Goddess of the Week: Morrigan

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Love and beauty are all good and fine, but sometimes you want to go a little goth. When that happens, the goddess for you is Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of battle, strife and fertility.

When Cuchulainn fought Queen Medb's army, Morrigan was so entranced by the Ulster hero's great hair and his sexy derring-do that she offered him her love. Like many a hero before him, unfortunately, Cuchulainn did not know a good thing when he saw it and he rebuffed Morrigan, thinking her some common trollop. Then, just to make sure she got the point, he went and stabbed her. But that's heroes for you. Give a guy a dimpled chin and a way with a sword and he thinks he owns the world.

What could Morrigan do? She a had reputation as a kick ass goddess to protect! She had to seal his fate. And his fate was death.

Cuchulainn goes down to a ford in the river where he finds this old washer woman. She says to him, "I'm washing Cuchulainn's battle clothes." Turns out, a washer woman at a ford is a total symbol of imminent death! And everybody even knows that Morrigan assumes the figure of a washer woman at a ford when she chooses who will die in battle. So if a washer woman at a ford says she's washing your clothes, you're totally doomed.

Cuchulainn, however, is clueless. He's all, "Oh, well, thanks. Make sure you get the mud out." Which is making me think that while Cuchulainn may have known his way around a sword, he was using his head more as a boulder than a quick-thinking stratagem tool.

So Cuchulainn goes to battle. And he's fighting and killing and maiming, and he's doing all the things he loves, and he's feeling really good about things, when some warrior guy impales him. Morrigan, who has transfigured herself into a crow, which she often did, and has been watching the whole scene, lands on Cuchulainn's shoulder. She's giving him the evil crow eye, telling him how he totally blew it, and he's dying and moaning and gurgling up blood, and he sees this crow -- and he still doesn't know who the hell it is. He still doesn't know that he lost his chance to win -- to live -- the moment he rejected Morrigan. Cause all is fair in love and war, and if you're a warrior and you don't even recognize your own goddess, you totally don't deserve her protection.

Channel this goddess: When it's no more Mr. Nice Guy time, when people are always expecting you to step in and fight their battles and they give you nothing in return, when you need to find your inner tough girl and you need to kick some butt. Or when it's time for laundry!

Mandie: Here is your goddess. Hope you approve.

Need a goddess: Tell me your need or even a goddess you'd like featured. I can't wait to hear from you.