The Myth of Ceridwen—Part One
Moments in the Flow: A Revised, Divine Feminine View of an Old Tale
Hello again,
October is almost over, and I promised we’d have a look at Ceridwen (Ke-RID’-wen), a Welsh Goddess who appears in later medieval literature. Her name means “Fair, Blessed Poetry” and her most famous appearance is in the tale of the Birth of Taliesin. It is the story of how an innocent young boy becomes the greatest of all the Bards.
She is the ‘keeper of the Cauldron’ and this is not just any cooking pot, but the Cauldron of Inspiration from the Otherworld. There is a saying about writers, poets and the singers who ‘receive’ rather than plan-out their work. Working through inspiration alone they have been “Called to the Cauldron.” This can also refer to those modern Druids who venerate Ceridwen as the major influence for their spiritual work.
There are wonderful writers and teachers that focus on the late medieval Welsh mythology from the books of the Mabinogion--the first written information to appear hundreds of years after the Druids faded into silence, taking their wisdom with them. I will list some resources after this article, as I do in a section following the story in all books in the Revealing the Druid Legacy series.
But as the Divine Feminine regains her rightful place, I found the portrayals of the goddesses in the later fully Christianized Wales to fall short of the mark. They may remain in some respects as a Sovereignty Goddess or one who bestows kingship on a deserving male. But their stories show suffering, humility, and helplessness. When I asked a Welsh History and Myth Professor, Gwilym Morus-Baird, why this was so, he replied ‘This is what happened to the Goddess when she met the Patriarchy.’
When Equality Prevailed
And that’s true because before the time of the Roman Church the male and female had equality in the Welsh Druid culture. The Goddess was honored for her gifts and part in the manifestation of creation…the giver and sustainer of life.
There were Gods as well, among them those honored during the solar festivals, like Lugh in Ireland whose name contributes to the festival of Lughnasa. In Wales, the god is known as Lleu Llaw Gyffes, and a white stag is sometimes mentioned as his symbol.
There is the modern version Green Man, personified earlier in the Welsh god Beli Mawr, the “Shining One,” who was a sun and fertility god whose powers were renewed each spring through summer and the horned god, Cernunnos in Ireland and the Welsh mythological figure Arawn, lord of the underworld, associated with the hunt in autumn.
But the arrival of the Roman Church would result in the removal the Goddess, and her powers diminsh as the Celtic Christian Church bowed to the Roman Pope. Equality of men and women ends and the reign of hierarchy and patriarchy commences.
The Dark Age Lack of Information
In Book One, Anwen tells us that she has come to tell us her story to dispel the negative depictions of women from the Dark Age, and the Priestess in particular. She also gives teachings for both men and women to restore the knowledge and the personal power it brings.
After receiving her story and rereading all three books many times, I found that rereading the famous Taliesin myth and Ceridwen’s role in it brought up new meanings for me. I began to see her as a Divine Feminine Mother Goddess instead of the fearsome crone who chases down the innocent boy. In fact, one of the writers on Ceridwen said she was a young and beautiful woman until sometime during the late 16th and mid-17th century, when the witch hunts were going on and she was reenvisioned as the old, wizened crone.
A Very Brief View of the Myth
Being a Crone myself, I have nothing against them being the personification of power, but this came along with a depiction of angry, menacing power. And this is what I want to address in my explorations of a new way to see her and her behavior in the famous myth.
A very brief description of this tale that leaves out a lot of information follows. In Wednesday’s post, I will expand into it with both details and another way to see Ceridwen and the young boy Gwion Bach (GWEE-un BAHKH). His name means a ‘fair, bright, blessed young person or boy’).
This is AI’s brief synopsis:
Gwion Bach was a servant to the enchantress Cerridwen, who was tasked with stirring her cauldron of inspiration for a year and a day.
When three drops of the potion spilled onto his thumb, he instinctively put it in his mouth to soothe the burn, which instantly granted him all the knowledge in the world.
Fearing Cerridwen’s wrath, he fled and was eventually consumed by her in the form of a grain of wheat.
Cerridwen then gave birth to him, and he was renamed Taliesin, which means “Shining Brow”.
I use this AI version to show how inadequate the information we are starting to rely on can be.
See you next time!
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Modern Druid Resources to explore:
Celtic Source with Gwilym Morus-Baird
OBOD, Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids
Anglesey Druid Order and books by Kristoffer Hughes
A version of the myth (quite long) can be found on Word and Silence The Great Myths #43
Fantastic!