Feast of the Morrighan

by Christopher Penczak

Author Christopher Penczak (Gates of Witchcraft and others) presents a modern grimoire for the Morrighan, introducing readers to this fierce Celtic goddess in her many forms and guises, and providing lore, guided meditations, magickal workings, and formularies for your own work with the Morrighan.

Genres: Paganism, Witchcraft, Wicca, Spirituality, Magick

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Christopher Penczak is a Witch, teacher, writer and healing practitioner. His practice draws upon the foundation of both modern and traditional Witchcraft blended with the wisdom of mystical traditions from across the globe as a practitioner and teacher of shamanism, tarot, Reiki healing, herbalism, astrology and Qabalah. He is the founder of the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and system of magickal training based upon the material of his books and classes. He is an ordained minister primarily serving the New Hampshire and Massachusetts pagan and metaphysical communities through public rituals, private counsel and teaching, though he travels extensively teaching throughout the United States.

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on May 10, 1973, Christopher was raised in an Italian/Polish family while living in Salem, NH. After twelve years of Catholic school and becoming an avowed agnostic, he initially pursued an interest in chemistry, stemming from a childhood fascination with alchemy and herbalism. As a youth, he had an out of body experience, passing out in a fourth grade science class, but observing the whole scene in spirit, from above the room. While in high school, he was visited by an apparition of his recently deceased great aunt. These two experiences made him question his dedication to science and pursue a study of the mystical and occult, as well as his artistic pursuits. He attended the University of Massachusetts as a vocal major, earning a Bachelor of Music Performance/Music Business in 1995 and set his sights on becoming a full time performer. While studying classical voice, he founded a band called Doctor Soulshine that fused mystical imagery and shamanic concepts to traditional heavy rock music.

While in college, a long time friend and teacher introduced Christopher to the principles of witchcraft, meditation, tarot and spell work. At first he was skeptical, but his experience with a healing spell at a full Moon ritual was enough to convince him that there was truth to these ideas and he sought to understand more. He took classes with Laurie Cabot, in her Cabot Tradition with an emphasis on Witchcraft As A Science. He was fascinated with the science and philosophy of her teaching, grounding witchcraft in sound thinking and personal experience. A psychic healing experience left him with a sense of empowerment and spiritual connection. After this initial training, he studied with an assortment of witches, shamans, yogis, psychic readers and healers in the New England area, developing an eclectic path of personal witchcraft. He later focused on the healing arts, completing training as a Reiki Master (Teacher) in the Usui-Tibetan and Shamballa traditions and certification as a flower essence consultant and herbalist.

After graduation from college, Christopher began work at the A&R department of Fort Apache, a recording studio and record label in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He soon found himself leading meditations and ritual groups for friends seeking to know more about the Craft. During his time in the Boston area, Christopher experimented with the ideas he later wrote about in his book City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells and Shamanism. The initial ritual group formed the nucleus of the first Temple of Witchcraft series.

Although having no real interest in teaching formally, Christopher received a message during a meditation in 1998 to start teaching more and begin writing. Thinking it was his imagination, Christopher ignored it, saying to himself and the universe, “I’m too busy with my music career. If you want me to teach, give me the time.” The next week he was laid off from his job and had plenty of time. Although with a booming economy and many job opportunities, Christopher had no luck finding a position in the music industry, or a more traditional office job. When he posted a few flyers about meditation and witchcraft classes at a local shop, the response was immediate and he began teaching cla

Reviews

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good start on finding information on the goddess Morrighan. Highly Wiccan though.

[Steve Cran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lately there has been more information available on the Morrigan. Like Ishtar or Inanna she is a goddess of love and war. Similar to Hekate or Isis she is Goddess of magic. "Guises of the Morrigan" by Sorita D'Este and David Rankine a source for this tome and one which I have read, give the reader a full dose of legend and lore concerning the Morrigan. For the price available it makes a great read and supplement the work I am reviewing. Another book "Dark Goddess" goes more into spell craft and also cover lore and legend. This treatment covers the lore and legend but not as deeply as the other two. It sticks mostly with the 'Invasion Chronicles' and Morrigan's roles within it.

Most of Celtic Lore was lost with the Christianization of the Celtic Lands. The Morrigan seems to be lurking their in the shadows but never taking a direct role in affairs. Usually her role is on the side line using magic to confound the enemy. She is also a teacher instructing the would be warrior on how best to succeed on life's battlefield. Morrigan is the Goddess who stand s behind you, godes you into battle and tests and torments you at times because that is part of the learning process.

Penczak's book does not go into spell craft. There are no spells for love, money or miracles. The author is taking a more Theurgic approach and is giving over a paradigm that is geared towards self evolution. Besides delving into Celtic lore, Penczak gives a Hermetic interpretation to the Morrigan and his book is filled with Shamanistic exercises that call for interaction with plant and animal allies. Certain exercises call on different aspects of the Morrigan. Christopher Penczak focuses primarily on three, Badb,Macha and Nemain.

Big question is whether Badb,Macha and Nemain are three different Goddess or three aspects of the same. Badb is a crow goddess who eats the remains of the dead after a battle is completed. She is very opportunistic and goal oriented. Macha is the horse goddess. She has five different incarnations in Celtic mythology. She is a seer of the future,queen, faery woman and sorceress. Nemain is the Goddess who's screams kill the enemy on the battle field. During the Battle of Moytura all three of these Goddess or aspects defeat the Fir Bolgs with magic.

Identities are seldom well defined. Sometimes the Morrigan is conflated with the Caileach, the old crone who creates the world and grants sovereignty. Others she is identified with Danu (anu) the mother goddess. Are these all the same Goddess or different ones. It can be confusing. The Morrigan has Dagda make love to her by a river before going to battle against the Fomirians. This gives him in away the right to be king and win the battle. Cuhulain spurned her advances before the Cattle Raid of Cooley. This caused the Morigan to turn against Cuhulain and in a sense withdraw her blessing from him.

The book lists several animal and plants that can be associated with the Morrigan. Animals like the Wolf, Crow, Cow, Eel are a few. Mr. Penczak also uses the Kabballah and planetary influences to help define this difficult to define Goddess. From there the reader is giving a plenitude of recipes for oils and incenses. The book has several path workings and rituals scattered through out. Many of the meditation involve going through the the world tree, some have you going through the river of life. The meditations involve interacting with aspect of the Goddess,animal allies, the god, becoming a lover t the goddess herself and connecting to the world and it's creations.

This book makes a fine edition for this seeking to work with and become acquainted with the Morrigan. It is not the only one you will read but makes a great companion for the other two mentioned previously.

[Edric Unsane · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good deal of relevant info mixed with pagan nonsense and conjecture. I honestly get a bit frustrated when Author's mix in real knowledge and facts with a whole lot of fluff. I get that it is what sells, but damn if it isn't discouraging to those in the community who are looking for something a bit more uniform and enlightening.

[J.W. Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful book with lots of knowledge on the Morrigan and all of her greatness.

[William Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

An excellent work on a much misunderstood power. I would recommend reading 'Guises of the Morrigan' by David Rankine and Sorita d'Este before it or at least some of the primary texts of Irish mythology if you are not familiar first. But even without that preparation the author does an excellent job explaining the background of his topic. Again, excellent work!

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A decent reference on legends, more of a ritual context with lots of outline suggestions, rituals, meditations, and incense/oil recipes. I was more interested in the lore, so the spell and concoction portions are a bit useless to me.

[Raven Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great resource for neopagans looking to deepen their connection with the Morrighan. It is mostly focused on myths and connecting various names (or other deities) to the Morrighan, it may be helpful to a number of people. The recipes and rituals are interesting, I do find it a bit disappointing that the author couldn’t be bothered to include the full wheel of the year. I’m not huge into this mythology and found myself lost as he switched between various stories. The overall myth telling was more of a summary than an actual telling of the myths for someone who doesn’t know them. Definitely have some background knowledge of the Irish, Welsh, and Celtic myths before picking this one up.

[R.M. Watters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book. The author had a lot more details regarding her many forms and introduced a few new ones. However, I was looking for more information to use in my practice in working with this goddess and found that 90% of this book was discussing the myths. I would recommend it to people interested in her myths.

[Vyviane Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is pretty bad. Lots of misinformation, gnosis presented as facts and much of the "facts" were clearly just pulled from internet websites with no fact checking.