Day Seven of Twelve Days of Devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd
On this seventh day I consider Your horse – Carngrwn from battle throng and wonder why You introduce him before You introduce Yourself when You gather the soul of Gwyddno Garanhir.
Is he so much a part of You, of Your identity and of Your destiny, leading You away by the bridle to battles in both Thisworld and the Otherworld You must speak his name first? Your horse before Yourself Your role as Gatherer of Souls?
This horse You ride must be relentless carrying You to battles everywhere at once. Many his round-hooves cutting reeds, churning mud, many his fetlocked legs, many his proud heads, many his foaming mouths chomping the bit.
You must be many too gathering souls from here, there, everywhere, no rest, no relent. Your horse, Your destiny, Your love and Your lament forever living on whilst the Warriors of Britain lie dead…
Day Six of Twelve Days of Devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd
On this sixth day I consider winter.
How I wrote a story about You winning the gift of ice from an ice dragon and holding it in the palm of your hand as a snowflake, yet it escaped You and grew to be a monster bringing about an Ice Age.
This year people hung snowflakes in the houses across the road. Days later followed an Arctic Blast
reminding we who imagine winter of its harsh realities.
The snowflake is back in Your hand – innocent, so completely perfect in its symmetry but I will remember how it grew to become a monster.
Day five of Twelve Days of Devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd
This fifth day I consider Your battle.
How Calan Mai seems far away but already we’re both counting down the moons, the weeks, the days.
How every year you face fighting a battle you cannot win, how every year you have shown up anyway for the seasons must turn, the ford must be crossed, from death new life won, flowers from pain. I think with shame of the times I have failed to show up.
Day Four of Twelve Days of Devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd
I come this fourth day to consider Your beloved.
How, at the beginning of time You shared a womb, hearts beating as one.
How You were torn apart, separated, found each other. How She foresakes You for another lover every year. How, with each separation, Your love grows stronger.
I think of how I was separated from You and it took me thirty years to find You although our paths crossed and I did not recognise You in the books, the land, my dreams, although I was searching…
I think of all the times we have been separated, when I have been woman and/or man, tree, plant, animal, stone, fungus and bacteria,
how my love for You has grown stronger since the beginning of time, the shattering of the cauldron, since when we all shared a womb.
Day Two of Twelve Days of Devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd
On this second day I consider Your boyhood, all the boys you have been.
The boy in the serpent skins born to transform a land of bones and gore into beauty,
Your return as a wolf cub or a boy in wolf skins to Your awenyddion letting us sit You on our knees, tell You stories.
How when You were a babe You never cried but howled.
There was a little of Your boy in me when I was growing up – I always hated dolls, played with Thundercats and Ninja Turtles and wrote about characters from Streetfigher in the back of my exercise books at school.
There are parts of me that refuse to grow up and keep returning to the playground where I swing over the top of the swings
that are no longer there on Middleforth Green
knowing You will catch me and take me to the stars.
Day One of Twelve Days of Devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd
On this first day I consider Your birth, how you were torn from the womb and flung into the Abyss, how You were born
falling
and wonder if I was born falling too. For it seems I have never stopped falling, spiralling downward through life, never up the career ladder, deeper into the well, into the Deep, into You.
I think of how we have both crawled from the Abyss and reclaimed our kingdoms – Yours built out of dragon bones and mine from words.
I have built mine for You and welcomed You in as You have welcomed me into Yours and each in the other’s we have been reborn.
For the last couple of years, as a Pagan/Polytheist alternative to the traditional ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ (26th December – 6th January) I have been practicing twelve days of devotion to Gwyn ap Nudd, my patron God, as a Brythonic Winter King.
This year, over the twelve days, I am going to be meditating on the following aspects of His identity and mythos and writing and sharing devotional poems addressed to Him.
I. Your Birth II. Your Boyhood III. Your Hunt IV. Your Beloved V. Your Battle VI. Winter VII. Your Horse VIII. Your Hound IX. Your Doors X. Your Kingdom XI. Your Cauldron XII. Your Death
If you would like to join in with this or do something similar for Gwyn or your personal Gods please feel welcome and let me know how it goes.
Gwyn ap Nudd, White son of Mist, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me I will never be lost again.
Gwyn ap Nudd, Hunter in the Skies, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me my hunt, my quest, will never die.
Gwyn ap Nudd, Bull of Conflict, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me I will keep on fighting through this day.
Gwyn ap Nudd, Keeper of the Cauldron, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me my life will be filled with inspiration.
Gwyn ap Nudd, Ruler of Annwn, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me I will know the unfathomable depths.
Gwyn ap Nudd, Gatherer of Souls, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me I will gather my pieces be whole again.
Gwyn ap Nudd, Lord of the Dead, I hail You in the morning and pray with You beside me I will walk with courage until the end.
This is a prayer for Gwyn ap Nudd through which I have been praying to Him every morning as part of my developing monastic practice. Up until now all my poems for Him have either been for specific Holy Days or have been an expression of a particular experience with Him. This is the first time I have written something more formal, based upon His epithets, which could also potentially be used by others should they want a starting point for building a relationship with Gwyn.
Reciting a set prayer every morning (I have now memorised it) has been a new experience for me as my devotions up until now have been mainly spontaneous. I’ll admit somedays I haven’t felt like praying it, but have been glad when I have, and others I’ve really needed it. I have found it anchoring as an affirmation of Gwyn’s presence in my life and the gifts He brings and have experienced different meanings and nuances in the words as I have recited them on different days and in different circumstances.
If you would like to incorporate this prayer into your own practice please feel free to.
The Sanctuary of Vindos 