Christopher Penczak explores the mysteries of the Morrighan through the history and lore associated with the fierce Celtic goddess and offers rituals and formulas for working with her.

"The Morrigan is Pagan Ireland's dark goddess. Her name is translated as "phantom queen" or "great queen." The Morrigan is a goddess of war and sexuality, witchcraft and death, protection and retribution. This goddess of justice is classified among the Sidhe-Ireland's fairies-but she may have a mermaid incarnation, as well. The Morrigan dates back at least to Ireland's Iron Age, but she is as modern as she is ancient. With the possible exception of the witch goddess Hekate, the Morrigan is currently the most popular Pagan goddess. This book provides a guide to this complex, mysterious goddess that encompasses practical veneration with modern devotionals, entwined with traditional lore and Irish-Celtic history"--

The Book of the Great Queen is the culmination of nearly 20 years of the author's study and practice as a dedicant of the Morrigan. The intention for the book is to provide a comprehensive and in-depth look at the Morrigan as we know her through textual, historical, and archaeological sources, her role and cult of worship in ancient Celtic religion, and to provide guidance for the modern devotional practitioner drawing on these traditions. Cover art and illustrations are by Valerie Herron of Mystic Media. Production of the book has been crowd-funded through a very successful IndieGoGo campaign in 2014, nearly tripling the original goal."

“A masterfully blend of history, mythology, spell work and personal anecdote that beautifully explores the depth and breadth of ‘The Great Queen.’” —Amy Blackthorn, priestess of The Morrigan, and author of Blackthorn’s Botanical Magic “She is the spirit of fury and peace, power and destruction, joy and terror,” writes author Courtney Weber. "She is warrior, queen, death omen, mother, murderer, lover, spy, conspirator, faery, shape-shifter, healer, and sometimes the living earth itself. A captivating contradiction: a demonic female who both haunts and heals; benevolent in one moment, ghastly the next, and kind the moment after that.” The Morrigan is one of Pagan Ireland’s most famous—and notorious—goddesses. Her name translated as “phantom queen” or “great queen,” the Morrigan is famous for being a goddess of war, witchcraft and death, protection and retribution. This book also explores her patronage of motherhood, healing, shapeshifting, and the land. Classified among the Sidhe (fairies), the Morrigan dates back at least to Ireland’s Iron Age, but she is as modern as she is ancient―enjoying a growing contemporary and global following. Author Courtney Weber provides a guide for the modern devotee of this complex, mysterious goddess that encompasses practical veneration with modern devotionals, entwined with traditional lore and Irish-Celtic history.

Princess. Captive. Gladiator. Always a Warrior. Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king and the younger sister of the legendary fighter Sorcha. When Fallon was just a child, Sorcha was killed by the armies of Julius Caesar. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is excited to follow in her sister's footsteps and earn her place in her father's war band. She never gets the chance. Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar himself. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s family might be her only hope of survival. Now, Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries, deadly fights in and out of the arena, and perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier and her sworn enemy. A richly imagined fantasy for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Cinda Williams Chima, The Valiant recounts Fallon’s gripping journey from fierce Celtic princess to legendary gladiator and darling of the Roman empire.

The discovery of a Gallo-Roman inscription, figured in the Revue Savoisienne of 15th November, 1867, and republished by M. Adolphe Pictet in the Revue Archéologique for July, 1868, forms the subject of one of those essays from the pen of the veteran philologist for which the students of Celtic languages and archaeology cannot be sufficiently thankful. The inscription, the initial letter of which has been destroyed by an injury to the stone on which it is cut, reads: athuboduae Augaeustaeae Servilia Terenta aevotumae saeolvitaelaeibensae maeeritoae. M. Pictet’s essay is entitled “Sur une Déese Gauloise de la Guerre”; and if he is right in his suggestion (which is very probably) that the letter destroyed was a c, and that ATHUBODVAE should be read CATHUBODVAE, the title is not inappropriate; and in the CATHUBODVAE of the inscription we may recognise the badb-catha of Irish mythology. The etymology of the name athubodua, or cathubodua, as we may venture to read it, has been examined with great industry by M. Pictet, who has managed to compress within the narrow limits of his essay a great mass of illustrative facts and evidences drawn from all the sources accessible to him. The first member of the name (cathu, Irish cath, «pugna») presents but little difficulty to a Celtic scholar like M. Pictet, who would however prefer finding it written catu, without aspiration, as more nearly approaching the rigid orthography of Gaulish names, in which it is very frequently found as the first element; but the second member, bodua, although entering largely into the composition of names amongst all the nations of Celtic origin from the Danube to the islands of Aran, is confessedly capable of explanation only through the medium of the Irish, with its corresponding forms of bodb or badb (pron. bov or bav), originally signifying rage, fury, or violence and ultimately implying a witch, fairy, or goddess, represented by the bird known as the scare-crow, scaldcrow, or Royston-crow, not the raven as M. Pictet seems to think. The etymology of the name being examined, M. Pictet proceeds to illustrate the character of the Badb, and her position in Irish fairy mythology, by the help of a few brief and scarcely intelligible references from the printed books, the only materials accessible to him, but finds himself unable to complete his task, “for want of sufficient details,” as he observes more than once. The printed references, not one of which has escaped M. Pictet’s industry are no doubt few, but the ancient tracts, romances, and battle pieces preserved in our Irish MSS. teem with details respecting this Badb-catha and her so-called sisters, Neman, Macha, and Morrigan or Morrigu (for the name is written in a double form), who are generally depicted as furies, witches, or sorceresses, able to confound whole armies, even in the assumed form of a bird. Popular tradition also bears testimony to the former widespread belief in the magical powers of the Badb. In most parts of Ireland the Royston-crow, or fennóg liath na gragarnaith (“the chattering greyfennóg”). As she is called by the Irish speaking people, is regarded at the present day with feelings of mingled dislike and curiosity by the peasantry, who remember the many tales of depredation and slaughter in which the cunning bird is represented as exercising a sinister influence. Nor is this superstition confined to Ireland alone. The popular tales of Scotland and Wales, which are simply the echo of similar stories once current and still not quite extinct in Ireland, contain requent allusion to this mystic bird.

The author "shares personal anecdotes and 30 simple techniques and exercises such as relaxation, automatic writing, and shamanic journeying to show how to contact our own guides."--Cover.