A queer trans masc’s druidry sideblog (not the RPG kind, though I do love those!). Third Order Druid Priest and Acolyte of the Order of the Morrigan in the RDNA. TERFs, transmedicalists, and other LGBTQ+ exclusionists are not welcome here. 🐦⬛
Just a reminder for the strange blogs beginning to follow me that this Druid stands with the Palestinian people.
I cannot share every single ask this blog receives about GFMs, but I can recommend organizations like Operation Olive Branch, MSF, and Crips for eSims as places to start donating if you haven’t been able to thus far and otherwise struggle deciding where to send support.
Information on training, initiation, and ordination in Reformed Druidry
The Order of Bradán Feasa (OBF) druid training program just launched version 3.0! We've revised some content and added new content. The OBF training program is an interactive free PDF workbook series on Reformed Druidism.
Today Oakdale Grove made pilgrimage and had a somber memorial and deconsecration ritual in Rushford, Minnesota for the 337 year old bur oak that was destroyed in a storm last July. I previously visited this tree in May 2022 and was in awe at its size.
I was lying in the leaf litter today when some moss spoke to me.
"Excuse me, do you know the species of this fallen log beneath me?" asked the moss.
"Hmm. No. Sorry, I'm a little fuzzy on logs," I said.
"What a coincidence," said the moss. "I'm a little fuzzy on logs too."
I’ve needed to renegotiate my geasa for a little while now, and I’ve been putting it off. I haven’t had a lot of energy since I keep getting sick or having major stressors pop up. In general, as is pretty typical leading up to this time of year, I’ve felt distanced or bereft of the Morrigan’s presence in my life. But tonight felt right to connect with her. I was nervous to make this negotiation, as I knew I’d have to make a significant offering of something personal. I’ve been agonizing over it for months, as I haven’t been sure what would be “enough.” The other day, I had an idea to offer up a piece of jewelry that I’ve worn for a couple years. I had the idea while returning from a walk and noticed crows perched on top of my apartment building, who then flew off back across the street as I got nearer. They lingered on the light pole and watched me like a friend making sure I was getting home safe. Despite my nervousness, it was a reassuring experience to invoke Her tonight. Even the headache I’ve been nursing for days seemed to lessen. I made my usual libations, and I gave a little speech about what I needed to renegotiate and why I thought my sacrifice would be fit in exchange. I asked for a sign via my favorite oracle deck, and I even offered that She could make additional requests of me if it was not enough. The response was exceptionally positive, considering the dire symbolism that makes up the majority of the deck. The omen seems to suggest she agrees with my readiness for this renegotiation and that I have her blessings and protection. She simply asked I make some additional offerings to my ancestors and beloved dead. Easily and happily done, and very much in line with some of the work I am preparing to do in Her name. I feel reassured and renewed in my path. I will find a safe votive spot for my sacrifice so that another may enjoy it, since it has served its purpose with me.
Cemeteries are not wastes of space. Historical cemeteries ESPECIALLY are not wastes of space. The fact developers are continuously foaming at the mouth to destroy them and put a strip mall up in their place should make you even more determined to help maintain them. In urban areas, they are a haven for wildlife. They are a green space. If you are too afraid of death to utilize them for that purpose, that is on you.
I went on my first date in three years. I took time away from the dating scene for a number of reasons, including to do a lot of personal work on my own and in therapy. I even took an oath/set of geis to empower myself to live more confidently. I’ve been doing some spiritual work, too, trying to draw in energies that align with the life I’m trying to live. I’d say the date went really well. The second date’s already scheduled, too. He was even eager to attend the Grove’s solstice ritual today before our date, to which I invited him and which he accepted since his other solstice plans fell through. He seems to have made a good initial impression on my grovemates, and I think he’ll have a lot to connect with them about in future hangouts and rituals. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, which is also part of the work I’m doing for myself. Even if this connection doesn’t go anywhere romantically, I think he will make a valuable friend and creative collaborator, which is what the tarot reading I did also said in the weeks leading up to this date. I am trying to break behaviors that have done me more harm than good and letting my focus be the joy that my meeting him is bringing me, for which I am most grateful. The universe has never given me anything for free. I must put in the work to create the future I want. Nothing without effort. Tada gan iarracht.
Sometimes it’s hard to read fanfic when you’re studying herbalism.. when they have the character preparing a tincture to use that same DAY!!?
Baby those dried herbs need to sit in that jar with high proof alcohol for at LEAST a month!
That’s why before the use of calendars ppl use to prepare their tinctures either on the new moon or full moon. A a full moon cycle is usually 28 days or so. And they would give the moon names so it’s easier to remember when/what month said tincture was bottled.
This is also why herbal medicine is prepare in small batches. You have to take your time preparing your bottles. Making sure everything is clean so you don’t end up with mold. Diluting your grain alcohol. Heckkk knowing when to pick your herbs for max potency! Drying your herbs! That takes a lot of time too!
Y'all this is a tree farm. You harvest trees from a place like this so that actual forests get left alone. This is the far side of some redneck's lot, not wilderness. It's not supposed to look natural. There's no need to be scared.
There ARE monoculture forests, they are in England and were the first attempt to re-forest a decimated area in the 19th century(!). They are trying! They are people trying to restore the environment! You gotta do it badly before you learn how to do it well.
Ok, I'm gonna try to be nice about this, but "tree farms" are not neutral entities exempt from criticism and they certainly don't exist so that "actual forests get left alone." Maybe in some parts of the world that's true, but I'm actually looking into this (and already did to a certain extent for my Master's thesis) and it's so incredibly, incredibly insidiously incorrect. It's like saying 'this palm oil plantation is a good thing actually because look, they're also trees!' or 'this 1000-acre plot where we exclusively grow corn is fine because corn is a plant!'
Let's start with the basic principle of an ecological system: diversity = resilience = a healthy system. This is as true in a desert or Boreal forest as it is in a tropical rainforest or coral reef. Plantations, by definition, are devoid of diversity. They are monocultures - in the case of tree plantations, sometimes duo- or tricultures - and that's where the diversity ends. The basic reason why a palm oil plantation or a corn monoculture is bad is because they convert healthy, diverse (social-)ecological systems into ecological dead zones. Tree plantations - even the ones with two or three tree species - do this too. Animals don't live in these plantations. A few, maybe - the tough ones. Same goes for the fungi that have symbiotic relationships with species not selected for the plantation. Same goes for soil microbes that need a rich diversity of plant and animal matter to thrive.
I'm going to tell you an anecdote, because this is what really drove the point home for me.
In February of 2021, I was riding in a truck with a Sámi reindeer herder and activist. It was around 8 AM on my second day of fieldwork for my Master's degree (in sustainability), and we were heading up the hill to go feed the reindeer. At that time of year, the roads are paved with ice and all of the trees bowed under the weight of a good meter of snow. As we made our way up the logging access road (the only roads in the region are owned and maintained by the state logging company), I asked him a question. I don't remember specifically what the question was, but I used the word "forest."
"I'm gonna stop you there," he said. "These aren't forests. This is just... trees. There's nothing here that makes it a forest. Nothing for the reindeer."
I asked if he could elaborate. Bear in mind - we're out west of fucking nowhere south of the Arctic Circle. The closest grocery store was an hour and a half drive away, the closest train station twice that. It's the sort of place you can easily romanticize - a kind of reindeer wonderland, where humans and nature still share a bond.
So he elaborated. He told me about the logging industry in Sweden - how all of the trees are Scots pine (a very profitable timber tree) interspersed with a species of spruce. That's more or less it. In the entire country. How in the early 20th century, colonists started planting lodgepole pine - a fast-growing North American variety unsuited to the climate but very profitable for the pulp and paper industry - and planted so densely that it's deadly to anything with antlers and much-loved by predators for that same reason.
And he told me how in Sweden, there is no old-growth or primary forest left - or so little that it's barely worth mentioning. How it's all artificial - replanted since the 1920s or so strictly managed that nothing but Scots pine, spruce, and the occasional birch is allowed to grow, because anything else would cut into profit margins. How the trees are not allowed to mature, because they're cut down as soon as they reach 70-80 years old (when they could live for centuries if left alone). How the reindeer suffer, because young woodland can't produce the lichen reindeer need to survive the winter - so the reindeer herders (all of whom are Indigenous Sámi) spend hundreds of thousands of SEK each year (equivalent to tens of thousands of Euros) on grain to keep them alive. How entire ecosystems - from mycelial networks and soil microbes all the way to moose and bears - have been degraded and hollowed out by the inability of diversity to take hold. How the relationship between the Sámi and their whole social-ecological community suffers as a result.
This is the whole of Sweden, as much as the logging industry likes to paint itself as "green." These ecological dead zones aren't separate from "actual forest" - they are what the country has instead.
And that's just Sweden. While details are different - exact proportions of planted and primary forest, forestry methods, etc. - the story is the same in most of Europe. France and Germany are some of the worst culprits, but Switzerland doesn't get a pass. Go into any woodland in Europe and marvel at the unnatural stillness - the lack of biodiversity that comes from cutting down all the trees every human lifetime or so. And consider that the reason why these woodlands have the ecological integrity of a haphazardly maintained lawn is because they are all maintained like a lawn.
And that's just Europe.
So next time you want to fantasize about how tree planting is some sort of morally neutral endeavor meant to protect "real" forest and that ecological integrity isn't necessary in these plantations, consider what would happen if this was the only type of forest that existed. And sit with that knot in your stomach when you remember that in some places, that's the apocalyptic reality.
I’ve seen other posts of a similar nature, so why not make my own?
These songs don’t necessarily “go” together. I describe myself as “poly-jamorous,” meaning I can mix-and-match genres without experiencing musical whiplash. Most of them are also covers, which isn’t the kind of music I usually enjoy, but I think it’s fitting for songs I might associate with the Morrigan’s transformative nature.
I do not presume to know what music the Morrigan likes (and any such claims are UPG of which one should remain critical), but here are a few pieces that speak to the ways I see her, the relationship I cultivate with her, and the lessons she’s taught me thus far.
Content warnings for the music: themes of death, war, addiction, and self-harm
“Day Tripper Medley” - Type O Negative
“Got your number on my wall / And maybe you will get a call from me / If I needed someone”
I am firmly a Beatles hater, but Type O really knocked it outta the park with this medley of covers of “Day Tripper,” “If I Needed Someone,” and “I Want You.
Not only is there a chorus of crows in the cover’s bridges, but I think the song speaks to the wild, independent, and alluring nature of the Morrigan. She comes and goes as she pleases, but she will call on me if I am needed.
“Nite Flights” by David Bowie
“Be my love, we will be gods on nite flights”
A cover of the Walker Brothers’ song, which seems happier(?) in Bowie’s style, but no less referencing a form of extra-judicial murder. The song seems to be from the perspective of lovers facing their last moments together without fear. I am, unsurprisingly for a Morrigan devotee, drawn to dark subject matters. Remaining conscious of the horrors man can commit as well as the courage we can embody are important in working with the Morrigan.
“Don’t Let It Bring You Down” by Annie Lennox
“It’s only castles burning”
Another not-so-happy cover, this time of Neil Young’s work. The song references the death of a blind man that goes unnoticed by all but the passerby in the song. Also deals with themes of addiction. I like the interpretation of the castles referenced in the lyrics pointing to the major arcana tarot card, which symbolizes destruction as part of transformation — the kind of influence with which devotees of the Morrigan may be very familiar.
“Glorious” by Muse
“Faith: It drives me away / Yet it turns me on / Like a stranger’s love”
Finally, an original song! Probably one of my most favorite songs of all time that only became more important to me in my time with the Morrigan. I don’t have the same religious trauma that most of my friends do, but I have a very strong distrust of people who claim faith in gods, particularly Christianity. I consider myself an atheist, or at the very least an agnostic. I find faith as a concept intriguing, but something that disgusts and disappoints me, too. I resisted associating myself with any deity for a long while before coming to the Morrigan. My work with the Morrigan, even as an atheist, pushes me to suspend disbelief, to release control, and to put trust in the Great Queen at times.
“Magic and Loss” by Lou Reed
“There’s a bit of magic in everything / And then some loss to even things out”
A song that hits me in new ways every time I listen to it. I think it’s the only song that not only understands what grief is and feels like to a creative person, but offers wisdom for moving through it. I’ve come a long way through my grief and pain since devoting myself to the Morrigan, and I’ve experienced new kinds of loss since then. The work I do for myself and in the Morrigan’s name have taught me a great deal about myself and my strength. I have always known myself to be resilient, but the Morrigan helped me prove to myself I am capable of healing, too.
I have a few others on my list, but these are the main ones that I come back to many times over. Maybe I’ll share more in the future. I’d love to hear other songs that people associate with the Morrigan.
I finally had a dream about Blue Jean last night. I’d only had dreams about Nellie ‘til now, but she showed up and I got to pet her for a while. I carry a lot of guilt surrounding the circumstances of her passing, and the dream of her felt like her saying, “I’m still around. Don’t worry about me.”
