Lux Esoterica (Nifiluz)

Cú Chulainn in Battle — J.C. Leyendecker, 1911. Over the great hero of the Ulster Cycle, the crow wheels: the Morrígan is present at every battle, in the air above it, watching, predicting, sometimes helping and sometimes hindering, always the sign that something of decisive consequence is happening below. Before the battle, there is a woman washing. She stands at the ford — the river crossing that in Irish mythology is always the threshold between one state and another — washing the clothes and armor of men who have not yet died. The clothes she washes are those of whoever approaches the ford. If she is washing your garments, she has already seen the outcome of what you are about to do. The washing is not a prediction; it is a confirmation. She already knows. This is the Morrígan — the "Great Queen" or "Phantom Queen" (Irish Mór-ríoghain , etymologically debated but consistently associated with greatness, sovereignty, and the supernatural) — one of the most ...