“False Kings” combines the duty performed by the Mórrígan of deposing oath-breaking kings (for example kings who have selfishly betrayed their duties to care for the land and people) with the ancient Celtic practice of ritually keeping the head of one’s enemies in order to take the power of said enemy for themselves. In this piece, a faceless priestess dances with the bloody heads of two deposed kings in order to banish them further from power and reclaim stolen sovereignty.

“What is a River” explores what happens after all of the previous parts. I asked myself: What comes after all the rage, the battle, the banishment, and the reclamation of power? The answer that arrived was the river. Dissolving. Surrender. Washing away. Un-becoming to become whole again. “What is a River” relates to the story of Odras, in which the Mórrígan turns Odras into a puddle that becomes a river after Odras seeks to prevent the Mórrígan from mating Odras’s cow with the Mórrígan’s bull. It also relates to a scene in the second battle of Maige Tuired when the Mórrígan awaits her husband at the River Unshin, placing one foot on each bank of the river and washing her vulva in anticipation of his arrival. The place in the river is henceforth called ”the bed of the couple.”

“Dignity” is the re-awakening of the dreamer. The first layer that must be removed is the mask and regalia of the Mórrígan. They are honored and thanked, but set aside so that the dreamer can find her true skin in human form. The second layer is the warrior woman: strong, present, firm in her boundaries. By remembering her innate strength, the dancer can remove the warrior woman’s costume. She lets down her hair and for the first time begins to feel pretty. But this prettiness is an expectation, not authenticity. The pain of this becomes a menstrual cramp. Her blood is supposed to stay hidden, but her cycle is a profound feminine experience and she discovers it gives her wings and the power of letting go. She recognizes the true source of the cramping: the constriction of being “pretty” and is able to escape it, coming into her emotional heart. The dreamer experiences love, heartbreak, emotional possession, and painful obsession. Coming home to her own skin requires being free from possession. She finds skin, but it is not her own. It is made up of labels, judgments, and more expectations. She peels it away, finally finding her real form: not glamorous, but beautiful because it is real. She crowns herself with natural beauty, and this act reveals wings and a true love that she didn’t know was possible. Coming fully into her body, she embraces herself and surrenders: disentangling her feminine sexuality from patriarchal appropriation, enraptured in reverence and dignity.