Recap: Morrígan Practices Group #1 (March 2026)
On March 4, 2026, we had our first virtual Morrígan Practices Group! As people spoke, the facilitator took brief notes of what folks shared in response to each question being discussed, and those notes are shared below. (All personal and confidential information has been removed and attendees were made aware of this prior to the meeting.)
Questions Discussed
What are the top 1-3 things that have helped you deepen your relationship with the Queens?
For those who are mentally ill and/or ND, can you describe 1-3 strategies which have been most helpful in navigating a regular devotional practice with the Queens?
What have you learned NOT to do with the Morrígan?
How do people perceive the differences between the Queens, if at all? Bonus: did your perception change after taking an oath or completing an initiation?
Discernment: How do you determine if you’re hearing the Morrígan versus another entity or even just your own internal voice? What characteristics help you identify her?
Terminology notes:
“UPG” = unverified personal gnosis; the stuff that tends to be specific to our personal experiences of the gods but which aren’t necessarily shared by others or attested in any historical or academic sources.
“SPG” = shared personal gnosis; any UPG that becomes common enough among contemporary practitioners that it becomes treated as ‘modern lore.’
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“What are the top 1-3 things that have helped you deepen your relationship with the Queens?”
Maintaining a daily practice; keeping Her in mind throughout the day; journeywork
Reading the lore, including different translations of the poems; incorporating such info into daily activities
Dedicating martial arts training, especially when stuff is hard; learning Irish
Meditation; prayer as part of a daily practice; going out into nature and finding connections with UPG regarding the Queens
Doing something at least 15 minutes a day that connects to one or more of the Queens; participating in community events dedicated to Her
Standing against injustice, seeking justice; finding ways to put myself out into the world with Her help, not minimizing myself
Paying attention to my intuition as a guide, allowing myself to explore whether a particular lead is going to fizzle out or take me in a new direction and interest (e.g. “I’ve been feeling intrigued by Anu lately, why not learn more about Her?”)
Reading from knowledgeable authors as well as academic sources; daily devotional work, but it’s done throughout the day, not always in a focused time set aside
Exploring what it is about Her that draws me to Her in the first place, finding ways in which Her stories have parallels in my own life-story
Note: attendees report experiencing Her within a range from being wholly separate entities to less distinct outlines; a couple of folks are coming from a perspective that leans more atheistic or agnostic.
“For those who are mentally ill and/or ND, can you describe 1-3 strategies which have been most helpful in navigating a regular devotional practice with the Queens?”
I stay kind to myself, I work with what I’ve got for that moment and know that another moment will come
Being flexible in what activities I do on a given day
Keeping it simple but regular, and allowing it to evolve as I receive new insights, write new prayers, read new materials, etc - provides balance between routine and novelty
Taking advantage of energy when you have it and being okay with smaller/simpler things when you don’t; being flexible; not having a detailed script, having a general outline that allows novelty and freedom within structure
Making a list of devotional activities and picking a few from the list each day as time and bandwidth allows
Using prayer beads during meditation; allowing stimming or bodily movements while meditating without being self-conscious; doing it early in morning or late at night when my brain isn’t so active about mundane concerns
Guided meditations can provide a sensory grounding for staying better focused
Note: the Coru has another response to a similar question here.
“What have you learned NOT to do with the Morrígan?”
Being discerning between what’s a real limitation I have and what’s me being avoidant or ‘making excuses’ to avoid something uncomfortable — She’ll work with me on the former but won’t tolerate the latter
Asking Her repeatedly for reassurance
Dedicating the pain of a disciplinary martial arts sequence doesn’t mean that She’ll take the pain away
Ignoring Her advice or requests
Staying silent in the face of injustice; ignoring my own intuition; making myself smaller than I am
Taking Her lightly or thinking that I can fool her with my own self-deception; don’t mess around with Her, don’t make excuses
Think of Her as a goddess of sexuality — more accurately, She is a goddess who engages in sexual acts, and that’s not the same thing
Facilitator’s note: there was repeated emphasis on being held personally accountable, not being allowed to avoid uncomfortable but necessary things, and respecting Her and Her presence without also diminishing ourselves.
“How do people perceive the differences between the Queens, if at all? Bonus: did your perception change after taking an oath or completing an initiation?”
Macha feels the closest to humanity in having been married, been pregnant, etc; Morrígan feels like a synthesis of Badb and Macha
My first introduction and focus was with the Morrígan; Anu feels a little more maternal and change-oriented
Started from seeing them as collective but became more individual over time as my work with the Queens deepened
Singularity as multiplicity, most of my interactions have been to/through the Morrígan, admittedly haven’t tried to explore the others as individuals
Metaphorically like trees in a forest: individual, but with intertwined roots
Metaphorically like a hologram where one view creates a whole picture but a sideview creates individual panels; reading the lore and practice helped discern individual voices
Associate Macha with justice; Badb as deliverer of consequences
Associate Macha with justice in a community sense; Badb also as a deliverer of consequences, but also more generally with aftermath, including the bloody battlefields of the slain, as well as accountability in a more personal sense; the Morrígan feels more overtly Otherworldly and like someone associated with Fate; Anu feels to me like the rich, dark soil deep underground filled with mycelium, not ‘maternal’ in the traditional sense but in a “your flesh came from me and eventually it will be mine again” kind of way; I’m still working out how I perceive the others in more detail, e.g. Nemain (dark, shadowed, wind through forest at night), Fea (dark green?), and Bé Neit (blood red, somehow hollow like a crown that can be passed between people? has closer echoes of Cathubodua than the others do, feels more ‘archetypal’ somehow than a differentiated individual)
Facilitator’s note: most attendees reported that the Morrígan specifically was their first introduction to the Queens, and multiple people shared that the other Queens starting feeling more individualistic over time, as their relationship with the Queens deepened. Oaths and initiations, in and of themselves, did not seem to play a major part in how they perceived the Queens’ differences, but rather putting in the effort over time to get to know Them.
Also, please remember that the descriptions above are UPG and arguably some SPG, and they should not be taken as historically evidenced certainties. Practitioners can and do have different impressions of the Queens, collectively and individually.
“How do you determine if you’re hearing the Morrígan versus another entity or even just your own internal voice? What characteristics help you identify her?”
Moment of brief, distinct statement; hard to describe someone else’s voice in your head, but Hers don’t sound like anyone else’s in there; hard to know it’s Her specifically (as opposed to another entity), I just know it’s not me
Learning to trust myself even when I doubt my intuition, at some point you just have to take that leap of faith since She’s never going to physically appear and tell you things
I lean more on finding synchronicities between Her and my life, I’m less likely to think it’s a god talking to me without those additional synchronicities; Badb and Morrígan’s voices tend to be no-nonsense, sometimes correcting my impulsive thoughts
Oracle training has helped a lot; Their voices tend to appear most when I’m in a focused space (as opposed to randomly throughout the day)
Sometimes I find Her voice similar with other goddesses who carry similar energies, but She’s more closely tied to land
The Morrígan is so different from my own personality/characteristics that it makes it easier to perceive when something is Her and when it’s me, there’s just something about it that isn’t human
The occasional clear, distinct statement just appearing in my thoughts as though it’s the moment after someone physically said it, in a tone that’s strong and firm and maybe a little wry, although these ‘statements’ are pretty rare and usually come with a big life change or process; most of the time Her presence is subtler, a little sharper and darker, more focused and intense, like standing next to a woodstove with a roaring fire but without actually feeling the heat somehow
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Interested in joining us for the next Morrígan Practice Group? Want to submit your own question or topic for discussion? Check out our events page to see what’s coming up next!
