Reflections of the Dark Moon

She is in the sound of bare feet running across the dirt and stone. The thud of bone hitting earth and making it stronger. She is the song without words but whose depth of truth is unquestioned. The cry of beast and mortal alike. Hear her in your beating heart as the pounding drum. Hear her in your mind as the wailing carnyx. A force of nature. A force pushing you to beyond. Beyond your current limits. Ever striving. Ever changing. Ever thriving.

The Dark Moon. The Full Moon. The Summer. The Winter. She is there.

It is the Samhain season, and there is much to do, but there is also a need to sit back and reflect. The bones have been released on my altar. The Ancestors are getting their daily offerings and prayers. The Morrigan’s Holy day was marked in the dark of night under a fog covered sky in the Oakland hills. Every day is full with work.

Work that brings my household money and stability. Work that keeps my household healthy and feeling supported in the hard times we are currently in. Work to prepare for the new year in the Cauldron and what we wish to offer the community. Work for my household Gods and Spirits, to continue our mutually beneficial relationships and bring them honor. Work to shore up and refresh my wards for the house, my loved ones and myself. Work to become a better person.

Amongst all that work it would be easy to get lost. To focus solely on what is directly in front of me and move forward. But moving forward without knowing where you have come from means that you may not realize where you are going. So I wanted to take a moment to pause. The Great Queen wanted me to take a moment to pause.

Herself has been very present this season. The shadows are more than a little deeper. My emotions are a little stronger. Under the surface bubbles and restless energy, it can be harnessed and focused to accomplish so much, but it also threatens to overwhelm and fantasies of literally running wild are never far away. These are some of the markers of the Great Queen’s presence to me. The feeling of a deep endless chasm within me that will never be filled and never run dry.

Several years ago during a trance ritual with the Morrigan it seemed important for me to start working on some form of divination skills. This was difficult for me. It’s not a skill I am particularly attracted to or one that I feel that I am good at, but there was something in the practice of prophecy that clearly she felt would be good for me. That is the crux of my relationship with the Morrigan. Becoming a better version of me. The better version of me that she sees even when I do not.

So I bought Brian Froud’s Heart of the Faerie Deck and started doing readings and it was remarkably easy to listen to them. Now whether or not they had anything useful to say, is another question entirely. I didn’t bother with a Tarot deck. Something about Tarot has just never appealed to me. There are some truly beautiful cards but it’s just…not for me.

I don’t read for people often or even for myself. When I do people seemed to genuinely get something out of it and I have started giving myself calendar year readings annually. For a while that seemed enough.

Not this year. Time to step it up and branch out lol. It started earlier in the year with the random idea that I would like to have another deck, not just those wilde Faeries, to read with. But as mentioned Tarot still seemed not for me, so then was the somewhat difficult task of finding another Oracle Deck that I could speak with. The timing of finding a possible deck has worked out in that witchy way. My dearest sister, Brenda called my attention to the “With Your Shield or On It” deck by Pam Wishbow on my instagram. It was an insta-buy. Something I don’t do often. They arrived a few days before the Dark Moon and the Morrigan’s Holy Day, and as soon as I had them in my hands I realized that I would need to spend time getting to know them and learn their language. It wasn’t one I could already speak like my Froud deck.

It just seemed correct to do a daily card pull to get to know the deck, to see if it was the right one for me. From Dark Moon to Dark Moon seemed natural. Asking the Morrigan to bless the deck and open my eyes was second nature. We are seven days in and I can now see a little of how good of a practice this is right now.

Life is more than a little full and hectic right now. A family member is in the hospital, my partner is on leave to help in their care. Our “normal” has been packed up for another time. Spending some small minutes in the morning to sit in the quiet. To shuffle the cards. To think about yesterday and wonder about today has been supremely beneficial.

Added to that is the fact that there has been a lot of energetic shifts happening around me. In communities I am apart of, in neighboring communities, and just everywhere I look to be honest. This Dark Moon of the Morrigan’s  I told her and felt the truth that it felt like the long holding pattern I was in for many years is over. I am no longer treading water. I am moving forward. This practice of prophecy, of divination, is one of looking in all directions and listening. When there is so much going on, it is important to listen. To be in closer in connection with her voice, to hear warnings, to see patterns, to know.

For all that I am grateful. To the Great Queen who constantly inspires me and drives me, I am humbly grateful.

To all those seeking, my best advice to you is to listen and act. Don’t let the doubt freeze you into inaction. Start small. Start with something manageable, but doable. A prayer once a week. An offering on the Dark Moons. Deciding to read one of her stories and legends. Listen while you are doing these things and take time to reflect.

May this time of great depth and possibility give you what you need to reach a new personal level. May you continue to thirst for greater understanding and mastery of yourself. May your loved ones be safe and protected. May your household be prosperous and joyful even in times of stress. My the Great Queen bless us.

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Magic. Protection. Safety.

 

Doing : Devotional Practice to the Dagda

Shoulders back. Head up. Go for it. Do the work.

This is my mantra this morning. It is my mantra most of the time but especially when I am feeling particularly stressed and just kind of crappy. I am having one of those times right now. Summer Funk. Awakening to my heart rate being elevated as my mind launches into the rotations of things I need to do better, things that have impending deadlines. How I am falling behind. How I need to be better. It’s stress induced. It isn’t logical. It can lead to headaches and just in general feeling like trash. An infestation of brain weasels and not a brain dachshund to hunt them down in sight.

But that’s life, at least life as I have known it. These things happen, they will pass and happen again. Yet there is still work to do and sometimes the way through is to just keep working. Do the thing! Like writing this blog 😉

So where were we? Learning. Good, good. Keep doing that. That never stops. It is like breathing. But now that you know some things, now that you feel acquainted with the Keeper of the Lore, now what?

Do something.

The what and the how are really not as consequential as you might think. If you were reading the stories and myths and learning about the Irish culture, chances are that some things have jumped out at you as being things that sing with the melody that the Dagda sings. They might have felt red, had a heat, and made your heart feel a couple sizes larger. Take those themes, take those lessons, and go make them a reality in the world.

Maybe it was service to community that stood out to you?

Go be of service. There a thousands of ways this can take shape in your life specifically. Volunteer opportunities. Helping to put on events. Just being that steady person that comes to events and welcomes folks. Sending emails. Typing up notes. Putting together a book group. Online participation in groups and discussions. Being a moderator in an online group. It doesn’t have to be a physical bodily action, because hey not everyone can do that, but there is work to be done on a huge spectrum that can fit into your life. The key is to see how you can help. Not just benefiting from the community you are in, but also giving back in some way.

I think that community is a major theme that I have seen come up for those who are in devotion to the Dagda over and over again. It was one of the first real missives that I felt from Herself and the Good God. “Go find your people. Be a contributing part of community.”

Makes sense. He is a Chieftain. Hard to be a Chieftain without people to care for. Finding community is rough. Not going to lie. On the one hand it is easier with the internet, on the other hand making connections with people is scary and has a whole slew of other problems and risks with it.

I think one obstacle in finding community, especially spiritual community, is thinking you have to find people that practice and believe exactly as you do. Honestly, I just don’t know that it’s possible, and can lend itself to situations where group dynamics and relationships aren’t healthy.  You don’t need uniformity to have commonality. Healthy relationships are more important than worshiping the same Gods.  Something to be aware of and think about before joining a new spiritual group or community.

If there just isn’t a community around you, online or in person, well…that is likely it’s own missive. I’m not going to tell you anything in absolute terms here, because this is just my weird limited experience that hopefully you get something out of, but if you consider the Dagda is a builder, then you may be called to build. As a follower of his it was a big and on going lesson, that if you want a thing, you might have to build it your own damn self. I’m not saying it isn’t possible to be a devotee of his and do more solitary non-responsibility non-leadership heavy things, because what the hell do I know (it might be totally possible!) but for me, in my observations, these things go hand in hand.

(Little tidbit from behind the scenes: The Cauldron of the Celts started out as the Cauldron of the Dagda, true story.)

I’ll talk more about putting on public event type things in later parts of this series, and if you want to start building a local community platform but have no clue where to start, I’m happy to talk and give you what advice I have to give. It is an undertaking.

All that being said, you don’t HAVE to take on creating a community platform or public anything for the work to bring you closer to the Dagda. Not at all. There is after all so much work to do!

Here is one way to think about it: The Learning stage is like first being introduced to each other. So that you would recognize one another in a social situation. Then how do you become better friends? You do things together! That’s it. Your actions are the follow through and the energy that it takes you to show who you are as much as it is getting to know him better.

So what do you want to do? Want to learn Irish? Do it! Want to write poetry? Go for it! He loves poetry. Write a blog. Bake bread. Volunteer. Set a goal. Start meditating. Take a class. Sing. Read stories to children. Journal everyday. Choose a thing to do for/to/with the Dagda and do it.

It is really that simple.

Look. My way is not flashy. Not really. I mean, I enjoy my comforts and luxuries (I will be bringing sheepskins and eating off golden platters whenever possible, trust me), but the core of it all, my actual beliefs and practice and relationships with my Gods is simple. I honor them. I learn. I try to learn how to respect their culture, their lore, and wisdom. I undergo deeds and tasks in their name because I believe it will please them and because I feel it will make me into a better version of myself according to what I have learned. Ultimately that is so I am a better me for my household, community and the world.

So again it comes back to what “connection” means to you. For me, in this series and the context of this stage of doing, connecting to the Dagda means feeling like I am doing his name honor. I’m doing something he will be pleased with. Just the same as you might do something for a loved one or family member. There are lots of things that I do that I know one of my parents would smile and be happy to know I was doing. I watched a favorite movie of my fathers, and it reminded me of him. So I text him and let him know.

Doing things spiritually is much the same for me. I did something that I think would make the Dagda smile, so I let him know. I say a little prayer. In my head. Out loud. It just depends. It can be long. It can be short. It can be as simple as “Praise the Dagda!”, because the important part is the action that is spirit filled. Through that action I feel closer to my Gods, and sometimes those actions lead to greater understanding of their lore or their missives in my life.

My spirituality is founded on the idea that it is what you DO, that is important. Philosophy and theory are all things that have merit but in the end people know where they stand with you by what you do. So it stands to reason that the Worlds, the Gods, the Spirits, know you by what you do in the same way. That’s why this portion is so important to me.

So what are you doing? 😉

To be fair, I’ll share first. I’m writing this series. So far I think it will be a 4 part series, but it was certainly something of a missive to do in his name. I am also running the Cauldron of the Celts with Victoria, our community space to worship, honor and rejoice in the Gods names. Part of that is for him, part of that is for others, and he helps guide me through the process, but the sense of community there and the presence I try to bring is very much in his honor. I keep my home a place of sanctuary, an on going process. Those are the major “doings” with other projects and devotions that bubble up and happen over time.


Devotional Practice to the Dagda: The Call

Learning: Devotional Practice to the Dagda

The Shiny Part: Devotional Practice to the Dagda