Chapter 2
Like most journeys of a spiritual nature, we begin with the hero’s quest. The Old Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwn or The Spoils of Annwn, believed to date back to somewhere between the ninth and twelfth century CE, tells the story of King Arthur’s raid of the Otherworld in search of a magical cauldron. Although the earliest known versions of Preiddeu Annwn appeared in writing during the thirteenth or fourteenth century CE in the Llyfr Taliesin (The Book of Taliesin), the poem is filled with powerful imagery and evocative language which seems to place it in an even more ancient time.
Annwn (also written as Annwyn or Annwfyn), is the name of the British Celtic Otherworld, and it translates to mean the “un-world” or the “very-deep.” 2 Arthur and his band of warriors move through Annwn and encounter many wondrous and enigmatic fortresses (or, alternatively, one Otherworldly fortress, which is given several epithets in the poem) in search of their great prize, a cauldron which is described thus:
My poetry, from the cauldron it was uttered.
From the breath of nine maidens it was kindled
The cauldron of the chief of Annwn: what is its fashion?
A dark ridge around its border and pearls.
It does not boil the food of coward; it has not been destined.3
It is believed that the mythic forerunners of the Arthurian Grail quest can be found in Celtic British legends like Preiddeu Annwn wherein kings and warriors seek cauldrons of wisdom and regeneration on quests over water to fantastic islands of the Otherworld. This journey over water is a motif seen time and time again in Celtic legend; the Otherworld is often associated with islands in the west or underwater fortresses. Votive deposits rich in material goods have been excavated from lakes and rivers throughout Celtic lands, perhaps reflecting a belief that bodies of water were a medium through which gods and spirits could be contacted and supplicated. Symbolically, water is a representative of the unconscious, and if we use ancient stories as a road map to the Otherworld—which in turn could be said to represent the spiritual self—the modern seeker can learn to gain access to the inner realms by journeying down the pathway that lies within.
Legends aside, the voyage to claim the Cauldron of the Otherworld is not necessarily an easy one. Arthur and his men staged a military campaign to claim their prize, yet only seven of them “rise up” from Annwn to return home, the poet Taliesin among them. Although there are many who seek the Pearl-rimmed Cauldron, even daring to enter the realms of the Unknown, only few ever obtain it—and those who do, often do so a at great cost. The journey is fraught with pain and can result in the death of outmoded shadow aspects of the Self, but it also serves to bring the quester into a place of greater actualization, for as the stories teach us, only heroes and poets and healers reemerge from the Otherworldly journey. In the same way, the spiritual seeker must dare to tread the inner realms of the unconscious in hopes of recovering the vessel of Sovereignty that has lain within us for so long, being quietly tended by the guardians of inspiration who feed our inner fire—that spark which inspires us to undertake the quest for wholeness.
The poem’s description of the cauldron of the chief of Annwn is quite evocative. The vessel’s edge is round like the cycle’s circuitous path. Dark as the night sky, it is rimmed with pearls, and whether the poem refers to the round gems of the ocean or is describing the cauldron as being inlaid with mother of pearl, they both reflect the energies of the moon. It is not difficult to see how pearl’s watery origin, rounded shape, and luminescent sheen could evoke the mystery of the moon, called lleuad in Welsh.
In the modern Avalonian Tradition, we look at the Pearl-rimmed Cauldron of the Otherworld as an allegory of the cyclic path that takes us through our soul’s rebirth and transformation, with each of the lunar pearls holding an energy that contributes to this process of inner unfolding. If each pearl can be seen to represent a lunar month, then the entire circuit of pearls around the opening of the vessel of Sovereignty can be used collectively to symbolize to be the lunar mysteries which both define and crown that which lies within. As we travel around the cycle we also spiral down into ourselves and back up again, measuring both the diameter and the depth of our inner cauldron. As we undertake this inner exploration, we are able increase our understanding of the contents of our soul that lay shrouded in the shadow realms of the unconscious and are able to better evaluate the extent of our connection to Source—she who holds the womb/tomb portal of this Otherworldly vessel.
The Celts and the Moon
We believe that the Celts, like most ancient peoples, used the moon to mark and measure time. The fragmentary remains of a Gaulish lunisolar peg calendar inscribed on a sheet of bronze, known as the Coligny calendar, was discovered in France in 1897. Created in the second century CE (well after the Roman annexation of continental Celtic lands), scholars believe its purpose was to rectify the conquerors’ solar calendar with the Gaulish lunar model. Precious little is known about the way the peoples of the British Isles rendered time, but it is significant to note that the pre-Celtic megalithic monuments acknowledged the moon by marking lunar events such as the lunar standstill and the metonic cycle of little over eighteen years, a value that can be reduced numerologically to nine, a number associated vibrationally with the moon.
Although the idea of the moon universally associated with a goddess is pervasive in modern Neo-Paganism, in several Indo-European-derived cultures, the deity associated with the moon is male, like the Norse god Máni. Similarly, while the gender of the word for “moon” in both Irish and Welsh is masculine, we cannot name Celtic deities that are directly related to the moon with any certainty. However, mythic symbols and name etymology seem to suggest that several figures from Welsh lore may indeed have lunar associations. The name Arianrhod, for example, means “Silver Wheel,” which could be a reference to the full moon, while a potential meaning for Ceridwen’s name as “White Crooked One” is evocative of a crescent moon.
Celtic lore provides some examples of women engaging in what could be interpreted as lunar rites. One of the oldest known Breton poems, “Ar Rannou” (“The Series”), is a teaching song containing what appear to be mnemonic references to a body of Celtic wisdom presented as a dialog between a druid and a child. In it, the child questions the druid about number associations. For the number nine, the druid replies:
Nine small white hands on the table in the area, near the tower Lezarmeur and nine mothers groan much. Nine Korrigan dancing with flowers in the chewant and robes of white wool, around the fountain, the clarity of the full moon. The sow and her nine piglets at the door of their lair, growling and burrowing, burrowing and grunting, small! small! small! hasten the apple! The old boar is going to to lecture. 4
The korrigan are alternatively said to be a type of water fairy or a group of Breton priestesses who lived either cloistered on an island or deep in a sacred grove. There is a process in mythology called euhemerism that describes the transformation over time of real people into legendary creatures or even divinities; it is therefore possible that the legends of the korrigan as water fairies is an example of this process and serves as a mythological memory of what had been an ancient priestesshood. If this is the case, the korrigan may be an example of the isolated communities of sacred women found in myth, legend, and even in the historical record from all around the Celtic world. The above passage not only associates one of these Ninefold Sisterhoods (another example of which are the nine Morgens associated with Avalon) with the worship of the moon, but also links the moon with the number nine. We see this connection frequently in Western tradition; in the Qabalah for example, the ninth sephira on the Tree of Life is Yesod, foundation, the realm of the moon.
It is not hard to see why the ancients would have associated the number nine with the lunar mysteries; they knew that the moon was associated with fertility, and would have connected the lunar month with the length of the average menstrual cycle, as well as noticed that women who lived together tended to bleed and conceive around the same time and in accordance with the waning and waxing of the moon. The nine-month gestation period for human babies would have further underscored the connection between women, the moon, and the number nine. It is interesting to also note that in addition to “Ar Rannou” associating the number nine with the korrigan and birthing mothers, it also includes the apple—that quintessential symbol of women’s wisdom for which Avalon itself was named—and the sow, the totem animal of the goddess Ceridwen, and a creature associated very strongly with the Otherworld in Welsh legends.
The Lunar Cycle
In modern practice, there are two ways to approach working with the moon. The first is to consider the greater cycle of the year and its dance of the thirteen moons that comprise the lunar months; this approach is what informs the majority of the lunar workings in this book. The second is to connect with the ebb and flow of the moon’s energies within the cycle of the month itself, which manifest visually as the phases of the moon. There are a few key facts to keep in mind about the moon as we enter into a discussion of her phases:
1. As the moon revolves around the Earth, it is also rotating around its own axis.
2. Due to a phenomenon known as tidal locking, the rotation of the moon has slowed to the point where the time it takes for our moon make a complete revolution around Earth is about the same it takes to complete one full rotation on its axis. Not only does this make a lunar day appropriately equal to an Earth month, it is the reason why we only ever see one hemisphere of the moon; the so-called dark side of the moon (more accurately, it would be the “far side of the moon”) is the one that faces away from us.
3. Lunar phases are caused by the position of the moon as it orbits the Earth and the angles it makes with the sun relative to our perspective from the Earth. As the angle between the moon and the sun increases, more of the illuminated side of the moon is visible from Earth; as the angle decreases, less of the illuminated side is visible.
4. Moon phases are not shadows cast upon the moon’s surface by the Earth occluding light of the sun; this dynamic is, however, the mechanism of how eclipses occur, a matter discussed in great detail in Chapter 9.
For now, let’s take a closer look at these phases and the energies they hold.
Dark Moon
Duration: From the day of the dark moon until three days after. (In this account, the new moon refers to the first sliver of a crescent visible in the sky).
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 0˚
Visual: The moon’s non-illuminated side is fully facing the Earth, so it is not visible. The only exception to this occurs during a solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises and sets with the sun.5
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point at noon.6
Energy: Turning within; confronting the shadow; banishing negativity; letting go of what no longer serves our greatest good.
Waxing Crescent
Duration: From the third through the seventh day after the dark moon.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 45˚
Visual: The moon is partly, but less than one-half, illuminated by the sun.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises two hours after sunrise, and sets two hours after sunset.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky four hours before sunset.
Energy: Cleansing of body, mind, and spirit; inner renewal; new beginnings; integration of the lessons derived from shadow work.
First Quarter
Duration: From the seventh through the tenth day after the dark moon.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 90˚
Visual: The right half of the moon appears to be illuminated by the sun.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises at noon and sets at midnight.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky at sunset.
Energy: Emerging into the light; planting seeds for manifestation; seeking outer balance.
Waxing Gibbous
Duration: From the tenth day through the thirteenth day after the dark moon.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 135˚
Visual: The moon is more than one half (but not fully) illuminated by the sun.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises two hours before sunset, and sets two hours before sunrise.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky four hours after sunset.
Energy: Cultivating growth; nurturing the Self; acknowledging potential and considering possibilities.
Full Moon
Duration: Fourteen days after the dark moon.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 180˚
Visual: The moon’s illuminated side completely faces Earth, allowing us to see the entirety of its sun-facing surface.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise; each night after the full moon sees the moon rise an additional fifty minutes to an hour later than sunset.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky at midnight.
Energy: Revelation of the Higher Self; abundant manifestation; clarity of sight.
Waning Gibbous
Duration: From the third day through the seventh day after the full moon.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 135˚
Visual: The moon is more than one-half (but not fully) illuminated by the sun.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises two hours after sunset, and sets two hours after sunrise.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky four hours before sunrise.
Energy: First fruits; inner harvest; acknowledgment of bounty.
Third Quarter
Duration: From the seventh day through the tenth day after the full moon.
Visual: The left half of the moon appears to be illuminated by the sun.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 90˚
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises at midnight and sets at noon.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky at sunrise.
Energy: Descending into the darkness; taking stock; seeking inner balance.
Waning Crescent
Duration: From the tenth day after the full moon until the night of the dark moon.
Visual: The moon appears to be partly (but less than one half) illuminated by the sun.
Sun-Moon Angle Relative to Earth: 45˚
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises two hours before sunrise, and sets two hours before sunset.
Time of Apex: The moon is at its highest point in the sky four hours after sunrise.
Energy: Identifying obstacles to growth; seeking the root of inner wounds; forgiving self and others.
The Ninth Phase: The Sovereign Moon
These are the eight main phases of the moon, but underscoring them all is a ninth consideration: the energies of the moon as she is without the illusory interplay of light and darkness—that is, without the influence of the angles she makes with the sun from the perspective of Earth which gives her phases. This is the authentic moon as she exists in space, the core underlying all of her apparent changes.
I call this ninth phase of the moon the sovereign moon. This moon coexists with each of the other lunar phases, providing the canvas upon which are projected both light and darkness. Yet, regardless of what it is we can see from our vantage point here on Earth, the moon herself does not change; the projections upon her are meaningless and she remains fundamentally the same no matter how we view her. This is the moon from her own perspective, relative to nothing but what she truly is.
We can take this principle and apply it to our own lives. The sovereign moon teaches us to acknowledge the whole and authentic Self that always dwells below the surface of our changes. She waits for us to see past the ebb and flow of our personal power and to see beneath the illusion of the limitations we have come to accept about ourselves. When we can do so, we are better able to know that truth of who we are is always present and always a perfect reflection of the Divine.
With this in mind, let us engage more fully with the energies of the sovereign moon.
Working: Visualizing the Sovereign Moon
Note: As with all of the meditations presented in this book, you can memorize these workings, or it can be helpful to record yourself reading these passage out loud so you can play them back to accompany you on your journey. Professional recordings of these workings are also available from the author’s website.
Become aware of your breath and sit for a few moments with the rhythm of its natural ebb and flow. When you are ready, and with intention, use your inhalation to gather up all of the energies within you that are preventing you from being fully present. Use your exhalation to release these energies into the ground below your feet. Engage in several repetitions of the cleansing cycle of breath until you find yourself in a place of centered and receptive clarity.
When you are ready, envision the silver-white orb of the full moon as clearly as you are able. She is round and shining, a gleaming pearl set against the black velvet darkness of space. Her face is pocked with dark and ancient seas; lunar maria that hold no water, only the memory of what has come before while creating patterns that have inspired humanity throughout time and in every culture. Just as we see images in the crystalline vapor of clouds or illuminated symbols in the living embers of a fire, the areas of darkness on the surface of the moon have been seen as a rabbit and a toad, the face of a man, and the body of a goddess.
See the moon as large and as round, as bright and as shining as you can, and when you see her clearly on the canvas of your inner eye, feel her grow larger and larger until she has transcended that small inner screen and the totality of her now encompasses the whole of your being. Feel what it is like to have the fullness of the bright moon surrounding your body, superimposing itself over your own energy. Breathe into this image and feel yourself become an embodiment of the moon herself. You are vast and round—a sphere, not a disc, spinning slowly in synchronous orbit with the Earth below you. Feel every ridge, every crater. Experience the scars of impacts past, ancient seas of extinct volcanic flows, and the hints of frozen water like secret caches of crystal awaiting full discovery.
Bring your attention to the side of you that faces the sun, a star so distant and yet so strong that even the small portion of its light you are able to reflect renders you a welcome and trusted nighttime companion to all who dwell upon your sister, Earth. Indeed, even when the side of you that faces the sun has its back to the Earth, you are able to reflect the planetary light, the earthshine, back to the planet as well.
Experience this for a moment … what it is like for you to collect these solar emanations? How does it feel to be the moon in her fullness? What does it mean to be the bright and shining orb that lights the way of the traveler, rules the ebb and flow of the tides, influences the growth of plants, the fertility of animals, and helps count out the rhythm of time for those who mark the cycle of your changes? What energy does the full moon hold? What does she have to teach you in the light of the revelation of her fullness, the disc of her surface fully illuminated, standing across the void of space to make a direct alignment with the sun from the perspective of the Earth? What image do you experience on the face of the moon as you embody it? What does it mean to you and your inner process?
Feel yourself shift now, as the moon does, moving further along in your orbit around the Earth. As the angle between you and the sun grows smaller by degrees, so too does the phase you embody as observed from the planet below. The amount of light that you are seen to reflect grows less and less. You are waning now, your brightness receding, your darkness becoming more concentrated as you breathe into this moment … into this shift … into this change. And you find yourself holding space in this moment, embodying the energies of the third quarter moon, seen half in darkness and half in light from the vantage point of those looking up at you from the planet below. How does it feel to be the waning half-moon, holding a point of equilibrium yet moving ever more increasingly into the darkness? What energy does the third quarter moon hold? What does she have to teach you about embodying balance in the face of what is unknown? About being centered even while embracing the wisdom of caution?
When you are ready, you take up the celestial circle dance once more, and as the moon does, you continue in your familiar orbit around Earth. As the angle between you and the sun grows smaller and smaller, you wane darker and darker from the perspective of the planet below. The amount of light that you are seen to reflect grows less and less, until at last you find yourself pausing in the space where the sun is in front of you, illuminating your face as it always does; but the Earth is behind you, seeing nothing of your comforting light … only the stars as you sink into the depths of this mysterious and magnetic energy. Breathe into this moment and find yourself embodying the energies of the dark moon. What energy does the dark moon hold? How does it feel to be the dark moon, enrobed in night’s great mystery? What does she have to teach you about embracing the shadow as a part of the path to holy wholeness and healing? What do you need most to see here in the most hidden places of your soul?
You shift once again. When you are ready, move forward once more away from the darkness, growing round and into the light. The amount of illumination you share with Earth below increases as the angle between you and the sun grows larger and larger, and you wax brighter and brighter, until you pause once again at a place of balance … shifting into the first quarter moon … holding space in that place half in light and half in darkness from the vantage point of those looking up at you from Earth below. How does it feel to be the waxing half-moon, breathing into a place of equilibrium, yet moving ever more increasingly into the light? What energy does the first quarter moon hold? What does she have to teach you about embodying balance in the face of increasing potential, and about being centered even when embracing the courage to change?
And when you are ready, move forward once more, tracing the well-worn pathway back to where you began, increasing your reflected light and angle to the sun until you return to the bright and majestic shining of the moon at her fullness. Breathe into this place at the height of lunar power, coming full circle to pause in the greatest extent of your alignment with the sun.
And then, in this moment, feel that light fall away.
It is not because you have fallen into shadow.
It is because there is no longer a sun, whose light you can reflect. There is no longer an earth to witness your changes as you cycle around her.
It is just you, the moon. Exactly as you are—no projections, no illusions.
Extracted from the matrix of your environmental context, you are no longer subject to spending your existence trapped in someone else’s orbit, nor are you fixed in place by the requirements of another’s gravitational pull.
Experience what it feels like to no longer be defined by your relationship to others. To have the truth of who you are be your only point of reference.
Without the reflection of external light or the filter of positional darkness, who are you truly? Taken out of your present context of relational and community systems that keep all of us structured and locked in an orbital path, what could you be? What is the nature of the projections and expectations of others? What are the consequences of the projections and expectations of the Self?
How is it that our moon, that heavenly body which has been present in our skies for millions of years before the dawn of humanity and will certainly still be shining after we are long gone, is able to hide a great secret from us in plain sight? There is no so-called dark side of the moon; there is no one face that stares forever out into the abyss of space while the other beams benevolently down upon earth month after month. The truth is that just as the Earth rotates on its axis as it orbits the sun, the moon rotates on its axis as it orbits the Earth. But because it takes an entire Earth month for the moon to complete one full rotation—and coupled with its month-long orbit around our planet—we only ever see the same face from the perspective of Earth. How does this change your perception of the moon? How does this illuminate the meaning of the sovereign self?
Likewise, who are you when you are seen as you are? What does it feel like to be seen and heard and acknowledged exactly as you are? What about you is hidden in plain sight from others? From yourself? Without limitation, without projection, without illusion, without expectation: who are you? What have you become? What do you like about the unvarnished truth of yourself? What would you like to change?
How can you bring greater awareness of the sovereign moon to your life? How can you bring in more of this sovereign essence to fortify your work and illuminate your path to wholeness?
Spend as much time as you need in this place of reflective Sovereignty. When you are ready, connect to a space of gratitude for your experience, and resolve to bring back with you all of the insights and information you received during this working. Take three deep, centering breaths … and return to the here and the now.
Cycles of Healing
There are two main iterations of cycle which are focused on by practitioners of the Avalonian Tradition: The Avalonian Cycle of Healing (outlined in chapter 1) and the Avalonian Cycle of Revealing. Both of these cycles provide an evolutionary paradigm of spiritual growth and personal transformation through the alignment of the Self with the cycles of nature both within and around us. The Cycle of Healing reflects a five-fold division of cycle that connects seasonal shifts, the major lunar phases, and the Celtic holy days to the stages of our inner process of unfolding. The Cycle of Revealing looks at the lunar mysteries of the yearly cycle and envisions each of the thirteen moons of the year as one of the pearls that rim the cauldron of the chief of Annwn. It is the Cycle of Revealing which forms the bulk of the focus for this book and will be explored in great depth.
2. Sarah Higley, trans. Preiddeu Annwn: The Spoils of Annwn, (Rochester: University of Rochester: The Camelot Project, 2007), accessed at: http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn.
3. Ibid., lines 13–17.
4. Theodore Herbert La Villemarqué, “Ar Rannou” in Barzaz-Breiz (Paris: Franck, 1846), 10.
5 These times represent a general guideline; the actual times of local moonrise and moonset is dependent on the time of year and the location of the observer on the globe.
6 The time when the moon is at its highest point in the sky corresponds with high tide; the second high tide in a day occurs twelve hours later with low tides occurring six hours after each high tide.