The Morrigan

The Morrigan, or Morrigu, means "great queen" or "phantom queen". She is a Goddess from Celtic mythology and is warned against calling upon since she is supposed to be powerful and dangerous. The Morrigan is perceived to be a triple Goddess and a Mother Goddess. She is regarded as a Goddess of war and fate, an earth Goddess, a Goddess of sex, a healer, and a transporter between life and death. Her origins date back to the Copper Age and indicate she was a dominant goddess of Europe.

As the triple Goddess, she is called the Morrigna, she is seen as three sisters. she has different names as the Morrigna, often it is Babd, Macha, and Nemain, sometimes it is Badb, Macha, and Anand. These three Goddesses are said to be sisters of the land Goddesses, Eriu, Banba, Foldla. It's said the three Morrigna are all the same Goddess just by different names making the Morrigan a triple goddess.

The Morrigan is not just found in Celtic mythology, but also in Arthurian mythology, under the name of Morgan Le Fay, and has been likened to Lilith in Hebrew Mythology. In Scandinavian, she is known as the Nightmare.

The earliest story of her in the Ulster Cycle where she has a toxic and dramatic pursuit and love of the Celtic hero, Cuchulainn. The Tain Bo Regamna ("The Cattle Raid of Regamain"), He runs into the Morrígan, as she drives a cow from his territory but he doesn't recognize her so he insults her and tries to attack but fails because she shapeshifts into a blackbird and flies to a branch. he recognizes her and threatens her and she tells him he's bringing himself bad luck. He claims she can't hurt him and she let him know that she is, in fact, death and she foretold his death. They go back and forth for a while where she tricks him and tries to get him to love her and in the end, she watches him die.

It was believed that yearly the Dagda and the Morrigan would meet to have sex and create new life yet they did not have a child. The Morrigan was seen as a beautiful woman with long hair yet is said to be a very bad omen if she's seen.

The Morrigan's animals are the Raven, the crow, and the vulture, all birds of death, as well as eels, wolves, and cows. Her colors are black and red. her stones are amethyst and clear quartz. her symbols are skulls, scavenger birds, mugwort, cauldron, and feathers.

She is a complicated goddess who was a major figure in the Tuatha De Dannan. She often had Prophecies that helped the Tuatha De Dannan in wars. She is also the Banshee. but I don't believe she was all evil.

I often have different views of Goddesses or generally women in mythology. In Celtic times women had far more respect and value than in our recent history. In a similar way to the Vikings, women fought alongside men and played important roles in their society. The Morrigan was a mother, but she was war as much as she was life, and in those ancient days, life and death and war were closer than they are for us now. Life leads to death and death leads to life and the Morrigan was the transporter of the soul between life and death. She was not a murderous evil seductress she was a powerful mother and seer and played such an important role but like Lilith, in a male-dominant world, strong women are made to be evil. we are coming to a time where women are not less again and my hope is these women seen as evil in mythology will once again get their due.