Creiddylad Goddess of Spring bless these precious seeds, seedlings yearning to show. Bless these precious embryos.
Creiddylad Goddess so green, bless these precious seeds so like our deepest dreams from Annwn they will grow.
A prayer to Creiddylad for the blessing of seeds at sowing time in Creiddylad’s Garden. This year I’m growing salad and herbs including lettuce, spinach, parsley, coriander and chamomile and wild and cultivated flowers for pollinators such as cornflowers, poppies, foxgloves, vervain, calendula and dianthus. Some for pots and troughs and others to join the ox-eye daisies, ragged robin, pink campion and others in my wildflower patch.
Mither voices through the mizzle, through the mist, mist-numb mutters. He fails to muster them at first with His voice. Hoofbeats louder, huge round hoofbeats of His Horse.
“COME!”
Mistlings mither through the mizzle, seep, sink, sit, slither in the godless grey drizzle of forgetting until the voice of a God loud as the cracking of glass beneath the hooves of His horse calls.
“COME! COME!”
Awake the mistlings remembering, their misting reassembling into a mither of forms. They look like something viewed through cracked glass. They teeter, totter, diused limbs pale, severed, crunch of footfalls.
“COME! COME! COME!”
Oh the baying of the hounds rounding, bounding, barks, bristling hackles, woofs reign! He rounds them up, gentle guidance, touch of red nose, hand on arm, “Don’t dither,” “remember, remember, remember.”
“COME! COME! COME TO MY FORT!”
Oh these feet know the path, the way when the mind does not, misty heel, misty toe. One foot before another soul-forms remembering forest, foray up river, up hill, up mountain, to the in-the-air turning fort.
“COME! COME! COME TO MY HALL!”
Misted ones mix and dance no longer mizzle-like but blue and red as blood and water, the only drizzle sweat upon their brows before they sit and partake in the feast of holy leaf-meat and ever-flowing mead.
“COME! COME! COME TO MY CAULDRON!”
This drink is not one of forgetting – they know themselves now and the pain as He sings their soul-names voice resounding like the sound of shattered glass is outweighed by beauty.
“COME! COME! COME TO BE REBORN!”
The waters in the cauldron are blue as the infinite seas of the Deep and filled with blood and there are stars shining and each beholds a star and reaches out and becomes like glass.
A poem and artwork that came to me as I was revisiting the traditional lore in recent articles based on my experiences of witnessing Gwyn guiding the passage and rebirth of souls.
In my last article I put forward an argument that Annwn is primarily a land of the living through which the souls of the dead pass to be reborn.
The notion that the soul does not stay in the spirit world for good but takes a new form bears similarities to the Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism). Scholars and modern druid orders have noted the similarities between the doctrine of reincarnation and ancient British beliefs about the soul being immortal and passing into a new body after death along with other parallels such as the likeness between the Brahmins and Druids. (1)
References to reincarnation are found in the Rig Veda and Upanishads and the Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) lays out a detailed picture of the processes the soul undergoes upon death and by which it is reborn.
In the Brythonic tradition we find hints about the mysteries of rebirth in medieval Welsh literature and in this article to these I will turn.
The Transformations of Taliesin
The most famous and most cited source for evidence of ancient British and druidic beliefs about reincarnation is the poetry of Taliesin. This historical and legendary bard is central to the bardic tradition and to modern druidry.
Taliesin speaks of his transformations in several poems. In the opening lines of ‘The Battle of the Trees’ he tells us ‘I was in a multitude of forms / before I was unfettered’. This might be a reference to being trapped in the cycle of reincarnation before his liberation as an inspired bard.
Taliesin lists his forms which include elemental qualities, a bird, a tree, and a number of man-made artefacts:
‘I was a slender mottled sword made from the hand. I was a droplet in the air, I was the stellar radiance of the stars. I was a word in writing, I was a book in my prime. I was the light of a lantern for a year and a half. I was a bridge standing over sixty estuaries. I was a path, I was an eagle, I was a coracle on the seas. I was effervescence in drink, I was a raindrop in a shower, I was a sword in the hand, I was a shield in battle. I was a string in a harp under enchantment for nine years, (and) foam in water. I was a tinder-spark in a fire, I was a tree in a conflagration.’ (2)
In ‘The Hostile Confederacy’ Taliesin lists animal transformations:
‘I was a blue salmon, I was a dog, I was a stag, I was a roebuck on the mountain’. (3)
Followed by tools:
‘I was a block, I was a spade, I was an axe in the hand, I was an auger (held) in tongs, for a year and a half.’ (4)
Then lusty male animals:
‘I was a speckled white cockerel covering the hens in Eidyn; I was a stallion at stud, I was a fiery bull.’ (5)
He then tells his story as a grain:
‘I was a stook in the mills, the ground meal of farmers; I was a grain… it grew on a hill; I’m reaped, I’m planted, I’m dispatched to the kiln, I’m loosed from the hand in order to be roasted. A hen got hold of me – a red clawed one, a crested enemy; I spent nine nights residing in her womb. I was matured, I was drink set before a ruler, I was dead, I was alive, a stick went into me; I was on the lees, separated from it I was whole… I’m Taliesin.’ (6)
One might read this simply as an account of the bard’s protoplasmic ability to shift through multiple forms in Thisworld if we didn’t find the lines, ‘I was dead, I was alive’. Implicit is the idea each form is a separate incarnation.
Taliesin’s account of his rebirth from the womb of a crested red-clawed hen into his bardic incarnation provides a link to The Story of Taliesin.
2. The Cauldron of Ceridwen
In The Story of Taliesin we meet Ceridwen, who is ‘learned in the three crafts, which are known as magic, witchcraft and divination’. Ceridwen has a son called Afagddu who is ‘terribly ugly’ and because of his ‘wretchedness’ she sets out to brew a potion in her cauldron ‘to make him in possession of the Prophetic Spirit and a great storyteller of the world to come’. (7)
To stir her cauldron for a year and a day she recruits a young man called Gwion Bach. When the time arrives for Afagddu to receive the three magical drops Gwion pushes him out of the way, receives them, and is ‘filled with knowledge’. Ceridwen is furious. Thereon follows a shapeshifting chase. Gwion takes the form of a hare and Ceridwen a black greyhound bitch, Gwion a salmon and Ceridwen an otter, Gwion a bird and Ceridwen a hawk. Finally, he takes the form of a grain of wheat and she a crested black hen and she swallows him. He gestates in her womb for nine months. When he’s born she casts him out to sea in ‘a coracle, or skin belly’. (8) He is found in the salmon weir of Gwyddno Garanhir by Gwyddno’s son, Elffin, who, on opening the skin, declares, “Behold the radiant brow!” Thus he is named Taliesin. (9)
The parallels between the poem and story are clear. Each portrays the soul shifting through a series of forms before it is reborn from the womb of Ceridwen, as a crested black hen, ‘whole’ in its bardic incarnation.
In medieval Welsh literature Ceridwen is associated with the pair awen ‘cauldron of inspiration’ and invoked by the bards as a muse (10). Her presence at the Court of Don as a ‘knowledgeable one’ (11) suggests, like Don and Her children, She is an important Brythonic Goddess.
Kristoffer Hughes notes ‘in the Welsh language the word “crochen” meaning cauldron shares the same prefix “cro” as the word “croth” meaning womb’ (12) suggesting Ceridwen’s cauldron and womb are one. Her magical vessel is the source of initiation, inspiration, transformation and rebirth. (13)
Gwilym Morus-Baird hypothesises this story might be rooted in interactions between the bardic tradition and the visionary tradition of the witches. (14) Taliesin steals his awen from a ‘witch’ who knows its secrets and can be seen continuing his thieving ways in his raid with Arthur on Annwn.
3. The Cauldron of the Head of Annwn
In the midst of Annwn, in the midst of Caer Vedwit ‘The Mead Feast Fort’, lies ‘the Cauldron of the Head of Annwn’. The most likely candidate for this title is Gwyn ap Nudd as He speaks of witnessing a battle at one of the forts raided, Caer Vandwy ‘The Fort of God’s Peak’, in His conversation with Gwyddno.
This cauldron is kindled by ‘the breath of nine maidens’ (15) who might be named as Morgana and Her sisters. (16) It has ‘a dark trim and pearls’ and its ‘disposition’ is such that ‘it does not boil a coward’s food’. (17)
It appears again in association with the Head of Annwn’s cauldron keeper, Dyrnwch the Giant, in ‘The Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain’. ‘The Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant: if meat for a coward were put in it to boil, it would never boil; but if meat for a brave man were put in it, it would boil quickly (and thus the brave could be distinguished from the cowardly’. (18)
It is clear this cauldron serves an initiatory function distinguishing the brave and the cowardly and this might be linked to the tradition of the hero’s portion wherein the bravest hero gets the choicest cut of meat.
On a deeper level this ‘food’ or ‘meat’ is awen and this might be understood both in the sense of one’s inspiration and one’s destiny. Only the bravest win the best awen, the best fates, from the Cauldron of the Head of Annwn.
An image on the Gundestrup Cauldron may represent Gwyn, a hound at His side, plunging a line of warriors headfirst into a cauldron to be reborn. They emerge on otherworldly steeds with horns and animals on their helms. Perhaps this shows the transformation of the bravest of the battle-dead riding on to new lives, new destinies, symbolised by the features on their headgear, or that they have been gifted with immortality as riders on Gwyn’s Hunt.
Rather than facing their testing by Annwn’s ruler and the nine maidens, Arthur and his men steal the cauldron and bear it back to the Thisworld.
4. The Cauldron of Rebirth
Taliesin’s theft of the awen from Ceridwen’s cauldron results in the poisoning Gwyddno’s land and an episode from the Second Branch of The Mabinogion suggests the consequences of stealing the cauldron from Annwn will be just as disastrous.
‘The Cauldron of Rebirth’ is brought to Bendigeidfran by a ‘huge monstrous man’ ‘with yellow-red hair’ from the Lake of the Cauldron. (19) It has ‘the property’ ‘that if you throw into it one of your men who is killed today, then by tomorrow he will be good as ever except that he will not be able to speak’. (20)
Bendigeidfran gives the cauldron to the King of Ireland who uses it against him in war. ‘The Irish began to kindle a fire under the Cauldron of Rebirth. Then they threw the corpses into the cauldron until it was full, and they would get up the next morning fighting as well as before except that they could not talk’. (21)
This cauldron, brought from the depths of a lake, may be the Cauldron of the Head of Annwn. In Thisworld the magic by which it brings the dead to life does not function fully, bringing them back in their old forms, deprived of speech.
What Arthur and Taliesin do with the cauldron, if they can use it all, outside the presence of its custodians – Ceridwen, Gwyn, the nine maidens, is unknown.
5. The Unfettering of Taliesin
In ‘The Battle of the Trees’ Taliesin claims he has been ‘unfettered’ suggesting that, by his theft of the awen, he has freed himself from the cycle of reincarnation and attained a state akin to moksha ‘liberation’.
This is evidenced by his claim that his ‘native abode / is the land of the Cherubim’ and his boasts of visiting the Court of Don and the fortresses of Gwydion and Arianrhod (22) as well as singing in Caer Siddi ‘The Fairy Fort’. (23)
He might be seen to share a kinship with the ‘ascended masters’ of the Dharmic religions explaining why he remains such a presence as a ‘legendary master’ (24) of the bardic tradition who is still channelled today by bards.
Yet, his state is not well won, but a stolen one. One wonders whether Gwyn and his huntsman will one day catch him and throw him back in the cauldron.
This, along with the image on the Gundestrup Cauldron of warriors potentially becoming riders on Gwyn’s hunt suggests that whereas some of the dead passed quickly through Annwn and into the cauldron to reborn others joined the living for far longer or even achieved immortality.
6. Those Who Return to Utter Darkness
In the reading presented so far it seems only the prestigious – warriors and bards – attain liberation from the cycle of reincarnation and join the immortals.
This raises a number of questions. Firstly, what happens to those who do not taste the awen, who do not die bravely, who like Afagddu remain in ‘utter darkness’? (25)
Parallels with the Dharmic religions suggest they might shift back into animal, plant, mineral, object and elemental forms or descend to lower levels of Annwn where monsters reside and furious spirits are held in check. (26)
This raises further questions about the hierarchical and anthropocentric viewpoints inherent in the Dharmic religions which are less evident in our texts. Is reading Taliesin’s transformations as an ‘ascent’ from a being of ‘seven consistencies’: fire, earth, water, air, mist, flowers and ‘the fruitful wind (27) through a ‘multitude of forms’ to an ‘unfettered’ bard the only way?
Might unfettering not also be seen, contarily, as a joyful return to plant and animal forms, to the elements, to the utter darkness of the womb of Ceridwen, to the vastness of cauldron, that precedes creation?
Conclusion – The Custodians of the Mysteries
In this article I have pieced together a picture of how souls are reborn based on the likenesses between the transformations of Taliesin and the cycle of reincarnation in the Dharmic religions and the material surrounding the cauldron.
It appears that souls takes a number of forms, passing to Annwn, being reborn from the Cauldron of Rebirth, until by some brave deed or inspired work (or act of theft) they win a longer time amongst the living or are granted immortality.
Those of us who wish to engage with these mysteries have the choice of whether to approach the cauldron and its custodians with respect or to continue the thieving and plundering traditions of Arthur and Taliesin.
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p174, l1 – 24
Ibid. p121, l229 – 233
Ibid. p121 – 122, l234 – 236
Ibid. p122, l237 – 240
Ibid. p122 – 123, l241 – 263
Hughes, K. From the Cauldron Born, (Llewellyn Publications, 2013), p32
Ibid. p34
Ibid. p37
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p313
Ibid. p317, l26
Hughes, K. 13th Mt Haemus Lecture: Magical Transformation in the Book of Talieisn and The Spoils of Annwn, (OBOD, 2019), p24
Hughes notes that the cauldron has ‘three symbolic functions’ – ‘a vessel of inspiration’, ‘a transformative device’ and ‘a vessel of testing’. Ibid. p24
Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023), p147 – 154
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p 435, l13
Geoffrey of Monmouth speaks of ‘nine sisters’ who rule ‘the island of apples’, or the Island of Avalon, an Annuvian location Gwyn is associated with. Morgen possesses the skills of healing, shapeshifting and flying. Monmouth, G. The Life of Merlin, (Forgotten Books, 2008), p27
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p 435 – 6, l16 – 17
Bromwich, R. The Triads of the Island of Britain, (University of Wales Press, 2014),p259
Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007), p26
Ibid. p25
Ibid. p33
Parker, W. (transl), The Mabinogion, (University of California Press, 2008), p173
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p277, l45
A term used to describe Taliesin by Gwilym Morus-Baird. Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023), p269
Afagddu means ‘Utter Darkness’. Hughes, K. From the Cauldron Born, (Llewellyn Publications), p32
Evidence for monsters of Annwn can be found in ‘The Battle of Trees’ where Taliesin speaks of ‘piercing’ ‘a great-scaled beast’, ‘a black forked toad’ and ‘a speckled crested snake’. Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p175, l30 – 37. Gwyn is said to hold back the fury of the ‘devils of Annwn’ to prevent them from destroying the world. Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007), p199
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p517
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007 Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007) Hughes, K. From the Cauldron Born, (Llewellyn Publications, 2013) Hughes, K. 13th Mt Haemus Lecture: Magical Transformation in the Book of Talieisn and The Spoils of Annwn, (OBOD, 2019) Monmouth, G. The Life of Merlin, (Forgotten Books, 2008), Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023) Parker, W. (transl), The Mabinogion, (University of California Press, 2008)
Birch. From the Proto-European bhereg ‘to shine, bright, white.’ Bedwen in Welsh. Beithe in Irish. The first letter in the ogham alphabet. I haven’t been drawn to working with ogham much but the associations between birch and new beginnings have long resonated for birch is a pioneer tree. Always the first to colonise new ground, leading the way for other trees, larger woods.
There’s a particular narrow strip of birch wood I like to visit, on the side of an old tram road, next to what was once a gas works, now a new housing estate. In spite of this the trees seem to dance. It’s a place where unique fungi associated with birch can be found such as birch polypore and fly agaric.
I made a new beginning this year and am prompted for aid to turn to birch. I’m drawn to a forked birch whose twin trunks remind me of the two things I’ve been inspired to bring together this year: flowers and feathers, horticulture and shamanic healing, grounding and soul flight.
I spend some talking and listening with the birch and am shown a vision of the wind blowing birch catkins into the future and told that I must ‘dream on.’
Dream on, dream on… I realise I must dream bigger… that these two aims must serve my larger dream of becoming a nun of Annwn – a guide of souls.
Following a session with my spiritual mentor overnight I’m gifted the idea of soul guidance one-to-ones then, in divination, the butterfly image for it.
On the new moon I make the launch and pray to birch for aid chanting her name. In vision I become one with her, beautiful, strong, ready for the sap to flow.
In this month’s Way of the Buzzard Mystery School journey circle the topic is ‘preparing new ground’ and we are working with birch, rowan or alder. The birch calls to me again and I receive some transfomative insights – ‘a nun of Annwn is a pioneer species’. I must ‘prepare new ground for others’, for ‘a new woodland’, ‘move forward’, ‘root deep’, and ‘not turn back’.
I realise it’s time to step fully into my role as a nun of Annwn. Rather than returning to a secular job and remaining stuck as Lorna Smithers to give myself fully to my calling from the Gods and put everything into becoming Sister Patience. To making the Monastery of Annwn a reality both online and in the physical world.*
Pioneering with birch I have begun using my monastic name for all communications aside from financial and legal. Most of my community know now – there is no turning back.
*This has become possible because my mum has offered to help me out financially if I run out of savings before finishing my shamanic healing course in three years time. I was hoping to find paid work in horticulture but ran into the same barriers for a horticultural project officer job as for conservation due to the limitations with my autism around people management and multitasking. I also realised a physical job in a plant nursery or as a gardener would not last due to my knee problems as I can’t kneel for long and at forty-two am not getting any younger. I was thinking about cleaning again but knew longterm it would have a negative impact on my mental heath. So I asked my mum for help and she agreed rather than see me stressed again. I will be continuing to volunteer in horticulture as a way of giving back to land and community.
Where did you come from appearing as if from the night in this bright hour of daylight
to serve in the temple of the unmentionable?
What called you to this disaster? What does it taste like?
What dark armoured God shaped you at midnight knowing when you disappear again the stars will cease to shine?
In you the smell of a promise is fulfilled for to feed on death is beautiful.
When did we lose our armour? Our taste for roadkill?
So naked, so hungry, so lost, so Godless in the face in the face of this catastrophe
we can only pray you will help us to bury the corpses and lead us back to the dark sublime.
The work of carrion beetles in devouring dead bodies is usually unseen and unappreciated. In the UK we have 28 species – 17 Silphinae and 11 Nicrophorinae (known as sexton or burying beetles). These little death-eaters play an essential role in ridding the world of decaying organic matter.
They are 12 – 20mm long and black, often with red-orange bands on their wing cases. Pictured above are Nicrophorus investigator and nicrophorus humator.
With their Annuvian colours and death-eating role I see them as associated with our Brythonic God of the dead, Gwyn ap Nudd.
Over the last couple of centuries there has been a good deal of scholarly debate about whether Annwn is a land of the dead or whether, instead, it is a land of the living. Annw(f)n, from the suffix an ‘Very’ and dwfn ‘Deep’ (1), features in medieval Welsh literature and is generally understood to be the Brythonic Otherworld and later became known as Faery.
In this article I will introduce the evidence for and against the presence of the dead in Annwn in the source texts and the arguments of scholars past and present. Then, on the basis of this inquiry, I will present my conclusion.
1. The Fairest Men
In the First Branch of The Mabinogion, in which Pwyll prince of Dyfed takes the place of Arawn, a King of Annwn, for a year, there is no evidence that Annwn is a land of the dead. The people of Annwn are very much alive. They, their land, dwellings and accoutrements are far brighter and more beautiful than anything seen in Thisworld and they appear to live a life of endless pleasure.
‘He could see… the fairest and best-equipped men that anyone had seen, and the queen with them, the most beautiful woman that anyone had ever seen, wearing a golden garment of brocaded silk… They spent the time eating and drinking, singing and carousing. Of all the courts he had seen on earth, that was the court with the most food and drink and golden vessels and royal jewels.’ (2)
We find a very similar depiction of the fortress of Gwyn ap Nudd, another King of Annwn (3), in The Life of St Collen.
‘And when he (Collen) came there, he saw the fairest castle he had ever beheld, and around it the best appointed troops, and numbers of minstrels, and every kind of music of voice and string, and steeds with youths upon them the comeliest in the world, and maidens of elegant aspect, sprightly, light of foot, of graceful apparel, and in the bloom of youth and every magnificence becoming the court of a puissant sovereign. And he beheld a courteous man on the top of the castle, who bade him enter, saying that the king was waiting for him to come to meat. And Collen went into the castle, and when he came there, the king was sitting in a golden chair. And he welcomed Collen honourably and desired him to eat, assuring him that, besides what he saw, he should have the most luxurious of every dainty and delicacy that the mind could desire, and should be supplied with every drink and liquor that his heart could wish; and that there should be in readiness for him every luxury of courtesy and service, of banquet and of honourable entertainment, of rank and of presents: and every respect and welcome due to a man of his wisdom.’ (4)
However, it is hinted at that the fairness of these men and their ruler and the banquet they offer is illusory and behind them lies a more sinister reality. Collen refuses to eat the food calling it ‘the leaves of trees’. He disdains the ‘equipment’ of the men saying ‘red… signifies burning’ and ‘blue… signifies cold.’ (5) The implication is that the beauty of the banquet is an illusion cast by fairy magic and that these people are hellish and might even number the dead.
The paradisal view of Annwn is echoed in the poetry of Taliesin. In ‘The Spoils of Annwn’ he speaks of seven fortresses raided by Arthur. One is called Caer Vedwit ‘The Mead Feast Fort’ and in its centre lies the cauldron of the Head of Annwn. In Caer Rigor ‘The Petrification Fort’ ‘sparkling wine’ is set in front of a batallion. A youth named Gweir sings in chains in front of the glittering spoils in Caer Siddi ‘The Fairy Fort’. (6)
In ‘The Chair of Taliesin’ Caer Siddi is described more fully:
‘Harmonious is my song in Caer Siddi; Sickness and age do not afflict those who are there… Three instruments/organs around a fire play in front of it and around its turrets are the well springs of the sea; and (as for) the fruitful fountain which is above it – Its drink is sweeter than the white wine.’ (7)
However ‘The Spoils of Annwn’ is shot through with images of restriction and violence. Gweir in his ‘heavy grey chain’ (8) and the Brindled Ox ‘with his stout collar, / and seven-score links in his chain’. (9) The six thousand unspeaking men and the uncommunicative watchman guarding the glass walls. The lightning thrust of Lleog’s ‘flashing sword’ into the cauldron and its theft by Lleminog’s hand. The refrain, ‘save seven none returned from the … fort.’ (10)
In ‘The Conversation of Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir’, Gwyn speaks of His ‘sorrow’ at seeing battle at one of the seven fortresses, Caer Vanddwy. ‘I saw a host / Shields shattered, spears broken, / violence inflicted by the honoured and fair.’ (11) Here Gwyn, who I believe to be the Head of Annwn, laments that his fair people were forced to inflict violence on Arthur and his men, because of their raiding behaviour killing three shiploads. ‘Three full loads of Prydwen we went into it: save seven none came back.’ (12) This shows death can take place in Annwn.
No mention is made of whether there are casualties on the side of the Head of Annwn and His people. A parallel tale in Culhwch ac Olwen suggests the cauldron-keeper and retinue are killed (13) and, possibly, the king himself. Yet, like another Annuvian figure, the Green Knight, He doesn’t stay dead long. His fair men, unaging, unsickening, may likewise be immortals.
2. Such the Fairies Seize and Keep
A source showing more explicitly that the dead can be found in Annwn / Faery is the medieval Breton lay Sir Orfeo. This retelling of the Greek story of the descent of Orpheus (Orfeo) to Hades (Annwn / Faery) to recover Eurydice (Heurodis) is set in Winchester (which may be named after Vindos / Gwyn).
Here the dead are found by Orfeo in the castle of the Fairy King:
Some headless stood upon the ground, Some had no arms, and some were torn With dreadful wounds, and some lay bound Fast to the earth in hap forlorn.
And some full-armed on horses sat, And some were strangled as at meat, And some were drowned as in a vat, And some were burned with fiery heat, Wives lay in child-bed, maidens sweet…
… such the fairies seize and keep.’ (14)
It is notable these people died untimely deaths. Implicitly, when Heurodis was bitten by the snake, she died and the Fairy King and Queen restore her to life.
Additionally, in Breton culture, the dead are said to go to Annwn. (15) In later folklore there are numerous tales of fairies taking the living and dead to their realm.
3. Gwyn ap Nudd – Gatherer of Souls
In ‘The Conversation of Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir’ Gwyn is represented as a ‘bull of battle’, a divine warrior and huntsman, who appears to gather the soul of Gwyddno, who implicitly is dead, back to Annwn. In this poem Gwyn speaks of attending the deaths of a number of famous warriors. This is followed by a lament which shows His immortal nature:
‘I was there when the warriors of Britain were slain From the east to the north; I live on; they are in the grave.
I was there when the warriors of Britain were slain From the east to the south; I live on; they are dead.’ (16)
In Culhwch ac Olwen we learn ‘God’ has put the aryal ‘fury’ of ‘the demons of Annwfn’ in Gwyn and ‘he will not be spared from there’ ‘lest the world be destroyed’. (17) Reading beneath the Christian overlay we find the suggestion that part of Gwyn’s role as a King of Annwn is to contain a host of dangerous spirits, who may number the dead, to prevent Thisworld’s destruction.
We are told ‘Twrch Trwyth will not be hunted until Gwyn ap Nudd is found.’ (18). ‘Twrch Trwyth’ ‘Chief of Boars’ is presented as a human king changed into a boar ‘for his sins’ ‘by God’. (19) Again, reading beneath, we see the twrch is a human soul in animal form. He cannot be hunted until Gwyn is found as Gwyn is the leader of the hunt for souls – the Wild Hunt.
In later folklore Gwyn is depicted riding out with the Hounds of Annwn on Nos Galan Gaeaf, again leading the Wild Hunt, (20) and as a demonic figure with a black face and horns hunting the soul of a sinner on Cefn Creini. (21)
Put together with the evidence in Sir Orfeo this suggests Gwyn hunts and gathers the souls of dead (in particular the battle-dead and those who died traumatically) and takes them to his fortress in Annwn. His people, the spirits of Annwn / fairies also play a role in the passage of the souls of the dead.
Thus, so far, we have a picture of Annwn as primarily a land of the living to which the dead (and occasionally the living) are taken by Gwyn and His fair men.
4. A Final Destination?
I shall pause here to consider some scholarly opinions. John Rhys clearly views Annwn as a land of the dead for he equates it with Hades, the Greek underworld, where souls stayed forever in a shadowy afterlife. Rhys speaks of another otherworldly fortress, Caer Arianrhod, as a ‘Court of Death’ (22) and of Gwyn and His ‘hell-hounds’ hunting ‘disembodied souls’. (23)
Contrastingly, Roger Sherman Loomis (here cited in a lecture by Kristoffer Hughes) claims Annwn ‘is the realm of the ever-living ones, the immortals, or the abode of the Celtic Gods.’ It lacks mortal inhabitants and those who venture there do not undergo death and usually return unharmed. (24)
Recent scholars take a more nuanced view. Angelika Rudiger argues for the Welsh belief: ‘the realm of the fairies was not generally a realm of the dead but reserved for a special kind of deceased… a kind of liminal space where those souls can linger whose moral life has prematurely ended, but who are not yet “ripe” to be accepted into heaven or hell’ resembling the ‘Catholic limbo’. (25) She cautions against ‘reducing Annwn… to a land of the dead’ or ‘fairies to the spirits of the dead’ and concludes ‘Annwn is a liminal world, though not an abode set aside exclusively for the departed’ (26).
Considering whether Annwn is ‘a type of land of the dead’ Gwilym Morus-Baird cites Dafydd Epynt who describes ‘how in death the poet “casts aside his spear and the four elements”’. Morus-Baird compares this to Taliesin’s creation from ‘seven substances’ (the traditional four elements air, fire, earth and water along with mist, flowers and wind) and says ‘the common idea in all these poems is that the four elements are the foundations of physical existence, and therefore don’t belong in Annwn’. (27)
Annwn is, instead, a place where spirits reside. These include the spirits of dead bards such as Taliesin and Merlin. Both of these famous bards have been through the process of death and rebirth many times. Thus Morus-Baird concludes that Annwn ‘is not a final destination for one’s death, but a place the soul passes through on the way to further incarnations’. (28)
Morus-Baird’s view fits with the evidence from Roman writers on the beliefs of the ancient Celts. For example Julius Caesar says they believe ‘the soul does not die but crosses over after death from one place to another’ (29) and Diodorus Siculus that they ‘subscribe to the doctrine of Pythagoras that the human spirit is immortal and will enter a new body after a fixed number of years’. (30)
Conclusion – A Joyful Union
Following on from these arguments I am led to conclude that Annwn is primarily a land of the living in which the spirits of the dead reside for a period of time before being reborn. Rather than being a final destination, like Hades, or a limbo-land like Purgatory, it is a living realm where spirits are joyfully united with other immortals (such as Gwyn and His people) and reminded of their immortality before moving on into another form. These spirits, dead to us in Thisworld, in the Otherworld are very much alive. Only in rebirth, when they put back on the four elements, do they become mortal again.
*
This is the first in a series of articles exploring the existing lore about Annwn, Gwyn ap Nudd and the spirits of Annwn, and the dead. I’m planning to write more about my personal experiences of journeying to Annwn and how they relate to the source material and more widely on spiritwork in the Brythonic tradition.
I stopped writing such articles for a while because I got down-hearted by the fact that others, such as Gwilym Morus-Baird, Greg Hill, Kristoffer Hughes and Kris Hughes, do it a lot better (some more engagingly on video) and also because I was exploring Annwn more experientially and creatively. I’ve recently been given a kick by my Gods to bring the academic and the experiential together. And been told I have a unique perspective to share as a devotee of Gwyn guided by Orddu and her ancestors in the traditions of the Old North.
You can support my work by joining my Patreon HERE.
REFERENCES
There are a number of translations of Annwn and this one is from Kristoffer Hughes. Hughes, K. 13th Mt Haemus Lecture: Magical Transformation in the Book of Talieisn and The Spoils of Annwn, (OBOD, 2019), p10. Gwilym Morus-Baird notes: an ‘is often read as the preposition “in”, or in this context “inside or inner”, dwfn is a noun that has a few meanings in Middle Welsh: “world” or “sea”; but also as in Middle Welsh “deep” and “profound.” Altogether, Annwfn can be read as meaning “inner world” or “inner depth with connotations of profundity’. Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023), p220-21
Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007), p5
Some argue that Gwyn ap Nudd, ‘White son of Mist’, and Arawn (meaning unknown) are titles of the same deity who is the ruler of Annwn.
Guest, C. (transl), The Mabinogion, (1838)
Ibid.
Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p435 – 437
Ibid. p277, l45 – 52
Ibid. p435, l6
Ibid. p437, l39 – 40
(10) Ibid. p436, l18 -19
(11) Hill, G. (transl), ‘The Conversation between Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir’, Awen ac Awenydd, l30 – 33
The lines cited here refer to Caer Siddi but the number of men on the ship and the refrain hold for all the fortresses. Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007), p435, l9 – 10
‘Bedwyr got up and took hold of the cauldron… Llenlleog grabbed Caledfwlch and swung it round and killed Diwrnarch Wyddel and all his retinue.’ Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007), p208
Hunt, E. E. (transl), Sir Orfeo, (Forgotten Books, 2012), p21
Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023), p261
Hill, G. (transl), ‘The Conversation between Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir’, Awen ac Awenydd
Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007), p199
Ibid. 199
Ibid. 209
Rhys, J. Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901), p203
Ibid. p216
Rhys, J. Studies in the Arthurian Legend, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), p157
Ibid. p 342
Hughes, K. 13th Mt Haemus Lecture: Magical Transformation in the Book of Talieisn and The Spoils of Annwn, (OBOD, 2019), p11
Rudiger, A. ‘Y Tylwyth Teg. An Analysis of a Literary Motif,’ (Bangor University, 2021), p75
Ibid. p78 – 79
Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023), p258
Ibid. p261
Koch, J. The Celtic Heroic Age, (Celtic Studies Publications, 2003), p22
Ibid. p12
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davies, S. (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007 Guest, C. (transl), The Mabinogion, (1838) Haycock, M. (transl), Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, (CMCS, 2007) Hill, G. (transl), ‘The Conversation between Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir’, Awen ac Awenydd Hughes, K. 13th Mt Haemus Lecture: Magical Transformation in the Book of Talieisn and The Spoils of Annwn, (OBOD, 2019) Koch, J. The Celtic Heroic Age, (Celtic Studies Publications, 2003) Morus-Baird, G. Taliesin Origins, (Celtic Source, 2023) Rhys, J. Studies in the Arthurian Legend, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891) Rhys, J. Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901) Rudiger, A. ‘Y Tylwyth Teg. An Analysis of a Literary Motif,’ (Bangor University, 2021)
‘I am the aurochs bull of the liminal zone, my breath a snort, my eye red fierce, my horns a great crescent echoing the fingernail moon just after new.’
I am Taurus by Stephen Palmer is an invocation of the Great Bull: in the night sky as the constellation Taurus, running across the plains, hunted, battled, sacrificed, etched in cave art, alive in myth, through place and time.
Written in the first person, in the voice of Taurus, this book gives voice to the aurochs bull through time and place focusing on eleven sites from Lascaux (17,000 BCE), Çatalhöyük, Alacahöyük, Uruk, Knossos, Harappa, Babylon, Memphis, Canaan, Rome, through to Pamplona in more recent years.
Described from the bull’s point of view are the cultures with whom he has interacted. He speaks of how he appears in star lore, of the exploits that have given rise to his myths, of his numerous deaths as the sacrificial bull.
It is clear a good deal of research has gone into this book. Palmer draws on the theories of Jo Marchant and John Knight Lundwall as well as the excellent work of David Lewis-Williams (author of The Mind in the Cave). His efforts are evidenced by the meticulous attention to detail in his descriptions of the ingredients for paint, the methods of fresco painting, a ritual headdress, cuneiform, hieroglyphs and the making of papyrus scrolls.
This comes out in a vivid description of a bullfight in Pamplona: ‘They begin the fight in the later part of the afternoon, when the great heat of midday is passing or gone. My life and those of five others are to be taken by three matadors. A music known as the paso doble – literally the rhythm of the march – announces the arrival of the matadors and their assistants the picadors and banderilleros. The matadors take all the crowd’s attention, their costume marking them out: dark, flesh-hugging trousers, the bicorne hat known as the montera, and a jacket of great sophistication and expense. These trajes deluces – literally suit made of lights – are decorated in profusion with golden adornments, so that they glitter in sunlight.’
The book is well written with some unique phrases and turns of language: ‘flambeau light’, ‘antlers rendered as abnormally complex cerlicues’, ‘my thews are muscle and sinew, as tough as the trunk of a pine tree.’
The only thing that didn’t quite gel with me were the pieces of cultural theory spoken by the bull. For example when speaking of the emergence of polytheism in Harappa: ‘They are a people who worship and feel reverence for the world in which they live and for the universe, whose metaphors are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva… Like all preliterate cultures or cultures for whom the advent of writing has not brought significant religious changes, this polytheism indicates that the archaic way of using nature as metaphor and framework has not been superseded.’ This contrasts with more immediate channelled feeling lines where the bull speaks of his role as the varahana of Shiva. ‘I am frightening, like Shiva. Strong, relentless, wise and filled with zealous energy, I follow my master, dedicated to him.’
As a Brythonic polytheist I was a little disappointed there was no mention of the bull in the Celtic traditions (such as Tarvos Trigaranos, ‘the Bull with Three Cranes’). Yet I appreciate that the author could not cover all sources in one book.
Overall this was an enjoyable read bringing to life the story of the Great Bull and putting forward some interesting theories about his perception in the stars and in art and religion in European and Near and Middle Eastern cultures.
I am Taurus can be purchased from Collective Ink HERE.
we live, we live, we live, we die, we die, for love.
Our daughter corms are many, many, many,
we live, we live, we live, we die, we die, for love.
Our fertile flowers are many, many, many,
we live, we live, we live, we die, we die, for love.
More, more, more, so many, many, many,
we live, we live, we live, we die, we die, for love.
~
Every year an increasing number of early crocus (Crocus tommasinianus) in Creiddylad’s garden. Visible first their striking basal leaves with their pale median strips (caused by cells that lack chloroplasts) then their lilac flowers in two whorls with three sepals and three petals and orange styles and stamens. They spread profusely both by seed and from daughter corms.
Crocuses (Crocus sativa) were first imported to Britain by the Romans for saffron and were reintroduced during the Crusades then in the 16th century from Turkey. The name crocus derives from the Greek krokos for saffron. In Greek mythology Krokos was a deity who was turned into a crocus after he pined away and died from unrequited love for the shepherdess Smilax.
I recently had a revelation about a voice* that has haunted me since high school telling me if I don’t acheive certain goals such as passing exams, staying in paid work, fulfilling a role in society, my life is worthless and I don’t deserve to be here.
Mental health-wise I have been much better over the past year as a result of strength training and yoga and working on my spiritual development with my mentor Jayne Johnson. A few months ago for the first time I heard my healthy body saying ‘I want to live’ and this has helped me to combat the negative voice.
Yet I went through a difficult time after my attempt to write a novel for Gwyn failed and I realised I must truly give up my ambition to be a professional author (as I promised Him over ten years ago!). I ended up back at the Abyss with the choice between three gates – to live as I was, to die, or to change. I took the third gate.
During a period of prayer I discerned what to do next – return to outdoor work in horticulture and become a shamanic practitioner. So I started working towards those goals. I began studying for my RHS Level 2 in Horticulture and volunteering with Let’s Grow Preston. I applied for the Sacred Trust’s three year shamanic practitioner training and was over the moon when I was offered a place. However, the downside is the course and the train fares to Devon will cost all my savings and then some.
The negative voice returned as I began to struggle with concerns about finding paid work in horticulture before my savings run out. Long term I am planning to start a nature-friendly gardening business but I am aware it will take a while to complete my training, set up, find clients and start earning. So I started applying for any outdoor work from plant nurseries and garden centres to grounds maintenance and also cleaning (which Gwyn advised me against).
That week, the more jobs I applied for, the more I panicked, the louder the voice grew. Telling me I’m a fool to spend so much money on a course which is my soul’s calling but isn’t likely to help me earn much. Preventing me from meditating and journeying saying instead I should be applying for jobs.
The afternoon before I attended a Radical Embodiment workshop** with Jayne and Alex Walker I had a terrible interview for a cleaning job. I arrived at the workshop scatty with the voice shouting loudly at me telling me the practices were pointless and worthless and wouldn’t help me find paid work.
I spent the first half, in the morning, battling against the voice. Then, in the afternoon, when I was more relaxed and present and connected with other bodies the voice stopped. When finally we came to dancing our insights I decided to have it out with the voice once and for all but found it had vanished.
I then received the gnosis – ‘It’s not my voice’.
This was one of the most significant revelations of my life. For decades I thought it was a part of me, an inner critic, formed from my internalisation of the capitalist work ethic. A little like the inner Sheriff of Nottingham Nicola Smalley describes in The Path to Forgotten Freedom only a whole lot nastier.
Then, finally, it struck me, no part of my psyche would tell me I was worthless or want me dead. This voice differs from my true inner critic who, of course, is critical, can be harsh and judgemental, but is looking after my integrity.
I realised any voice inimical to my life is not my voice.
Then what is it? I began to wonder. I intuited it must be a malevolent entity. When I asked Gwyn He told me it was not one of the spirits of Annwn. I sensed it wasn’t from the underworld or any of the lower worlds but was bound up with the middleworld. Unlike the spirits of Annwn / ‘fairies’ who live in a reciprocal relationship with Thisworld but have their own independent world and reality it could not survive without parasitising upon human emotions.
Names that came to my mind were ‘liar’ and ‘deceiver’ which I remembered are applied to Satan ‘the Father of Lies’. Was I being tormented by the Devil?
When I asked one of my spiritual ancestors she replied that it was a malicious spirit, an ysbryd drygioni. Christians have blown such beings up into one big Devil in the same way they have raised Jahweh into one big God.
I asked whether I needed to hunt it down and destroy it (like Ged does the gebbeth in The Wizard of Earthsea – my experience reminded me of that story). My guide replied, ‘No’, as such beings feed on our attention and negative emotions. The best defences against it are to do the things it tells me not do because they will not help me gain a job and earn money – prayer, meditation, journeywork, sitting still in nature (which I really struggle with), being with other bodies, dancing, play and fun (which I never allow myself).
Realising this voice isn’t mine and hearing how to defend myself from it are huge steps I am hoping will help me move forward towards earning a living in a way that allows me to stay physically and mentally well and fulfil my vocation.
I’d be interested to hear whether anyone else has had similar experiences. How do you tell the difference between inner and outer voices? I’m hoping to get to grips with such discernment processes better towards the end of my shamanic practitioner training when we approach practices such as depossession.
*Here I’m referring to intrusive thoughts not to auditory hallucinations. **A development from embodied relational therapy.
The Cell of Sister Patience 