Cerridwen’s Tale and New Art Prints!
Hi there friends!
Spring is just around the corner for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere - specifically on Saturday, 20, March 2021 which is marked by the arrival of the Spring Equinox. I’m definitely feeling the optimism that tends to come with spring this year, especially as things are starting to s-l-o-w-l-y open up again!
I’ve been quietly busy with a variety of artwork, including finishing up illustrations for the “Dark Goddess Magick” book that Fair Winds Press/QuartoKnows Books is publishing. I’m very excited to share with you my new print releases of another one of the goddesses I illustrated for the book - the goddess Cerridwen!
I created two color versions for Cerridwen—a purple one (I’ve been on a purple/blue paint kick lately it seems) as well as a more neutral, subtle version.
Available here!
Cerridwen comes from Welsh mythology and is considered to be a shapeshifting goddess, able to take on a variety of forms. She is the keeper of the cauldron of knowledge, rebirth and inspiration. Cerridwen is a powerful Underworld Goddess who rules the realms of magic, divination, enchantment, knowledge, fertility, death and regeneration.
For those that prefer the earthy version - that Cerridwen is here
Cerridwen’ s most popular tale is that involving the poet Taliesin. Cerridwen was the mother to a beautiful daughter, Creirwy, as well as a hideous son named Morfran. Cerridwen knew that for her son to be accepted by nobility, he must possess qualities that differed from his looks. To address this matter, she turned to her magick to see how she could fill Morfran with a variety of arts as well as with the spirit of prophecy. To do so, Cerridwen discovered she could put certain herbs gathered on certain days and hours into a cauldron that must boil day and night for a year and a day.
After the year and a day, three drops from the cauldron that contain all the virtues of the multitude of herbs were supposed to spring forth and whichever person those three drops fell upon would be extraordinarily educated in the arts of those various herbs, and possess a full spirit of prophecy. Cerridwen entrusted the watch of this cauldron to her servant Gwion Bach who, in some stories, shoved Morfran out of the way when the time came for the drops to spring forth. In other stories, he simply tasted the brew, and yet in others, some of the brew accidentally splashed onto his hand which burned, so he raised his hand to his mouth to soothe the pain and thus ingested the brew by accident. In any case, Gwion tasted the liquid and became immediately gifted with supernatural sight.
Cerridwen discovered this and became very angry, so Gwion fled, pursued by Cerridwen. The pair changed into a hare and a greyhound, a fish and an otter, and bird and a hawk, then a grain of wheat and a black hen who swalllowed the wheat. Cerridwen became pregnant after she swallowed the wheat, and vowed to kill this new child when he was born because she knew he was Gwion.
When he was finally born, he was so beautiful that Cerridwen couldn’t bare to watch him die, so instead she placed him in a leather bag and flung him into the sea. He was drawn out by Elphin who named him Taliesin (Radiant Brow).
You can read longer versions of this tale here and more here.
That’s all for now - feel free to reach out to me with any comments or questions!
Xoxo,
See all my available works here