At this phase of my Priestess Training in Avalon, we are relating to Danu this season, who is known in this tradition as the Ancestress, the ancient mother of Air.
I’ve had a bit of a funny time connecting with Danu. I’ve never really worked with her or heard much about her before. She doesn’t really seem to have a strong personality or mythological story in anything I’ve read so far, so there is not a lot to relate too. Her name gets swapped out for Anu some of the time, who I first learnt about as an abundant earth mother rather than the ice-and-bone ancestress of winter, which bothers me a lot.
So I thought I’d better pull my witchy boots on and do some proper connecting and journeying to understand her a bit more. I plopped myself down at my altar last night, and got in the zone.
I don’t know a lot about Danu historically, other than a few mentions about being the ancestral mother of the Tuatha de Dannan, who were like a demi-god race of people who invaded and ruled Ireland. But this is what I got from her in my meditation with her.
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She is old, so old. Her skin is like soft creased tissue paper, and her fingers long and bony. She is wrapped in a hood of white, and in her hand she holds a cold metal silver staff, which must be icy to the touch. She isn’t bothered.
Everything she does is done with intention. She doesn’t move much, but when she does, she moves: she is doing nothing but moving with complete presence and intention, whether that’s her hand, a step, moving her staff, or when she moves her head, and the sense of pure laser intention and focus is overwhelming. She does nothing that she does not choose: every thought, every step, every breath is chosen. Everything she does is infused with power, as everything she does is the only thing she is focused on for that moment.
When she looks at you, the full force of that intention is behind her stare. She is LOOKING AT YOU, with cold, sharp pale blue-grey eyes. She probably knows everything about you already. It’s like Dumbledore looking at you times a thousand.
She is so present, it’s like she is the realest thing you’ve ever seen.
Every movement comes out of a pool of stillness and silence so deep and profound, it pronounces and emphasises the movements she does choose to take. (This is what I’ve been exploring in my dance for the last 9 months, movement out of stillness, so I found this fascinating and desperately want to be able to aspect her through dance one day in my priestess journey.)
It’s in that intense presence that the stillness comes. She was like when you go for a walk in the snow and everything is still and cold and silent and fresh, and the silence takes you with it.
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I learnt that Danu is about focus and clarity. (Hoo mama is she about focus!) She is one to pray to when you need to focus on a vision, on a project, on a goal, or on finishing your tax return. She’s about being centred and still in yourself, and moving from a place of peace – if Ekhart Tolle had a guiding goddess, it would prob be Her. She’s one to call on when you are suffering from Overactive Brain Syndrome (ie when you are so mussed up in your thoughts you feel awful and can’t focus on anything cos you are listening to all the unhelpful stuff your brain is feeding you instead) cos she’ll knock that crap right out of your head.
And like I’m beginning to suspect all crones are about, she’s happy to help for procrastination as she has a strict and impatient Stop Fucking Around And Just Do It Already policy.
Have you had an experience with Danu, or do you see her differently to me? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!