#cadno

To the Goddess of Spring, the Welsh deity of healing and fire, Braint, hear us welcome you! You have awoken to us cheering your name in prayer! 🐇

🌼Your inner fire brings forth the daffodils out of winter slumber. You call for the ice to thaw and the rivers to flow freely and they answer. May your light bless us on this, your honoured feast day ☀️

From the wonderful Druids of Anglesey, I invite you to rejoice in this prayer to Braint:

“Braint, Brid, Briganti, Goddess of flame and light,

I sing my spell of swelling bud, light shall conquer night,

Brigid, Braint, Brigantia, a candle to you I raise,

Blessed maiden of the spring, your awakening I praise.”

Gwydion: Our Magical Teacher of the Trees 🌳

In the ancient tales of the Mabinogi, Gwydion, son of Dôn, is counted among the most powerful practitioners of natural magic. He can create human-like beings from plants, survive transformations into wild creatures, and he is remembered as one of the earliest bearers of a magician’s wand.

Gwydion's skill in creative and transformative magic is unrivalled. Those who seek to awaken the hidden forces of the natural world may call upon his wisdom when learning to guide their own innate magical power.

Archdruid K. Hughes of the Anglesey Druid Order teaches that the following 'englynion' or 'song-spell' may be chanted when summoning the guidance and inspiration of Gwydion. Such words are especially suited to workings with trees and nature, the crafting of wands, and the deepening of one’s skill in the magical arts:

Englynion dwi'n canu i fab Dôn,

Ac galwaf y hud o Gwydion.

The translation also rhymes in English:

An englynion I sing to the son of Dôn, 

And summon the magic of Gwydion. 

Celebrating the Patron Saint of Welsh Orchards

On the 9th February we observe the patron saint of orchards, St Teilo. He was born in Pembrokeshire in around 500AD, and was a famed healer across the Celtic nations. Most notably, he and a man named Samson planted huge groves of orchard trees stretching for miles as food for the Brythonic people 🌳

Recently I attended a wassail at my new local Bute Park Community Orchard. It has been a wonderful first year of the orchard. We woke the trees up with horns, whistles and banging on pots. We started with a blessing forthe great orchard guardian, a crab apple tree 🍎 Then, we walked to each British orchard tree in turn from pears and apples to plums and prunes to wake them.

The Houses of the Mabinogi

The Houses of Dôn and Llyr are connected by marriage through Llyr's wife, Penarddun but are diverse in their stories and personalities.

Dôn collage to the bottom left, Llyr collage to the bottom right.

The House of Dôn, apart from the mother goddess herself, boasts two powerful magicians: Math and Gwydion. Also the Goddess of the Wheel of the Year, Arianhod, and her estranged son Lleu Llaw Gyffes are popular characters of this house. The children of Dôn also include Amaethon, the god of agriculture and who started the 'Cad Goddeu' or Battle of the Trees, where all the children declared war against Arawn, King of Annwn. They only won due to Gwydion's expert wizardy with his summoning of a tree army. Finally, the grandson of Dôn, Gwyn, son of Nudd, is popular in Welsh folklore as the king of the Tylwyth Teg (fairy-folk) and leader of the Wild Hunt.

The House of Llyr is smaller in sized but full of tragedy.

As the week of Beltane celebrations come to a close across Wales and beyond, I want to share a short devotional passage to the deities and spirits of nature that bless us during this season.

The evening sky turns from dark to light,

and the willow-wielding Summer wins his fight.

I praise Beli, the light bringer, for a stalling western sun.

I praise Braint for her fire, and the darkness overcome.

May we be blessed by their warmth.

From the sun, to the hearth.

Honoring Llyr - God of the Sea

Having spent a lot of time on Welsh islands recently, I’ve spent time connecting with Llyr and the sea realm.

May we find in him the same strength which can be found in the primal power of the waves. The unwavering force that carves up land.

O mighty Llyr, Lord of the boundless sea,

Ruler of waves and keeper of the deep,

I come before you with reverence and awe,

Offering to Amaethon

O’ Amaethon, I give praise to thee,

For a blessed harvest and a bountiful reaping

I revere the natural world and the cycles of nature,

In your name, I pledge devotion to it for evermore

In the month of August, Amaethon is the deity that resonates the most for me in my practice. His presence is seen in the turning of the leaves from green to yellow, the fruiting of the blackberries, and the farmer’s busyness in the fields.

On the night on the first of November, one day after the Ysbrydnos (meaning “spirit night” in Welsh), we celebrated the festival of Calan Gaeaf, translated as the Celebration of the First Day of Winter.

Musicians, poets and storytellers came together from all across Wales to honour our ancestors and be part of what many of us call the new Welsh spiritual revival. This was a spectacular event in a wonderful yurt location where we kept the cider flowing, the incense burning and the ancestors alive in our minds.