Mythical Arts Practice: The Morrígan’s Tresses
The Mythical Arts
Today, I share a nourishing, enlivening and powerful mythical arts practice with you.
So what do I mean by the ‘mythical arts’?
Well firstly, art can be an embodiment process, an experience of the body. Art is often infused by fios, the Irish word for otherworldly knowledge or wisdom gained through divine inspiration in relationship with the Otherworld, or imbas the light of foresight - but it is brought into form through the body.
Secondly, the mythical arts is any way that we breathe life into our mythology through our creative expression. This could be storytelling, poetry, written word, drawing, painting, crafting, sculpting, song, music, movement, dance, theatre, photography, film-making, herbalism, gardening… I could go on and on.
In fact, for the mythical arts practice I’ll be sharing with you today, I don’t know what category it falls into. Crafting perhaps… it doesn’t matter. The mythical arts is about allowing your fios to flow through you into form. Whatever form looks like to you.
You do not need to be an ‘artist’, you simply need to be your own Bean Feasa, the wise woman or Duine Feasa the wise person who embraces their fios and allows it to flow.
Tresses of the Morrígan
I call this practice ‘The Morrígan’s Tresses’, which came from my leadership programme, the Sovereignty Goddess Incubator. The Morrígan or Morrigan is an embodiment of the dark feminine in the Irish mythical tradition. Creation and death, life-giving, life-taking, are dual aspects of the Great Mother of birth, life, death, and rebirth. As a descendant of this Great Mother energy, the Morrígan is an expression of the darker, necessary aspects of the human experience.
Like the Hindu Goddess Kali, she is a destroyer often destroying what needs to die within ourselves so that we can become more alive. And like the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, she bestows kingship through her strategy, sexual potency, magical shapeshifting and seership as a goddess of sovereignty and war.
In one of her core myths, Cath Maige Tuired, we encounter the Morrígan at a ford in the River Unshin in Co. Sligo. It is Samhain when the veil between worlds is thinnest. The Great Goddess straddles this liminal time with one foot on the river bank to the south, one foot on the bank to the north, her vulva present over the water’s roaring flow. Nine loose tresses fall from her head. It is here that herself and the Dagda, the great god of the Tuatha Dé Danann lie together. So that this place becomes known as the ‘Bed of the Couple', and later, as the ‘Ford of Destruction’ - again fertility and destruction, life and death at play together.
The Number Nine
This image of the Morrígan’s nine loose tresses became a source of fios for me. Thrice the sacred triple, nine is a mystical number in Celtic mythology. The nine tresses of the Morrígan unbraid themselves and flow outwards to other sacred nines:
🌀Nine waves that the Tuatha Dé Danann cast into a storm to stop the Milesians, our human ancestors, from first landing upon Irish shores
🌀Nine hazel trees that drop their hazelnuts into the Well of Segais where salmon swallow them whole and wisdom bubbles. This wisdom is liberated into the land by the Goddess Bóinn, who becomes the River Boyne and similarly, the story of Connla's Well liberated by the Goddess Sinend, the River Shannon
🌀Nine white deer, the symbol of Gobnait, obscure sister saint of Brigid, and her place of resurrection, where she becomes a woman unto herself
🌀Nine generations of birthing pangs that horse goddess Macha with her dying breath spell-casts upon the men of Ulster
🌀Nine Morgens of the Isle of Avalon who were skilled priestesses in astronomy, astrology, mathematics, healing, music, herbal lore, and shapeshifting
I have no doubt there are many more.
Your Nine Braids
And so, you will create your nine tresses of the Morrígan in honour of the Goddess and all of these sacred symbols of nine. You will braid them together with incantation as healing threads. Some say the Morrígan is the mother of Goddess Brigid, and like you would weave a Brigid's cross for protection, here will weave:
Three braids of Gratitude for this journey of life, of your own becoming
Three braids of Desire for your life
Three braids of Reciprocity for the gifts will you bring in service to our world
Femme Se Paignant (Woman Combing Her Hair) by Edgar Degas, 1887-1890
What You Will Need
A stick. I sourced mine from Dún na Rí, King's Court, a beautiful ancient forest in Co. Cavan. I set out with the intention to ask the land for the gift of a stick for this project. I found a lovely mossy one, which I then washed and varnished. You could paint the stick if you desire using acrylic paint so it will last. Or you could purchase a wooden dowel. For me, I love the perfection in the stick's natural winding texture
Three balls of wool or yarn
A strong twine for hanging. I used threaded wire from the local florist
Sacred Steps
Once you have your bits and pieces:
1. Take your ball of wool and cut 27 threads of wool measuring about 60cm in length
2. Repeat for your second ball of wool, then for your third ball of wool
3. Once you have your threads ready, take time to prepare the energy of your space. I got on all fours so my head, heart and womb were level. I began breathing and moving myself into this sacred space. I smudged the threads with the dreaming herb of mugwort
4. Divine each of your bundles of 27 threads into 3 x smaller bundles of nine threads. So if you can imagine, you’ll have three bundles of nine threads for your first ball of wool, three for your second ball of wool, three for your third ball of wool - 9 bundles of 9 threads ready for braiding (stay with me 😍)
5. Then once you are ready, fold your threads in half and loop each of your bundles of nine threads onto your stick. I tied my stick down to keep it still while doing this
6. For each tress, you'll now have 18 threads as they've doubled over
7. What I did then is divide my 18 threads into three bundles of six which I braided together
8. As you go, do not concern yourself with perfection. The Morrígan's tresses are not perfect. This is an embodied experience of creative magic not an exercise to get something 'right'
The Magic Begins
Now the magic begins!
Work intuitively, no need to have everything written out beforehand. Feel into your body and ask yourself:
What are my three Gratitudes?
For each gratitude, thread a braid and invoke out loud your gratitude as you braid. For example, I chanted:
“Máthair, táim buíoch as...”
“Great Mother, I am grateful for...”
If you can, close your eyes as you braid and feel the wool weave through your hands and the sound of your invocation bind the tresses together.
I found myself crying doing this and so I wove my tears into my braids. It felt profoundly moving. Go as you are.
Then once complete, ask:
What are my three Desires?
Continue braiding.
And finally,
What three gifts will I share in service to this world?
We all have gifts to bring. A core tenet of Irish mythology is reciprocity with the Otherworld and so in a way, we have due diligence to share our gifts with the world.
Complete your nine Morrígan tresses. Offer a bow, a nod, a hand on heart, a gesture to the Great Goddess and these sacred symbols of nine. Sit with your braids for a time. It's a moving experience.
And when the time feels right, add your twine or wire and hang your Morrígan's Tresses somewhere you can meet with them regularly. Take your braids in your hand as you walk by, stroke them, tend to them, feel their magic – your magic.
