A Druid Creation Myth

I love creation stories.

I love Genesis, the Norse creation tale, the ones created by Tolkien in the Silmarillion, the many creation stories of indigenous cultures and peoples around the world.

It breaks my heart that we have lost our Celtic creation stories.

Some say that the story of Cerridwen and Taliesin is a form of creation myth, and I can see that but I still yearn for one of our own. So this morning I went into meditation and asked for guidance, to look into the Cauldron of Awen and scry the past.

To go back to the beginning and see how I would word those first moments of the Universe.

Well, here it is. I think it’s only the beginning of a larger body of work, and I might record it as a audio file too. I hope you enjoy where the Old Ones have led me so far!

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The Cauldron

In the beginning there was the Void.

And in that Void there was silence.

But there came upon the Void a Sacred Breath,

And thus the Void began to turn.

And in that turning a shape emerged,

Moving, turning, drawing in,

Edges of the Void began to form,

And as the edges formed they became like iron,

So the shape grew into that of the great Spinning Cauldron.

And the Cauldron held the Void within its heart.

 

As the Cauldron turned so it created the first sound,

A single note that filled the Void,

A voice singing in praise of its own creation,

A voice that called into the Void,

And that note became a word,

And the word was Don,

And Don became the earth, and rock, and stone,

And thus it was that land was formed.

 

Don sang her note of the Land,

But Don was lonely.

She was dark and barren,

So Don wept in her loneliness,

And her salt tears became the seas, rivers and oceans,

And so it was that the Cauldron sung its second note,

And harmony was born into the darkness,

As the note of Land, joined with the note of sea,

Llyr raised his head from the water,

Don felt his kiss upon her skin,

With every breaking wave.

And she smiled.

 

So the sea caressed the land,

Llyr’s touch upon her dark skin,

And Don sighed with pleasure,

As a third note was sung,

And the harmony became a song,

The breath of love,

Of Llyr and Don,

Of sea and land,

Created the sky,

And Beli Mawr opened his shining eye,

And there was light.

14 responses to “A Druid Creation Myth”

  1. Mmmmmmmmmm. How wonderful to meditate on this story of creation. It speaks to me, as I am sure it will speak to many others. Your words need to be used in song and poetry to bring this story out into our world.

  2. Oh I absolutely love this. Thankyou Bard
    I also like the Creation myth in The Clan of the cave bear, – series of books by Jean Auriel
    Yes,it’s great to have a Celtic Creation story to share around.

  3. An interpretation of wonder there Damh

    There is a large part of me that believes that even the concept of a beginning creation is totally against how I would interpret druidism, paganism, and any form of nature fellowship.

    Time and space being invented by humans as calibrations to assist the use of tools and to create calendars and charts, and to develop systems of order and even control over nature’s cycles. Linear ways to enforce genocide on cyclical, spherical and spiral ways.

    Personally I try to avoid creation stories and stick to cycle stories … but there is this nagging thing that our earth was once part of something else or it is a synthesis of a lot of things that connected together.

    There is our wonderful local story of the Birth Of Bhride from the caves of Céis Coarran mountain here, where her spirit was midwife to the first life on earth and all that followed though even this is taught as part of a cycle too.

    Perhaps instead of Creation stories perhaps its more appropriate for us to be inspired and tell Regeneration and Transformation stories as if there was never any singular creation path?

    Unfortunately, I think most people find that too scary and too insecure.

    • I believe, there is indeed no beginning of the things as they are; there is an ever changing something, without a beginning or an ending. But within this, the Earth probably came into existence and will disappear again, like change would cause. So a myth on the creation of Earth, to me, is a rather nice way of giving information on Druidic views on for example Land, Sea and Sky. And Dave gave (the beginning of a) beautiful tale., that, as I understand it, is in no way meant to become dogma.

    • I do agree with you on needing more about inspired tales and songs about Transformation and re-birth and past lives. However, I love reading various creation stories and though the words are different the basis of all creation stories are the same. It is this sameness that I would argue that all religions are one at the their vary core. However, people seldom to take the time look past the obvious and are ready to believe whatever they are told. I see nothing wrong with creation tales, because I do believe it was all created. I do not believe in the very basics of evolutions. I believe that everything was created for a purpose. I believe that humans were created last and centuries after everything else as a necessity, because someone had to care for the earth and animals and to balance out populations. However, by creating a human with free will; they realized they need to ways to bring them in line thus religion was born and however the animal instinct for power and control took control and thus we now have greed. It was these driving forces that caused the first humans to leave the African continent and create the ancient civilizations that created the countries we now have today. However, I have a romantic heart and still prefer the romantic tales of creations versus the cold hard reality.

      I love the tale Bard just like I love you music! I cannot wait for the new album.

  4. Wow Dave….that was just breathtaking! Gave me chills as I got to the end…although it is just the beginning… 😉
    Beautiful!

  5. Hi, just to say hope that your blog etc. is working OK again.

    I’ve just read your tale again, it needs to be said aloud or sung. The images it brings to me talk to my spirit. Such a skill you have or is it the ability to be still enough to listen?

    • Thank you Jayne. I do intend to record it in the future, just as a spoken word tale. So I’ll pop it on the blog when it’s done so people can hear it.

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