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jupiterjunebug · 1 day ago

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House of Black + the Morrigan

I’ve been thinking a lot about the gear @tommyend and the House of Black wore at All In 2024, and what’s transpired both within and outside the House since then. I wanted to lay out what I’ve been able to find and interpret and what it may mean for the future of the faction. There’s some interesting implications for the overall metanarrative of AEW that I’ve decided to save for a follow-up post as this is already quite lengthy, but this is the foundation for things to hopefully follow.

As is fairly typical with PPVs, the House of Black tends to wear gear to the ring that has a particularly special significance; while there are recurring images of importance (mostly in the form of colour palettes, Malakai’s eye, and the masks he wears on a given show) seen at other times, the PPV gear always stands out, and All In is no exception.

Initially – based on the hint in this post – I had wondered if the “3 spirits” in question might be the Furies, which may not have been far off. @gravekeptsecret found this post for me in which the artist who made Malakai’s mask acknowledges the Morrigan more explicitly, which has essentially been the starting point for the analysis to follow. I wasn’t very familiar with the Morrigan as a folkloric/mythological figure, so I went digging, and while I don’t think I’ve been able to identify every image or symbol in the gear from All In, I did notice a few things with some potentially very interesting implications.

There have been a number of attempts to translate or break down the etymology of the “Morrigan” over the years; the most prevalent that I’ve seen analyse her name in one of two ways. One is to translate the first syllable mor as “great” or big,” and to translate rigan as “queen” – so “Great Queen,” put together. The other – and perhaps more significant for our purposes here – is to suggest that mor shares an etymological root with the Old High German mara and the Anglo-Saxon maere, through which we eventually arrive at the modern English “nightmare.” This produces an approximate translation that sits closer to “Phantom Queen.”

Some of the complexity around understanding the nature of the Morrigan and the beliefs surrounding her comes from the process of transcribing ideas that were largely conveyed through an oral tradition, especially when much of this writing was carried out by Christian scribes and monks as well as classical scholars. These writers inevitably had some of their own ideas that bled into how we understand the Morrigan today – but, interestingly, has also resulted in her name appearing in the glossaries of Christian and biblical texts in some places. For example, in the Vulgate (a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible), the word ‘morigain’ is seen defined as ‘lamia, the Greek child-devouring female witch’. Elsewhere, in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, morigain is identified as the “night hag”; we’ll come back to this idea in more depth a bit later on.

All of this seems to be describing a single or unified figure—so why 3 spirits? Triple or triune deities were fairly common in the Celtic traditions from which the Morrigan arose; and as mentioned we do seem to run into some trouble here arising from different translations, the discrepancies between different records of oral tradition, etc., but there are nonetheless three personages (by various names) that are largely linked into a trio under the “Morrigan” umbrella.

I was able to find a few iterations. One describes the trio as Neman (also spelled Nemain, translated in some sources as Terror or Panic), Macha, and Morrigu (also spelled Morrigan). In other sources we see Badhb replacing Nemain; or we see Macha, Morrigan, and Badhb as the trio. In any event, taken together, these three figures get described as a group of three sisters (Morrigna), or as supernatural beings who haunt the battlefield (Badba).

A recurring image surrounding this triad – and one that appears in numerous places on the House’s gear at All In – relates to crows, ravens, or carrion birds more broadly. With the capacity for shapeshifting, the Morrigan ‘frequently appeared among opposing armies as crows or ravens, sinister black carrion birds of death’.

In terms of crows specifically, there seems to be a suggestion that crows were often represented not only as omens of what was to come, but as agents in fulfilling it; this has some significance for Malakai specifically that I’ll get into later, but it conveys some interesting ideas about how “fate” was understood in this context.

For now it’s enough to say that the Morrigan appearing in the form of a bird or a crow ‘frequently denotes an ill omen, usually one that heralds a death’. Because these birds were often understood as scavengers, they tended to gather near battlefields waiting for corpses to eat. They weren’t necessarily interpreted as being evil creatures – which is something that has been a significant part of the House’s portrayal as neither unequivocally good nor unequivocally evil as well – but their presence nonetheless suggested some kind of impending danger or threat that would affect the living.

I want to also return to the “hag” imagery surrounding the Morrigan here. I think there are two major points of interest. The first is visual: all three men of the House had gear made involving claws and horns in some capacity. Malakai’s long-haired bone mask might be particularly striking, but all three of them—in addition to the crow imagery—seem to be coming in this most ominous form, this form most connected with death and war and tragedy and terror. They’re accompanied by a silent standard-bearer who also forms part of this war-like image.

In one description of the Morrigan in her hag-like form, she’s depicted “with grey dishevelled hair, blood-draggled, and with sharp-boned arms and fingers crook’d and spare, dabbling and washing in the ford, where mid-leg deep she stood beside a heap of heads and limbs that swam in oozing blood.” When asked who she was and what she was doing during this episode, the Morrigan announced that she was the Washer of the Ford and that the human remains she was washing were those of an armed force that was about to be killed in the coming battle. There’s some fairly clear similarity between this description and the long dark hair that’s part of Malakai’s mask; the presence of horns and claws; the patches of red in all three of their jackets. Red, especially, is a colour associated with war and death in the Celtic context; and Malakai has also linked the colour red with moments of particularly significant change in the history of the House and their opponents.

The hag or crone within Celtic folklore is often also presented as interpreting or prophesying the future, and has ‘the ability to transform into a raven, a crow, a hare, or a weasel,’ not dissimilar from the Morrigan’s own shapeshifting powers. There’s a strong link with the figure of the banshee as well in this respect.

Since the banshee is often understood to be a member of the fairy castes, it’s interesting that in some sources the Morrigan is also depicted as living in the sidhe, hills and raths and ring forts around the countryside that may have eventually evolved into beliefs about the faery palaces. These were often ruins of Stone Age structures and frequently play a role in Irish stories of faeries avenging themselves on humans who interfered with these dwelling places. (As a side note, Malakai mentions a ‘hollow’ and a ‘stone abyss’ in the caption of one of his recent Instagram posts which may be connected.)

I also want to briefly mention that there’s patches of grey fur stitched into their clothes at All In. I’m not absolutely certain of this, but I think that may be linked to one of the shapeshifting appearances of the Morrigan, when she appears as a grey wolf to attack the hero Cu Chulainn as part of her revenge for him rejecting her. We’ve seen more grey in the House of Black’s gear in general recently as well, which suggests a certain moral ambiguity (no man is ever truly good…) as well as a possible link with banshees who were often depicted wearing white or grey clothing, so that may also be a link between the colour grey and impending death.

Another image I noticed on all three ring jackets appears to be heads or skulls on stakes, which you can make out pretty well in this photo in addition to the grey fur patches.

This seems to have a link with two of the figures typically understood in connection with the Morrigan, namely Macha and Badhb. There’s mentions of the ‘mast,’ or food, of Macha being the heads of men slain in battle, in various sources, which may in part be tied to beliefs about the head being the residing place of the human soul. However, we also see a similar idea in one of the myths when, after the death of Cu Chulainn, Conall Cernach (another Irish hero) ‘returns to Ulster with Cu Chulainn’s head along with the heads of the warriors’ who killed him. Conall Cernach then proceeds to ‘[place] the cuailli Badbha [or] ‘stakes of the Badb’ all around a meadow,’ namely placing the heads of the men he has killed on stakes as trophies by way of his revenge. It’s possible then that the “mast of Macha” and the “stakes of the Badb” ‘referred to the same martial practice,’ so I find it interesting that this image appeared in multiple places on the House of Black’s gear.

The last symbol I was able to make out I’m admittedly not sure about, but it appears in a few places and seems to be three arrows in a bow. I wasn’t able to find additional mythological significance for this symbol, but there are three men in the House, and the House rules do point to imagery around arrows as well: “My past has shaped and guided me; it is not a crutch, but an arrow.” The presence of arrows could suggest preparing for a hunt, while the crossed swords on the standard-bearer’s flag is a symbol usually associated with readiness for war or battle. Taken together with the scythe symbol that we most often see associated with the House of Black, we have essentially three phases or aspects of the life and death cycle: hunting, war and death, and reaping or harvest. (credit to @gravekeptsecret for figuring this out)

(image credits fluxtidedesigns and soy_takeda)

Having laid out the symbols I’ve been able to make out, I think it’s worth visiting a little more of what the Morrigan (alone or as a triad) are more specifically portrayed as doing, since I think that has some interesting implications for the House’s current storyline and the way the faction seems to be evolving.

Prophesying or forecasting an impending death – whether in the form of a carrion bird, or in the form of the various hag-like figures that appear and are also reflected in the All In gear – is perhaps the easiest place to start. This wouldn’t be the first time that the House has engaged with the idea of death not as a permanent ending but rather as part of the process of change and renewal, and I think it’s within that same context that they’ve appeared here as a trio of war/death goddesses. After the war, what grows from the battlefield? What life comes after the violence, once the quiet falls again and the decay left behind is able to feed and replenish the soil?

I want to put all of this back in the context of the post where I started. I don’t think it’s the only place Malakai’s mentioned the presence of “omens” or other entities “possessing” the vessel that was Tommy End, but it’s a fairly recent one, so we’ll use it for our purposes here. It’s interesting in the context of the entity calling itself Malakai also being referred to as a “messenger,” where it shares a name (albeit with the Dutch spelling) with the biblical prophet Malachi. If Malakai serves as a mouthpiece for other entities, or has done so in the past, when they have something to say or express—or, in the most literal interpretation of the word “omen,” to warn the AEW locker room and fans about—the it stands to reason that the Morrigan could be speaking through him, too, in some way. It stands to reason that if the entity calling itself Malakai could enter through the damaged eye, that that could be a possible entrance point for other spirits or entities to come and go, too.

However, for a possession to take place, there has to have been a human soul, right? There’s some, I think, deliberate vagueness about the transition from Aleister Black to Malakai Black – but this video package posted pretty early in Malakai’s time with AEW makes the transition from Tommy End to Malakai Black fairly explicit.

[Excerpt of the transcript:

Doctor 1: You know you shouldn't get in fights with the other patients, especially Matthew.

MB: You mean being pushed into the stairs. That's what you mean.

Doctor 1: Tom, how many times have we talked about this? That didn't happen. It's all in your head.

MB: All in my head. Speaking of in my head, how's your neck?

Doctor 2: See, this is your problem. You think everything's a joke, and we're sitting here trying to help you. All you have to do is go to your meetings. Take your medicine. Maybe you'll start improving. You've been here for five years!

Doctor 1: Tom, I have to agree with my young colleague over here. It's been five years. You're not getting any better, Tom.

MB: Last time. Last time I'm gonna say this. My name isn't Tom. My name is -

Doctor 2: Your name is Tom! [...] We gotta get some help. Tom, can you hear us right now?

[...] Doctor 1: Tommy? Are you okay?

MB: I'm fine. You, on the other hand. You won't be. Doc, in all the years of digging through my head, you never thought that any of this was real?

Doctor 2: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Tom.

MB: Tom? My name isn't Tom. My name is Malakai.]

It’s heavily implied that the spirit or demon Malakai entered through the eye that was wounded by Buddy Matthews when they were both in WWE.

It’s also shown, however, that there seem to be multiple competing voices or entities in Tommy’s/Malakai’s head, and it looks like a battle that Tommy is losing in this instance. It’s the repeated insistence by the doctors in this video that “your name is Tom” that lets those other voices come more strongly to the forefront, and ultimately win. We kind of see neither hide nor hair of “Tom” for years after that; it doesn’t seem to always or exclusively be “Malakai” that’s in control, but if there are other entities that show up, they don’t seem to be human in nature or intent either.

Later, though, we see a pair of video packages that also didn’t air on TV (to my knowledge) but were posted to Malakai’s Instagram fairly close together. I’d seen them before, but hadn’t quite made the connection between the two; if you watch them together, they start to sound increasingly like a dialogue between two different characters.

For one, Malakai’s voice is noticeably different in tone and timbre between them; but the wording is different, too. The first video (dated February 5) is more vulnerable, confused, maybe even afraid – like someone who’s just woken up from a nightmare and hasn’t quite found the line between the reality and the dream. The second video (dated April 5) is more confrontational, maybe even angry in places, arrogant in others. I don’t think we’ve seen this dialogue come into its full fruition yet, but based on the wording (transcribed below), I feel fairly confident in saying that this is a dialogue between “Tom” and “Malakai” … which implies Tom has never been dead, just dormant or suppressed.

[February 5 transcript:

"What is your name? I feel like I woke up in a dream and I do not know who I am. But you, you who bears the name Messenger, are you trying to tell me who I am? Or are you trying to tell me who you are, because who are you? Because you are inside my head. Who are you? Other than the sentences you keep shouting at me. The same sentences over and over like a poem, going back and forth and screaming at me - deep in the shadows where whispers dwell, ancient tales there lie to tell, revered in mystery, his presence known, keeping secrets in the night alone, forging paths where light dares not tread, amidst the silence his words are spread, through the twilight his figure looms, harbinger of faith, in the glooms, echoing strength in the silent night, ruling the darkness with quiet might. What is my name?"]

[April 5 transcript:

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me, then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come. But who can endure the day of his coming? You will know my name. Without me we would still be shackled. I saved us, I was the oxygen in your lungs and now, now you claim I am drowning you. You owe us. Saviour of mankind, I don't think so. I could care less about your moral crusade. Across 24 years, a march both saviour and condemned. Which mountain do you choose to end it all?"]

Equally importantly, in the second “Malakai” video, the character or entity present here seems to present “Tom” with a choice, but it’s a complicated one. He makes it quite clear that he’s not going anywhere, that whatever “Tom” does he’s going to have to do it with “Malakai” present whether he likes it or not. But there’s still a choice to be made: Saviour or condemned – which will we be?

I realized, thinking about this, that this is something not unlike what Malakai has done to his opponents before. He takes certain options away from them, or at least makes them so unbearable or impossible that the only avenue is the one he wants them to take, but still at the end of the day doesn’t seem to have the power to truly force anyone’s hand. He puts FTR in an impossible situation: you can choose your family and “die,” or you can walk through the doors of the House and join them – but you have to walk through the doors willingly. They don’t abduct FTR or simply spirit them away. They create a condition where the alternative – not joining the House – is something insupportable.

He puts Copeland in an impossible situation: cling to your false humanity now that I’ve taken from you and forced you to confront the truth of yourself – or willingly walk through the doors of the House and join them. It almost feels as though there’s some kind of restriction, whether it’s a literal limitation on his power or some kind of code that he holds himself to, that prevents him from simply forcing people to do things.

It's compelling to me, then, that the same logic seems to apply to the internal conflict implied by these two video packages. Malakai doesn’t intend to go anywhere. He doesn’t intend to vacate the vessel he’s taken as his own. But he places the choice of what that means squarely back in Tom’s hands. He only makes it clear that, whatever “Tom” chooses, doing it without Malakai present isn’t a possibility, isn’t an option. It’s reminiscent in some ways of the temptation of the serpent in Eden: the serpent doesn’t tell Adam and Eve they have to eat from the tree. He only plants the idea that not eating from the tree would be worse, because it would leave them in ignorance of good and evil. Eve and Adam ultimately make the choice on their own. (credit again to @gravekeptsecret for connecting these ideas)

There’s also a Bible passage quoted (no doubt intentionally from Malachi 3) in the second video that I think is worth setting down more fully as below:

‘“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver […]’

There’s more to this passage but for this context this is the most important part, I think: if it leads to the House of Black itself being put through a cleansing fire, what comes afterward? Who can endure this process of purification and change? Will they survive it?

This seems to be a fairly slow-burning storyline, something that has been quietly in the works for weeks or even months now, but it’s notable that we’ve seen a fairly significant change in the House’s behaviour since All In.

They shook Pac’s hand after his victory at All In.

Brody shakes Darby’s hand after their match. That’s in large part a nod to their history as shoot friends and kayfabe opponents, but it’s nonetheless a new development; the house has been pretty sparing with their displays of respect for their opponents in the past.

Buddy does engage from a place of being a bit arrogant and challenging in his match against Adam Cole, but it seems to be with the intent of trying to bring the best out of him – in a sense, not unlike the Morrigan goading Irish folkloric heroes to try and get them engaged in, and ultimately victorious through, an impending battle. To what end? Why is it more important that Adam Cole be ready to fight than it is for Buddy to win the match? Why do both Buddy and Malakai shake Adam’s hand afterward, if not because the deal is done? They got what they wanted out of him. The Adam Cole who leaves the ring, having beaten Buddy, has confronted his weakness and vulnerability in a way the Adam Cole who entered the ring had not.

Malakai, in turn, shows a new approach to his match against Cole. He’s given – quite literally handed – the easy option of targeting Adam’s ankle, and explicitly refuses it. He says he’s not going to do that, that he doesn’t want that from Adam. He wants it to be an honest fight, wherein Adam gives the best that he can. When the fight draws to a close, Malakai doesn’t just lose. He welcomes it. He gestures, quite explicitly, for Adam to put an end to the fight, and – in keeping with the promo he gave before the match – an end to him, in some way. He’s invited – or challenged – Adam to silence the voices in his head (that, it seems, have been there since he first came to AEW, and arguably longer), and when the opportunity arises he gets Adam to do it. He accepts his “death” or defeat with deliberateness and intent.

[Excerpt of the promo transcript:

"Maybe I want you to be the person to end all of this for me, to silence these things that I have in my head. Maybe I want you to muffle the noises. Because if you don't, I will drag you down so deep that the blackest black you have ever seen will not compare to what I will show you."]

@gravekeptsecret pointed out that Malakai’s posture toward the end of this match reminded him of capacocha sacrifices or sokushinbutsu/self-mummification practices of extreme asceticism among Buddhist monks, which I found particularly interesting. I’ve linked some articles below if you want to read more about both. There’s almost a dignity in that. It’s over. He can reconcile “Tom” and “Malakai” and find some way forward if the noise in his head falls quiet, if he doesn’t have to keep up the constant fighting.

As a brief sidebar here, the timing of the matches against Adam is interesting. While the Morrigan’s first appearance in AEW happens toward the end of August, I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen another entity appear so clearly and obviously since then, and it stands out that the matches with Adam Cole both surrounded the date of Samhain. It’s a date on which both faeries and spirits of the dead were/are believed to have the capacity to emerge and move freely among living humans. Similarly, in some stories, the Morrigan emerges at Samhain from Oweynagat Cave, which is said to be a passage to or connection point with the Otherworld.

The week following, Malakai wears a mask we haven’t seen before to his match against FTR. While it shares some commonality with other masks that have been associated with the House – we’ve seen a number of versions of it in black, black and green, black and red, black and gold, white and gold – this is, I believe, the first time we’re seeing this mask in pure white. And it’s not just pure white: there are deep cracks in the mask. Like it’s falling apart. Like there’s some fault line in the things it represents that are going to give way to something new that can grow from those cracks. White representing newness, innocence, vulnerability. White representing light. White representing peace.

This has coincided with many other, arguably more subtle, things –

House of Black trying to call the referee’s attention to their opponents cheating/using illegal manoeuvres when they’ve had no issues cheating in the past, whether or on their own or through Julia’s interference (see: Kings of the Black Throne vs. Premier Athletes, Rampage 12.07.2024)

Buddy increasingly gaining the audience’s favour behind him in the wake of being “attacked” by Christian Cage

House of Black starting to leave through the face tunnel (see: Collision 22.06.2024; Dynamite 06.11.2024)

Buddy holding Brody back from chasing after FTR when they were challenged for the tag team match (Collision 09.11.2024)

FTR singling out Malakai in their Dynamite match and denying him the tag out to Brody in a way that’s more commonly seen done by heels to face opponents (in fact, this is something House of Black have done many times) (Dynamite 13.11.2024)

The nature of the House is changing. In what ways or to what end, only time will tell, but it’s noticeable, and I feel quite strongly that it’s something to do with the Malakai/Tom interplay going on in the background.

As I mentioned earlier, all these images and ideas together pose some interesting questions about how we understand Malakai as a “prophet” or messenger in this context. Is he just delivering the information about what will happen? Or is he, perhaps more likely, creating the conditions such that the omens he warns of do happen? Much like the Morrigan, he might have only been warning of or prophesying the future of the House up until now – but even the Morrigan sometimes interfered and created the conditions for victory or defeat of the Irish heroes and their enemies, and much like Malakai carefully manoeuvring his opponents to the outcome he wants, I don’t think we can rule out a similar level of calculation here, even if “Tom” isn’t consciously aware of it.

I don’t know for sure where all of this is going, and I’m definitely speculating here, but I know – or strongly believe – one thing: Tom is awake. He might be changing the course of the House’s future. By appearing as the Morrigan, the three men of the House together could certainly be argued to be forecasting a “death,” and further to have had a hand in creating an environment in which that “prophecy” or omen could come true.

What if the death that’s being forecasted isn’t someone else’s, but rather their own?

What if the House of Black as we know it is dying, to be reborn from those ashes as something altogether new?

---

Sources:

Olivia L. Blessing: "The Morrigan: A Trinity United" (2010)

Angelique Gulermovich-Epstein: "War Goddess: THe Morrigan and Her Germano-Celtic Counterparts" (1998)

W. M. Hennessey: "On the Goddess of War of the Ancient Irish" (1866)

Alexander Haggerty Krappe: "The Valkyrie Episode in the Njals Saga" (1928)

Alicia Karen Littleford: "The Divine Feminine: A Study of the Cyclical Representation of Life and Death in Irish and Norse Female Supernatural Figures" (2023)

Nancy Ann Parker: "The Mythical and Mortal Crone: Recollecting and Reclaiming the Sacred Regeneratrix" (2009)

Emily Asia Ruch: "Wyrd Webs and Woven Words: Archetypal Expressions of Fate in Classical, Celtic, and Norse Mythology" (2021)

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt: "Gods and Heroes of the Celts," translation by Myles Dillon (1994)

Courtney Weber & Lora O'Brien: "The Morrigan: Celtic goddess of magick and might" (2019)

Capacocha

Self-mummification/sokushinbutsu

#yaaaaay malakai black arg analysis time #i will say two things that i have found interesting vis a vis malakai as well #the first is that he has stated in cameos which ask him to reference alistair that he DID kill that man #tho other materials indicate it may not be a true defeat #tommy end explicitly has two spirits within him as a baseline and the one resents the others presence #the other is that he referenced the return of some other spirit earlier this yr via acrostics in his promos #idk if hes still continuing that plotline but i assume he is bc it was in niche enough side materials that i doubt hed do it if he didnt #plan to follow thru #and that spirit is explicitly male #which means unless hes trying to redux aleister in a way that skirts copywrite issues we have #likely four spirits and then end #he also reblogged/cosigned a post a while ago abt his all in 2023 fits which #stated white was indicative of decay #and that might b just him liking the photos but hes usually unafraid to correct details he disagrees with #so i wonder whether the all white mask indicates purity or something different #is it a rebirth or is it the exposure of something rotten #malakai also has stated tommy was inspired by a figure in the borderline apocalypse cult church he grew up in #so the question becomes..#is tommy a figure we WANT to wake up?#anyway lots of talking on my part just to say great meta op #tussling #aew #malakai #hob #i need a malakai tag

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