold country does this. We talked about Mothers' Night and gift giving and all the things that go with Yule. Ollie and Emily are running the Yule rit

Imbolc, February 1, is the beginning of the lambing and the time when all those Beltane babies start arriving. Imbolc means "in the belly" and is a fire festival to see winter out, a milk festival and a time for planning the spring crops.

We discussed planning a garden at Imbolc and planting it for a closer connection to nature. Ollie was just excited about fresh tomatoes. And Cat was excited someone else knew about tomato preserves.* Tres Leches cheesecake made in boob shaped cake pans were also discussed for Imbolc, because it is a milk festival. A milk bar was suggested for after rit, with soy, almond, cow, rice and goat milk, plus chocolate and strawberry and other flavors.

Ostara, March 21 is the vernal equinox.  It's when the days are long enough that chickens start laying again, hence the use of the egg symbol. This is time to bless the plants and start hardening them off for transplant. It is vaguely connected to Easter, by the name, although Easter is the first Sunday of the first full moon after the Equinox. Passover is the full moon festival, and Easter is tied to that.

Beltane, May 1, is the fertility festival. A round of "First of May"** was sung, and maypoles as phallic symbols were discussed. This was done to make the land and animals and people fertile, and ensure survival. Animals were driven between large bonfires and blessed. People made love outdoors as a kind of sympathetic magic to make the earth grow. It was decided there should be penis and vulva (triangular) shaped cakes for this festival. And possibly ice cubes as well.

Because of all this, May Eve, April 30, was Walpurgis night, when all manner of evil walked abroad to cause havoc among mortals.

Litha, June 22, is Midsummer, the Summer Solstice. Days have reached their longest point and from here, the dark begins to grow again. The Oak King loses to the Holly King and night returns. This is when people have an idea what will produce well, because it's always a good year for something, and a bad year for other stuff. (this year has been amazing for watermelons) The garden starts coming on and there are vegetables everywhere.

Lughnasadh, August 1, is the First Harvest. It's about vegetables and wheat. When times changed to Christianity, it became Lammas, the Loaf mass, and people brought their first bread to church to be blessed. It also honors Lugh the All Gifted, because the time is coming when skills other than farming will be needed.

Holidays are important because they break up the dull round of our days. In a world with only one or two religious holidays, people grow far away from their gods.

This next year, we pray like the harvest depends on it!


Next week, grounding, centering and meditation

Their homework, and yours if you want, meditate at least once this week. Research and find different methods. Try some of them. Report next week.
________
*OLD FASHIONED SPICED TOMATO PRESERVES
3 c. prepared tomatoes (2 1/4 lb.)
1/4 c. lemon juice
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 box sure-jell fruit pectin
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
Scald, peel and chop tomatoes. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Measure 3 cups into a 6 or 8 quart saucepot. Add lemon juice, grated lemon rind, allspice, cinnamon and ground cloves to tomatoes. Measure sugar and set aside.
Stir sure-jell fruit pectin into prepared tomatoes. (Saucepot must be no more than 1/3 full to allow for a full rolling boil.)

Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring constantly. At once stir in sugar. Stir and bring to a full rolling boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down). Then boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Skim off foam with large metal spoon. Immediately ladle into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch space at top. With a damp cloth, wipe jar rims and threads clean.

Immediately cover jars with hot lids. Screw bands on firmly. Let stand to cool. Check seals. Store jam in a cool dry place. Yield: approximately 5 cups.


**
Strong language