Moon 14
The Moon of Cycle
Moon Fourteen of the Avalonian Cycle of Revealing is called the Moon of Cycle and is associated with the herb Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). The lunar month begins on the full moon when a total lunar eclipse occurs, which is the full moon of the Time of Arianrhod. It is possible for there to be more than one Moon of Cycle in a given year or none may occur in a year at all.
The time of the lesson bringer can seem unyielding in its insistence that we grow, but it is only by recognizing the greater pattern that we are able to find the missed stitches, mend the torn fabric, and set the weaving right once more. Once we embrace the power of the Moon of Cycle as the opportunity it is to follow the thread of the current as it moves from a place of light into darkness and back into the light once more, it gifts us with the power to ride the wheel of becoming in a way that more effectively keeps us on the path that helps us birth our destiny.
Arianrhod is the lady of her own court, Caer Arianrhod, and she dwells on an island off the coast of northwest Wales. She is invited by her brother Gwydion to come to the court of their uncle Math, the king of Gwynedd, who is in need of a maiden to serve as his foot holder. When she arrives at court, Math asks her if she is a virgin. Arianrhod responds, “I know only that I am.” To test the truth of her statement, Math bends his magic rod and instructs her to step over it. As she does so, a blond infant boy falls from her with a cry. Horrified and shamed, Arianrhod runs from the court; as she departs, a “small thing” falls from her which Gwydion immediately scoops up and wraps in a piece of silk; he brings it to his chamber and places it in a chest at the foot of his bed. Math names the blond infant Dylan and has him baptized; after receiving his name, the child immediately makes for the sea, whereupon he takes on its aspect as he enters the water. He proves that he is able to swim as well as any fish and for this reason is come to be called Dylan eil Ton (“Dylan, Son of the Wave”). It is said that no wave ever broke beneath him.
Some time later, Gwydion is awakened by a noise coming from the chest by his bed. He opens it and discovers the “small thing” is now a fully-grown infant emerging from the silk within. Gwydion calls for a wet nurse for the child and notices the boy grow and thrive—at twice the rate of any other child! The child is raised at court for four years, where he is acknowledged and mentored by Gwydion, whom he comes to love greatly. One day, Gwydion brings the boy to Arianrhod, who becomes angry at her brother for this reminder of her shame. She lays a tynged or destiny upon him: the boy will have no name save the one she gives to him. Angry, Gwydion storms off with the child.
Gwydion returns to Caer Arianrhod by boat soon after, conjuring a ship out of seaweed. Using his powers to disguise himself and the boy, he pretended to be a craftsman able to make the most wondrous golden leather shoes. When Arianrhod hears of the shoemaker in her harbor, she sends him the measurements of her feet so that a pair can be made for her. The first pair he makes is too big, the second too small; at his suggestion to get the proper measurement, Arianrhod goes personally down to the ship. While the disguised pair set to work upon her shoes—Gwydion cutting the leather and the boy stitching—a small wren alights upon the mast of the ship. The boy takes up a stone and casts it at the bird, hitting it with an impressively precise aim. Delighted at his skill, Arianrhod exclaims, “The fair one has a skillful hand!” Immediately, the glamour of Gwydion’s magic falls away, and everyone is revealed as who they are. Gwydion proclaims that the boy has now been named, from Arianrhod’s proclamation: Lleu Llaw Gyffes—“the fair one of the skillful hand.”
Angry at being thus deceived, Arianrhod lays a second tynged upon her son: he shall bear no arms save those she gives to him. Calling her a wicked woman, Gwydion departs with the boy once more. Several years pass, and Lleu grows into a strong youth of great skill but clearly suffers without the ability to train with weapons. Gwydion calls Lleu to him, and the pair depart for Caer Arianrhod once more, this time disguised as a pair of bards. They are welcomed and spend the evening with Arianrhod and her court in feasting and storytelling before retiring for the night as her guests.
Waking early the next morning, Gwydion uses his enchantment to conjure up the illusion of a fleet of invading ships bearing down upon the island. As everything erupts in a din of preparation for the coming battle, Arianrhod and one of her maidens come to the chamber of the bards to tell them what is happening. The disguised Gwydion pledges that they will assist in defense of the island but will need to be armed to do so. Grateful for their assistance, Arianrhod has weapons and armor brought to them. Upon Gwydion’s request, she unwittingly helps Lleu get into his armor while her maidens assist Gwydion. Once Arianrhod fastens the last buckle and has girded Lleu with a sword for the coming battle, Gwydion declared that the weapons were no longer needed and lets his enchantment drop. Immediately, the invading fleet disappears, and he and Lleu are revealed for who they truly are. Deeply angered at Gwydion’s trickery—both personally and for the undoing of her tynged as well as for the potential for loss of life that could have arisen from her people’s panicked scrambling to prepare for war—Arianrhod condemns him for his recklessness and lays a third and final tynged upon Lleu: “He shall never have a wife of the race that now inhabits this earth.”
“Verily,” said he, “thou wast ever a malicious woman, and no one ought to support thee. A wife shall he have notwithstanding.” 40
And with that, the two depart. Gwydion begins to conceive a plan to overcome this last destiny placed upon Lleu by his mother—a plan that would require great magics … and the assistance of Math.
The Work of the Moon of Cycle
Although the story of the Fourth Branch seems to go to great pains to depict Arianrhod as an irrational, unreasonable, and unnatural woman, something quite different emerges when we look below this surface characterization. Arianrhod begins her tale in mastery and ends her tale in mastery; she is Lady of Caer Arianrhod from beginning to end. Her status in the story does not change, although her actions set a great deal of change in motion around her. In this, Arianrhod teaches us how to be centered in who we are regardless of the events around us in the world. Unlike Rhiannon, who teaches us to endure in the face of hardship and hold fast to our truths with the knowledge that we will eventually be vindicated, Arianrhod takes outward action, setting others on a course to meet her where she is instead of the other way around. And also unlike the ever-patient Branwen or Blodeuwedd before she discovers her own agency, Arianrhod is not content to do what is expected of her. No matter how Gwydion tries to shame her or how often he scolds her, she refuses to do what he wants because it wasn’t what she wants.
In the Avalonian Tradition, we speak of the light half of the year as being represented by the Torc of Sovereignty, symbolizing the shining path to authenticity that we weave while walking it. The dark half of the year is represented by the Cauldron of Transformation, which is entered to engage in the inner alchemy that is shadow work. Both of these energies are well represented in the tale and person of Arianrhod.
In the Fourth Branch, Caer Arianrhod is on an island off the coast of Gwynedd where Arianrhod dwells as its lady. No island presently exists in that place, and local lore suggests that the island had been claimed by the sea—but if one were to look out over the waters during the neap tide, the highest points of the island can yet be glimpsed. Caer Arianrhod is also the name given in Welsh lore to the constellation more commonly called the Corona Borealis—the Northern Crown. The Corona Borealis looks very much like a torc, a neck ring with a closed round back and open front, a mark of high status in Celtic cultures. This starry glyph, set into the Realm of Sky, is a celestial double of the submerged island fortress of Caer Arianrhod that now exists in the Realm of Sea, joining other mystic islands of the Otherworld. The Realm of Sea is the domain of the Cauldron of Regeneration, and is the resting place of the ancestors and the souls of all who await rebirth. It is empowering to consider that a place of strength and sovereignty— the fortress over which Arianrhod holds dominion—can be found submerged in the waters of the unconscious, our personal connection to the energies of the Realm of Sea.
All that we aspire to become, and the lessons life brings us to help us achieve our goals, can be said to be part of a cosmological paradigm that is mirrored within us. The strength needed to realize our potential in order to achieve our destiny (metaphorically “written in the stars” of the Realm of Sky) lies within our unconscious self (the Realm of Sea) where it is waiting for us to acknowledge it, claim it, and manifest it in this world—the Realm of Land. Arianrhod guides us in this process, and can be considered the Great Teacher in Welsh tradition. She sets challenges before us that may seem cruel and unreasonable at the outset, but they act to catalyze our growth in ways we never dreamed possible.
Searching Deeper
One of the more peculiar characteristics of Math, King of Gwynedd, is that he must have his feet in the lap of a maiden at all times—save while at war—lest he die. While the office of the king’s foot holder is described in the Laws of Hywel Dda, this duty appears to have been only performed by men, and the words used in the original Welsh of the Fourth Branch seem to suggest that Math’s feet were required to be in “the fold of a maiden’s womb,” evoking sexual connotations not apparent in the English translation:41
… [T]his passage describes the position of Math’s feet, which are ymlyc croth morwyn (literally “in the fold of the womb of a virgin”). The noun croth, often translated as “lap,” has the base meaning “womb,” “uterus,” or “belly.” The phrase ymlyc croth morwyn connotes varying degrees of intimate contact with the morwyn (virgin), from the more innocent “in the fold/curve of a virgin’s belly” or “in the lap of a virgin” to the decidedly risqué “in the groin” or “pubic hair of a virgin” or even “within the womb of a virgin” whose hymen remains magically intact.42
This passage, and the requirement itself, is a source of puzzlement for scholars, but what if it could be interpreted as a rather pointed symbol of Math’s kingship being dependent on having the feminine principle—in this case, the representative of Sovereignty—as its foundation? Indeed, after Gwydion’s trickery sends Math off to a false, manufactured war so that his uncle’s foot holder, Goewin, could be left behind—thus creating an opportunity for his brother Gilfaethwy to rape her in Math’s own bed—when Math returns to discover what his nephews have done, he responds by telling Goewin: “ ‘ … I will take you as my wife,’ he said, ‘and give you authority over my kingdom.’ ” 43
This marriage transforms the power dynamic between the two, making it more of a partnership, whereas before the representative of sovereignty was being held in a subordinate position under Math’s feet. It has been proposed that Math’s strange requirement for a virgin foot-holder suggests that he is impotent, much like the Fisher King, and that he gets around his inability to join with sovereignty directly by subjugating her representative, thereby maintaining this feminine force as the almost literal foundation for his rule.44 Math can also be seen as a mediating personage, bridging the matrilineal paradigm of inheritance, as seen with his sister’s sons acting as his heirs, with that of the new patrilineal paradigm, the foundation of the struggle between Gwydion and Arianrhod that unfolds in the Fourth Branch. (See page 174–page 175 for more information.)
Arianrhod enters the narrative after Math punishes his nephews, who not only raped his virgin foot-holder and put his life in danger, but also started a war with Dyfed through Gwydion’s magical trickery which caused the deaths of many warriors, including Rhiannon’s son Pryderi, the lord of Dyfed. Using his own magic, Math causes the brothers to spend the next three years in the form of three different pairs of wild beasts—successively deer, then wild boar, then wolves—and, trading off genders each year, they bore each other sons whom Math restored to human forms. Once the brothers have completed their punishment, they return to their positions at Math’s court. Gwydion is set to the task of finding a replacement for Goewin; the text does not explain what the lord of Gwynedd did for the three years he was without a foot holder.
Arianrhod’s declaration that she is a maiden, followed by her giving birth when subjecting herself to Math’s “test,” has several possible meanings. First, her understanding of what constitutes a maiden may be anchored in a definition which meant that she was “complete unto herself” and “beholden to no man.” This definition is certainly supported by her solo rule of Caer Arianrhod where she is under the authority of no man. In this case, maidenhood or virginity have to do with personal authority—Sovereignty—rather than a physiological state; a woman could have sexual partners and yet still maintain her virginity in lieu of a husband. Therefore, although she may not have been visibly pregnant, she may have been with child; Math’s test accelerated the gestation of her firstborn, Dylan, although some authors question if the wand caused her to abort the fetus that became Lleu.
The second option is a bit darker. There is an inherently sexual nature to Math’s maidenhood test that required Arianrhod to open her legs to step over his bent rod, a rather obvious phallic symbol. It may be possible to interpret this act as a coded (and compelled) sexual act with Math. If Arianrhod was indeed a maiden and was impregnated by Math’s wand, this may have been a case of rape. Some scholars believe that Arianrhod was the original raped foot holder and that for some reason, the redactor substituted Goewin for Arianrhod.45 Whether impregnated by magic or by intercourse, the nonconsensual nature of the pregnancy and birth of Dylan and Lleu is deeply troubling. Arianrhod’s subsequent rejection of taking on the mother role for these children born by rape or compulsion appears to be much more understandable in this context.
A third interpretation is that Arianrhod was simply lying about her status to protect her honor, and that the father of her children was none other than her brother, Gwydion. Subtextual clues exist in the original Welsh where in speaking about her yet-unnamed son with Gwydion, she refers to the child as “your son/boy,” although this could just as easily be a reference to Gwydion’s role as a surrogate mother and foster father to the boy.46 This theory does not address, however, why Gwydion would have suggested Arianrhod for the position of Math’s foot holder, a role that required the woman be a virgin when he knew firsthand she was not.
Whether because it was rape or simply because of her public shaming, Arianrhod’s rejection of motherhood was certainly considered unnatural—authorial disapproval certainly comes through in the narrative. Gwydion constantly derides her as wicked and actively works against her wishes when it comes to his foster (or otherwise) son. Clearly, the audience is meant to feel the same about this awful, unnatural woman who abandons her son and actively seeks to keep him from fully participating in adult and courtly life. Here again we have to consider Arianrhod’s actions as possibly reflecting a past cultural paradigm.
When Arianrhod lays down the three tynghedau (destinies) on Lleu, they are binding; neither Gwydion nor Math, with all of their magic, could make them go away. They could only find ways to trick Arianrhod into fulfilling the terms of her prohibitions for two of the three tynghedau; with the last, they were forced to meet Arianrhod’s requirement and find a wife not of the race of women on Earth. The fact that she had this degree of power over Lleu, even as a mother who has rejected her son, speaks to the power of Mother Right. Although this is not explicit in the narrative, we see examples of mothers exercising these powers both in the Four Branches and elsewhere in Celtic legend. The three tynghedau can be seen as reflections of the Celtic practice of matrilineal inheritance: family names were passed down through the mother, women were involved in the training of warriors, and had a say in the forming of marriage alliances.
Astrological Significance of the Moon of Cycle
The Time of Arianrhod is heralded by the total lunar eclipse. By definition, a lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon passes into the Earth’s shadow fully or partially. This event only occurs a few times a year because the orbit of the moon around the earth is tilted five degrees off the earth’s ecliptic, or our planet’s orbital plane around the sun. As the moon orbits the Earth, it passes through the plane of the ecliptic twice a month; these points of intersection are called lunar nodes. The ascending node is the point of intersection as the moon moves from south to north in its orbit, and the descending node is the point of intersection as the moon moves north to south. When a full or dark moon occurs concurrent with or close to one or the other of these lunar nodes, an eclipse occurs. Otherwise, the five-degree tilt of the moon’s orbit is sufficient for the sun to completely illuminate the Earth-facing side of the moon, even as it travels “behind” the Earth during the full moon phase, as well as for the moon not to occlude the sun as it travels “between” it and the Earth during the dark moon phase.
Just as lunar eclipses can only occur during the full moon phase, solar eclipses can only occur during the dark moon phase. We can think about it this way: on the night of the full moon, the moon rises as the sun sets and the moon sets as the sun rises. They are opposite each other in the night sky, making a 180-degree angle relative to Earth in an alignment called an opposition. When the moon is dark, however, we cannot see it because in addition to the side of the moon being illuminated by the sun facing away from earth during this phase, the dark moon is rising and setting at the same time as the sun. This alignment is called a conjunction; the moon and the sun are on the same side of the sky, and the angle the moon makes with the sun relative to the Earth is 0 degrees.
There are three main types of lunar eclipses, each describing how much of the moon falls within the Earth’s shadow: total, where the entire moon passes through the Earth’s shadow; partial, where only a portion of the moon has the Earth’s shadow cast upon it; and penumbral, which can be difficult to notice if you aren’t looking for it, as the moon falls within the outermost shadow of the planet with very subtle effects. It is only the total lunar eclipse that is considered the Moon of Cycle in the Avalonian Cycle of Revealing; these tend to occur at least once every two and a half years.
Total lunar eclipses hold very particular energies which have strong resonance with Arianrhod in several ways. The meaning of her name, “Silver Wheel,” seems to suggest that she has lunar associations but not in any static sense; a wheel suggests movement in the same way that the seasonal round is referred to as the Wheel of the Year. From a lunar perspective this could refer to the phases of the moon as well as a total eclipse, as during such an event the moon appears to move through all of its phases in one night. Further, as the eclipse moves into the Earth’s shadow, its color begins to shift from silver white, to earthshine black, and then to red during the period of the eclipse’s totality, before reversing back again. The grouping together of white, black, and red has many esoteric correspondences, including being the colors of the stones produced during the alchemical process as well as representing the Celtic cosmological realms of Sky, Land, and Sea. Arianrhod, then, seems to have a very specific, cosmic resonance with time.
From both an energetic and metaphorical perspective, this makes a total lunar eclipse a powerful time to look at the deeply ingrained patterns of our lives, especially those which are connected to the unconscious aspects of the self, the inner reflections which hold resonance with the energies of the moon. Whether these are shadow tendencies that challenge us over and over again, or seeds of Sovereignty that will spring forth from the personal growth that arises from knowing ourselves as best as we can, identifying the nature and manifestation of patterns which no longer serve us empowers us to make conscious choices that can transform our lives.
In the Fourth Branch of Y Mabinogi, Arianrhod lays three tynghedau (fates or destinies) upon her son; because of this, some modern devotees of Arianrhod see her as a goddess of fate, a weaver and spinner of destinies similar to the Germanic Norns or the Greek Moirai. Her association with spinning may have to do with the wheel as her symbol, although the spinning wheel is believed to have been invented in India and did not reach Europe until the thirteenth century CE, so this may have been a medieval correspondence.
Arianrhod has an interesting connection with Ariadne, the Greek mistress of the labyrinth whose clew or ball of yarn allowed Theseus to navigate the maze safely. While their names appear similar, they have different etymological roots; Ariadne means “Most Pure” or “Very Holy.” However, what these two figures have in common is that they both have associations with cyclic energies—whether the spinning of yarn, the threading of a labyrinth, or the twists and turns of fate—and they both share a connection with the constellation otherwise known as the Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. In Greece, this crown is said to belong to Ariadne, given to her by the god Dionysus whom she eventually came to marry. The Welsh, however, called this same constellation Caer Arianrhod, the Fortress or Castle of Arianrhod; as previously discussed on page 287.
Astrologically speaking, Arianrhod has a lot of resonance with Saturn, the planet named after the Roman god of time, who rules restriction, discipline, and karmic lessons. Through her lunar association, Arianrhod too has a connection to time; as we have already discussed, the moon likely formed early humans’ first connection to the concept of time. Furthering her resonance with Saturn, Arianrhod’s placing of tynghedau on her son show her in the role of the Great Teacher who challenges us to overcome obstacles in order to grow and fulfill our destiny.
Another connection with soul lessons and fate has to do with the ascending and descending nodes of the moon, which we discussed earlier in this section; they are the points where the moon intersects the Earth’s ecliptic. When this intersection occurs during a full moon, a lunar eclipse occurs. These same points are called the north and south nodes in astrology, and they represent a person’s karmic pathway in this lifetime. Some believe that these are lessons held over from our past lives which we are meant to resolve in our present incarnation. These nodes are always in opposite signs from each other, and together they chart a pathway of growth into wholeness. The south node represents the energies from the past that we need to overcome and move away from, while the north node indicates the direction of growth; these are the core life lessons that we are here to learn, and the energies we are moving toward embracing. The nature of these lessons is reflected both by the signs that the nodes themselves are in, as well as the houses these nodes fall in on our natal chart.
Now, the total lunar eclipse is the Moon of Cycle in the Avalonian Cycle of Revealing, and can occur multiple times in a year, or not at all. Unlike the Moon of Reflection (Moon Thirteen—the Blue Moon) which adds a moon to the yearly cycle once every two and a half to three years (see Chapter 8), the Moon of Cycle instead overlays its energies onto one of the other moons in the Cycle of Revealing. It can be considered an energetic modifier, bringing karmic or life lesson awareness to the patterns of our lives related to the energetic lessons that moon already holds on its own. For example, should a total lunar eclipse take place during the Moon of Transformation (Moon Three), several things occur:
1. This moon, one of the four moons that comprise Ceridwen’s Time, is now overlain with the energies of the Moon of Cycle, and so the month becomes centered on Arianrhod instead of Ceridwen, although the latter is still present albeit in more of a background role.
2. Because of this overlay, we go to Arianrhod at the full moon during the eclipse, rather than Ceridwen. We will be able to get Ceridwen’s insight later on in the month when we connect with her during the dark moon for the work of the Station of Confrontation.
3. The Moon of Cycle can be conceived as being a lunar equivalent of a Saturn return in one’s natal chart. It can be a challenging period, where uncomfortable truths are brought to our attention in ways that we cannot ignore—especially if we have been successful in ignoring them in the past. This is an opportunity to settle some unfinished business, and really get to the bottom of some long-standing challenges—those that keep us at the mercy of our shadow, as well as those that prevent us from fully reclaiming our Sovereignty in certain aspects of our lives.
4. The lessons of the Moon of Transformation have to do with rooting out the ways in which particular aspects of shadow manifest in every level of being (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual), and determining the changes we need to make in order to meet those challenges, even if outmoded aspects of the self need to fall away so that we can be reborn through the integration of these new understandings. When the Moon of Cycle overlays the Moon of Transformation, we are called to look at the patterns of shadow behaviors as they manifest through the layers of being from a karmic or life lesson perspective. These are core challenges that when met, contribute to the overall transformation of the self that is our life’s work. There are bigger energies at work here than would normally be present, so the tenor of the lessons the present moon would normally bring is augmented by the Moon of Cycle; likewise the effects of the Moon of Cycle is directed by the energies of the moon it overlays.
Seeking Sovereignty Within:
Journaling Prompts and Self-Reflective Questions
Total Lunar Eclipse
The Moon of Cycle
The Time of Arianrhod
Mythic Focus: Arianrhod journeys to Math’s court and is asked to prove her virginity in order to serve as his footholder. She steps over his magic rod and immediately give birth to a son, Dylan, who crawls off to the sea. As she runs from the court, a small thing falls from her, which Gwydion takes and incubates in a chest until a baby emerges. He brings the boy to Arianrhod, who lays three tynghedau upon him; Gwydion uses his magic to trick her into naming and arming the boy, but her last tynged prevents the boy—Lleu—from taking a wife from the women of the race of Earth. This leads to Gwydion and Math’s creation of Blodeuwedd.
Personal Insights Around This Moon’s Mythic Portion: Meditate upon Arianrhod’s story and reflect it within yourself. Her story is your story.
The Focus of the Moon of Cycle by Phase
Seek the lessons of the Moon of Cycle at each moon phase by using the Stations of the monthly Cycle of Healing; be sure to journal all of the insights, symbols, and guidance you receive from each goddess at each moon phase. As you work with the information you receive between each phase, perhaps following the daily process outlined in Chapter 3 of this book, and using tools such as trance postures and doorways as detailed in Avalon Within, be sure to record those insights in your journal as well.
Full Moon: Connect with Arianrhod on the night of the full moon that is also the total lunar eclipse. Review the work of the previous month and the insights it brought to you, set up your work for the coming month, and ask for insights on the issue of focus which may have shifted or deepened due to the work you have done.
Third Quarter: Station of Descent in the cycle of the moon. Bring the issue of focus to Rhiannon to explore through the filters of the Station of Descent and the Moon of Cycle.
Dark Moon: Station of Confrontation in the cycle of the moon. Bring the issue of focus to Ceridwen to explore through the filters of the Station of Confrontation and the Moon of Cycle.
First Quarter: Station of Emergence in the cycle of the moon. Bring the issue of the focus to Blodeuwedd to explore through the filters of the Station of Emergence and the Moon of Cycle.
Night before the Full Moon: Station of Resolution in the cycle of the moon. Bring the issue of focus to Arianrhod to explore through the filters of the Station of Resolution and the Moon of Cycle.
At any point in the month, bring the issue of focus to Branwen to explore through the Station of Integration and the Moon of Cycle. Some women will do this on the night after the dark moon in counterpoint to working with Arianrhod on the night before the full moon.
Herbal Ally for the Moon of Cycle
Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)
Creating the Mother Elixir: On the night of the full moon, create your Queen Anne’s Lace Lunar Elixir using the directions found on page 105 of Chapter 4. Be sure to label and date the bottle you are using to store the Mother Elixir. Journal any of your experiences around the creation of the Queen Anne’s Lace Elixir. Additionally, make the Lunar Elixir of the natural herb for this month, the one that the Moon of Cycle overlays. More information about this can be found on page 105.
Prepare the Daughter Elixir: After you have made the Mother Elixir, use the directions found on page 107 of Chapter 4 to prepare a dosage bottle for use in the daily experience of this elixir throughout the month. Remember to use a blue or amber dropper bottle for this purpose, and to clearly label your Daughter Elixir.
Daily Work with the Queen Anne’s Lace Elixir: As discussed in Chapter 4, begin your daily exploration of the Queen Anne’s Lace Elixir. Be sure to journal everything you can about how the elixir makes you feel, what you think it its energetic actions are, where it sits in your energy body, and any and all impressions, insights, symbols, visions, and memories it presents to you:
Week One of the Moon of Cycle: Immerse yourself in the lunar elixir by taking it every day, reflecting upon how it makes you feel, and journaling all of the insights that come to you when you meditate upon the energies of the elixir.
Week Two of the Moon of Cycle: Continue to take the lunar elixir daily, but this week spend time experiencing and comparing the energetic impact of Queen Anne’s lace as an essence, and Queen Anne’s lace as a magical herb that you burn, as detailed in Chapter 4. Again, reflect upon how each makes you feel, and journal all of the insights that come to you when you meditate upon the energies of the elixir and the energies of the herb itself.
Week Three of the Moon of Cycle: Continue to take the lunar elixir daily, but this week spend time researching the medicinal, folkloric, and magical uses of Queen Anne’s lace, beginning with the information provided in Part Three of this book. Compare your findings this week with your direct experiences, being sure to journal all of the insights and connections you’ve made.
Week Four of the Moon Cycle: Continue to take the lunar elixir daily, but this week meditate upon the mythic portion of the month and reflect upon the ways in which the energies of Queen Anne’s lace are related to the present portion of Arianrhod’s tale, and how it helps you to build a relationship with Arianrhod herself.
End of Moon Reflections: Under what circumstances could you see yourself using the Queen Anne’s Lace Elixir in support of your work and personal process? If you had to describe the actions of this lunar elixir using one word, what would it be? What about using one sentence? What about using a whole paragraph? Again, be sure to journal everything.
Working: Journey into the
Sacred Landscape of Arianrhod
Caer Arianrhod
Please perform the induction to travel over the Ninth Wave, as found on page 74, and then proceed with the working below. When you have completed it, be sure to return from across the Ninth Wave, using the visualization found on page 76.
Having crossed the Ninth Wave into the Otherworld, disembark and envision a silver tether that extends from the center of your torso to the vessel that bore you here; it is of endless length and will expand and retract as necessary as you explore this Realm Over Wave, while keeping you connected to the boat in order to facilitate your return.
Disembark and find yourself on the shore of another sea, waves advancing and receding here in this timeless, mythic Otherworld. Take three deep, anchoring breaths, and immerse yourself in the energies of this place. It is night and the stars shine high above you, set like diamonds in the velvet night. The moon is almost full and hangs bright and low in the sky. The crashing of the waves fills your ears as you look out over the tumultuous ocean. The tide is receding, drawing the ocean back away from the beach, which is comprised of many water-rounded stones … white and grey, smooth and pitted, large and small. You walk across the expanse of glistening rocks, drawing as close as you can to the edge of the water.
High upon a promontory overlooking the sea, you discern the ramparts of a protected hill fort to your left. In front of you stretching into the ocean, you can see the outline of a small island. The moon is bright enough to illuminate a gleaming spiral tower, shining as if it were somehow made of glass, rising up from the center of the island. It comes to you that the island is one of legend—it is called Caer Arianrhod.
Spend some time here looking out toward the west, matching the ebb and flow of your own breath with the rhythm of the tides. As you inhale, the waters draw back, collecting their energy for the exhale, when the waves surge forward to crash upon the shore around your feet. Take nine cycles of breath, keeping your eyes fixed on the moon. With each successive breath, the moon sinks lower and lower in the sky until the ninth breath, when the bottom curve of the moon seems to contact the distant line of the horizon and casts a long path of light over the wave-rippled surface of the ocean. The path grows longer and longer until it ends at the edge of the water where the sea meets the shore … directly in front of your feet.
Time seems to freeze, and the journey of the moon halts with it, although the waves continue to be the breath of the ocean. The wind has died down, no longer whipping through your hair … no longer filling your ears with its clamor—only the sound of the crashing waves remains. You look out toward the horizon, marveling at the enormously bright and shining moon, when your eyes detect faint movement. Straining to see with clarity, you begin to recognize a form differentiating itself from the disk of the moon, moving toward you and drawing closer and closer to the shore. Suddenly you realize you are looking at the form of a woman stepping gracefully, effortlessly along the silver road of light that bisects the darkness of the ocean. As she draws closer and closer, you see that she is a tall, strong woman with pale skin contrasting with shadow-dark hair, black as the night sky. She is literally garbed in light that shifts and pulses along with the rhythm of the tides. The light surrounds her form with energetic scintillations.
In the span of three heartbeats, she stands before you, this bright Lady of the Moon. Her large dark eyes take your measure, sparkling as if with starlight. Her essence and brightness are almost too much for you to bear. You bow your head as much to honor this great lady before you as to escape the intensity of her gaze and the brightness of her visage. She reaches out to you and lifts your chin to face her fully, fixing her eyes upon your own with a strength that keeps you from looking away once more.
There is no doubt who she is—Arianrhod, the Silver Wheel.
With her dark and starry eyes unwavering, she speaks with the voice of the ocean … the sound reverberating as if through time and through space, rattling your very bones, and yet you feel as if every neuron in your brain is firing all at once. Your inner eye is bright and illuminated.
“Are you whole?” she asks you. “Are you ever-virgin? Complete unto yourself?”
Answer her aloud. Speak your response and take note of her reply.
“Where are you incomplete? Where are you attached to what has already passed, the memory of what has come before, the calling of the Realm of Sea? Where are you attached to what has not yet come to be, the unformed thing that is the future, the whispers of the Realm of Sky?”
Again, answer her aloud. Take what time you need to speak your responses and take note of her reply.
“I am here to set the weavings of your destiny in motion. There are three things you must do,” she says to you.
“First, you must Name it. What is your destiny? As best as you know it, speak it here and now.”
Again, answer her aloud. Speak your response and take note of her reply.
She plucks at the air around her, and drawing from the moonlight, a sliver thread appears between her foam-white fingers. She hands one end of it to you. Take it. Make note of its energy and how it makes you feel.
She speaks again:
“Second, you must Empower it. How will you accomplish this destiny? What tools do you bring to bear? As best as you know it, speak it here and now.”
Speak your response aloud and take note of her reply.
Again she plucks at the air around her. Drawing from the moonlight, a sliver thread appears between her foam-white fingers. She hands one end of it to you. Take it. Make note of its energy and how it makes you feel. How does it feel to hold both threads? How are they similar? How are they different?
She speaks again:
“Third, you must Partner with it. How will your life be changed by this destiny? What new thing will this bring into the world? As best as you know it, speak it here and now.”
Speak your response aloud and take note of her reply.
Once more she plucks at the air around her, and drawing from the moonlight, a sliver thread appears between her foam-white fingers. She hands one end of it to you. Take it. Make note of its energy and how it makes you feel. How does it feel to hold all three of these threads? How are they similar? How are they different?
Arianrhod takes up the other end of the threads you hold. With fingers deftly moving, she plaits the three of them into one interwoven strand. After tying off the end, she takes the whole of it from you and holds it above her head. You see there the shining of a constellation, a series of stars forming a torc-shaped crescent known as Caer Arianrhod, the Fortress of Arianrhod. With a flash of silvery light, woven moonlight in her hands emulates the shape of the constellation above her. When the light fades, she draws her hands down and holds them out before her in a gesture of offering.
You look down at her hands and see they hold a silver torc—a symbol of Sovereignty.
She speaks once more:
“I offer this to take and wear if you choose. I do not lay any destiny upon you that you do not yourself choose to pursue. What you see in the here and now may lead you to a different vision in the cycles to come, so do not fear knowing the whole of the tapestry’s expanse in this place and at this time. If you take this torc and wear it as a symbol of your self-dedication, know that you will come to know the pattern by the weave. You will feel the rhythm by the weft. The fullness of your destiny will reveal itself to you in time. The choice, as it ever should be, is yours—this is the nature of Sovereignty.”
Take a moment to consider her words. Do not choose lightly.
Take three deep, centering breaths, and let your decision rise to the surface. Center it within yourself.
When you are ready and have made your choice, speak it to her. If you decline, let it be known. If you accept, take the torc she offers you, and place it around your neck. In either case, take some time and breathe into the moment. Feel how things shift. Feel how things remain the same. Allow yourself to integrate the revelations of this exchange.
When you are ready, thank the Lady Arianrhod in a way that feels right to you. Give her an offering of some sort, and spend some time in her presence, asking what you will, hearing her words, receiving what guidance she chooses to share.
At last, she makes a gesture of blessing. Just as time and the motion of the moon and the sound of the winds halted suddenly before, they now begin once more. The moon continues to sink below the horizon, bringing the path of light down with it. As this pathway recedes from view, so too does Arianrhod’s energy dissipate until she also fades from your sight.
Take three deep, centering breaths. Remember all you have seen, received, and committed to in this moment. When you are ready, follow the thread that connects you to the vessel that took you to this Land Beyond Wave. Take your place in the boat once more for the journey back over the Nine Waves, to the place that is Here and the time that is Now.
40. Guest, The Mabinogion, 426.
41. The Laws of Hywel Dda (Continued), The Cambro-Briton, Vol. 2, No. 21 (May, 1821), 395.
42. Sarah Sheehan, “Matrilineal Subjects: Ambiguity, Bodies, and Metamorphosis in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi,”Signs 34 (2): (2009), 322.
43. Davies, The Mabinogion, 52.
44. Jean Markale, Women of the Celts (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1986), 132.
45. W. J. Gruffydd, Math Vab Mathonwy, An Inquiry into the Origins and Development of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, with the Text and a Translation (Cardiff: University of Wales Press Board, 1928).
46. Davies, The Mabinogion, 55.