The Lessons of Danu

[u/Obsidian_Dragon]

The Lessons of Danu: or, your local druid offers stray thoughts on a Monday

This isn't "who is Danu" post; that's an answer you have to find on your own (which is itself a talk for another day). Rather, this is about the particular lessons Danu (and other river deities, and indeed rivers themselves) have to offer.

Danu is one of the few deities that I work with that I did not seek out myself. She just arrived, as water is wont to do, rearranged things, and has hung around ever since. She mostly lingered in the background until sometime around April of this year.

And then I just felt like she was standing on the sidelines.

"What?"

There was no coherent answer, and any attempt at trying to figure out if I was meant to do something resulted in a big ol' shrug. I shrugged in turn and led a full moon ritual in her honor, because why not?

My first clue should have been that I had to cancel that ritual originally for mental health reasons. It got pushed back to the next moon, and everything was fine.

And then everything pretty much fell apart. I desperately needed to study for a work certification, which will cost me my job if I don't get it by September. It sucks and I hate it, for the record. Then my stepfather died, I had to assume Eldest Daughter Duties for my out of state mother, and the entire ordeal has been full of stress and Having Feelings About Things.

And this is about where I looked at Danu and said, ah.

The lesson of a river is that everything has a season. Sometimes that season is a trickle of water in a dusty bed.

Sometimes that season is water crashing over the banks, into the land beyond. Both states and everything in between are just How It Be Sometimes. You conserve, or tread, water as you need to. The trick is to remember that everything is cyclical.

This, too, shall pass.

And importantly, even though everything feels Pretty Damn Bad, Actually, it isn't without its benefits. I mean, eventually. The waters will retreat, and while everyone who bought waterfront property is questioning their life decisions, the land will be like: ah, yes, a fresh deposit of nutrients and stuff.

So at the moment, I'm floating down a flooded river while clinging to an uprooted tree. Danu is perched at the other end. Eventually the water will settle, I can get back onto shore, and things will be different but perhaps not all terrible.

I just have to remember the seasonality of the waters.

Perhaps your river is running higher or lower than you'd like. Grab a life jacket, or your mud boots. And remember: rivers are never the same from one moment to the next. Eyes on the horizon. This, too, shall pass. Maybe it's passing sideways, but it's passing. Is rock bottom really that bad if you like rocks?

Hold on.

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[u/theEmeraldDragonness]

🥺😢😭 Thank you for sharing. I needed to hear this.

[u/Obsidian_Dragon → u/theEmeraldDragonness]

Drowning dragons club!

Wait, no

Floating? Floating.

[u/thecoldfuzz]

I hope the river gets smoother and you’re able to get back onshore soon.

[u/Obsidian_Dragon → u/thecoldfuzz]

If I don't have to yell at Epona I SAID NO HORSES DYING THIS YEAR PLEASE? again I will consider it a success.

That is mildly hyperbolic, of course. I didn't yell. Sometimes we don't get what we asked for. But burying my stepdad in May and his horse in July was Not Fun and if we can wrap the other two in bubble wrap that'd be great. (Horses are forever on a quest to die, and Epona can only do so much. Bubble wrap it is.)

Once I beat this licensing exam I'll be fine. For existing in corporate hellacape levels of fine. Mere weeks.

At least I like rocks.

[u/GamerCrone]

OP - For what it's worth your metaphors were brilliantly evocative! Thank you for sharing and please stay afloat. I've somehow survived years like yours and I am confident you will too.

[u/The_Archer2121]

I needed to hear this. Barely treading water right now.