Queering Mary, Mother of Crows

8th in my Queering Deities is here – ‘Queering Mary, Mother of Crows’!

The model is herself called Crow, a witch who lives in Cornwall and runs @marget.inglis_witchcraft. She posed as a combination of the Virgin Mary and the crow goddess The Morrigan, who we see in the stained glass either side and which reflect parts of Crow’s story. Crow in her own words said:

“Although others might choose to call me queer or bisexual I wouldn’t use those terms because I have a strong dislike of labels and a belief that we are all individuals and no category can really encompass who we are. I’m just Crow.

I first encountered the Morrigan in my very early 20s when I was training to be initiated into a Gardnerian Wiccan coven and was also studying Celtic art and literature at university. Suddenly everything I read, saw or talked about seemed to be about this Irish battle goddess even though there wasn’t much information about her. I soon realised I had a strong connection with this deity and when I decided to change my name it was her I asked to give me a new one. I’ve been called Crow for 32 years now.

I was brought up a Catholic and have always loved the Virgin Mary. When I was a small girl I wanted to be a nun and I was completely drawn to the idea of a life of dedication to the Mother of God. When my partner and I decided that we wanted to have a baby and we found a donor for sperm I decided to petition Mary in particular to help. I remember lying on the bed in the hotel room and reading the passage from the Annunciation to myself from the hotel Bible the first time we tried for me to get pregnant. I soon found that that attempt had worked-my daughter was conceived at Samhain and born on the summer solstice. I envisage Mary as the goddess that the church could not crush; she stands in place for all the goddesses in the lands where Christianity converted the population. To me, the Mother of Crows is my example of how I see the Morrigan within the traditional pattern of Mary.”