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Bardo-druidic traditions in the Borders which precede the 19th century revival can offer a different perspective to important concepts like Awen.
In Welsh, awen means inspiration or muse and is an essential concept within many bardo-druidic orders and philosophies. It is usually conceived as descending upon the operator from a supernal source, an agency of spiritual revelation which can be made manifest through their art. It provides the bard with a perceptive understanding, forming the creative seed of their composition. To the druid, awen manifests as a bridge to natural philosophy, to which the art of logic can then be applied. In the ovate it awakens the sight and impels prophecy.
The contemplation of awen is a study of the nature of inspiration, the connection with the divine powers through a conscious liminality, an innate transitional gateway where the soul and the divine are interpenetrated. Innovation, art and understanding, so central to the progress of humanity, rest upon the faculty of inspiration. Awen is the spark of ingenuity, the initiator of independent thought and the bedrock of communicative expression.
Awen in the 12th Century
Prior to the genteel 18th-19th century bardic revival, awen had a slightly different meaning. It was understood to be a powerful and confronting magical experience. Those who bore a talent for it had usually endured a rare and overpowering awakening or rapture, oftentimes through trance or dreams. After their awakening these people could become specially educated in the means and methods of applying the ectasis of awen. These people were known as Awenyddion, the people of awen.
In the 12th century Giraldus Cambrensis described certain awenyddion who engaged specifically in prophetic practices. Other reports describe the awakening of awen as a precursor to becoming bards who manifested their ecstatic episodes through the vehicle of poetry. [1]
The word awenyddion was later adopted by some branches of the bardic institution for their degrees of apprenticeship, referencing the importance of awakening awen, but not necessarily providing the experience to induce it.
Etymology of Awen
The etymology of the word awen is a debatable issue with a long history. Its use dates back to at least to the ninth century when it was recorded in the archaic form aguen by Nennius in his Historia Brittonum.[2] The most probable answer, to my satisfaction, is that the word is composed of A-, an intensive prefix and Gwen, which means prayer or request. The A- may be descended from proto-Indoeuropean agh- which gives us the English word awe, while Gwen is likely from wen-, to desire or strive for. Therefore, the word awen may be resolved as meaning, achieving the desired state of reverential awe.
Curiously, we have a comparison in Middle English, where the word awen (also agen or aghen) can appear as meaning 1. to scare or horrify, and 2. reverence. [3] That is to say, to inspire a state of awe, which is entirely descriptive of the experience of awakening to awen in Brythonic culture.
19th Century Speculation
In the theories of the 19th century, or what might be called folk etymology of the time, an interpretation for awen was proposed that suggested the word was derived from the bardic meaning of the letter A, and Gwen, meaning white and by extension sacred. Thus, rendering the meaning as the Sacred A or Holy A, and the letter A being interpreted according to tradition as an issuing forth, creating an imagery of divine inspiration pouring out upon the bard. These modern philosophers saw in the form of the letter A, as depicted in bardic ciphers (known as Coelbren), a similarity to the hieroglyphic character known as the three rays /|\ and concluded that the character then represented the notion of awen. This inspired interpretation may not be as historical, but is entirely in accord with the essential representation of the faculty of awen and is beautiful and poetic in its approach.
Symbolsim of the Adlais
Within bardo-druidism there are certain simple figures or characters which bear essential meanings, and which can be combined to depict specific ideas. These hieroglyphics were known as awgrym cyflun and formed a heraldic science within the institutions. The figure of the three rays /|\ is one of these symbols; however it did not originally carry the import of awen, rather it depicted the effulgence of the divine throughout all things. When the character was reverse, namely \|/, it bore the name adlais, or echo, and represented souls responding in harmony to the outpouring of the divine.
The original composite hieroglyphic that represented awen was a circle surmounted by the adlais, the circle representing completeness, wholeness or perfection. This character for awen carried the import of a perfected harmony with the divine, or inspiration carried to its fullness. It also resembled the rising sun of dawn, and symbolically depicted realization, as inspiration dawns on the mind. This dawn imagery has greater significance which will be further expounded upon later in this article.
Glosses for Awen – a deeper meaning
The Celtic languages are known for their use of poetic glosses to expound on the meanings of words and imply hidden context, adding depth and richness to poetry. A common form of gloss in bardic tradition, which carries a greater force than other glosses, is a homographic gloss (i.e. words with a different meaning share the same sound or spelling). It was believed that such words when juxtaposed imply an inherent relationship which unlock a deeper esoteric connection. The word awen has two homographic glosses which can expand our understanding of how the old bards contextualized their experience of awen.
Rein of Discipline
The first homographic gloss is the word awen (also spelled afwyn), which translates as a rein, a long slender strap used to control a horse. In poetry this thematically indicates the discipline of the artist in expressing the inspiration through due and proper form. By extension it calls to mind the search for wholeness or perfection depicted by the circle element of the hieroglyph for awen (inspiration).
The curious equine imagery has roots in the religious ideas of the ancient Celts, linking the concept of divine inspiration and the horse goddess commonly called Epona. Most think of Epona as simply a horse goddess and the Romans adopted her in that aspect alone, integrating her into their own religious philosophy. To the Celts she was much more and independently she appears to have been held in very high esteem.
The Celtic tribes identified a Great Queen, that is a goddess who was deemed to be the tribal spiritual mother or ancestress. All tribes did not share the same goddess, but certain divinities were more common than others, such as war goddesses, wisdom goddesses and of course the horse goddess. Probably because of the importance of cavalry, horse divinities were a popular choice for the Great Queen tribal figures, so much so that the Celtic for Great Queen, Rigantona, survived in the Welsh literary character of Rhiannon, whose equine associations are so readily apparent.
Awen, Horse Goddess of Dawn
The relationship between Epona and divine inspiration reveals a curiosity of Celtic religious thought which has been all but forgotten in the modern revival, but which brings the horse goddess into keener focus.
Some druidical philosophies retained the knowledge of a very important second homographic gloss in which the word awen is a name for the ancient goddess of dawn, who is conceived to be identical to the female equine deitiy. Her name in old Celtic would have been Ausvena, resolved into modern Welsh as Awen. The Aus- element, meaning to shine, is a resilient remnant of PIE found throughout Indo-European cultures and intrinsically associated with the radiant dawn. It descends in the English language into the word east, the home of the rising sun and forms the basis of many Indo-European dawn goddess names like the Vedic Ushas, Greek Eos, Latin Aurora, Baltic Austrina and the Anglo Saxon Eostre. The second element of -vena is Old Celtic bena, lady or woman, so that Awen/Ausvena could be described as the Shining Lady of the East.
The combination of the dawn and the equine goddess is preserved in a name found among a hoard of silver spoons deposited as an offering in East Anglia during the Romano-British era. These spoons, all dedicated to the Roman deity Faunus, have another native name written on each, a legacy of the former pantheon followed by the Celtic Eceni people. One of these names is Ausecia, a feminine form composed of Aus- , typically meaning dawn as described above, and the word Ecia, or female horse (from Old Celtic Ecuo-). Here the dawn and the horse are bound in a single name confirming the ancient identity of the equine goddess as an inheritor of the ancient Indo-European mantle of dawn goddess.
This unity of inspiration, equine and dawn explains the ancient form of the bardic character for awen, i.e. a rising sun representing a perfected and harmonious echo (adlais) responding to the outpouring of revelation from the divine. Just as the Rig Veda says of Ushas, the dawn hast laid the darkness open, Awen is the revealer who removes the shadows which obscure understanding. Sometimes Awen is drastic and confronting. She is after all a warrior and fierce, but she can be gentle too, gingerly lifting the obscurity to ease us into comprehension. She truly is a Great Queen to the artist and prophet, the mother of the Awenyddion, those who willingly ride the wild steed of inspiration while maintaining a firm grip on the reins of discipline.
Disclaimer: The concepts related to Awen in this article are consistent with our form of druidism and therefore dear to us. They are shared in good faith and not meant to offend or challenge any who follow their own bardo-druidic practices.
[1] Giraldus Cambrensis (1194) Chapter XVI: Concerning the soothsayers of this nation,and persons as it were possessed, Description of Wales and the Journey Through Wales trans Lewis Thorpe, Penguin, various editions.
THERE are certain persons in Cambria, whom you will find nowhere else, called Awenyddion, or 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. They do not deliver the answer to what is required in a connected manner; but the person who skilfully observes them, will find, after many preambles, and many nugatory and incoherent, though ornamented speeches, the desired explanation conveyed in some turn of a word: they are then roused from their ecstasy, as from a deep sleep, and, as it were, by violence compelled to return to their proper senses.
[3] Wiktionary / Awen