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<\/a>Morpheus Ravenna is a priest, spirit worker, artist, and initiate of the Anderson Feri tradition of Witchcraft. Her primary spiritual practice is her dedication to the Morr\u00edgan, a devotional practice of about twenty years. Her interests include folk magical traditions, devotional art, and Celtic heroic spirituality.\u00a0 She writes the Shieldmaiden Blog<\/a> and she is known in her community for her service as a priest of the Morr\u00edgan, in addition to spearheading the Coru Cathubodua Priesthood<\/a>. She can be reached through her website at http:\/\/bansheearts.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morpheus is fundraising to publish The Book of the Great Queen<\/a><\/em>, a book that\u2019s long been needed, exploring the mysteries of the Morr\u00edgan, the ancient Celtic Goddess of battle, sovereignty, prophecy, and Otherworld power, combining the depth of historical perspective with the insights of a modern practicing devotional polytheist.<\/p>\n The fundraising page, with details, pictures, and backer rewards can be found at http:\/\/bookofthegreatqueen.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n John:\u00a0 What was your religious life like growing up?\u00a0 Looking back, were there any hints that you\u2019d end up doing what you\u2019re doing?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Morpheus Ravenna:\u00a0 I was raised by an agnostic father with a love for nature and transcendentalist philosophy, and a highly religious mother who practices a tradition based in Hinduism. I learned meditation and yogic practices fairly young, and my first religious experiences were with Indian deities such as Krishna and Durga. We would go to devotional services where chanting, meditation, and offerings were given as devotion. I think that having an awareness from a young age of the concept of bhakti and what it means to be in a devotional relationship with deities certainly affected my growth into Pagan practice. When I began to discover my instincts for witchcraft and to experiment with Pagan practice as a teenager, my early experiences there were very ecstatic, and that focus on devotional communion is what drew me to the Feri tradition as well.<\/p>\n You\u2019re a Feri initiate \u2013 how did your Feri training help you prepare for your work as a priest?<\/strong><\/p>\n Feri itself is priest training \u2013 at least the way it is practiced in my lineage. It\u2019s understood that direct devotional relationship is the core of the practice and that every initiate becomes a priest, in the sense of priesthood as service to the Gods. The coven I was trained in provided this very intimate, safe container in which I was able to learn the practices of devotion, invocation, and possession. Those things have been key to my work as a priest of the Morr\u00edgan.<\/p>\n When did you first meet the Morr\u00edgan?\u00a0 What was your initial impression of Her?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was introduced to Her in ritual with my teachers in the Feri coven, around the age of 18 or 19. My early feeling for Her was one of awe, and a sort of indescribable mix of beauty and terror, like falling in love. I think She impacted me so much partly because Her presence was just so strong \u2013 I remember feeling like maybe I\u2019d never met a God before, because Her presence was ovewhelming and put all the other experiences I\u2019d had with deities into the shade. There was also a profound feeling of recognition.<\/p>\n When did you realize you were going to be more than an casual devotee of Her?\u00a0 How did you respond to that realization?<\/strong><\/p>\n The coven had a regular and established devotional relationship with Her, and it was part of my work in the coven to do those devotions and to study Her. So it wasn\u2019t really a choice for me \u2013 or rather, it was inherently part of my choice to work within that lineage.<\/p>\n I actually had a hard time with it at first. At the time, I had very pacifistic ideals and was against the idea of war and violence. I didn\u2019t see anything of value in them. So as I began to study Her and learned about Her associations with battle and carnage and violence, I was actually really disturbed by that and had kind of this moral crisis where I was asking myself \u201cWhat am I worshiping? Am I perpetuating something terrible by worshiping this deity?\u201d<\/p>\n I had to go into a series of deep dialogues with Her in my devotions, questioning and exploring this conflict. I asked Her to help me understand. And She did. Those dialogues really shaped who I\u2019ve become.<\/p>\n You were featured in the documentary film American Mystic<\/em>.\u00a0 What impact has that film had on your spiritual life and religious work?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Working on the film was this big leap of faith for us. We didn\u2019t let her film much in ritual, but our life outside of that was pretty much an open book. It could have been a big disaster if she\u2019d been seeking to put some kind of slant on our story. It ends up being a lesson in trusting your instincts, because the film turned out to be beautiful and honest and I feel like it really does capture a picture of what life was like at Stone City, and Alex and I are good friends now and continuing to collaborate.<\/p>\n And of course, it\u2019s a snapshot, and almost everything in my life has changed since that time. I\u2019m no longer in that marriage or living at Stone City. I\u2019m glad I did that film, but I often hope people realize that it only reflects a particular moment in my life that\u2019s now six years ago.<\/p>\n What are your most helpful spiritual practices?\u00a0 What do you do that keeps you grounded and keeps you doing the work you\u2019re called to do day in and day out?<\/strong><\/p>\n Daily meditation and offerings are the core of my practice. I do simple offerings to the Morr\u00edgan, and an inner practice that is partly based on Feri soul alignment, and partly inspired by the Druidic \u201cthree cauldrons\u201d lore, and I meditate.\u00a0 When I\u2019m in the flow of that practice and really doing it daily is when I can hear my spiritual guidance most clearly. It is really critical when\u00a0 you are in any kind of public leadership position to be solid in your spiritual practice. That\u2019s a daily opportunity for course correction, for fresh insight, and it also renews your energy to be able to keep doing the work.<\/p>\n I also practice a martial art as part of my devotions, because it\u2019s something She requires of me. So I keep myself in physical shape and I get in armor and fight. I also have a commitment to deeper devotional work on a regular basis, monthly and seasonally.<\/p>\n How do you see priesthood, particularly as it\u2019s expressed in your role as Priest of the Morr\u00edgan?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n I think priesthood is more than just devotion to a deity. As a priest, your devotional practice must serve someone other than just yourself. If your devotional practice is primarily about deepening your own personal connection, and\/or getting personal guidance from the deity for your own path, that\u2019s not priesthood. That\u2019s just being a devotee. Priesthood means your devotional practice is serving the needs and agenda of the deity, and of the community of devotees. It is fundamentally a service role. If you can\u2019t clearly identify who benefits from\u00a0 your practice and how, then it\u2019s not priesthood.<\/p>\n Founding the Priesthood has enabled a number of important things: for one, it provides a cadre of people to share the work of responding to the many, many emails asking for help and guidance in working with the Morr\u00edgan. Having a cadre of priests who share a common dedication to devotional practice and honing of skills also provides a stronger lens within which any one priest\u2019s insights and guidance can be checked, clarified and amplified by the insights and guidance that others are receiving. That\u2019s incredibly valuable to me. It has allowed us to gain a much clearer sense of what the Morr\u00edgan wants from Her dedicants, where She is moving, how She wants us to respond to the times we are living in.<\/p>\n The Coru Priesthood is part of a phenomenon of dedicated priesthoods starting to reappear \u2013 something we have seen little of since ancient times, and that I think is a really important development in modern Paganism. It represents a developing peer group, a collegiate culture which I think will raise the bar for modern priesthood and benefit everyone. Sam Webster<\/a> has written some about this in his blog, and he\u2019s been a very supportive peer and mentor for me and for the Coru Priesthood.<\/p>\n You aren\u2019t a professional academic, but you do a considerable amount of scholarly research.\u00a0 What complications have you run into as an independent scholar?\u00a0 What advantages do you have over a professional academic?<\/strong><\/p>\n The scholarship aspect of my work has certainly had its challenges. I\u2019ve run up against the limitation of access to academic materials. Some of this can be overcome with help from friends who work at universities; some of it can be dealt with by just paying for subscription access and rare books. The campaign will hopefully help with that.<\/p>\n Another part of it is just the time investment. I\u2019m not a professional academic \u2013 I\u2019m an independent artist subsisting on three different jobs, so the time commitment has been hard. But I\u2019m nearly done with the research, so the project is picking up its own speed, and the campaign will also help by funding the dedicated time I need to finish the project.<\/p>\n I do have the advantage of being a lifelong nerd. I\u2019ve always been the kind of reader who keeps one finger in the end-notes pages, and looks at all the references. While I don\u2019t have a degree in Celtic studies, I did get a University of California education and it taught me how to read critically, how to check sources and evaluate arguments, and how to use academic research tools. And I\u2019ve been soaking my head in my topic for years before I made the commitment to write the book.<\/p>\n I also think that as a ritualist I bring something extra to the research that is not as often seen in academia. I can look at a text and see the veiled references to ritual, and as someone who isn\u2019t writing for academia, I can stick my neck out a little more \u2013 I can gather these clues and work with them in a more experiential way. I like to be really clear about the difference between intuitive and research-based information, but I definitely make use of both.<\/p>\n How do you balance historical research with personal gnosis in your practice?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n In my personal practice, it\u2019s a synthesis of both. I\u2019m kind of voracious about studying ancient cultures, but my practice is very much inspired by my personal relationship with the Gods and by what comes alive for me.\u00a0 What comes alive for me tends to be elements of ritual that hearken to something ancient, but in the process of coming alive in my own modern practice, I recognize that there are ways we are changing them fundamentally. I also think that since we have virtually zero first-hand information about Celtic religious practice, the idea of reviving or reconstructing an ancient practice is very iffy to me.<\/p>\n Are there elements of ancient practice that are irreconcilable for me? Sure\u2026 like the Celtic cult of the head. I\u2019m not likely to be drinking from the skull of an adversary, or displaying severed heads on the gates of my temple. Other offerings make more sense for us now.<\/p>\n Another example of a conflict is funerary ritual. Excarnation (exposure of the body to carrion birds) is a rite I\u2019m drawn to, both based on historical tradition and my own feelings, but it\u2019s illegal almost everywhere.<\/p>\n What made you realize you needed to write a book on the Morr\u00edgan?\u00a0 What made you decide \u2013 or agree \u2013 to do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have been doing the research on the Morr\u00edgan and Celtic traditions for years just to better inform my own practice and the people I work closely with.\u00a0 At some point I had this realization that there\u2019s a huge divide between the quality of information that exists in academic-type sources, and the quality of information that\u2019s been presented to Pagans in popular literature on the subject \u2013 most of which is written from a Wiccan viewpoint.\u00a0 One of the most common questions I get is \u201cWhat book should I read to learn about the Morr\u00edgan?\u201d When I realized that the book I really wanted to recommend to them didn\u2019t exist yet, I recognized that I was going to have to write it.<\/p>\n I decided to take it on a year or two ago, and was kind of gradually picking away at it in my spare time. Then this March the Morr\u00edgan grabbed me during devotional practice and laid a n\u00f3inden<\/a> on me to get it done by the end of the year. So at that point there really was no question.<\/p>\n My intention for the book is to bridge the gap between what scholars know of Her and what modern Pagans have had access to. So I hope to bring forth the depth of the scholarly perspective, in a way that\u2019s accessible and inspiring and of use to modern practitioners.<\/p>\n I\u2019m including an in-depth examination of Her various names, epiphanies, and aspects; the major relationships and stories in which She acts, and a whole chapter on Her own poetry and what She tells us in Her own words. I\u2019m looking at what we can glean from ancient Celtic religion that sheds light on how She was understood and worshipped; information about sacrifice, seasonal rites, oracular and divinatory practices; weapon and warrior cultus; sorcery and magical practice; relationship to Druidic priesthood and sovereignty systems; land veneration and sacred sites; and lots more.<\/p>\n And then I\u2019ll be sharing insights about how modern practitioners can develop a devotional practice with Her, both informed by the past and inspired by who She is today.<\/p>\n Who are you writing for?\u00a0 How do you hope they\u2019ll use the book?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m writing for anyone who is interested in the Morr\u00edgan, be they Pagans or just interested in Celtic traditions. I think that the people who will benefit most from my work are Pagans and polytheists of various sorts. Some people will benefit from the scholarship aspect of it, maybe bringing them a deeper knowledge than they had before of where She comes from. Others who might already have a lot of scholarship under their belt may benefit more from the devotional practice aspect of the book, where I can bring them something from my experience as a ritualist and priest that can help deepen their practice.<\/p>\n Talk about the process by which this book is becoming a reality. <\/strong><\/p>\n Right now I\u2019m finishing the research component and shifting my attention more fully into writing the text. Since I got my \u201cmarching orders\u201d earlier this year, I\u2019ve been dedicating a certain number of hours each week to working on the book \u2013 but to finish it on time for the timeline She set me and for my publication schedule with Concrescent Press, I need to increase the time I can dedicate each week. So the IndieGoGo campaign is about funding that \u2013 it will allow me to quit one of my part-time jobs and dedicate that additional time to writing, and it will cover up-front publication costs to go from manuscript to print.<\/p>\n<\/a>You founded the Coru Cathubodua as a Priesthood of the Morr\u00edgan.\u00a0 What have you been able to do in a dedicated priesthood that you couldn\u2019t have done individually or by working informally with others?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Tell us a little about what the book is going to be.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n