Cerridwen, Goddess of Death and Rebirth

(This is for Robyn who asked me for information on Cerridwen)

Cerridwen, Goddess of Death and Rebirth


I give you life

I give you death

it is all one

You travel the spiral path

the eternal path

that is existence

ever becoming

ever growing

ever changing

Nothing dies that is not reborn

nothing is born that does not die

When you come to me

I welcome you home

then I take you into my womb

my cauldron of transformation

where you are stirred and sifted

blended and boiled

melted and mashed

reconstituted then recycled

You always come back to me

you always go forth renewed

Death and Rebirth are but points of transition

along the Eternal Path



The Mythology

Cerridwen (pronounced ker'rid-when)is a Welsh triple Goddess, Maid, Mother, and Crone, whose totem animal is the great white sow. She is associated with the moon, inspiration, poetry, prophecy, shape-shifting, and life and death. Cerridwen had two boys. One was beautiful and the other was ugly. Beacuse she wanted the ugly one to have something of his own, she made him a magical brew. The brew took a year and a day to complete and would make him inspired and brilliant. She set Gwion, her assistant to watch the brew and bade him not to drink it. Accidentally, some drops of the brew splashed onto his hand and he put his hand in his mouth. Instantly he knew everything, including the fact that Cerridwen would seek his death. He ran away and she ran after him. After many shape-shiftings, he was swallowed by Cerridwen who gave birth to him nine months later.



The Lessons of this Goddess

Cerridwen's appearance in your life heralds a time of death and rebirth. Something is dying and needs to be let go of, so something new can be born. We know the earth's dance of death and rebirth as the seasons. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, but undergoes transformation. So do we. To live fully and in wholeness we need to accept life in all that it is, which includes death and rebirth. Let go of what does not serve you and your wholeness.

Perhaps, you have reahed the end of a cycle, a realationship, a job, and you fear letting it go. Or feel that you are dying, when only a piece of you needs to give way to the new. Perhaps the idea that there is death and only death is too painful for you to accept. Living in a partiarchal culture has deprived most of us of the Goddess's way of death and rebirth. Wholeness is nurtured whe we say yes and do our dance with death and rebirth. The Goddess says you will always get back what you give to me. It will be changed, it will be transformed, but you will get it back.