Category: Religion

Mystics of the Sacred Heart Part Six – Sister Mary of the Divine Heart and the Consecration of the World

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Mary, born Maria Droste zu Vischering, (1863 – 1899) influenced Pope Leo XIII to consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1899.

She was educated at the boarding school of the Sacré-Coeur Sisters in Ridenburg, Bavaria. During a return home from school to recover from pneumonia she had a vision of Jesus who told: ‘Thou shalt be the wife of my heart.’  This led her to join the Sisters of the Good Shepherd aged 25.

For Mary devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Blessed Eucharist were inseparable no doubt as the blood of Christ flowed from His heart.

Whilst on mission in Porto in 1898 Mary received several messages from Jesus requesting that she contact the Pope and request the consecration of the world to His Sacred Heart. In her letter to the Pope she wrote: ‘On the eve of the Immaculate Conception, I seemed to see (interiorly) this light, the Heart of Jesus, this adorable sun, whose rays descended on the earth, first narrowly, then more widely, and finally, lighting up the whole world. I recognized the ardent desire He has to see his adorable Heart more and more glorified and known and to spread His gifts and blessings over the whole world. Our Lord… has shown me the ardent desire he has that his Heart be more and more glorified and loved for the good of the nations.’ (25)

The Pope was persuaded by the promise of a longer life at a time of illness. ‘And He has chosen Your Holiness, prolonging your days, so that you might render Him this honor, console his outraged Heart and draw on your soul the choice graces that come from this Divine Heart, this source of all graces.’ (26)

The Pope agreed to consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus saying he expected ‘extraordinary and lasting benefits for Christendom in the first place and also for the whole human race.’ (27) Much controversy surrounded the consecration of all the world including non-Christians. Mary sadly died three days before the world was consecrated in 1899.

REFERENCES

(25) ‘A Forgotten Nun who Influenced the Pope, National Catholic Register, https://www.ncregister.com/blog/a-forgotten-blessed-nun-who-influenced-the-pope
(26) Ibid.
(27) Ibid.

Mystics of the Sacred Heart Part Five – Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Flaming Heart

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The devotion to the Sacred Heart only reached popularity amongst Catholics in the 17th century and this was due to the influence of Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647 – 1690).

Margaret lived in France and entered a Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial aged 24. There Jesus appeared to her four times revealing His love of humanity through visions of His Sacred Heart. These are recorded in her diary.

I. The Flaming Heart

In her first vision she reports that she reposed ‘upon His Sacred Breast’ and ‘for the first time, He opened to me His Divine Heart.’

Jesus said: ‘My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must spread them abroad by your means…’ 

This was followed by an exchange of hearts. ‘After this, He asked me for my heart, which I begged Him to take. He did so and placed it in His own Adorable Heart, where He showed it to me as a little atom which was being consumed in this great furnace, and withdrawing it thence as a burning flame in the form of a heart, He restored it to the place whence He had taken it.’

Jesus then said: ‘My well-beloved, I give you a precious token of My love, having enclosed within your side a little spark of its glowing flames, that may serve you for a heart and consume you to the last moment of your life… I now give you that (name) of the beloved disciple of My Sacred Heart.’ (20)

I relate to the imagery of the flaming heart because a few years ago I offered my heart to Gwyn on ‘the Altar of the Heart’ and it burst into flames and He told me that its fire would light the way to the worship of His family.

II. Wearing the Heart

Margaret’s second striking vision is the source of the representation of the Sacred Heart in Catholicism today: ‘The Divine Heart was presented to me in a throne of flames, more resplendent than a sun, transparent as crystal, with this adorable wound. And it was surrounded with a crown of thorns, signifying the punctures made in it by our sins, and a cross above.’

Margaret was told: “This Heart of God must be honored under the form of His heart of flesh, whose image He wanted exposed, and also worn on me and on my heart.’ (21)

This led to Margaret wearing and creating and distributing images of the Sacred Heart which after her death were used to ward off the plague in Marseilles.

This isn’t something Gwyn has called me do… yet…

III. First Friday Devotion

Jesus appeaerd again to Margaret with His breast like a furnace. ‘Opening it, He showed me His loving and lovable Heart as the living source of those flames. Then he revealed to me all the unspeakable marvels of His pure love, and the excess of love He had conceived for men from whom He had received nothing but ingratitude and contempt.’

To make up for their ‘ingratitude’ He asked her to ‘receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month’ and tells her that ‘every night between Thursday and Friday I will make you partaker of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives.’ (22) This is the source of the Catholic Holy Hour between 11 and 12 midnight every Thursday.

IV. The Feast of the Heart

In her fourth vision Jesus opens His heart to Margaret again and asks her to inaugurate ‘the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi’ as ‘a feast in honor of My Heart.’ This usually takes place in the month of June.

I was called to start celebrating a feast for Gwyn on the 29th of September over ten years ago and began with just one friend. Many Gwyn devotees celebrate His feast on this day and we hold a group rite at the Monastery of Annwn. I feel it is the power of Gwyn’s heartbeat that has drawn us together.

V. Disciple of the Sacred Heart

More controversially, when Margaret dedicated her life to Jesus, ‘she went to her cell, bared her breast, and, imitating her illustrious and saintly foundress, cut with a knife the name of Jesus above her heart. From the blood that flowed from the wound she signed the act in these words: ‘Sister Margaret Mary, Disciple of the Divine Heart of the Adorable Jesus’. (24)

Margaret’s visionary fervor and discipleship quickly spread following her death but the devotion to the Sacred Heart was not approved until seventy years later.

REFERENCES

(21) https://www.churchpop.com/visions-of-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus-4-mystical-messages-to-st-margaret-mary-alacoque/
(22) Ibid.
(23) Ibid.
(24) Monseigneur Bougaud, Revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Blessed Margaret Mary and the History of Her Life, (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1890), p. 209 – 210

Mystics of the Sacred Heart Part Four – The Graces of Saint Gertrude

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Gertrude (1256 – 1302) was a Bendictine nun at the monastery of Helfta and received many of her teachings about the Sacred Heart from Mechtilde.

Like Mechtilde, Gertrude was a ‘Bride of Christ’. He bestowed upon her four graces. The first was the impression of His wounds on her heart. ‘O most merciful Lord, engrave Thy Wounds upon my heart with Thy most Precious Blood, that I may read in them both Thy grief and Thy love; and that the memory of Thy Wounds may ever remain in my inmost heart, to excite my compassion for Thy sufferings and to increase in me Thy love.’ (15) I often feel like with this with Gwyn – His stories being engraved upon my heart.

Her second grace was an arrow of light that shot from the side of Jesus and pierced her heart. ‘After I had received the Sacrament of Life, I saw a ray of light, like an arrow, dart forth from the Sacred Wound in Thy right Side, on the Crucifix . . . It advanced toward me and pierced my heart.’ (16) This resulted in a tide of affection and desire to be united with Jesus rising within her. 

I haven’t had an experience like this but it puts me in mind of the ecstasy of St Teresa of Avila wherein an angel thrusts a ‘long spear of gold’ into her heart and entrails leaving her ‘all on fire with a great love of God.’ (17) 

Like Lutgarde, Gertrude exchanged hearts with Jesus and this was her third grace. ‘Thou hast granted me Thy secret friendship, by opening to me the sacred ark of Thy Deified Heart in so many different ways as to be the source of all my happiness. Sometimes as a special mark of our mutual friendship, Thou didst exchange It for mine!’ (17)

Her fourth grace was the placing of the infant Jesus within her. ‘It was the anniversary of the blessed night of Our Lord’s Nativity. In spirit, I tried to fulfill the office of servant of the glorious Mother of God when I felt that a tender, new-born Infant was placed in my heart. At the same instant, I beheld my soul entirely transformed. Then I understood the meaning of these sweet words: ‘God will be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28).’ (18) I found this vision particuarly beautiful. Over the Twelve Days of Devotion last year I explored Gwyn’s birth and infancy and felt He was very close to my heart although not quite in it.

Jesus further disclosed His heart as a treasury, a harp, a fountain, a golden thurible and an altar. Like Mechtilde she delighted in its ‘harmonious beatings’. He offered His ‘Divine Heart’ to her as an instrument to ‘charm the eye and ear of Divinity’ and said of all those who had asked Gertrude to pray for them, ‘they may draw forth all they need from my Divine Heart.’ (19). 

This imagery is similar to Mechtilde’s and relates to my own delight in the beat of Gwyn’s heart and to the joy and inspiration that I draw from it.

REFERENCES

(15) Anonymous, St. Gertrude the Great: Herald of Divine Love, TAN Books, Kindle Edition
(16) Ibid.
(17) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_of_Saint_Teresa
(18) Anonymous, St. Gertrude the Great: Herald of Divine Love, TAN Books, Kindle Edition
(19) Ibid.
(20) Ibid. 

Mystics of the Sacred Heart Part Three – Saint Mechtilde and the Eternal Praise of the Heart

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Mechthilde (1240 – 1298) was born into the wealthy Hackeborn family and entered the Benedictine convent of Helfa in Saxony at the age of seventeen.

She had numerous visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, spoken of in The Book of Special Grace, which she compiled after a spiritual crisis aged 50. 

I. The Mighty Beating of His Heart

Mechtilde shares a vision in which she rests against Christ’s bosom, listening ‘with attentive ear to the ceaseless and mighty beatings of His own sweet Heart’. Through these ‘beatings’ He sounds ‘invitations’: ‘Come… my love, and receive all that the Beloved can give to His beloved; come. My sister, and possess the inheritance of heaven, which I have bought for thee with My precious Blood; come, My spouse, and enjoy My Godhead.” (5)

This resonated with me deeply for listening to the sound of Gwyn’s Heart, the Heart of Annwn, mighty, awe-inspiring, deafening sometimes, is one of my core practices. I’ve experienced the Heart calling me, inviting me and other monastic devotees to come to Him and worship Him in the Monastery of Annwn. ‘Hear the heart, the heart of Annwn, / hear the heart oh monk and nun / Hear the heart, the heart of Annwn, / “To the monastery we come.”

II. Eternal Praise

On other occasions Mechtilde lays her mouth on the Divine Heart of Jesus and gains sustenance. ‘Drop by drop’ she is gifted verses to offer to His Mother. (6) She also draws from His heart a ‘sweet fruit’ which she places in her mouth signifying ‘eternal praise’ which ‘floweth forth from Him’. (7)

The praise of God is shown to her in another vision as ‘a tube, as it were, coming out of the Heart of God, to her own heart, and then winding back again from her own heart to that of God, by which was signified the praise of God.’ (8) This is later expanded upon. ‘Then straightway she saw tubes, as it were, going forth from the hearts of the angels to the Heart of God, and they made such sweet melody that no man can utter it’. (9)

In another vision Jesus shows reveals His heart as a lamp ‘overflowing’ with large drops of light yet not ‘anywise lessened’. It overflows ‘by little strings of lamps; some of which seemed to stand upright, and to be full of oil, while others were empty, and hung upside down.’ Mechtilde understands ‘by lamps that burnt upright were signified the hearts of those who were present at Mass with devotion and longing desires, while by the lamps that hung down were signified the hearts of those who refused to be raised up by devotion.’ (10) 

These remarkable visions show how the praise of God / Jesus, flows from His Sacred Heart to the angels and is gifted to His most ardent devotees. This puts me in mind of the gift of awen ‘inspiration’ to awenyddion in the Brythonic tradition, which flows from the cauldron into the cauldrons of those who praise the Gods. Gwyn owns ‘the Cauldron of Pen Annwn’ and is ‘my patron, inspiration and truth’ and my awen from Him also feels like a gift from His heart.

In The Triads of the Island of Britain  we find 90. ‘The Three Perpetual Harmonies of the Island of Britain: One was at the Island of Afallach, and the second at Caer Garadawg, and the third at Bangor. In each of these three places were 2,400 religious men; and of these 100 in turn continued each hour of the twenty-four hours of the day and night in prayer and service to God, ceaselessly and without rest forever.’ (11)

It is notable that one of these ‘Perpetual Harmonies’ was ‘at the Island of Afallach.’ Afallach, from afal, ‘apple’ is another name of Gwyn’s. This makes me wonder if an earlier tradition of eternal praise for Gwyn once existed. Whether that was the case or not I long found a monastery wherein the beat of Gwyn’s heart is played and His praises sung day and night.

III. The Fortress of the Heart

In an astonishing vision Jesus takes Mechtilde into His heart and shuts her in. He shows her the upper part is ‘the sweetness of the spirit of God’ and the lower part ‘the treasury of all good’. In the south is the ‘eternal paradise of all riches’. In the west is ‘eternal peace and joy without end’. In the north is ‘eternal security’. (Jesus does not mention what lies in the east). (12) His heart is elsewhere described as ‘a fair house’ and ‘a house of miraculous beauty’. (13)

This reminds me a little of the depictions of Gwyn’s fortress as filled with fair people and revelry. For me Gwyn’s hall is the heart of the kingdom of Annwn His heart, the Heart of Annwn, beats in its midst. I wonder if there was a mystical tradition wherein His fortress was seen to be the interior of His heart.

When Mechtilde asks how to cleanse her heart Jesus replies: ‘In the love of My divine Heart I will wash thee’ and shows her a ‘river of love’ filled with golden fish. (14)

Here I’m reminded of the sparkling rivers of mead and wine in Annwn and of a personal vision I had of rivers of blood, like veins, pouring from Gwyn’s heart and connecting with the hearts of all beings in Annwn and in Thisworld.

IV. Greet My Heart

Jesus appeared to Mechthilde and said the following: ‘In the morning let your first act be to greet My Heart and to offer Me your own. Whoever breathes a sigh toward Me, draws Me to himself.’ (15)

I found this profoundly beautiful. Every morning Gwyn’s name is the thing I say in my morning prayers and I could imagine incorporating a greeting of His heart and an offering of my heart to Him into my devotions.

There is much modern polytheists could learn from this remarkable saint about the nature of visionary experience and devotion.

REFERENCES

(5) Anon, Revelations of S. Mechtilde, (1875), https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/selectrevelation00mech/selectrevelation00mech.pdf p117
(6) Ibid. p112 – 113
(7) Ibid. p126
(8) Ibid. p118 – 119
(9) Ibid. p133
(10) Ibid. p136 – 138
(11) Rachel Bromwich (ed), The Triads of the Island of Britain, (University of Wales Press, 2014), p232
(12) Anon, Revelations of S. Mechtilde, (1875), https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/selectrevelation00mech/selectrevelation00mech.pdf p133 – 135
(13) Ibid. p138, p142
(14) Ibid. 119 – 120
(15) Mechthild, St Joseph’s Abbey, http://spencerabbey1098.blogspot.com/2014/11/mechtilde.html

Mystics of the Sacred Heart Part Two – Saint Lutgarde and the Exchange of Hearts

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Lutgarde (1182 – 1246) was born in Tongres, Belgium, and entered the Benedictine convent at Saint Trond aged twelve. During this period a potential suitor visited her and during one of these visits Jesus appeared to her revealing his spear wound and telling her: ‘Seek no more pleasure of this affection… here in this wound I promise you the most pure of joys.’ Lutgarde denounced her suitor saying: ‘Go away from me for I belong to another Lover.’ (3)

Afterwards Lutgarde was blessed with a number of graces including levitation, healing, a miraculous understanding of Latin and illumination about the meaning of the Psalms but none of these made her happy. 

This led to her exchange of hearts with Jesus:

‘Jesus asked her: “What… do you want?”

“Lord… I want Thy Heart.”

“You want My Heart? Well, I too want your heart.” 

“Take it, dear Lord. But take it in such a way that the love of Your Heart may be so mingled and united with my own heart that I may possess my heart in Thee, and that it may always remain there secure in Your protection.”’ (4)

Lutgarde was elected as superior of the convent at the age of twenty-three but left to join the Cistercian convent (known as Trappists) at Aywieres.

Although I haven’t directly exchanged hearts with Gwyn attaining a union of my breath with His breath and my heart with His has long been a part of my practice.

REFERENCES

(3) St Lutgarde of Aywieres, Mystics of the Church, https://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2015/09/st-lutgarde-of-aywieres-first-known.html
(4) Ibid.

Mystics of the Sacred Heart Part One – The Sacred Heart and the Sacred Wounds

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Through my recent visit to London and to the Tyburn Convent I found out about the Roman Catholic devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. I have since been reading further on the subject and have been astonised by the parallels between my gnosis of Gwyn’s heart as the Heart of Annwn and the experiences of the Christian mystics of the sacred heart.

In this series I will be sharing the story of the origins of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and discussing how the visions of these mystics relate to my experiences.

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The devotion to the Sacred Heart originated from the devotion to the Sacred Wounds of Jesus. There were five in total. The first four were the wounds to His hands and feet from the nails when He was crucified. The fifth was the wound in His side from the Spear of Longinus by which He was pierced to ensure He was dead. From this wound poured blood and sweat. 

Associations between the Sacred Wounds and the Sacred Heart began in the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries in the 11th – 12th centuries. In Sermon 61 St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) speaks of ‘the soul of the martyr’ being ‘safe’ ‘in the heart of Jesus whose wounds were opened to let it in’. (1) 

In the 13th century, in ‘With You is the Source of Life’, St Bonaventure (1221 – 1274) wrote: ‘“They shall look on him whom they pierced”. The blood and water, which poured out at that moment, were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.’ (2)

The last of Christ’s lifeblood was seen as pouring as an offfering from His heart. This resonates with my vision Gwyn showed me of His death, pierced by a spear, in raven form, hanging upside down on a yew over the Abyss in a sacrifice in which He gave every last drop of His blood to ‘set the world to rights’ following the devastation wrecked by his battling with His rival, Lleu / Gwythyr.

In a follow-up story I wrote Mabon won a cup containing Gwyn’s blood from the Abyss and used it to heal Nudd, Gwyn’s father, ‘the Fisher King’. It is interesting to note that abyss imagery occurs in the writings of Bonaventure.

It seems no coincidence that in a later legend the blood and sweat of Jesus was taken in the Holy Grail by Joseph of Arimathea to Britain and buried near Glastonbury Tor – a site sacred to Gwyn. When Joseph rested wearily on his staff the Glastonbury Thorn sprung up giving name to Wearyall Hill.

In my visions when Gwyn is killed by His rival on Calan Mai the hawthorns blossom from His blood. Could the Christian legend be based on an earlier myth wherein a cup containing the blood from Gwyn’s Sacred Heart was buried?

REFERENCES

(1) ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus – Part One’, Knights of the Precious Blood, https://www.kofpb.org/2020/05/06/sacred-heart-of-jesus-part-1-history-of-the-devotion/
(2) Sister Julie Anne Sheahan, ‘Call includes Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Franciscan Sisters, https://fscc-calledtobe.org/2022/06/23/call-includes-consecration-to-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus

The Heart of Annwn

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Over the past few years the Heart of Annwn has become increasingly important in the mythos Gwyn has gifted me and in my devotional practices. 

For me, the Heart of Annwn is Gwyn’s heart, inherited from His mother, Anrhuna, Mother of Annwn, and also the ever-beating heart of Annwn itself. 

I believe that, like Hades and Hades, Hel and Hel, are both Deities and Otherworlds, Gwyn, who is associated with Gwynfyd is one with His land as well.

The Heart of Annwn literally became the heart of my practice two years ago when I began playing its beat and chanting to align myself with Gwyn’s heartbeat. This led to the formulation of the Rule of the Heart within the Monastery of Annwn – following our hearts in alignment with the Heart of Annwn.

In this post I will be sharing two of the core stories of the Heart of Annwn.

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The Heart of the Dragon Mother

Gwyn has shown me that the Heart of Annwn once beat in the chest of His mother, Anrhuna, the Mother of Annwn, when She was a nine-headed dragon. When She was slain Vindos / Gwyn ate Her heart. The Heart of Annwn became His and this gave Him sovereignty over Annwn as King.

“Now,” the ghost of Anrhuna turned to her corpse, “there is a rite amongst the dragons of Annwn – as you are the only one of my children left here you must eat my heart.”

The boy swallowed nervously as with a single bite of her ghost jaws she tore it from her chest and offered it to him, big and bloody, large and slippery, uncannily still beating. “My heart is the Heart of Annwn. If you succeed in eating it all, its power will be yours and you will be king.”

“But it is so much bigger than I and I have little appetite.”

“Little bite by little bite and you will be king.”

The boy very much wanted to be king. He needed his kingship within him. He bared his teeth and bit in, took one bite, then another. As he ate, he grew. He became a mighty wolf, a raging bull, a bull-horned man, a horned serpent, finally, a black dragon. As he tore and devoured the last pieces of the heart he spread his wings to fill the darkest reaches of the Deep. He roared, “I am King of Annwn! I will rule the dead! I will build my kingdom from the bones of dead dragons and the light of dead stars! I will bring joy to every serpent who has known sorrow and I will take vengeance on my enemies!”

Weary and full he slept and when he awoke he was just a boy with a large heart that felt too big for his body.

*

The Hidden Heart

In another story, in which Arthur raids Annwn, killing the King of Annwn and stealing His cauldron, Gwyn instructs His beloved, Creiddylad, to cut His heart from His chest and help hide it so that Arthur cannot take the Heart of Annwn.

Gwyn gave Creiddylad a Knife. “Cut my heart from my chest. Give it to my winged messengers and tell them to hide it in a place that even I could never find It.”

“Do what?” 

“I will not die.” 

“Worse – you will be heartless.”

One of my practices around this story was receiving the honour of finding Gwyn’s heart and returning it to Him and helping Him to return to life.

‘I knew it was a death unlike any other
but still I heard the beating 
of your heart…

Your hounds dug wildly beneath trees,
bloodying their frantic paws
to find only the hearts of 
dead badgers,

sniffed suspiciously at the edge of pools
where I searched through reeds
as if looking for a baby
in the bulrushes,
plunged in 
and emerged draped in duck-weed.

We snatched a still-beating heart 
from a bear’s claws (not yours).

We searched every cave for a heart-shaped box.
When we found one 
and the keys to the lock
inside was only a locket and a love letter in an illegible hand.

When we had searched everywhere in Annwn
we rode across Thisworld following
your fading heart beat.

We found your heart in the unlikeliest of places.

Clutching it tightly, fearing every time it skipped a beat,
we galloped back to Annwn with our hearts
beating just as wildly.

Through the fortresses within fortresses…

Into your empty chest we placed your still-beating heart.’

*

Gwyn has revealed a lot about the Heart of Annwn and I believe there is more to come. Recently I had a vision of Gwyn as a black dragon with His heart visible in His chest bearing an important message. He appears in this form when He brings tidings for the future. What will be the future of the Heart of Annwn? What stories from the past remain to be disclosed? I share what I know with gratitude and await further revealings.

The Oracle of Old Craft Crow

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I am the one who knows
of the craft that strung bones together
before there were sinews

and animated matter before the first breath.
Before the primordial darkness 
there was a crow. 

Don’t believe me? 
Ask the Old Mother –
she didn’t believe her eyes

but there I was and from me she learnt
the art of stirring her cauldron birthing the stars.
Still don’t believe me? Know this –

I can bring back the bones of forgotten monsters,
reassemble them to look like angels,
retrieve the words of lost books,

repair your dying world.
Still don’t believe me? Cah! 
Fill your mouth with my feathers,

spit them out and read my oracle.
Then you’ll see how in the darkness between worlds,
in the depths of all the pollution your kind have siphoned off,

at the end of all ends flies a crow and I am love.
Still don’t believe me? Cah! Cah!
You’re not the first.

The Speaking Ones

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Several years ago I had a vision of the world becoming as a whirlpool from the source. ‘Green moving swards of vegetation, trees, people, marching through a labyrinthine kingdom back into the void carrying houses and entire civilisations.’ Sometimes people got stuck. With bird-headed ones they came knocking on the back of my head trying to shout through me. I was on Psylocybe mushrooms and alone at the time and didn’t dare let them.

The practice of a person allowing spirits to speak through them is found in many world religions from Voodoo to Evangelical Christianity. It was likely to have been an important component of pre-Christian Brythonic polytheistic religion and survived into the 12th century as recorded by Gerald of Wales.

Gerald writes of awenyddion ‘people inspired’. ‘When consulted upon any doubtful event, they roar out violently, are rendered beside themselves, and become, as it were, possessed by a spirit.’ Their speeches are ‘nugatory, ‘incoherent’, ‘ornamented’. When ‘roused from their ecstasy, as from a deep sleep’ they cannot ‘remember the replies they have given’. He conjectures: ‘perhaps they speak by the means of fanatic and ignorant spirits.’ (1)

Gerald’s words provide evidence for a Brythonic tradition of spiritwork in which there exist ‘soothsayers’, referred to as awenyddion, who are possessed by spirits by whom they speak in the metaphorical language of poetry.

I first came across the term ‘awen’ for ‘poetic inspiration’ in the Druid communities and saw myself as a bard before my patron God, Gwyn ap Nudd, initiated me as an awenydd. I have served Gwyn in this role for over ten years by journeying to Annwn to bring back inspiration for my communities. 

I have prayed for awen and for the Gods and spirits to inspire and come into me when writing in a similar way to the ancient Greek poets calling on the Muses and to William Blake asking the Daughters of Beulah to come into his hand. (2) I’ve also experimented with trance singing, letting go, just letting any words and tune flow. But, until recently, I hadn’t dared speak the voices of spirits.

This changed after a conversation with a fellow member of the Monastery of Annwn, who told me of his calling to channel Gwyn. It reminded me of the bird-headed spirits, who’d come knocking, whose desire to speak I had denied. I felt the time to offer my voice had come and journeyed to them.

I saw them as crows flocking in the sky in the shape of infinity then crossed bones. Their home appeared as the floating skeleton of a great raven. I offered to gift them my voice and they gave me some instructions. They would stand behind me. Then I must open the door and loosen my tongue. I tried it whilst in the Otherworld and received a prophecy about a distant son of Don.

Several days later on their prompting I composed a song to enter the trance state:

Crows, crows, the Speaking Ones
Y rhai sy’n siarad

Come, come from Annwfn
Come, come your will be done

Crows, crows, the Speaking Ones
Y rhai sy’n siarad

Come, come bring your words
Come, come you will be heard

Crows, crows, the Speaking Ones
Y rhai sy’n siarad

When I tried it the first time and asked who wanted to speak they told me they would take it in turns and each wanted me to make their words into an oracle. I did this by letting them speak out loud through me first then writing down what I could remember and putting it into more poetic form. (3)

On completion of the oracles I read them to the Speaking Ones and gained their approval. At first I wasn’t planning to make any of this work public but I was told they wanted their voices to be heard so I will be posting the oracles of these seven crow-guides over the course of the next week. 

(1) https://awenydd.weebly.com/giraldus-cambrensis-and-the-awenyddion.html
(2) ‘Daughters of Beulah! Muses who inspire the Poets Song… 
Of varied beauty, to delight the wanderer and repose 
His burning thirst & freezing hunger! Come into my hand 
By your mild power; descending down the Nerves of my right arm 
From out the Portals of my Brain, where by your ministry 
The Eternal Great Humanity Divine, planted his Paradise’
~ William Blake, ‘Milton’
(3) As a note I don’t consider this to be full trance possession because, whilst working alone, I don’t dare let go of my conscious faculties fully. Also, for this particular work, I have been asked to record the words so need to be aware enough to remember them. During this process I’ve felt something other has come through, but that I’m not fully out of the way, and suspect my consciousness might have coloured some of the content.

The Challenges of Taking a Polytheistic Monastic Name

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In the mainstream religions it is traditional for monastics to take a monastic name when they are ordained into a monastery on taking their vows.

When Christians monks and nuns take temporary vows they take a new name. This must be the name of a saint, monastic or Old Testament figure. The name is preceded by ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ as they see each other as family. For example Brother David, Sister Mary, Brother John. Three choices are handed to the Abbot who makes the final decision on the name.

Buddhist monastics are given a Dharma name, usually by the head of the monastery or by their teacher, and may have several different names during a lifetime. For example Shinran’s first name was Matsuwakamaru and his other monastic names were Hanen, Shakku, Zenshin, Gutoku Shinran and Kenshin Daeshi.

In Hindiusm monastics also take a new name when initiated by a guru. For example Paramahansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh.

When a monastic name is taken it symbolises giving up one’s old identity, wealth and ties with family and friends to enter the community of the monastery. One’s secular life is renounced for a religious life.

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Modern Polytheism began to emerge in the 1960s and to grow in the 1990s. Polytheistic monasticism has developed more recently with the first book, Polytheistic Monasticism: Voices from the Pagan Cloisters, published in 2022. It has precedents in Pagan and Druidic monasticism.

The only physical Pagan monastery in existence is the Matreum of Cybele. Online Druidic monastic organisations include the Order of the Sacred Nemeton and Gnostic Celtic Church Monastery. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information on their websites about whether monastics are required to take a monastic name or if they renounce their former life in any way.

In Paganism, more widely, it is common to take a craft name or magical name. This can be chosen through contemplating which animals, herbs, myths and Deities one has an affinity with or can be gifted by the Gods and spirits. Some well known examples are Greywolf, Starhawk, Bobcat, Robin Herne and Nimue Brown. This is used in the Pagan community and does not involve changing one’s identity and ties with secular sociey in which one’s regular name is retained.

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I am a Brythonic Polytheist and received my monastic name from my patron God, Gwyn ap Nudd, before I took vows as a nun. It started as a joke. Lockdown reawakened my longings for a monastic life. I’m an incredibly impatient person and, when I was being impatient with the weeds, Gwyn chided me, “Sister Patience.” I took it as a challenge, telling him “I will become Sister Patience.” It was a self-fulfilling prophecy for three years later I founded the Monastery of Annwn and took vows by that name.

For me the shift in name and identity from Lorna Smithers to Sister Patience has been a gradual one. I first started using my monastic name in the monastery only, then, as I began to change and grow to own it, I renamed my blog ‘The Cell of Sister Patience’ using it more widely in online spaces.

In February 2024 I was faced with the decision of whether to return to a regular job, which would have meant staying as Lorna Smithers and likely returning to old habits like shopping and drinking due to the stress and having more money, or to fully commit to a monastic life as Sister Patience.

My ability to choose the latter was made possible by mum offering to support me financially if my savings run out before I have found a way of supporting myself through a combination of writing and spiritual work.

This gave me the security to take the step of using my monastic name in all my communities, keeping my birth name only for financial and legal purposes.

It hasn’t been an easy process. Everyone who knows me knows I’m very impatient, thus Sister Patience would be the last name they would call me. My mum’s first reaction was, “I’m not calling you that!” before I explained. She still keeps calling me Lorna or, bizarrely, Beatrice, but is getting better. My dad won’t use it. My uncle on my mum’s side and his partner have been accepting. Most of my friends and the horticultural groups I volunteer with along with my personal trainer at the gym have been supportive. 

As a polytheistic monastic without a physical monastery it is impossible for me to make the break with the secular world made by other monastics. Ethically I am currently unable to make such a break as my eldery parents are dependent on me for support around the house and in the garden. 

Instead I strive to live as monastically as I can considering my circumstances. I serve my Gods through my spiritual practices and creativity and treat my room as a monastic cell and my home and garden as a monastery. My engagement with the wider world is limited to occassionally seeing friends for a walk and / or a brew and to attending spiritual groups. I don’t use social media and limit my online time to engaging with others for spiritual discussions and research for my writing along with learning yoga.

Taking a monastic name hasn’t changed how I am around people. I’m not putting on airs and graces. I’m not pretending to be something I’m not. I still swear. I still get angry. I still get impatient. But, looking back, not quite so much. There is power in taking a name and perhaps, one day, I will live up to it.