Ceridwen

Ceridwen is a Welsh goddess, an enchantress, owner of the cauldron of knowledge, Awen. She is the goddess of poetry, wisdom, change, and transformation. She may be a dawn goddess as well, a lady of Venus. Ceridwen is mentioned several times in the 14th century Book of Taliesin. However, her most well known story comes from the Hanes Taliesin, written in the mid 16th century by Elis Gruffydd, a man who was raised Catholic, but converted to Protestantism.

When I first heard the story of Ceridwen, told by a modern day bard on YouTube, I was excited to paint it. A series of paintings, it would be so fun and colorful. Interesting characters, lots of animal chases, creepy unnatural pregnancy, what could be better?

The story begins Ceridwen's children, the twins Creirwy and Morfran. Sadly, they are not identical twins. Creirwy is sublimely beautiful, while Morfran is disturbingly hideous. If Morfran can't be beautiful, Ceridwen decides he must be brilliant. Does she hire tutors? Decide to homeschool him? Read together daily? No. She searches for a magical remedy.

Creirwy and Morfran original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

To give her ugly son the gift of knowledge, Ceridwen searches and gathers herbs under every moon, in every season. Then, the potion has to brew in her magic cauldron, the Awen. She offers food and shelter to a servant boy and a blind old man in exchange for stirring the pot and feeding the fire, keeping the potion constantly boiling for one year and one day.

Ceridwen's Cauldron original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

I included the Celtic calendar in the painting of Ceridwen's cauldron. Next, I began painting the fateful moment, the turning point in the story, where all of Ceridwen's effort is wasted, the cauldron is destroyed, and the servant boy steals her power. And, as I painted, I thought. A servant boy steals the power of the great enchantress. She controls transformation, knowledge, wisdom, and this happens. I looked into the sources of this story. The sources are not entitled the "Book of Ceridwen". The sources are entitled the Book of Taliesin and the Hanes Taliesin. Spoiler alert: The servant boy, Gwion Bach, becomes the great bard Taliesin after stealing Ceridwen's wisdom and a few more exciting plot twists. This particular story of Ceridwen and her cauldron is from the 16th century Hanes Taliesin, but I started by looking at the 14th century version Book of Taliesin.

I found this translation online. The very first stanza is about Adam, of Adam and Eve, the ultimate misogynistic creation myth. I've come to believe that Eve is meant to represent Asherah, the Great Mother Goddess of the Ancient Near East, goddess of wisdom and ex-wife of Yahweh. I've written a blog post about Asherah and their nasty divorce. The Adam and Eve story is meant to discredit Asherah, the Goddess, whose symbol is the tree of life, and whose epithet is Wisdom.

Similarly, after reading some of the Book of Taliesin and the Hanes Taliesin, I realized this story of Ceridwen is not a story to help us learn about the Great Goddess. Rather, it is Christian propaganda meant to discredit her. And it was so effective, it got me for a minute. I painted this:

Ceridwen, Morfran, and Gwion Bach with cauldron

I even made Ceridwen unattractive, when her name means fair and beautiful. She is a wise woman. She's not be scorned and defeated by a little boy who later goes on to spout misogynistic monotheism. Stories matter. This is one that doesn't deserve my paint brush, regardless of how many exciting animal chases and unnatural pregnancies I miss out on. I posted this painting on Instagram, the epiphany came to me, and I deleted it. The Great Mother deserves better.

Perhaps I need to write a new version to paint. What should happen after Ceridwen brews the potion for Morfran? Should Creirwy accidentally get half the dose? Should brother and sister unite their wisdom to repel the Christian missionaries and other invaders? Should they use their wisdom to neutralize the poison that the rest of the cauldron now contains or to stop the cauldron from cracking? Help me out in the comments, if you have ideas. Thanks!

Comments

Asherah

An inscription from Khirbet El-Qôm (near Jerusalem) dated to the 700s BCE and translated by archaeologist Judith Hadley reads, "Uriyahu the Rich wrote it. Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh for from his enemies by his Asherah he has saved him by Oniyahu by his Asherah and by his A[she]rah.” ( Source ) Asherah was the Great Goddess of the Ancient Near East. From this inscription and other evidence, it is surmised that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, once had a wife - Asherah. Asherah was also sometimes known as Astarte and was associated with lions and the planet Venus, like her relative, Ishtar/Inanna. Asherah's symbol was the tree of life, and her worship involved sacred groves and asherah poles. Asherah original painting available through Saatchi Art . Stickers, prints, and other merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America. All of the Asherahs in my painting are based on figurines housed in the Isra...

Branwen, Reinterpreted

I started painting Goddesses in December 2020 as part of a Goddess art challenge, one Goddess per day from a prompt list. Many were new to me, so I had to research. Branwen was Goddess #7. Her story was mostly about her brother, Bran, as was my Branwen painting . She ended up dead of a broken heart. Death by patriarchy. After I had read more feminist angles, I repainted Branwen, and referenced an article by Judith Shaw, reinterpreting her (included in link above). It was a better interpretation than my first, but, I just read another section of The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas , and I need to reinterpret her again. Branwen with her white raven, in front of Cadair Bronwen. Original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . Branwen is associated with the white raven. She is a Welsh goddess of sovereignty, and in the landscape she is represented by Cadair Bronwen, a rounded mo...

Sophia and the Apocryphon of John

In 1945, thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by an Egyptian farmer near the town of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These early Christian texts date from the 3rd century CE, and include writings attributed to John the Baptist. The writings of John became known as the Secret Book of John, or the Apocryphon of John. A translation by Frederik Wisse can be read online . In the Apocryphon, there is a female counterpart to the Father - the holy Mother, Barbelo. "She is the forethought of the All - her light shines like his light - the perfect power... The first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation... she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father." I became aware of the Apocryphon of John after reading a graphic novel by Marisa Acocella, The Big She-Bang, The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother (highly recommended, by ...

Jowangsin

Jowangsin is a Korean Goddess of fire and the hearth. An offering to Jowangsin in the form of a bowl of fresh water would be placed on an altar above the hearth. Jowangsin had rules for the kitchen. Do not curse while in the hearth. Do not sit on the hearth. Do not place your feet on the hearth. Maintain the cleanliness of the kitchen. You may worship other deities in the kitchen. ( source ) Throw your muddy shoes inside or put them on the hearth, and you will experience her vengeance. She was believed to keep track of household activities and communicate with the heavens. Jowangsin helping with the cooking in a traditional Korean kitchen, circa 1950. Original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or via Fine Art America or Saatchi Art . Left: Women in a kitchen in Korea in 1950. Right: An example of a traditional kitchen in hanok (traditional Korean-style homes) during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). [National Archives of Korea, N...

Domnu

Domnu is a Goddess of southwest England - Cornwall. Yesterday I heard of her for the first time. The mother of the Dumnonii, the people who inhabited Cornwall and Devon from at least the Iron Age through the early Saxon period, her name means abyss or deep. The depictions of her I've found are all modern and interpret this as meaning deep sea. However, the people of Cornwall were miners. Hello, Poldark. Tin is one of key ingredients of bronze, and bronze age tin from Cornwall was traded throughout the ancient world. Thus, it has recently been suggested that Domnu is not a sea goddess. Rather, she is the goddess of the mines. ( source ). Domnu original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . And, apparently, the Goddess of the Mines interpretation has been suggested in the past as well.. I just found a reference to Domnu in a 1922 book, Ancient Man in Brit...

Tawaret

Tawaret is an ancient Egyptian Great Mother Goddess who oversees childbirth. She has the head of a hippo, tail of a crocodile, limbs of a lioness, and torso of a pregnant woman. Saturday was International Worker's Day aka Labor Day in much of the world. Labor Day, Labor Goddess, because being a mom is job and the U.S. needs paid maternity leave like the rest of the developed world. Also, universal healthcare. The average price of hospital births in Pennsylvania is $19,764. That makes Tawaret and I displeased. Tawaret original painting and fine art prints available through Saatchi Art . Prints and other merch also available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . The Glencairn Museum writes, "Her very name emphasizes her power. Taweret (T3-wr.t) means “the great (female) one.” Greeks rendered her name as Thoeris. Further emphasizing her protective nature, Taweret usually carries or rests upon the s3 symbol, whi...

Echoing Multiverse

Search This Blog