"I draw my knowledge from the famous cauldron,
The breath of nine muses keeps it boiling."
____ Preiddeu Annwn (trans. CM) anon. Welsh poem
The cauldron of Annwfn (ANN'uvn), the Welsh Underworld, was guarded, warmed, and inspired by the nine sisters of the cauldron - the primal inspirers of the Celtic world. The ninefold sisters were understood to take the threefold thread of each life and amplify it till its full potential was realized. They were seen as the Gifting Mothers by the Celtic world, and later as the faery godmothers of medieval tradition. Actual sisterhoods of priestesses played an important part in the sacred and inspirational guidance of the ancient Celtic world. The sacred flame within the enclosureof St. Brigit was tended by nineteen sisters - two shifts of nine nuns and their abbess.
The relationship between ourselves and our various inspirers is complex and subtle. We rely on the teachers and inspirational people of many ages whose craft we follow; the practitioners of our life-skills who preceded us; the places, animals, plants, trees, and land features that have become central to our symbolic and metaphorical understanding of our vocationl; the music, books, art, and skills that feed our soul; the stories, songs, texts, and teachings by which we live our lives. All of these come together to heat the brew in our cauldron of life. Our inspirers pull upon the thread of our soul's circuit to remind us where our vocational duty lies.
"Which nine major influences in your life keep your own cauldron of inspiration boiling? Visualize each of these, appreciating them and focusing upon those aspects that most inspire you."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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