A couple of weeks ago I was delighted and honoured to receive this stunning piece of devotional art inspired by my representation of Gwyn in my King of Annwn Cycle books from one of my patrons, Morgannah. The dragon-scale shading around His eyes and the jewel in His forehead are based on my story about Him being born from the Dragon Mother, Anrhuna, His brief transformation into a black dragon when He eats His mother’s heart and His early days as ‘the Boy in the Serpent Skins’.
‘Your absence is like the spinning of the void.
You are gone to its bottommost depths
with Your Castle of Cold Stone.’
~ You are Gone
In the myth I live by after my patron God, Gwyn ap Nudd (Winter’s King) is defeated by His rival, Gwythyr ap Greidol (Summer’s King) He ‘dies’ and retreats to sleep for the summer in Caer Ochren, the Castle of Cold Stone.
For a long while I had been using Meg Falconer’s image of Caer Ochren from King Arthur’s Raid as my altar art for this period but this year I received the calling to create my own. This image depicts Gwyn’s fortress sinking into the Abyss with grief at His passing with snow and frost on the towers and winds showing that, contrarily, it is winter in Annwn. I was planning to show Gwyn’s tomb in the interior of the fort but, instead, it came through to me that He wanted me to show intimations of His faces on the walls. These appeared to me like projections of light but in ice showing that whilst He dreams His representations in myths and stories are still manifesting to us in the world.
This morning when I made my traditional offering of a sprig of thyme to my patron God, Gwyn ap Nudd, at dawn before He goes to fight His battle against Gwythyr ap Grendel for Creiddylad (a battle He, as Winter King, is doomed to lose to the Summer King) He appeared to me as a magnificent bull of battle and spoke the words:
“I go to fight for all those who fight a battle they cannot win.”
Go well,
my beloved Lord of Annwn,
I will be waiting for You at summer’s end.
Creiddylad as Winter Queen with Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) and ivy (Hedera helix) which are both prominent in Creiddylad’s garden at this time.
The Sanctuary of Vindos 