Priestess of The Morrigan: Prayers, Rituals & Devotional Work to the Great Queen 

By Stephanie Woodfield

Authoress Stephanie Woodfield is a priestess to the Goddess Morrigan. This book serves to recount her experiences as a priestess of the Morrigan. In this book she discusses the identity of the Morrigan and other goddesses that are associated with her. She also discusses some of the challenges involved with being a priestess and running rituals for pagan. Included at the end of the book are rituals and working for the Morrigan.

Who is the Morrigan? Is the Morrigan a title or is it the Goddesses name. In some Irish folktales she is identified as Morrigan. She is also identified with three other Goddesses. They are Anu, Baive and Macha. Anu is a mother goddess. Macha is a horse goddess and Baive can be a furious goddess of war. Each of these three goddesses conflated with Morrigan have their own separate histories along with different parentages, children and husbands.

The Morrigan is identified as a goddess of war. She does not crave war and relish it like her reputation suggests but rather she recognizes the need for war and battle at times. She does weep for the fallen and realizes the cost. She is concerned with making and keeping the peace. This gets into the question, what is the nature of the Morrigan.

Many in the Pagan community did not take to the Morrigan until quite a bit of time elapsed. Many felt that she was a violent goddess who promoted anger and fighting. Now her worship is more widespread and it is realized that she is not all about violence. Morrigan is a tough goddess who expect certain things from her devotees. She expect them to work on themselves and throw away the parts of themselves that are no longer useful. When the Morrigan gives advice it better be heeded or she might ignore you. If you say your are going to do something then you better do it or a string of bad luck will follow.

Other areas of controversy include how the Morrigan is portrayed. One time she was portrayed in the nude. This caused quite a bit of controversy. Was portraying her naked making her like an erotic goddess? She is a goddess of war but not a goddess of love. The Celts used to go out to battle naked dressed in blue dye called Woad. So showing her naked is a display of power and sovereignty. In the mythos she is not a lusty goddess who goes after men. In fact she is married to the Dagda and has a son with him named Mecha.

Sometimes there are battle in the community. Often times it is a power struggle or an ideological difference. Sometimes it involves back stabbing and the priestess would have to expel someone from the group. Or else it could be solved by peaceful overtures and compromise.  There are other challenges as well. Balancing your life is a real challenge. Being a pagan priest or priestess is difficult. Unlike regular clergy who gets paid from their house of worship , Pagans have to hold down outside jobs for income. They also have to have time for the congregants and for their relationship with deity. This book covers a lot. Dive in and learn.

 

 

The brief Life of Count Dracula

 

This was a short easy read on the life of Vlad the Impaler.  “In Search of Dracula” however remains the best of Vlad the Impaler. The book covers the usual ground including Vlad’s birth, his three reigns in Wallachia and a few up and downs of his political career.  There were a few new facts learned as well. Such facts include the monasteries, forts and building he helped build. It also shows that Vlad the Impaler has living descendants and was and still connected to other European royalty.

The books biggest weakness as far as I am concerned was the grammar and spelling. The book was littered with poor grammar and spelling mistakes. Hard to take a work seriously if the translator cannot get the spelling and grammar correct.

What jumps out is that his first reign was short. His second reign was the longest. The third second longest. Throughout his rule Vlad was constantly challenged both without and within his realm. From outside his realm threats were emanating from Turkey. The Ottomans wanted puppet ruler in places like Wallachia who would pay tribute and provide troops for the janissaries. The Ottoman’s wanted to conquer Europe. Within his realm there were the Saxon merchants who were settled there by the Romans and the Boyars. Boyars were the elite rich people. Both groups were at odds with the Voivode or the ruler of Wallachia.

Vlad had tactics to deal with these groups.  There were often military raids for backing pretenders to the throne. Many Boyars were taken to build a castle and then killed. The Saxon merchants unhappy with Vlad spread stories about him though Europe. It was Boyars who killed his father and oldest brother.

There were three rulers known for fighting the Ottomans. First was Jonas Hunyadi from Hungary , Vlad Dracula and Stephan the Great from Moldovia. So vital was Wallachia and these other areas that the Pope sent money to Wallachia to fight the Ottomans but Hunyadi ended up keeping the funds and only arriving at the last minutes.

Vlad’s second reign was undone thanks the Boyars. They sent a fake letter to the ruler of Hungary saying that Vlad was conspiring with Ottoman forces to capture the ruler. This lead to Vlad being imprisoned in Hungary for 12 years. He married Hungarian royalty during this time and he fought on Hungary’s side during his imprisonment.  Vlad was ultimately killed in battle against the Ottomans. It is believed that he was beheaded and that his head was displayed outside the walls of Istanbul. Other beliefs say that his body was retried from the Ottomans an buried in Snagov.