DowrgiCeridwen is a tricky subject, admittedly, the whole issues surrounding the Ceridwen’s being a “goddess” or not depend a lot on the mysterious word ogyrven, which is how she is described in the Welsh literature – beware of translations. Ogyrven is not an easy word to translate and there doesn’t seem to be agreement as to its true meaning, but what it definitely isn’t is the Welsh word for goddess. Jan Fries in Cauldron of the Gods: A Manual of Celtic Magick (2003), takes the position that Ceridwen was a literary goddess of inspiration, i.e. a muse, created by the Welsh Gogynfeirdd bards. The seeds referred to in the literature are metaphorical seeds of poetry and inspiration and the trauma Gwion Bach goes through could also be seen as the fact that inspiration, awen, does not always reveal pleasant things – the truth is not always what we want it to be.
Bennathow
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