The Abyss was its spiralling core and its beginning and its end.
The Beginning
It began with a boy falling, falling, falling into the Abyss.
The boy dreamt of the birth of his Dragon Mother from the infinite waters of the Deep with nine heads and nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine coils and her giving birth to an infinitude of dragons, serpents, monster-serpents and monsters.
*
The boy dreamt of the birth of the stars – each the eye of a fiery giant. He watched them mating, spawning bright gods, who built their fortresses in the skies. The King of the Gods ordering the constellations with a turning sword. This god cast out, plummeting like a comet with an icy tail, down to the Deep.
*
The boy dreamt of the god hanging in his mother’s coils over the Abyss to gain its wisdom. ‘There is no up or down or before or after – everything meets here in you the Dragon Mother.’ He watched them mate and knew he was conceived.
*
The boy dreamt of the Children of the Don descending from the stars to slaughter the Dragons of the Deep. Lugus, their leader, cut off the arm of his father, Nodens and slaughtered his Dragon Mother, Anrhuna. Lugus then tore the boy, Vindos, and his sister, Kraideti, from the womb. He stole Kraideti ‘the Girl who will Bring Life’ to the stars and threw Vindos ‘the Boy who will bring Death’ into the Abyss.
*
The boy awoke and crawled from the Abyss to eat his Dragon Mother’s heart in a rite that made him King of Annwn (he later gained his name – Vindos / Gwyn ‘White, Blessed, Holy’).
The End
Vindos killed Lugus as vengeance for slaying his Dragon Mother. Lugus took flight in the form of an eagle and perched wounded in an oak tree for nine nights with a sow beneath feasting on the rotten flesh and maggots from his wound.
Uidianos sang Lugus down from the oak with three englyns and restored him to life.
Lugus returned the blow, shattering the Stone of Vindos, to pierce his enemy’s side. Vindos took the form of a raven and flew to Annwn where he hung wounded on a yew tree upside down over the Abyss and answered its riddles.
Night One:
“Tell me
the hour the King
and Queen of Annwn
were born.”
“Not easy –
we were not born
but ripped from the womb
on the hour of the death
of dragons.”
*
Night Two:
“Tell me
in your eternal
battle who killed
who?
“Not easy,
summer and winter
are mirrors – when one
kills the other kills
too.”
*
Night Three:
“Tell Me
how many trees
are in the forests
of Annwn?”
“Not easy,
for they are without
number but ask me again
and I will name
them.”
*
Night Four:
“Tell me
how many doors
there are to
Annwn.”
“Not easy,
for they are without
number but ask me again
and I will open
them.”
*
Night Five:
“Tell me
where divide
darkness and light,
day and night?”
“Not easy,
for there are no
divisions – each follows
each in an endless
procession.”
*
Night Six:
“Tell me
where the restless wind
comes from and where
he rests.”
“Not easy,
for no-one but he
knows the location of the Lands
of the First and Last
Breaths.”
*
Night Seven:
“Tell me
how many
stars are in the
Heavens.”
“Not easy,
for they will not
be counted until all
souls are in the
cauldron.”
*
Night Eight:
“Tell me
the fate of
your last drop
of blood.”
“Not easy,
for I cannot divide it
from the ocean of blood
that will drown
the world.”
*
Night Nine:
“Tell Me
the hour the King
and Queen of Annwn
will die.”
“Not easy –
we cannot live without
each other and thus will die
together when all souls
are gathered.”
*
Vindos then fell into the Abyss.
These scenes had a basis in my personal encounters with the Abyss. I will be talking about those in part two, then in part three and four presenting my recent discovery of ‘Abyss Mysticism’ in the writing on medieval monastics and how this has helped me make a little sense of the abyssal visions behind this book.
The Sanctuary of Vindos 