You probably won't hear "tradition" or "history". Now why is that? They are a bit intellectual to be collected with such fun pursuits as art and music. So shouldn't they be shuttled on off to the ritualist and intellectual Druids?

Not if you again remember the defining core of the Bardic Perspective. . .

Our traditions and lore, our histories, have always been left in the care of the Bard for the preservation. This is because only a Bard can conceive the necessary exactness of lyrical layers in metaphysical patterns of ritual.

More than just words, our Greater Book and its rituals consist of layers of metaphor that transmit in a metered pattern, pun or double/triple/quadruple entendre. Only the Master Bard can appreciate this depth of refinement that instructs in simple phrases, volumes of wisdom. And only a Master Bard could appreciate the need to preserve our Greater Book with the word-by-word , phrase-by-phrase precision of a Cordemanon. Bard Cordemanons, indeed, are in abundance in our history.

While others would rewrite their history to suit their political ambition or to pander to the wealthy and powerful, the Bard has maintained the fidelity of histories both great and deplorable. We have retained a knowing of our strengths and weaknesses through their great care, honesty and responsibility. Because of them, we can still trace by both the meter and word of our Greater Book, its source and thereby our family history.

When the musician alters the notes of a song to only those that please himself, he no longer plays the same tune. Rather he has, through immaturity and probably a misdirected creative urge, destroyed what he has touched. The only possible benefit garnered is by pure randomness. When not comprehending the pattern of the thing, we cannot with surety know what we can, indeed, do to improve it. Instead, it is rendered inviolate. What is true of the Bard's song is true of our history as well, and the very purpose of this priesthood.

There have always been those who would rewrite the tune and claim it for their own, whereupon comes the need for the Cordemanon. On example of this occurred a number of years ago, when a group of Gwyddons became convinced they were "wise" enough to "improve" the Greater Book, and made sweeping alterations which were rarely carefully considered.

It isn't that changes are bad, it's just that , more often than not, changes obscure the inner meanings of the book's original wording. They over- complicate the quiet simplicity of our book and inadvertently distract from the deeper meaning the book contains. The book is really just fine like it is, believe it or not! I strongly suggest to any Gwyddon, if you feel the need to change the Greater Book, you haven't read it closely enough yet.

These alterations have since been purged, with few exceptions, from the Gwyddon mainstream. It is interesting to see some of these corrupted bits of lore bubble and surface in areas where they are preserved by young, inexperienced or inactive priests. A notable bubble of such misunderstanding showed up in print in reference to Cliodna, wherein she was called a "Bitch Goddess", of all things. Rooted in one of those earlier abortive changes, it provides an excellent example of how the metaphor of our Greater Book gets lost with a loss of a single word.

It all started with the God List. The God List was confusing to many. After all, we certainly, collectively, have a familial relationship with more than those 35 Gods. Deities we hold dear and appear in our rituals are not in that list, including the Mother of Tarvos. It was an interesting idea at the time. After all, since we obviously have more than 35 gods, our ancestors must have just left this unfinished and we need to "complete" this list - right? What other possible reason was the 35 gods list put in the book for, after all?

They went to work, then it came as a bolt out of the blue - If we trace our Tuatha's "family tree" we come up with SEVERAL HUNDREDS of Gods in our Tuatha. A book in and of itself. I've actually been working on this for a while, but not for inclusion in Greater Book material. It is instructional, but the sheer volume loses the point of the 35 Gods list, there is such a thing as information overload. The group there ran out of steam on compiling the list after each contributor's "pet" deity's description had been included. So - lead by a new Bard who arrogantly claimed to be the Uchel or High Gwyddon of the Bardic Priesthood, they created a list of 78 Gods.

To make matters worse, many of the entries, particularly ones about goddesses, are frankly just plain WRONG. They are littered with self-importance and what I consider male chauvinism. Very "what ever is good for my penis is good" oriented. It shows a clear lack of understanding the Goddesses.

An example of this happened during the "Vivian vs. Cliodna" debate. In the Original Copy of Newfox's craft book copied from Anna, in the Instructions of Kerridwen, the maiden aspects of Kerridwen the Great are Nimuway and Vivian - bright and dark respectively. The spelling of Nimue' was odd - Robert said he misspelled it and I believe him, he is dyslexic after all. Then one day somebody noticed that "Vivi" means "life" and reasoned that the Dark Maiden aspect couldn't really have "life" in Her name. Well, yes She can, but we'll get into that later. So the search was on. How could we correct this "mistake" in our book?

Ah! A discovery!!! Cliodna seemed very much like the description of what Vivian "should be" as the Dark Maiden. The myths of Cliodna show Her as the "Otherworld Maiden Queen of the Land of Women", certainly a dark and scary thing for the penile-centric point of view. "Obviously" this Rhiannon like Goddess who beat the crap out of Cuculain for his arrogance was just the right kind of "man-eating twat" that would be the "real" Dark Maiden. (A real ball bustin' dyke there) So, there you have it.

We, regardless of our constant work to uncondition ourselves, are still products of our environment. The danger lies in viewing new ideas or deep metaphysics through the bizarre filters we possess from the society we grow up in. Here, in the US, we have arrogantly assumed that we are all free and equal (or at least all white males have). Women and minorities know differently, but you become adjusted to the subtle discrimination that occurs. We live in a society that does not respect the Mother, but profess a faith that respects both the Mother and Father. We understand from the lessons of the human biological cycle, shared by men and women that the Dark, or in a women's case, bleeding cycle, has no connection with "man eating". It is in both sexes a time of cleansing, stripping away that which is conditioned or unhealthy.

In the myth with Cuchulain, Cliodna had him beaten to cleanse him of his ego self-importance. It was a metaphor. Cliodna is another name for the All Mother, most like another All Mother aspect - "Rhianna" or Rhiannon. It was just another tribe's All Mother name. She bears the all the marks of the Pen or Sovereign Tribal Mothers. Included are Her "birds". On Her "island" she has birds who are magical and can cause or heal any wound or illness. There are 3 distinct "species" of these. Two of these have "sub species". This is a direct reflection on the Pen or Five Fold Goddesses of Sovereignty, with two aspects of the Maiden, two of the Mother and one of the Crone describing the HUMAN LIFE CYCLE. That "LIFE" word again. Is there a connection here to Vivian? Yes, but indulge me for just another moment.

Cliodna is not a Dark Maiden, she is a tribal All Mother. If she is "mean" to "men" is is only when they are offensive in their arrogant self-important ramblings. She has no problem with beating the crap out of them too. "Men" in this case are actually "humans". There is no saving a stupid woman either - She'll whack her too! If She is to be called a "Bitch Goddess" (a reference I find highly inappropriate and offensive) it would have to be a bitch in the sense that powerful (therefore threatening) women are called bitches also, the very definition of our mundane society's anti woman bias. By that definition I proudly declare myself a BITCH Goddess too, as would any Gwiddon. Cliodna is the anti-thesis to self-importance, She who heals us of our "wounds" (conditioning). After She beat him, She healed Cuchulain tenderly. Her intent was ever for his good.

So who is our illusive Dark Maiden? The clue is found by avoiding sexual stereotypes of our social conditioning. The Dark Maiden isn't the "gal the Mr. God with the Big Penis had sex with and She was Mean to him". It is a description of the cycle of energy flow of the Boundless. Again - a metaphor. The link made to Cliodna was almost brilliant, because, if not attached to all that bull, it does illuminate an interesting relationship between the Bright and Dark Mothers and between Nimue'/ Vivian and Rhiannon.

Linguists have long known about the connection between Vivian and Nimue', usually referring to them as linguistic variations of Rhiannon. Nimué and Vivian are two sides of the Maiden (the Horse Mother). Nimué is clearly the virginal maid, unexplored potential. But from where does all life come - from the undeveloped maiden? Of course not. All life comes from the Unmanifested and to it all things return. From the realm of the Dark One and back to it. The flow is circular, not linear. The Dark Maiden is She who transforms unmanifested energy into manifested life potential for the Bright Maiden to conceive. Therefore She could be called the Life Mother - without Her there could be no life. This is not quite right yet, though.

"Vivian" does not mean "Life Mother". The -an suffix is not "mother", it is "queen". Morrigan is the "Sea Queen", Rhiannon (also spelled Rhiannan) is the "Queen Mare". Vivian is the "Life Queen". She is the Queen of the Flow of Life from the Otherworld. She rules life. She doesn't birth it. She controls the gate through which it passes, like Gabba at the other end of the cycle. As the Otherworld Maiden Queen, therefore, She IS like Cliodna. But to use Cliodna as the metaphor would not have had the same effect. There would have been extraneous "stuff" to detract from the message. And the clue word - life - would have been absent.

Sometimes more information/complexity is less. As they say, the more complex you make it, the easier it is to stop up the drain! Vivian leads us simply and concisely to an understanding of this relationship in the Universe. Which is why it is in our Greater Book that way. As I've said a million times before - be sure you understand it before you start changing anything. Our Book is a wealth of hidden metaphors, just like this one. It is designed to be the "rosetta stone" of the Indo European peoples and myths.

The rest of that lesson shows the relationship between the "Mothers" Bright and Dark, Bridget (or Sun Ana or Suliana ... etc.) and Morgana. They are both fiery Dragon Goddesses, the great boiling flame within the Cauldron of Life and Death that is the process or experience of life in this world and the other. They are fertility incarnate - Life or Death bursting forth in great abundance.

The Crones are also a pair. D'Anu or D'Ana is the Old Mother, Mother OF Mothers, She is the great "knowing" at the end of our journey in this life. She is as ethereal as the translucent moonlight in the rich complexity of her vegetation. She is the Old Forest itself, infinite and mysterious in its variety, the ultimate source of knowledge and wisdom. Civilization and the alphabet itself is anciently called the "Knowledge of the Trees", the root for the word Gwyddon. D'Ana is our Mother's Mother, and She loves us all.

Then there's Gabba (also known as Domnu), as the "Guardian of the Abyss", She regulates the passage our life fulfillment in this world back though the infinite folds of Her Self. She is the endless weave that seems to have no beginning or no end unless one transcends and breaks the dimensional bonds of time and space. Seems is the operative word here. Anything that is seen as eternal or absolute from a fixed point of view can take on a whole new look when one changes perspective. Gabba is She who maintains the very fabric of the Universe in Her eternal knotted web. She is the Barren Desert, the infinite night sky stretching out before you, the very brink of the Abyss - oblivion. If you have learned the lessons of D'Ana well, and understand that She and Gabba are in reality the same, then They will assist you to transcend this cycle of Birth/Life/Death to divinity. If not, Gabba will happily take you around again for another try. She loves Her children too, you see.

If you haven't figured it out yourself by this point - the list of 35 gods was designed to be a primer, not a compendium. It was to acquaint persons with no personal rapport or experience with Gwyddon/Celtic/Indo-European deities. This list was a simple suggestions list of the broadest possible contacts of our most accessible deities. Kind of like a list of the friendly relatives. It was to improve the seeker's chances of developing rapport with one of them. The list was broad enough to ensure that anyone can find a deity in there somewhere to relate to! But when we try to be "smarter", we miss this simple thought.

The untrue bard does as much damage through a misplaced desire to improve what he doesn't understand as does the self-important Druid through intellectual games or the arrogant Vatis who coldly rationalizes without any sense of spirituality or connection to the whole.

The preservation of our family's great Song is one of the highest calls a Bard can answer. Be sure you carefully consider the effect you have on posterity through your creative gift. Our ancestors were not ignorant barbarians who need to have their work "finished". It is. Treat it with respect and learn its deepest meaning.

One of the greatest responsibilities that a Gwyddon can undertake is that of a Cordemanon. That job is not one taken on lightly or frivolously - although many have over the last couple of decades. Cordemanons are living Greater Books, memorizing it by rote if necessary (a beneficial task, regardless, as one really learns it!). They strive to ensure that our teachings are passed on to future generations untainted, just as we received them (the content, not specifically the word by word writing, but maintaining the corporeal writings are preferred if possible). This means one has to really get to understand and appreciate their Craft book. Begin now by daily rereading your Greater Book with the intent toward memorization. You'll thank me for this. It is truly a magical book and our greatest legacy.

Please remember, being a Gwyddon isn't secret clubs, special mind game semantics (buzzwords) usage or any other "exclusive" ego trip. We are just a humble, plain and simple family whose bond is our relation to the Divine Godhead we call Oneness or Kerridwen the Great. and our desire to work together to manifest this understanding in the consciousness of humanity. We can sit around in candlelit, incense-filled rooms talking about how smart we are, or we can apply what we have learned and get out into the world and do something useful.