Caw with her crow, wash the blood from your clothes, only she knows the season which calls the trees home to grow. Let her sit over your home, hearth and heritage; shapeshifting Goddess of dread to your foes.
The Morrigan or Phantom Queen, is a powerful deity in Irish mythology associated with war, fate and sovereignty. She embodies the duality of life and death, often appearing at the edges of battlefields as an omen of death, but also representing renewal and transformation.
With this sculpture, I drew on the notion of the Morrigan as a shapeshifter, a symbol of adaptability and change. In mythology, she is often depicted as transforming into a crow or other animals. This ability to change form reflects a deeper message about power – those who are capable of transformation can survive and thrive in uncertain or dangerous times. I have always loved emperor moths, which are native to the UK and Ireland. I decided to place one on her chest as a symbol of metamorphosis. Just as the Morrigan can change her shape, we, too, must be adaptable to survive life’s battles.
The globe at her feet symbolises the world she oversees and the cycles of life and death she governs. The Morrigan, in her dual role as protector of the home and a harbinger of death, illustrates the tension between security and danger. She is a figure who can bring dread to her foes but is also the guardian of hearth, home and heritage.
The Morrigan guards, but she does so with the awareness that to preserve, sometimes things must be destroyed. The Morrigan doesn’t just bring chaos; she understands the necessity of change, the ebb and flow of life. This is reflection of the human condition, in which we all experience periods of growth and destruction, both on personal and collective levels.
As a powerful female deity, the Morrigan represents a form of feminine strength that has the potential to both nurture and destroy. The Morrigan’s role as a goddess of sovereignty also ties her to leadership, independence, and the ability to command and govern forces beyond herself.
The Morrigan invites contemplation on the nature of power, transformation, and the cyclical forces that govern existence. She suggests that life is a constant interplay of creation and destruction, and that true wisdom lies in understanding and embracing these forces rather than fearing them, for within every hardship or battle, there is the potential for renewal and growth; provided we are willing to transform and adapt, just as she does.
