When you have bundled related issues together and discovered their causes, you can address the bigger issue rather than the smaller tributaries. For example, say you have discovered that many of your shadow traits are born from a sense of low self-esteem. How do you perceive low self-worth, in and of itself, from an elemental perspective? Does it feel earthy to you—being low and humble and on the level of dirt? Is it watery—being too compliant, submersing yourself into each situation, not making any waves, taking the form you feel is expected of you? There is no right or wrong answer in this; what’s important is that the alignment resonates true with you. Once you have whittled down your mirror lists to the main themes and prominent energies running through your life, decide which element you feel best represents these key points and keep them in mind as you proceed in your mirror work.
Nine Moons in the Womb: Creating Personal Symbols
the station of emergence
As we have seen, assigning elemental alignments to each entry on the mirror lists of light and shadow provides us with insight into our predominant energetic, in addition to giving us a tool we can use to compensate for shortcomings, or fortify gifts and talents. Understanding our inner processes allows us to have a great deal of control over shadow instincts. We are also empowered to develop and use gifts and talents that support the actualization of the priestess self. With these insights in mind, let us take our mirror work one step further.
Look over your lists and create personal symbols representing each aspect of yourself found in your mirror of shadow and mirror of light. Do not rush through this process; take as much time as you need to create a symbol set that is meaningful and connected to your soul work. After choosing which aspect of the self you wish to focus on, quietly sit and do your best to immerse yourself in its energy. With which energy center does this issue resonate most? What alignment is the issue? How does being immersed in this energy make you feel? What memories, aspirations, and emotions does it bring up? These are all important clues that will aid in creating your symbol.
Say in the course of your inner exploration about a mirror aspect, you recall an incident from your childhood. Perhaps you were camping one summer, and an older sibling decided to push you out of the boat and into the lake, knowing full well of your fear of water snakes. You were terrified and almost drowned, but mocking laughter made you feel ashamed at your perceived weakness. This memory is important on many levels, as it could be one of the key experiences contributing to the formation of an inner wound. Perhaps then, you can create a symbol integrating images of the boat, a snake, and the water rushing over your head.
This is an example of a personal symbol, one that cannot be interpreted by anyone else, nor can it be confused with any other symbol. If distilling a mosaic experience into one image is difficult for you, ask your guide or the Goddess to give you a symbol to represent the mirror aspect upon which you are focusing. No matter how you obtain it, be sure to thoroughly doorway the symbol, as described on p. 142, in order to obtain a deep understanding of this part of yourself.
While they need not be elaborate, it is important these symbols resonate only with the aspect of self they are meant to represent; that is, try to avoid using universal symbols (such as the cauldron) as a personal symbol. You can use a universal symbol as a part of your personal symbol—for example, you could depict a fear of change as a purple giraffe with a cauldron over its head—as long as it is sufficiently personalized so as not to cause confusion in your work. Taking each issue’s elemental alignment into account when creating your symbol can strengthen the symbol’s usefulness.
This long-term project will establish a working language between you and your priestess self; you will create a vocabulary all your own as you delve further within and begin to peel your onion of self-knowledge. Through ritual, Immrama, and sessions with your guide, you can gain greater insight into your work and clearer answers to your questions, especially if you begin to see symbols you have created as direct responses, or find them appearing in your dreams or even in the everyday world.
Continuing the earlier example, say you are driving to work and see a purple giraffe on a bumper sticker, followed by a billboard advertisement for a bean pot that looks a great deal like a cauldron. Chances are, seeing these things will trigger the memory of your personal symbol and make you realize the universe is trying to bring this issue to your attention for some reason—maybe it’s related to the Immram you performed the night before or in answer to the focus of your Station work. Pay attention to the cues the universe is presenting you—this is an important step towards increased perception and sensitivity; your perspective on the world expands as you begin to notice subtle signs around you.
Gwion Reborn: Manifesting the Mirror Runes
the station of resolution
You have taken a huge step towards creating a personal language that will facilitate communication with the universe and your priestess self in creating a unique symbol system representing each aspect of your inner self from your mirror lists. The symbols you’ve created are important in passive communication—both in seeing symbol elements appear “spontaneously” in the world (synchronicity), as well as through active communication. Consciously seeking out insights using your inner symbol system can be useful for understanding your personal process and in uncovering energies that may be active in your life without your awareness. This seeking is accomplished by creating physical representations of your mirror symbols—manifesting the Mirror Runes.
There are many ways to create your rune set, and it is important for you to meditate on the medium that will best resonate with you and your work. Several construction methods are discussed here, but each is open to personal interpretation; there is no right or wrong way to create your Mirror Runes so long as they make an energetic fit and are imbued with a sacred sense.
To begin, review your personal symbols and ensure you are satisfied that each symbol accurately reflects the energy of the aspect of self they were created to represent. Take some time to fine-tune your symbols; creating a doorway to each of them is a good way to ensure they have the correct correspondence. Count how many symbols you have; if there are a great many, see if you can find common themes in them to distill them into a smaller number. There is no right amount, however; if you have a large symbol set, you might find it easier to begin this work with no more than thirty-three symbols in all. This system is dynamic, and you should expect to both add and subtract runes from your set in the years to come so they better reflect your work and growth.
Once you are sure of your symbols, spend time with each of them and make only one rune per session, taking care to imbue each with the energy of its symbol. This will greatly increase your rune set’s power and usefulness. Consider the following media for construction:
wood: Wood is an excellent choice for creating your Mirror Runes. You can purchase or make wooden disks—or any other shape that works for you (apples, crescents, yonis)—in the amount needed to represent each symbol. Paint each disk either black or white, to represent whether the symbol comes from your Mirror of Shadow or Mirror of Light. You can then paint your symbols in the elemental colors you have assigned to each, to remind you of the energetic quality of the sigil. A powerful use of wood for your set is to cut the runes yourself from magickal trees representing the dark and light energies (for example, apple and oak) and painting or wood-burning your symbols onto each.
stone: In the same way as using sacred woods, you may choose to carve your symbols on two different types of stones representing the dark and the light mirror energies. Some stone pairs to consider are hematite and moonstone, jet and amber, and onyx and quartz. These make lovely rune sets that hold the energy of each symbol well.
clay: You can purchase self-hardening clay, clay that needs to be baked, or you could make your own dough clay. It is best to use a natural clay rather than the artificial polymers used for m
any crafts. Hand-form a set of sigils in whatever shape moves you; you can carve your symbols directly into the clay or paint them on after they have dried. Consider adding herbs or stones of like elemental energies into the clay to augment the energy you are representing for each rune.
glass: Round-edged glass stones can be engraved with your symbols. They can be tinted to represent light, dark, and elemental energies.
metal: Use two different metals, one active and one passive, to create your runes. Gold and silver, brass and pewter, and copper and iron are good choices, budget permitting.
cardstock: Cutting uniform shapes out of cardstock is an option for those who like working with decks. You can use markers, colored pencils, or paint to make the back of the card black or white, and the same to draw each symbol in their elemental color on the reverse side.
These are simply suggestions for creating your Mirror Runes; let your imagination take you to what will work best for you. You can create a powerful working tool keyed specifically to your needs and energies, keeping your intention focused and the elemental essence of each symbol in mind.
After creating your rune set, find or make a bag in which to store them. Silk works best to keep the energies of your personal runes intact.
The Radiant Brow: Divining the Self
the station of integration
Once your rune set is complete, there are many ways to work with it to obtain guidance and clarity.
If you feel drawn to add another layer of interpretation to your rune workings, you could consider what the universe is trying to communicate to you when you pull a reversed (upside-down) rune. Some people read reversals as holding the opposite meaning of the upright symbol, while others consider them to be indications of blocked energies, or the foreshadowing of a challenge to whatever aspect of the self the rune represents. You can decide ahead of time how, if at all, you want to read a reversed rune. Of course, always trust your intuition in the moment.
one-rune pull: It can be helpful to begin each day by pulling a rune to see what energies will be influencing you throughout the day. Pulling a Rune of Light can indicate an opportunity to develop or use this aspect of yourself sometime during the course of the day. Pulling a Rune of Shadow can warn you against allowing this aspect of your lower self to have any kind of control, and to ensure the issue is not unconsciously motivating you. A one-rune pull can also be used at the full moon to ask the Goddess for your work for the upcoming month. Concentrating on this aspect of yourself every day for the entire lunar cycle can bring about many insights and unexpected changes.
mirror balancing: Separate your Runes into Shadow and Light. With a situation or a desire for clarity about a circumstance in mind, randomly choose a Rune of Shadow and a Rune of Light. The Shadow Rune represents the underlying energetic of the situation operating unconsciously, and the light rune is the balancer—what you need to augment or use to insure that the situation is one of growth. The Light Rune will provide you with a way through the shadow.
three-rune spread: This working is helpful to understand cause and effect in your life. Concentrate on an issue or situation at hand, and then pull three runes from your bag.
Rune One—The energy you are bringing into the situation
Rune Two—The energy of the situation itself—how it challenges you
Rune Three—The energetic outcome of the situation—what you learn from it
the avalonian cycle of healing: Using your Mirror Runes in this layout can be helpful to receive an overview of the present or upcoming cycle’s energies, especially when done at the Station of Descent during the solar or lunar cycle. It can also be used to understand the way in which a specific situation is unfolding in the context of the Cycle of Healing. Decide on your focus, sit with your intention, and draw five runes from the bag. Lay them out in the following order, and meditate upon their meanings based upon their positions.
Rune One: Station of Descent—The shadow manifestation of the issue at hand or the hurdle you need to overcome for your growth this Cycle.
Rune Two: Station of Confrontation—The origin of the issue at hand or the root of the soul wound that is the core of your healing work this Cycle.
Rune Three: Station of Emergence—The priestess-self manifestation of the issue at hand or the bridge you need to create for your growth this Cycle.
Rune Four: Station of Resolution—The potential liberated by overcoming the issue or the fruit of your labor to manifest this aspect of your priestess self this Cycle.
Rune Five: Station of Integration—The gift that lies at the heart of this issue or the growth achieved and the lesson learned by completely realizing the potential at the core of the work of this Cycle.
dreamwork: The Mirror Runes are an excellent tool for use in dream interpretation. After waking, list major symbols, people, and situations found in the dream. Assign numbers to each and give each number a position in the spread; it is helpful to keep track of this by writing down what position corresponds with which number. Randomly pull a rune for each position with the intention that each element of your dream is an aspect of yourself; the rune will provide insight into its symbolism. For example, if you dream about a beach ball and pull your purple giraffe symbol representing your sense of self-worth, the message is that the ball is talking about how you feel about yourself—what the ball did in the dream (bouncing, floating in the ocean, rolling down a sand dune) provides further insight into what the universe is trying to tell you through your dreams.
talismans: You can wear a personal rune or a combination of runes in a pouch around your neck for a period of time with the intention of bringing its energy into your life, or reinforcing exploration work you are doing on a particular aspect of yourself. You can consciously choose which rune you are going to wear, or ask the universe for the one you need most to be working with at that time, and pull one from your bag at random. You can include herbs and stones in your neck pouch to further amplify energies with which you are working.
tarot spreads: You can use your runes as if they were tarot cards, reading them in your favorite layouts such as the Celtic Cross. This will give you a very personalized reading which will address your specific needs and gifts.
Let your intuition guide you with additional uses. Magick is adaptable; you can create a working layout custom-built to fulfill your needs. It is important, however, that you are the only person who touches or works with your runes. They are keyed directly to your process and geared specifically for your growth. Your Mirror Runes are a sacred tool—a physical manifestation of your energetic makeup. They are a part of you and should be treated with reverence.
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The Goddesses of Avalon
Three slender things that best support the world: the slender stream of milk from the cows dug into the pail; the slender blade of green corn upon the ground; the slender thread over the hand of a skilled woman.
Celtic Triad
The Goddesses of Avalon are the heart and soul of the sacred landscape, each weaving a transformational energy into the matrix of the archetypal realm. Once we have successfully made contact with the landscape areas and established a good working relationship which each of these places of power, we can use them to connect with the Ladies of Avalon. These five Divine Ancestresses will further our quest for positive change, personal Sovereignty, and the wisdom that comes from drinking deeply from the cauldron of our souls.
The Avalonian Tradition draws its inspiration from British, rather than English, culture. As we have seen, Wales was able to maintain and preserve the culture, language, and traditions of Celtic Britain far longer than the rest of England, so we look to Welsh language, literature, and folklore to understand the beliefs of the Britons. The Welsh mythic cycle contains the first references to King Arthur, and through him, to Ynys Afallon—the Island of Avalon. Therefore, to discover the Goddess
as She has revealed Herself to the Britons, and as She was likely worshiped on Avalon, we must turn to Welsh mythology.
While we know the names of hundreds of Celtic divinities, many of them are mentioned only once and are associated with burials or local shrines and wells. There are a few deities, however, whose stories have survived the passage of time and have made it into the written record, accompanied by a rich tradition of legend and symbolism. It may be possible to conclude that there were two levels of worship in Celtic lands; local and clan divinities as well as tribal and regional gods. We cannot know this for sure, but there is iconographic and etymologic evidence enough to consider this possibility.
For example, the symbolism and attributes of the Welsh goddess Rhiannon bear a strong resemblance to those of the continental Celtic goddess Epona as well as to the Irish goddess Macha. The Irish Lugh and Welsh Lleu are both gods associated with light, while the Welsh Don and Irish Danu are both Great Mother goddesses from whom dynasties of gods have descended. It may well be that these and other such similarities point to a main pantheon of gods common to the mother tribe of all Celtic peoples in their collective past.
Modron and Mabon
There is only one goddess name that has any direct literary connection with Avalon. From Trioedd Ynys Prydein (the Welsh Triads), a compendium of lore and genealogy, we learn that Modron, daughter of Avallach, is the mother of Mabon—an associate of Arthur and the imprisoned youth of Culhwch and Olwen. Avallach is said to be an Otherworldly king who dwelt upon Glastonbury Tor, indicating the Divine stature of himself and his daughter. The Welsh Triads also tell us that:
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