Death Coven

Episode 2: Meet The Gods

• Death Coven

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This week, the coven delves deep into the fascinating myths, rich histories, and unique practices surrounding their beloved deities: Hades, Persephone, Dionysus, and The Morrigan. Join the witches as they explore the intricate connections between these powerful gods and the realms of death, rebirth, and celebration. 

This episode offers a blend of storytelling, historical context, and personal reflections that will enchant both seasoned practitioners and curious listeners alike. Don’t miss out on this exploration of divine connections! 

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review! Join our community of listeners as we explore the mysteries of the afterlife through the lens of witchcraft. 

Resources:

  • The Path of Shadows: Cthonic Gods, Oneiromancy, & Necromancy in Ancient Greece - Gwendolyn Taunton
  • Ecstatic: For Dionysos - H. Jeremiah Lewis

  • Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysos - Alain Danielou
  • Celtic Lore and Spellcraft of the Dark Goddess: Invoking The Morrigan -Stephanie Woodfield
  • Priestess of The Morrigan: Prayers, Rituals & Devotional Work to The Great Queen- Stephanie Woodfield
  • Dionysus Youtube Links: https://youtu.be/KUpL9X7JCNI?si=pLMgKdO2GrNrTmoO

    https://youtu.be/5brAr51ip_k?si=L-QSLDXQw2CML3gS

SOCIALS: Email- deathcovenpod@gmail.com, Instagram- @deathcovenpod

**In The Morrigan segment Skye accidentally says "England" instead of "Ireland" she is aware and deeply apologizes for the blunder**

Poppy

Oh, All right. Hello.

River

back,

Poppy

guys.

River

Mm

Poppy

This is episode two of Death Coven, the podcast where, uh, this Death Coven talks about the The death coven that we are a part of.

River

And other things also. Sometimes we talk about dinosaurs and gay vampires and things like that.

Poppy

Have we talked about gay vampires

River

yet, but I'm trying to get it in where I can.

Poppy

sure you'll be able to, to force that in

River

can stop me.

Poppy

Yeah. How are we doing today?

River

Truthfully. Real shit.

Poppy

Lie to me, baby.

River

the performance or do you want the truth?

Poppy

Oh, be your authentic

River

Oh, I'm a little bit in the shits. I'm doing a little bit poorly. But it's just that time of year and there's a yucky storm rolling through tomorrow and all my joints and my bones hurt and I'm

Skye

Hi old,

River

Hi old, hi ancient, hi

Poppy

geriatric.

River

That's

Poppy

change your name to Jerry.

River

comma Atric.

Skye

Is that your

Poppy

Oh, speaking of,

River

Yeah, one of many. That's me.

Poppy

this is our second episode. So we should probably say our names again, just because,

Skye

who's in the shits?

River

Uh, my name is Jerry Atrick and I'm in the shits. No, no, I joke. I joke. I kid. I jest. I'm a ripper. I'm a beautiful little they them. And I, you know, I'm fine. This is seasonal. It happens every year. I'm over it. Don't worry about me. Don't contact me.

Skye

Oh,

Poppy

it's like allergies.

River

allergies. I take my little pill and I keep on trucking.

Poppy

Oh, and I'm Poppy. Um, I'm fine. You know, been better, been worse. My allergies are fine.

Skye

and I'm Sky, I'm mid, if I had to say mid, a six out of ten.

River

Hey, that's

Skye

Hey, feeling normal, but not great, not poor.

Poppy

slightly above average.

Skye

I'm here and

River

on the upper end of mid. Yeah.

Skye

What are we talking about today,

Poppy

There's no getting out of it now.

River

What are we talking about?

Poppy

so today we are going to be going into our actual gods. So as we mentioned on the last episode, we are a death coven because we all work with death gods. so today we kind of wanted to tell you all a little bit more about The gods that we work with, their mythology, their history, and how we tie all of that into our own practices. So that's where we're going today. Hope you enjoy.

Skye

Who's going first? Chthonic.

Poppy

I guess I will take the

River

You must, you have to

Poppy

It's required. Okay. so as I mentioned in the last episode, I work with Hades and Persephone, and originally when I took these notes, I wanted to put Persephone first, just because, Hades is usually a gentleman, he likes me to put her first in most things, you know, when I give offering, I'll pour her tea before his, but just narratively, it kind of makes sense to start with him, because of how their myths tie in together. So I'll get started with Hades. so up at the top at the very beginning, I have to talk about the word chthonic, chthonic,

River

say it again. One more time.

Poppy

chthonic,

River

Oh yeah. That's good. Oh, I like that.

Poppy

so that's C T H O N I C. And chthonic means concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld. so when, at least in Greek mythology, when we're talking about death gods, when we're talking about those who inhabit the underworld, the word chthonic comes up a lot. So Hades is a chthonic god. Persephone is kind of dual. She's chthonic. She's also of the terrestrial world. So. Yeah. Chthonic. So in Greek mythology, we have an understanding of three realms. So we have the heavens, we have the terrestrial plane, like the surface of the earth, and then we have the underworld. And we see this number three come up a lot in a lot of different practices. obviously three is a divine number. You have the Holy Trinity, you have birth, life, death, past, present, future, the yogic bodies. a powerful number. As we know, we are three as well, this coven. So I work with the number three a lot in my practice. When I read tarot, I shuffle my deck into three piles, mix them together, and I do that three times for nine total. When I do readings, especially for Hades, I'll pull cards in multiples of three. So it'll be three, six, nine. If I'm really crazy, maybe 12, you know, mind, body, spirit reading. So that's a practice that we all have kind of adopted over the past year. And so what that is mind, body, spirit, the coven likes to check in periodically. we will touch base with our gods and ask, you know, what's the status of my mind or like my emotional aspect? How is my body doing my material aspect? that also ties into, you know, abundance work, wealth. money stuff, that sort of thing. And then you have spirit, which is divine connection and, your spirit, basically. So all of this, I kind of lump into that, that power three aspect, that I tie into my work with Hades. last thing for the three, Cerberus. He has three heads. He's the big doggy. I'll talk about him a little bit at the end. So there are also three brothers in Greek mythology. You have Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. and the three of them, they have three sisters. There's Hera, Hestia, and Demeter. And they are all children of the titan Cronus. And so, the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, they overthrew Cronus. Um, they were like, fuck you, dad. I'm gonna take your shit. And after they did that, they divided the world into three parts. That heaven, earth, or sea, and then the underworld. And so, to decide who gets to rule over which plane, they drew straws. And Hades literally drew the short straw and he got stuck with the underworld, which nobody really wanted. He didn't even really want to, but he was kind of like, You know, that's, it's been assigned to me and somebody's got to do it, so I'm going to do a good job, and I'm going to, you know, take care of the dead. another fun fact, so Zeus has his staff, his lightning bolt, which is, you know, that's like one prong. Poseidon has his trident, which has three prongs, and then Hades has a bident, which is two prongs. So that's pretty nifty. Hades also has something called the Helmet of Invisibility, which he can put on his head and then he literally becomes invisible. He can go anywhere in the world, nobody can see him. just like Death, Death is invisible, but it is always present. And so people were really afraid, death in general, and by extension, they were afraid of Hades, so afraid that they didn't even want to speak his name aloud because to speak his name aloud was thought to invite in death. So they wanted to avoid that. Nobody wanted anything to do with death. but he isn't the god of death itself. That would be Thanatos. So Thanatos is the god of death. Nyx, his, uh, Thanatos brother, he's the god of night. And then you have Hypnos, which is sleep. And they're all kind of related. So Hades is not, The god of any of those specific aspects. He is the ruler of the underworld. So he is the warden of the dead. He judges them when they die and come into the underworld. and he basically makes sure that they're all good and that they're not, uh, You know, the people that are not supposed to suffer aren't suffering and people that are supposed to suffer don't get out. Within the underworld, there are also three, sections. You have Elysium, which is paradise. That's where heroes and like super exceptional people go. kind of like heaven, you know, everything is really nice. There's a lot of wine and dancing and shit.

River

Cheers. I'll drink to that. That's what's up. The

Poppy

Then you have the Asphodel Meadows, which is kind of, kind of almost like Purgatory, not in that it's a waiting area, but it's kind of like an expansive meadow and it's really misty and people are just kind of wandering around, but they're not necessarily suffering. It just kind of seems like it's a boring, mid tier place. And that's where most everybody goes, right? Cause most people are boring. and then finally you have Tartarus, which is like, you know, the equivalent of a Christian hell. That's, you know, bad, bad, bad people go there, they get tortured. They have crazy punishments that the gods dictate. Hades also rules over material wealth, because he is the god of the underworld. He's literally the god of, you know, the inside of the earth. And what do you have inside of the earth? You've got gems, precious metals, expensive stuff. So.

River

mines.

Poppy

yes. So that's, why he's considered the god of wealth. Another name of his is Pluton. He has a ton of names, but Pluton means giver of wealth. And for that reason, he's like, at least I really associate him with Pyrite, like working with him.

Skye

Fool's

Poppy

yeah, cause it, it looks like gold. because Mama can't afford to be rolling in rubies, and I don't know, what, what other gems are there? Emeralds?

River

but what about like a nice chunk of bismuth or something?

Poppy

ooh, I don't have any bismuth.

River

Consider that.

Poppy

it though. I'll think about it. I'll consider it.

River

you.

Poppy

So moving into tarot, he's associated with a lot of different tarot cards. obviously judgment is a huge card for him because he is literally the judge of the dead. he decides where they go, as they enter the afterlife. People also associate him with the death card, obviously, and also the devil card. it would take a whole episode to talk about all the parallels between Hades and like the Christian devil and Tartarus and how that ties into hell. Like, that's a whole other topic, but there are a ton of parallels. They're not exactly the same thing, but they are related. And, you know, the death card and the devil card both have chthonic undertones. But personally, I don't really identify Hades with those two cards very much in my practice. King of Pentacles is a big one because of his tie to wealth, wealth of the earth, not necessarily, you know, abundance and, and bounty in the spiritual realm, but we're talking more like material wealth and abundance, like the harvest, stuff like that. but I mostly associate him with the Hermit card, just based on his personality and also, my relationship with him. It's a very masculine card, it's, withdrawn, like he is, he's kind of known as a self isolating god, so he doesn't really hang out with everybody else very much. Like, so the movie Hercules

River

Disney's Hercules.

Poppy

Disney's Hercules.

River

But god, it's a good movie. You gotta give it that. It's a good movie.

Poppy

But I mean, in that movie. Hades doesn't really come up to, hang out with Zeus and Hera and all them very

River

Kind of

Poppy

mostly in his own

River

Kind of is preying on their downfall, really.

Poppy

Yeah. So that's not exactly a great representation of the mythology in that there's not really a ton of bad blood there. but he, he does just kind of keep to himself down in the underneath. he's also super into introspection. in my practice working with him, he's always encouraged me to look into myself to find my own guiding light rather than trying to get that from some external source. And you know, the, uh, lighthouse imagery on the hermit tarot card ties in with that a lot. so yeah, so he's all about me following my own direction. Some other associations, for herbs. Cinnamon is a big one because of that abundance aspect, wealth. mint. I'll talk a little about mint in the Persephone section, but there's a tie there. I don't Personally use meant a ton, because I work with both Hades and Persephone. And I'll talk about that in a minute. Patchouli also, just because it's so grounding. Yeah, I know. Right.

River

Patchouli. It's

Poppy

Oh, I love Patchouli.

River

so stinky. It is. It's stinky, but in a good way. We're, the way our hive mind triangulates

Skye

It's like a foot smell.

River

Yeah, but like a good

Poppy

But it's so warm, not like hot and sweaty foot, but like,

River

like you just got a foot bath full of herbs and

Skye

Yeah, like if you,

Poppy

like a

Skye

yeah, like if you, like, soaked your foot in, like, a, uh, simmer pot and then smelled your foot.

River

Yeah.

Skye

clean foot.

River

Yeah.

Poppy

Uh, finally for herbs, I personally use black pepper a lot in association with Hades. there's that, protective aspect and of course the color. Black, for crystals, pyrite, obviously, I already talked about that, and black crystals, you have obsidian, tourmaline, smoky quartz. Colors he's associated with are black, blue, and gold. And then some other symbols are the cornucopia. stuffed full, you know, representing

Skye

he wear Fruit of the

Poppy

And then also cypress. Yeah. Fruit of the

Skye

Or is that the Mandela effect where, like, the, okay.

Poppy

Mandela

River

I swear to god there used to be a cornucopia, I'm not

Poppy

There did

River

There did! This is not my timeline, I don't know how I got here.

Skye

anyway,

Poppy

we're all here together. Uh, and then finally cypress trees because those grow, in cemeteries and, In Greek mythology, they thought that cypress trees grew at the entrances to the underworld, so like near the gates. Okay, so moving into Persephone. So, everyone already knows Persephone in relation to Hades. specifically the myth where Hades abducts her, Zeus gives Hades permission to abduct her, and then he carries her away to the underworld. Um,, He,

River

Yeah. Demeter's

Poppy

she's really mad.

River

She makes the earth go fallow and she's screaming diva down, diva down the whole time.

Poppy

Yeah, so, Demeter's pissed and Hades is like, okay, I'll let you go back to the above world, but I'm gonna give you these pomegranate seeds, and if you eat them, That means you're going to be tied back here. And she does. She eats them.

River

you blame her, they're so yummy. They're such a tasty little snack.

Poppy

I mean, there are different, versions of the myth, like she, she's aware that they're going to tie her to the underworld. She's not aware. Yeah, so who's to say? Who knows? Most important thing is that she does, so she is tied to the underneath. but there's that whole consensual, non consensual aspect of the arrangement is really contested. You know, some people say she was dragged against her will, some people say she was wooed. Different sources say different things, but the one thing that they all agree on is that when she does, you know, You know, take her place in the underworld. She rules as an equal alongside Hades, and she really steps into her role, like she rules as the queen of the underworld. to be there or not, kind of like Hades who was like, you know, I'm not super crazy about this, but it's the lot I was given, so I'm gonna do my best and get it done. She's the same way, which I think we all need a little bit of that energy in our

Skye

I didn't want this, but at least now I have like a companion to like, chill with.

Poppy

Yeah. Yeah. And he loves her.

Skye

Bonus,

River

He does. And hey, she loves him, I like to

Skye

double bonus.

Poppy

I, I think so. I think so. My relationships with them. I really see them as darkness and the void on Hades's side. And then Persephone is like the light and the life aspect. And I do think that the relationship between Dark and light is a little bit uneven because the void always wants to be filled with that light, you know, it's empty, it's going to accept it. Mm hmm. So Persephone rules as an equal alongside Hades in the Underworld, but she does go back to the surface. Some say every six months, some say she spends nine months above ground and then three months underground. I like to think it's six and six, but because of that duality, she's both a chthonic goddess and a vegetation goddess. she's the daughter of Demeter, as River mentioned earlier, Demeter's her mommy, and they're both goddesses of agriculture, of the harvest, and of Earth's fertility, so they're all about growin shit. said that when Persephone comes back to the surface after her stint in the Underworld, she brings spring with her, so that's tied into the Wheel of the Year, the seasons, when she comes, the light comes, when she goes, the light goes. Demeter and Persephone were worshipped alongside each other. A lot. There is a cult of Demeter and Persephone, in Arcadia, they were known together as the Mistresses. Yeah. So they were also kind of death goddesses too, isolated from Hades because they represented the entire cycle from, Sowing to Reaping, and that encompasses both birth and death and life in the same time. So they didn't necessarily have those chthonic elements where they were associated directly with the underworld, but they were, associated with the circle of

Skye

Big on that reap what you sow energy.

Poppy

Yeah, plant it, harvest it.

Skye

Water it.

Poppy

yeah, watering, it's the most important part. It's easy to plant

River

Oh yeah, and then you just walk away.

Poppy

And then you walk away and you're like, why isn't this growing? Oh no, it died.

River

My fields are barren after all that

Poppy

It's shriveled.

River

Bro.

Poppy

I feel so called out right now

River

Hey, I'm calling myself out on

Skye

Being like, why am I starving? My field's barren.

River

Yeah. My crops withered.

Poppy

because you didn't water them, babe. You can't just wait for rain

River

And I didn't.

Poppy

So Persephone is also known as the goddess Cora. It's pronounced Cora Cori Cora I've seen it written differently, you know when you press the Like Google pronunciation button. They suck so bad and they all say different

River

voice, yeah.

Poppy

Have you guys seen those YouTube videos of the French guy that pronounces shit? He's like, Today we are going to be learning how to pronounce.

River

one of my most utilized YouTube pages to look up

Poppy

He's great.

River

work. Yeah.

Poppy

How does he have he literally has a video for like every single

Skye

don't know, but he's saving my life.

River

Yeah.

Poppy

I love him, but he pronounced it differently too. So, you know, we're not nobody's

River

He's different.

Skye

our best.

Poppy

Anyway, the goddess Korra, the maiden, also associated with agriculture, spring fertility, and abundance, but she's Also called the all pervading goddess of nature who produces and destroys everything.

River

Hmm.

Poppy

again, you have that creation and destruction duality aspect. Tarot associations, typically she's associated with the high priestess card. that's the second, not the second, technically it's the third card, but it's number two. Right. So it, number two, that duality, she's sitting in front of that kind of archway with the pomegranates behind her. the Empress card is also associated with her because she's the queen of the underworld. It's all about fertility, divine feminine power, leadership. the Empress also has pomegranates on her dress. So there's that tie in as well. She's big about Connection with nature and I connect the Empress card with Persephone's, spring side. So when she's back above ground and she's really in her fertility mode. So. Going back to Persephone's duality, where she's above ground, she's below ground, speaking about the Wheel of the Year, I've noticed in my practice that Hades is more active during the dark half of the year, Persephone's more active during the light half, so Hades is coming up and about around Mabon, and then he'll kind of peter off and disappear around Imbolc. and then Persephone will come to the forefront around Ostara and leave during Labas. So that's kind of their whole deal. They, the shift change. They switch

Skye

of the guards, yeah.

Poppy

Changing of the guards, yeah. Um, okay. So, Mint. We're going to talk about Mint. Why that is a hot topic. it's a tricky relationship. One of the myths featuring Hades and Persephone, involves Hades becoming a god. romantically involved with a river nymph named Minthe, which is really hard to say.

River

M I N T H or M E N T H?

Poppy

I N T H E. Mm hmm. Nymph. Nymph named Minthe. Minthe. Maybe it is Minthe. I don't know. I like minth,

River

I like

Poppy

makes me sound like I have a lisp that I'm asking because my breath stinks. so Persephone found out Hades is having this affair with this nymph, and she's, she's pissed. She takes after her mama. When she's mad, she gets wrathful. so she's stumped. On the nymph, she trampled her under her feet and turned her into a mint plant. So she's like, you're gonna try to take my man? I'm gonna stomp

River

plant be upon ye.

Poppy

Yeah. Also, I just wanna point out real quick, I mean, yeah, you can be mad at the other woman, but you gotta hold your man accountable too.

River

And where was his punishment?

Poppy

I don't think he was punished. She probably gave him the cold shoulder for a

River

Oh, yeah. Oh, they did. He was sleeping on the couch for like, 100

Poppy

Sleeping in the doghouse with Cerberus.

Skye

Maybe that's where that saying comes from.

River

Maybe, maybe.

Poppy

Uh, yeah, so, so, this nymph is now a mint plant, and Hades is like, Aw, shit, like, I feel bad. You kind of got trampled and turned into a plant because of our relationship, so he gave her this sweet, minty smell, just to be like, hey, yeah, you're a plant, but at least you

Skye

no, you're so sexy.

River

No, don't get turned into a mint plant. You're so sexy.

Poppy

So that's kind of why I've been wishy washy on whether to incorporate Mint into my practice, because it seems like Hades is in favor of Mint, Persephone is kind of against Mint. I've thought maybe, you know, Maybe Persephone would like mint because she's like, yeah, fuck that bitch. She's a plant now, but I don't know. So I just kind of err on the side of not using it. Yeah, uh, Mm hmm.

River

There's also, I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but like, the mint as a plant, like it will, if you put it in the ground, it will spread to everything and choke everything out and it will take it over, which is why it has to be in containers so it doesn't happen. I just think that, yeah, I just think that's something, I don't know if it's anything

Poppy

I mean, Persephone is all about that hyper fertility, right? So maybe a little, a little kernel of her

Skye

Yeah,

Poppy

put into the plant. Uh, lastly, talking about Persephone's family tree, because when it comes to Greek mythology, you have to talk about all of the incest, right?

River

It's really just a circle.

Poppy

Uh, it's, yeah, it's like a triquetra.

River

Yeah, sure. I know what that is. Yeah.

Poppy

It's, it's like the three, like the three circles. Google

River

Three

Poppy

know what it is.

River

it keeps coming up. What

Poppy

Yeah, the three is everywhere.

Skye

what she's talking about.

Poppy

Yeah.

River

Oh, okay. Yeah, I do know that.

Poppy

Um, so talking about that, that family circle, Persephone in some tellings is the mother of Dionysus, with Zeus as the father. so Zeus is technically Persephone's uncle. And Zeus and Hades are brothers, so Hades is also Persephone's uncle. So Dionysus, in this case, would be Persephone's son and Zeus's son, and Zeus would also be his great uncle.

Skye

This is very,

River

Persephone's dad?

Poppy

Persephone's dad is Zeus, I think. Zeus and Demeter. Mm

Skye

This is very like the royal family. There's only so many royals and they got to keep it in the bloodline. There's only so many gods. So that's why there's so much incest, you know?

Poppy

They've all got sickle cell

Skye

Oh no, they got webbed toes.

Poppy

what's the, what's the one that the um, Russian royal family had? Haemophilia?

River

Something like that. I don't

Poppy

I think it was haemophilia. Rasputin had to get involved, you know?

Skye

Oh no.

River

have an episode about him, that nasty

Poppy

Oh my god, talking about fucking dark sorcerers and necromancy.

River

kind of nasty with it.

Skye

Yikes.

Poppy

It's got those crazy eyes.

River

Smash or pass real quick, Rasputin. Smash or pass. Smash. Smash hard.

Poppy

on how recently he's bathed.

River

That's

Skye

I think that I, I think that I would just become curious cause he fucked so many bitches and if all the bitches around me were like the dick go crazy, I'd be like, well, I must see what it's all about. Pull on that beard a little bit. I don't know.

Poppy

Uh, so some associations with Persephone for herbs. Obviously you have the pomegranate. she's also associated with basically every flower, super floral, lilies, irises, crocuses, rose, and then poppies. For crystals, I couldn't really find a lot online about this, but I know for myself, I like to use red and pink crystals and also green crystals. So for me, that's Garnet for that fertility, abundance, passion aspect, obsidian for The dark half, moss agate is a big one, and then also

Skye

She gives big jade energy to me.

Poppy

Yeah, I could see that. Her colors are pink and green, so. Yeah, with that, I mean, I know pink is not a feminine color or whatever, but the associations we have in culture today, you know, and green because of

River

Oh, I could see Unakite. It's pink and green. Yeah. I do love Unakite.

Poppy

Unikite is also all about balance.

Skye

rhodonite, pink and black.

Poppy

Ooh. I don't have any Rodenite.

River

Not yet.

Poppy

It, not yet. It always reminds me of like, for some reason, those 2008 t shirts with like the bunnies on them.

Skye

bunny.

Poppy

know what I'm talking about? Happy bunny! Yeah,

River

does that

Poppy

and pink together. I think it's just the combo of black and pink. It's just very mid 2000s. Oughts.

River

The early aughts.

Poppy

Okay, so, last section, third section here, number three, Cerberus, the three headed hellhound, he guards the gates of the Underworld beyond the River Styx. His main job is to prevent the dead from leaving. In a couple cases, though, he has to try to prevent the living from entering the Underworld. because we know for some reason demigods and heroes always want to come down to the underworld and like, either kill things or take dead people back up to the surface.

River

They're always doing some shit down there that they have no business doing.

Poppy

Yeah, I mean, I think it's one of those things that, you know, death is the ultimate stopping point, you know, so if you can,

River

to conquer.

Poppy

exactly, if you can jump over that hurdle, mm hmm, or in Orpheus case, you know, your wife is dead and you want to bring her back. so in some versions of the myths, he has 50 heads, sometimes he's a serpent for a tail, and snakes kind of growing off of his body like hair. So all of these heads make him the ultimate guard dog, because he can see everything at once, in front of him, behind him, to the sides, above, below. So this, he's great for protection. If you're working with him, you can ask him for protection. You can ask him to keep his eyes out, to help keep you aware of things you need to be aware of. one of the myths associated with him, the Twelfth Labor of Hercules. So Hercules is doing a bunch of challenges for King Eurytheus. and the king is like, hey, go get Cerberus from the Underworld and bring him back here as your challenge. And so Hercules is like, okay, I'll go down to the Underworld. And try to grab him. Some versions, Hades says you can borrow him, just bring him back when you're done. Sometimes Hades is like, yeah, you can borrow him, but only if you can beat him in battle without using any weapons. some versions, Persephone just gives him to Hercules and is like, yeah, just take him, whatever. So, when Cerberus is pulled up from the Underworld, Hercules does beat him, eventually takes him up with him. Change was so abrupt for him that he got sick and he threw up all over the ground.

Skye

Uh,

River

Yucky. Can you imagine how bad that smelled? The

Poppy

Oh, so bad. Sulfur.

Skye

a paper towel would you need to clean up that vomit?

River

I think you just have to move. I think you just have to leave the area.

Poppy

Uh, so from the vomit, the aconite plant grew. And aconite, also known as monk's hood. Or Wolfsbane. apparently come from big, magical doggy vomit.

River

Do you think it was all three or fifty mouths at once, or just one of

Skye

Oh

Poppy

Oh no!

River

How bad

Poppy

All of the snakes too?

River

Oh.

Poppy

No. It was like one of those, um, you know those ASMR videos where they have like a balloon full of foam and they squeeze it and it just all like comes out of all the holes?

River

It's like one of those Play Doh machines.

Poppy

Oh yeah. But a lot more force behind it.

River

that was the actual Mount St. Helens eruption. It was just Cerberus puking.

Poppy

Man, if anybody here is a metaphobic, like listening, I'm sorry. Sorry! Come back! No!

River

sexy. Come back. No, I'm sorry.

Poppy

Um, so his associations, crystals, dalmatian jasper, and any black stones too. He's associated with the colors red and black, so do with that what you will.

River

I will.

Poppy

Offerings for all three of them, I like to give Hades, black coffee or black tea, and I'll put some cinnamon sticks in there for him for abundance and prosperity. for Persephone, I'll do, like, herbal, floral, base teas, hibiscus, rose, etc. Fruity teas too, sometimes pomegranate juice, red wine, if I have red wine. Who doesn't love red wine? And on my altar, I have two crystal skulls. I have a pyrite one and I have a moss agate one, and I put them in front of their respective candles, black candle for Hades, green candle for Persephone. For Cerberus, occasionally, I will leave out doggy treats for him, but I have to leave them out in a way so that my cats will not steal them because they have before. I'll leave them in, multiples of three. So I'll leave. them three treats because you don't want to leave any of the heads out, right? I think of the two of these gods as partners, the void and the light. They exist both independently from one another. They exist in tandem. so working with both of them together has given me a lot of balance. I get different things that I need from each of them. So Hades, Is very patient. Persephone is, very persistent and insistent when she wants me to do certain things. He asked me to be contemplative. She asked me to be expressive and creative. they also have that. masculine feminine balance going on, the duality aspect. So yeah, so I really have enjoyed the past year or so working with this, the dark and the light aspect. And I, I could not ask for a better team to work with. Yeah. Okay. I guess with that, I will pass off the baton to River.

River

mind if I do. And now it's my turn to gush about my god. I will say there is a book that Poppy lent me. I forget what it's called, but it's about

Poppy

I'll go get it. Actually, I know exactly what you're talking about

River

you do. Yeah, you do. it's about Chthonic gods and Specifically like the comparisons Extends of Hades and Dionysus because they have a lot of similarities depending on the time period and the mythology. You got it? Hold that thing up.

Poppy

it's called The Path of Shadows, Chthonic Gods, and Oneiromancy, and Necromancy in Ancient Greece by Gwendolyn Taunton. And this is

River

a great

Poppy

my sources. I took a lot from this one right here. So yeah, I do have a book, actually.

River

And I just wanted to give you that moment to shine because you do have resources and I'm going to piggyback off your resources, but it is a great book. And they're depending on the mythology because I need to start out by saying Dionysus is a very old Multi faceted, complex, multi iteration to God, depending on the time period. So there are a lot of mythologies where he and Hades are like one in the same, or he is the child of Hades and Persephone, or he is married to Persephone, depending on What the mythology is, it's very complicated and I cannot go into all of it because I will go insane, but I just need to get that out of the way, because through everything I'm going to say and through everything you will find in resources and online, it's rife with contradiction. It's rife with duality and confusion, depending on where you are finding it. And there are two different versions of Dionysus. We have generally the older, more stereotypically masculine, he's bearded, he's burly, he's jolly, he's more joyful. And that Dionysus probably started with, there was, it was more of a wine centric cult back in Mycenae in Greece in like 6, 000 or so BC. It goes way, way back. And it started as the wine cult and like the ecstasy and like releasing the inhibitions that come with getting incredibly inebriated. And, Old Dionysus was sort of brought into that and co opted into it for a while. And then that spread throughout Egypt and Greece and India. And eventually that Dionysus gets co opted into the Hellenistic Dionysus, which is the younger androgynous, more effeminate. He still likes to party. He still likes to get down. He loves ecstasy and all that, but he is also the boisterous one. He is the mad one. He is. The liberator. He is all these things. He's about death and rebirth. He was ripped apart as a baby. And I think it was Athena saved his heart and he was reborn through that, or his blood went into the soil and it became the grapes and he was reborn through the grapes. There's just a lot, there's a lot going on with him and his history. He's typically. seen as the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Semele. There are other iterations where he is the son of Zeus and Persephone or Hades and Persephone. I see him in my relationship as Zeus and Semele's son. And Semele was tricked by Hera to she was mad. She's a hater, let's be honest. She's really mad that Zeus has all these lovers and these women. And she went to Semele disguised as an older woman and she was like, there is no way that man you're shacking up with and you're pregnant by it is Zeus. Every that's the oldest trick in the book. I can't believe you fell for that. What you should get him to do. is reveal his true godly form to you so he can prove it. And she was like, you know what old strange woman? You're on to something. I'm gonna do that just to make sure he's real. And Zeus is a man of his word and he promised her anything and she said, I want you to show me your true form, your true godly form. And he did. And she was burnt up to smithereens immediately. Because a mortal human cannot comprehend all that power. And little, little baby Dionysus in the ashes was still fully intact because he's a demigod and he's cool like that. And Zeus plucks him up and sews him into his thigh. And then, after he was fully cooked, he was twice born. Because he got, he got birthed out of his thigh. Questions so far? It's a lot already.

Skye

That's so sick and twisted.

River

It's so, and that's only, we're not even on the thrice born part yet,

Poppy

Oh no, there's

River

born so far.

Skye

Oh yeah, by the way, he's thrice born.

River

He's thrice born, depending again on the source and the time period, he's either considered twice born or thrice born.

Skye

Here we go, that number three coming back up

River

go with the number three, it's a huge thing, we're gonna get into that again later when we get to the comparisons and the similarities to Jesus Christ. We'll get there.

Skye

Love it.

River

Loves it. Loves everything about it.

Skye

And that also ties into your Catholicism, I'm sure.

River

ties so perfectly into my Catholicism that like, oh my god, this path is the perfect path for me personally. Marrying these two things together. It just makes so much sense. I'm in front of my Pepe Sylvia board going, it's all connected. You don't understand. So after little baby Dionysus is born out of Zeus's thigh, Hera is still straight up does not like him. And she's really jealous and she hates that Zeus had a child with another woman. So, Dionysus, again, depending on the myth, depending on the story, he has a whole host of foster parents. They had to conceal his identity because Hera wanted to kill him so bad it's insane. Some stories, Tell that he was raised by nymphs on the island of Nisa or Nysa, depending on how you pronounce it. He was raised by Hermes and they have a very strong connection, a very strong bond. He was raised by foster parents who are human. It really just depends on the source material and what you want to believe. At some point, in some story, Hera gets Titans to trick little baby Dionysus. out of hiding with toys and a mirror so that they can rip him limb from limb and eat him. Yes, it's bad

Skye

We talking like toddler, like two or

River

we're talking like fleshy no knees having

Skye

No.

River

He had no kneecaps

Poppy

not the no knees

River

was a baby and Hera wanted him dead so bad because in a lot of the tellings, like, he was Zeus's, like,

Skye

Prodigy.

River

to the throne, essentially, like he was going to be the next king of the gods. And Hera hated that, and she didn't want that, and she said, I gotta kill that fucking baby. I cannot, much like Jesus as a baby, somebody wanted him dead so fucking bad, it's insane. But from all that, I believe it was Athena, I'm pretty sure it was Athena, managed to save his heart, and he was reborn through that, or he was reborn through the blood going into the soil, being reborn as the grapes. Already, in his short little baby life, in all his iterations, he has died and come back so many times. It's insane. Which is why he primarily is a god of transformation, and transcendence, and death, and resurrection. He's not just a party god. He's not just like trying to kick back and get drunk. He is. like scary and dangerous and he's not afraid of dying and death is a big part of his mystery cults.

Skye

It sounds like he never truly got a chance to chill, if I'm being honest.

River

No, that came later.

Skye

Okay.

River

It came much later because he also went through a period of like he was stricken with madness by Hera because Hera just cannot chill for some reason, respectfully. But he was stricken with madness at a young age and eventually I think it was Rhea who like took him in and nurse him back to health. And then after that, he was kind of able to chill a little bit, there's still, he's constantly facing oppression, if I'm being honest, from like, all angles. But we can get into that later, for real dude. But, that goes in, that's most of his major history. he does have a beautiful wife, Ariadne, it's in one of his myths. She was the daughter of King Minos, I think of Thebes, I believe. And she helped Theseus escape the Minotaur's labyrinth. She was like the woman that gave him the thread so he could get his way back out. Kind of the linchpin of the whole myth, if I'm being honest. And they left that whole fucked up situation because the king kind of sucks. And at some point Theseus abandons her on the island of Naxos, which is real bozo behavior on his part. He, she just helped you through all that labyrinth and you abandon her on a beach. Grow up. But it's great for her because who would stumble upon her and fall in love with her? Dionysus. It's a tale as old as

Poppy

We'd love to see it.

River

We love to see it. And they have such a beautiful, wonderful relationship. And I believe she was given an honorary spot in Olympus because of her associations and her marriage. And his mom, Semele, there's another myth of him rescuing her from Hades. Sorry, he got in. He kind of messed up the whole system. But he also maybe is Hades. He maybe works there. It's hard to say, who knows, but he rescued her, his mother, Semele, and she was also given honorary godhood. He loves his family. He loves the oppressed. He'll fight for you. Tooth and nail. He's a great guy. I'm going all over the place, but I'll round it all out with what he is the god of. He's the god of many things. He is the god of all vegetation, all plant life. Obviously he's the god of wine and intoxication. That kind of goes without saying. He is the god of theater. He is the god of madness. He is the god of religious frenzy and ecstasy, and the list goes on, but those are the main things that encapsulate him. A lot of his symbols are natural and wild. It's a lot of large cats. It's a bulls. It's serpents. It's ivy. It's the theater comedy tragedy masks. It's the Thursis, which is his staff that's covered in Ivy and maybe a pine cone, historically, it's a little bit of a gray area, depending on like the artistic interpretations of the vases at the time where they were like, there weren't actually any pine cones in that area at the time. Somebody just looked at it wrong. So maybe it's a pine cone, but. It's pretty accepted that, like, pine and pinecones are sort of lumped in with him, because he's a very fluid, very ambiguous guy.

Skye

And do you have a thyrsus?

River

I have a thyrsus. I made him a thyrsus with a big old stick I found two years ago at the river. I wasn't even two years ago, that was like eight years ago, actually. I've had that stick for a very long time.

Skye

No, but last Yule I gifted you that big fuck ass pine

River

Gave me that, it completed the puzzle. And it was so perfect. I would say my relationship with him, how would I describe it? It's a very, it's a very wonderful. And he is considered the gentle and the terrible. In, in both regards in equal ways because he is so wonderful and so patient and so loving. But he is also mad and he will punish you and he will drive you insane. You sort of can't have one without the other. He is two sides of the same coin.

Skye

I catch him in a bad mood, you know?

River

Catch him in a bad mood and you are gonna get turned into a dolphin.

Poppy

Oh no.

River

kidnap him on a ship, you're going to get turned into a dolphin. That's just how it goes. There's more to it than that. Let's see. Any, any clarifiers, anything you want me to.

Skye

You wanna talk about your practical practice with him? What your altar looks like? What your offerings are?

River

Oh, my altar is beautiful. I put so much work into that thing. I I'll keep it largely private. I'm not going to show pictures of it. Obviously. But I do have a little marble statue of him, and I have a bunch of art surrounding the altar. It's in my bedroom, because that feels like the best place for me, because it's very private, it's very sensual. And he's a sensual guy, he loves it. And it's, it's got Ivy, it's got a little crystal penis on there for him because the phallus is also something largely associated with him and his virility and the raw, natural, masculine energy of like, a penis. We're all adults, we can talk about penises.

Poppy

penis. Penis.

River

everybody say penis.

Skye

Penis.

River

go, that's what I'm fucking talking about. And he's all about counterculture and. Dionysus is all about being so authentically true to yourself and liberating yourself. Regardless of what societal expectations are, he is of the natural world. He hates money. He wants you to howl in the woods and be free and be who you are. And I love that. And I need that so badly, which is what drew me to him in the first place. And it also ties into why he is considered the proto Jesus. Because I have a wonderful resource that I would like to, which is called Ecstatic for Dionysus by H. Jeremiah Lewis.

Poppy

looks thick.

River

And it's, it's a thick book. And it's got essays and it's got poems and it's got stories. And it's been the resource I go back to the most of the two books I have. The other one is like a very dense, dense, dense, Historical text about Shiva and Dionysus, and it goes back to the bronze age forward. So it's hard for me as a stupid person to really digest all of it because I'm not good at history. But Dionysus is the son of the king, Zeus. Jesus is the son of the king, God. He was persecuted from birth. He, disdains money and has a terrible temper, much like Jesus. He is, he constantly has a throng of followers. Dionysus is surrounded by satyrs and maenads and wild animals. Jesus is always surrounded by his disciples. There's the death and the resurrection of it all. There's so much more. There's the wine. There's the blood. I can't make it any clearer than that, you know? And there's more to it than that, and I don't want to make this go for a million years, even though I could. All this to say, I love Dionysus with my whole heart. And he pushes me to do my best, and it's very uncomfortable, and to be my best, which is very uncomfortable. And the biggest thing, That I work on with him is to not become passive in my life because I want to be fully alive and fully censor, really involved with living, and not just let my days go by in a weird gray haze and then I die, and I'm like, what did I even do? I didn't do jack shit on earth with the time I had. So that's what he pushes me to do most. Do I always do it? No, sometimes I flop real hard and he gets mad at me. And I need that kick in the ass. I need him to yell at me sometimes, and I appreciate it. And he does not hold back. So all this to say, if you are thinking about looking into Dionysus, and starting a relationship with him, it's intense, and it's not, it's not party, non stop, ecstasy, nothing but good times, but he will meet you where you're at, and he won't push you into something if you're not ready or you don't want to. He is a very wonderful, compassionate, complex, multifaceted man. What else did I want to say? There's so much I want to say, but I'll wrap it up with some nice offerings and devotional activities that I like to do for him. A lot of the offerings, obviously wine. It's a no brainer. He's the god of wine. It's like one of the easiest things to give him. It's so accessible. I like to give him musk incense. I have found that he really likes that. Anything purple, purple candles, purple clothing, purple jewelry. He loves the color purple. That's one of his main associated colors. Ivy. It's one of his main associated plants. You can't go wrong with it. You can grow it. You can have fake ivy. I have a lot of fake ivy around my home for him because I have a hard time keeping real ivy alive for some reason. And I just got to do what works best. You can dance. You can be outside. You can be in nature. You can watch a movie. You can grow something. You can create art. Literally, just like the act of creation itself is something that is like so meaningful and important as a devotee of Dionysus. And that, I think that'll do it. I do want to give a special shout out to the movie Monkey Man, written, directed, and starring Dev Patel. It's a low key sleeper Dionysus hit that I was not expecting. When I started watching it, cause I knew very little about it in the theater. I just knew Dev Patel's hot and I want to see him act. And it's a deeply Dionysian movie. And I was like, Oh, this is going on the list. So go watch monkey man. It's a great fucking movie. And I think that might do it for me. I think I'm out of steam. I think I've talked for so long.

Poppy

know so much more about Dionysus now.

River

He also was the one that gave Midas the golden touch. Yeah, that was Dionysus. And there are a million other myths and a million other stories and you can look them up on your own. I'm tired of talking.

Skye

Well, in that case, I will take the baton from you

River

Please, it's so heavy.

Skye

and I will try my very best to give you just a very basic understanding of the Morrigan because much like Hades and Dionysus, she is also multifaceted, misunderstood, just up top. I want to say that unlike Hades and Dionysus being in the Greek pantheon, which a lot of people. in pop culture have at least a base knowledge of Celtic and Irish mythology. At least me as a dumb American. I'm working from nothing. Right. So, and also to piggyback off of Poppy, much like Hades, the Morrigan also encourages me to sort of follow my own path, to not research too much, especially online. She kind of wants me to come to my own conclusions. That being said, she does encourage me to read physical books to learn about her, to sort of bounce off of. And much like River, I do have two book recommendations that I referenced for my notes today, both of which are written by Stephanie Woodfield, who is a priestess of the Morrigan. The first book that I ever bought from her is called Priestess of the Morrigan, Prayers, Rituals, and Devotional Work to the Great Queen. And the other is called Celtic lore and spellcraft of the dark goddess invoking the Morrigan. Both are great books if you are interested in learning about the Morrigan. And taking a deeper dive, I would recommend looking into both of those books. Also just up top, again, I am a stupid American. I'm probably going to mispronounce some names or titles or just the way that my accent is. It'll sound kind of silly. So please bear with me. I'm going to read through them and pretend like I'm saying them correctly. I'm probably saying them incorrectly, but sorry.

River

We're doing our best. Ha

Skye

I'm doing my best here. And again, I can't reiterate enough. I am not a theologian. I'm not an expert. I'm just learning and trying my best and basing it off of my vibes and these books and the information given to me. So with that, I'll dive in. So obviously some people might be aware of the Morgan. I think she's becoming more and more popular. you know, a lot of people kind of clumper in with Hecate. And all these other dark goddesses and whatnot. So, you know, of course, a guitar becoming popular with the character more in my opinion, not an accurate reflection of who the Morgan is, although she shares a name with her. But you might know her just very generally as being a war goddess and being like the crow lady, right? You might see her on a bloody battlefield with, like, a big sword and like crows. And that might be the extent of your knowledge. And that was the extent of my knowledge when I was first looking into her. but she's also known for other animal totems, like wolves, eels, and cows, specifically a white heifer. Let's all take a moment to laugh at the word heifer.

Poppy

Heffa!

River

ha ha ha ha ha.

Skye

So let's let's talk about her name, right the Morrigan so more means great and Morrigan means queen. So she is the great queen That is what her name means. She's also called the Phantom Queen because much like Hades, she is very mysterious and I'll get into that a little bit later, but let's also talk about, does the the matter in talking about the Morrigan? Can you just say Morrigan or does it really matter if you say the Morrigan? Uh, yeah, it does actually matter. Her name is the Morrigan. Okay. Her name is not Great Queen. She is the Great Queen and you should say it properly. There might be people who disagree, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Again, my understanding is that her name is the Morgan. that is how she introduced herself to me. That is how she is referred to historically. The, the, as part of her name, just like her husband, who is the dog, duh, who I will very briefly get into later. And, and what's the deal with her triple goddess thing?

River

Yeah, what's up with that?

Skye

who, is she one person? Is she three people? Is she like 10 people? What's her whole deal with that? So let's get into that. Little bit of history in the book of invasions, which is an old book. that has a grouping of poems about myth and folklore, that essentially intends to tell the history of England. There is a genealogy of the gods of Ireland, and the most commonly accepted trio of the Morrigan are the three daughters of Earnmoss, who is a mother goddess, and those daughters are Macca, Bithe, and Anu. And there are many other people and goddesses who will also get associated in Clumpton, but these are like your main three, Maka, Baiv, and Anu. So, she appears as one and many, and as one, She contains every facet of the three, but you can work with the individual facets of the Morrigan individually, right? So let's get to know each of these three facets of her a little bit. Anu covers sovereignty, so she's about holding strong and knowing your worth. Maka is the warrior aspect of her. She's about considering strategy and building strong foundations. And she has died and reborn many, many times, much like Dionysus. And so she kind of covers that topic of rebirth. She's strategy, fighting, and then she dies and gets reborn and re strategizes and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you have Five, who, she is both known as the Battle Crow, as a dancing naked old woman atop spear points. while executing frenzy and madness,

River

Love that. Love her deal.

Skye

Yeah. But she's also known as the washer at the Ford. And so that's about emphasizing the need to cleanse after battle. I feel like it's a little bit common in pop culture to hear that washer of the Ford thing. So she's commonly known for washing the armor of men who will fall in and which also goes to show her keen sense of purpose. So she's, and she's also known to be the most harsh of the sisters, but it's because she's direct and blunt. She really likes to get to the heart of the matter. She's really not here for your bullshit. Which I've experienced directly. Anyway, those are sort of the three sisters. I personally work with The sort of figurehead, the capital T, capital M, the Morrigan. I haven't really delved into getting to know each of the sisters individually like I would like to, but I've experienced each facet of these sisters within the Morrigan. While working with the Morrigan, each of them kind of shined through in each of their own unique ways. So what does she look like? Who knows? Don't know, right? she is a shapeshifter. Those animals that I told you about earlier? Yes, she can be all of them. She can be a wolf, she can be a cow, she can be an eel, she can be a crow. She can be an old woman dancing atop your spear point. She has been called a red woman, insinuating that perhaps that she has red hair makes sense for Ireland. She's also been described as being pale with dark hair, but she basically is just whatever she feels that you need to see in that moment. And for me, I have never seen her. She typically appears behind my left shoulder. I can just, Feel her presence when she is near. So I have never seen her and couldn't tell you what she looks like. She sends crows. Sometimes it's about all I got for you on appearances. Is she a triple goddess? Does she fall under that mother maiden crone archetype? She is three. Yes. She's a triple goddess in the aspect that there are technically three sisters, but no, she is not a triple goddess in the aspect of. Falling under the Mother Maiden Crone, and that's because each facet of her, all of these sisters are just so multifaceted in their own right that I don't think that it would be fair to plug and chug them into, like, any of those Mother Maiden Crone archetypes, because they wouldn't completely fit moving on. I will circle back to the Dogda. Her husband.

River

Ooh, married.

Skye

only does not only does she have kids, sometimes it's argued that she maybe doesn't have kids, but whatever. The Dogda is for sure her husband. So the, the Dogda. Tua de Danan, which is the name for the grouping of gods, that's like what their pantheon is called, he is the leader of them, and that roughly translates to the tribe of the goddess Danu. So he's sort of your Odin Zeus type, to where he's like the most powerful guy in the pantheon, and he has also fathered a bunch of the other prominent gods. And they have their union on Samhain by a river forward. So they fuck nasty in the river on Halloween.

River

As they

Poppy

Oh, I wish that was me.

Skye

should.

River

sexiest way to do it.

Skye

So that's kind of like her in a nutshell of like the misconceptions about her, who she actually is, her faces and whatnot. my practice with her, I do have an altar space dedicated just to her, much like River. I have a statue of her. It's bronze. I change it up seasonally. I have associated accoutrement, you know. Lots of crow things. I have a feather and whatnot. As far as offerings, I also most commonly give red wine because she's associated with the color red and the color black and blood and all that stuff. I have given my personal blood to her as an offering before. I do daily tarot readings just to check in with her. I use the Wildwoods tarot. It's very good. That's the deck that I have devoted specifically to the Morrigan. I did a reading with it and asked her what card was her. And she told me that it was essentially I think it's called the North Pole Star, which is the, like, the star card in traditional tarot obviously, in the writer way, she's associated with the death card. I count to nine frequently. She's associated with the number nine, which is divisible by three. And that is because she is historically known to have nine tresses of hair or nine braids in her hair. So she is associated with the number nine. So any little thing like. If I'm pumping my conditioner or putting drops of essential oil or anything or doing anything that just needs a certain amount, I will try to do the number nine just as a little nod to her throughout my day, blood and bones went a little bit over the blood thing. I also have done some work with bones, been collecting bones. I made river and poppy wands made out of bones. And I work out, uh, taking care of the body, taking care of that, you know, warrior spirit is very good for the Morgan. She loves that, but that's not enough. She also wants you to take care of your mind, continuing education, not only learning just about her, but just learning in general and making sure that you have your wits about you. And that you are aware. of the world and that you have your head on straight and that your body is able to move. And she's really about authenticity and personal sovereignty, much like that aspect of Anu. So, you know, she just basically wants you to have all the tools at your disposal so that you can be self sufficient. Even if you don't have to be, because it's, it's good to be self sufficient. So that way you can feel that personal power so that you always have someone to rely on, that no matter what life throws at you, you'll be okay and prepared, and a lot of that is shadow work. We'll talk a lot about shadow work in this podcast. I'm sure facing that ugly head on it's a necessary evil. We also work a lot with. Building and maintaining personal sovereignty. Yeah, the maintaining personal sovereignty is really difficult. Building it up is really fun and exciting. Maintaining it, maintaining routines is tough, you know, because things happen and things throw you off your routine and you move or a big life change happens and you got to readjust and you got to adapt, you know. so I feel like sovereignty is sort of this big word that we don't really know what it means because you can say, oh, I'm trying to establish personal sovereignty or I have personal sovereignty. But what does that even mean? So sovereignty, when you think about it, you think about royalty and rulership and how they, like a king or queen has sovereignty over their people. Right? And how do you apply that to your own life? Well, I may not be a queen in my own right, but I can express that same sort of principle in my own life, whereas If I am my queen in my life, my house is my castle and, you know, I have to take care of myself first. If I am not well, then I can't take care of the, the land and the other people. So the citizens or the people that you rule over, for example, might be the, just the people in your life in general, the people outside of your castle. And you can't take care of the people outside of your castle. unless you take care of yourself in the castle first. So it's just sort of that, if you can shift your perspective into how can I rule my life, it makes it a little bit easier to see how you are important because you can think so narrow mindedly and be like, well, It doesn't really matter if I let X, Y, Z go because I'm just me and who am I? It's like, bitch, you're literally the ruler of your own life. You need to have personal sovereignty. Like nothing's

River

the most important person in your life.

Skye

Literally. It's like, if you don't have personal sovereignty, everything will fall to shit and you're going to get bad when everything falls to shit, when you don't have personal sovereignty. Like, who are you? Bitch stand up. Anyway, I'm really heated right now. She gets really, she gets me really passionate. Uh, that leads me into rest and burnout.

River

Naturally.

Skye

Yeah, that, warrior spirit fighting head on and, knowing when, you know, sometimes she needs to yell at me to stand up and take action. And then other times when I'm just doing too much and she's like, you need to go to sleep. You need to rest or else you won't be able to get anything done. You're not going to be the quality of your work is not going to be good. And it's going to be pointless. So learning that balance. General growth to level up and unfortunately a lot of the times this means circling back to basics. Remembering my foundation and my why. It sometimes can feel like you're backpedaling a little bit when you are actually leveling up, right? Because you think, I don't want to say that you feel like you're holier than thou, but if you do all this work, you're like, that's all behind me. That's beginner shit. I don't need to do that anymore.

Poppy

done the work.

Skye

I've done the work, I made it here, and it's like no,

River

I'm going to be here forever, baby.

Poppy

I

Skye

and you're not, unfortunately.

River

absolutely not.

Skye

Sometimes in order to move forward, you have to go back. And it's a, it's a tough lesson. But, questions from either of you?

Poppy

think you? covered everything.

River

Yeah, I just feel like a sponge. I'm just soaking it all up.

Skye

Good. I guess I'll, I'll end on if anybody wants to learn about the Morgan again, those books that I referenced last. are really great sources. Unfortunately, I don't want to speak for everybody. But unfortunately, the things that I have found online are, I don't know, I feel like that's part of the reason why she really encourages me to just kind of do my own thing and figure out my own thing, because there are some people who feel like there is a concrete way of doing things with certain gods, and it's simply not true. And that might be true for them, but truly, we all have our own individual relationship. with our gods and they might tell us something different than they would tell someone else.

River

Oh, for

Skye

So, so I really just follow your truth, follow what feels right. And even if, like, I'm telling you she's associated with the number nine and the colors. red and black, you might see green and be like, this is so Morgan coded and that's so valid. So follow your heart, follow your truth. Do do some research on a God, no matter who your God is, like read a literal book and find some historical, you know, manuscripts, their original folklore and myth, and come to your own conclusions. Maybe do some divination, do some tarot, do some. Uh, what's it called? Pendulum work or however you do divination. Find the, like journaling, do some answers of your own and kind of put the pieces together from there and kind of try to puzzle piece that into your own daily routine and your own practice and however that works for you, um, and look for signs and keep your eyes and your mind open.

River

Yeah. And also ask for specific signs so you

Skye

for specific

River

for sure that's what it's supposed to be, because that's what I have to do because I'm a dumb little baby.

Skye

and don't fucking ignore them, by the way. Hey, when they give them to you, don't ignore them because they will get mad.

River

Yeah.

Poppy

Or they'll give up. They're like, okay, you're not open for business. Fine with me. Less work for me.

Skye

That's all I got for you.

Poppy

Well,

River

What a, What an episode.

Poppy

Episode two.

River

dense, knowledgeable, intelligent.

Skye

It's going to be a flop.

River

Yeah. That's what the coin said.

Skye

We'll see. The

River

Sorry about it. The numbers won't lie. Everybody like and subscribe to prove the coin

Skye

it's going to be an almost two hour long

Poppy

Yeah. It's

River

It's a lot to cover and we barely scratched the surface. There's still so much

Poppy

It's so

River

On every single god that we've talked about.

Poppy

but we'll, you know, we'll come back every Thursday. We'll give you a little tasty bite of whatever we have cooking. If you want to get in contact with us for any reason, you want to let us know, send us. Send us your hate mail, send us your recipes, send Love mail, whatever, whatever you want, you can send that to deathcovenpod at gmail. com. That's death as in death, coven as in coven, pod as in podcast at gmail. com. You can also follow us on Instagram. at Deathcovenpod. Who knows what we'll have on there, but there will

River

I don't.

Poppy

Who knows what the

Skye

Depends on when you're listening to

Poppy

Yeah.

River

Yeah.

Poppy

And with that, we will, say so long, farewell, alfeater saying goodbye, By the power of three.

River

And so it is.

Poppy

And so it is.

Skye

so it is.

Poppy

See you next week. Bye bye!