Cerridwen in Her Aspect of Water – Cerridwen y Dwr

“My beloved Goddess, flow deep within me and remove all that pains me and makes me suffer”

Womb waters, dark and nourishing, blood of the Mother mingling with my blood. How I love Her surrounding me. How safe I feel with Her, resting deep in Her love. 

Cerridwen, you are my eternal resting place.

 

Who is Cerridwen y Dwr?

In Welsh mythology there are a number of ‘Ladies of the Lake’. Caitlin Matthews wrote an amazing book about this phenomena. The Celts believed the waters of lakes to be portals into Annwfn. There are many sites in Britain where devotional gifts to Goddess were left, cast into the waters, only to be found millennia later. Treasure from 1000 – 800 BC has been discovered in Anglesey as recently as 2015. North Wales in particular has a number of ancient lakes left by the Ice Age, keeping the secrets of the Druids and their nations. 

Who was the Goddess to whom the nations gave their precious gifts of gold chains, bracelets, jewel-bestudded cups, plates, even whole chariots. Well, from our research into Celtic mythology, we know Cerridwen was one of the foremost Goddesses of the Celtic people, as Goddess of Inspiration. You see, inspiration was more precious than gold, silver and jewels. These could all be replaced, but if one lost the connection with the Goddess of Inspiration, all were doomed. This was not so much about the poetry and song that we nowadays equate with the Bardic gifts. This was divinatory Seership, magical Workings, inspiration that would benefit all of the Celtic nations in every decision they made. Without the connection with the Goddess of Inspiration, the very flow of nywfre (life force, life blood) of the people would be hindered and the people would suffer. 

No one would dare to displease Cerridwen on purpose and any who trespassed against Her would be sorely punished. The gifts tossed into the lakes wherever the people were, were presumed to find the Goddess. I see it a bit like one of those old fashioned suction pipe systems in big office blocks or department stores. You put your message or request into one of the pods and pressed a destination button and within seconds the message would be received where it was meant to go. 

Hence I always say to the students, “Cerridwen can travel on/through any waterway She wishes to. She will receive your message when you place it in any water near you, be it stream, river, lake or ocean.”   

 

Why is She designated “Lady of the Lake” by us?

We are rising. She is rising. Like the rising waters of the world. Is it a rising of the good? I think so but I may be biased. 

Cerridwen is a guardian and sovereign of the realm of Annwfn. There are many of them, same as here in our realm. She and Her beloved are watching the sea, land and sky and protecting them. She protects the Waters of the World, since all waters flow into each other, around the earth that has risen as our Terra. 

She even learns all about us as humans through the waters of our body, which are partly waters of the world. All of our reactions, thoughts, emotions and feelings are distributed through our body by the waters within us. There is physiological evidence of that when the hormones, good or otherwise, enter our bloodstream and create our ‘reality’ for us. 

 Many of you who are working with Her already know this well, but those of you who don’t, brace yourself: She is the shadow hunter. She knows She cannot flow through you and me if we hold on to the ’old stuff’, the obstacles of feeling small and unrecognised, of being and having been unseen and unwitnessed. She shines Her light on all we still need to work on to become wholly us, especially the Impostor Syndrome that so many, both women and men, suffer from.

 

Letting go, letting flow

Are we worthy of Her if we hold on to the conditioning? Of the programming? Of the good girl and boy programming? Shadow hides deep and we must find it and face it. Let it be washed clean. Empty the dross and replace it with gold. Her gold. Her faith in us. The wave of liquid love that crashes through us when we trust and open to receive. Ecstasy through faithfulness and trust in Her and in us.

As we gift Her with our devotion and love, our greatest possessions, so She returns Her gift of confidence, compassion and care to us. She lets the emotions flow freely, like the rivers that flow through Her lake, refreshing us, cooling us. 

She is the washer at the shore of the lake. She takes your hands, leads you into the water  and washes you clean. All of your bodies. Your heart. Your soul. Your core of inner being.

One of the activities that most challenges and delights the students on the Priestess of Cerridwen training is our yearly visit to the White Spring to bathe in the deepest plunge pool, if possible, totally naked. Usually we get a private session but this year the spring has been busy and so we had to be with the public. Still, most of our sisters and brothers felt no shame in taking off their clothes and taking the leap into the unknown. Faith in Her, that’s what counts. Our bodies are beautiful to Her. We stand before Her and the world to show that fear has no place in our heart.

Are you ready to get naked and unafraid? Are you ready to meet us/Her at the White Spring to be cleaned? To drink Her red womb waters in the Chalice Well? 

We await you sweet sister and brother, to welcome you here in Avalon. 

Until then

Blessed Be

Bee

 

Bee Helygen

Adoratrix of Cerridwen

Priestess of the Llwyth

Avalon

Website: cerridwen.co.uk

Bee is the creatrix and course tutor for the Priestess of Cerridwen training which has been running as part of the Glastonbury Goddess Temple since 2015. She also runs the Death Priestess training and is a celebrant and Avalon Soul Healer. Full bio