Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Song of Pheryllt



 


Much of the material here is drawn from medieval sources inspired by the work of Virgil.  Pheryllt is the welsh form of Virgil.

However do note the immediate affinity to metal workers and alchemy as we discovered through the Kolbrin Bible which does have internal authenticity.  This work at least remembers an ancient sect of teachers or Druids who were also out of the Bronze Age tribe of global metal workers central to the Atlantean world.


Beyond that the time of Stonehenge was prior to 2500 BC and the historical knowledge of the druids time in during Roman times. Linking them is questionable but considering the concurrent Egyptian world and the natural continuity of shared scholarship as shown us with the Kolbrin, it is not impossible at all.



That we are now dredging up bits and pieces is excellent, particularly as i also have a clear grasp of the physicality of the after life and can authenticate much of the material from that aspect.

..

Song of the Pheryllt - who were the Mysterious Druid builders of Stonehedge?


https://atlantisrisingmagazine.com/article/song-of-the-pheryllt/


Welsh history alludes to a very ancient and enigmatic sect of Druids that may be the very first wave of magician priests in the British Isles, even predating the Celtic Druids by hundreds or even thousands of years. Both historical documents in Wales, as well as the rhythmic poems regularly recited by the Welsh Bards, mention an obscure Druid sect known as the Pheryllt, a name denoting “metallurgists” and “alchemists.” The researchers who have studied these documents and poems tout the Pheryllt as being the incipient culture bearers and teachers of Druidism throughout the British Isles, and they have suggested that they may have been the original builders of many of the towering megalithic monuments in Britain, including Stonehenge and Avebury. Certain clues discovered within the Welsh texts imply that the esoteric wisdom of the Pheryllt was once taught within certain Druid academies in the area of Oxford, Snowdon in Wales, and possibly on the Isle of Anglessey, which has been referred to in ancient texts as the “Isle of Teaching.”

In Snowdon, which eventually became their principal headquarters, the Pheryllyt founded a city of spiritual light known in Welsh terminology as the “ambrosial city of Emrys.” Emrys is also remembered as “Dinas Affaraon,” the “place of the Higher Powers,” or the place where a Druid could achieve the apex of his or her higher spiritual powers and consciousness. Emrys was also the headquarters of the “Dragons of Beli” and the dark, destructive Welsh God­dess of Death, Kerridwen, whom the Pheryllt may have brought to Britain with them from their original homeland. It was to Kerridwen that the Pheryllt directed their prayers in order to achieve success in their alchemical and initiatory rites, especially those that culminated in death and spiritual rebirth. Kerridwen personified the dark, destructive as­pect of the Goddess, who has for ages been venerated in many Goddess-centric cultures worldwide as the possessor of all the three powers of creation, preservation and destruction; hence her universal name of “Triple Goddess.” As Kali, Hecate, Sekhmet, and Kerridwen, the dark aspect of the Goddess has traditionally been called forth by Hindu yogis, Greek sages, Egyptian priests and British Druids in order to assist them in their alchemical experiments and transfor­mative practices. After arriving to bless her devotees, the destructive presence of the Dark Goddess would invariably assist her worshippers in evolving beyond the limitations of matter and their egos before catapulting them into the everlasting life of the Infinite Spirit.

 [ monroe is not considered reliable and must be taken with a grain of salt.  arclein  ]

Recently, more in-depth information regarding the Pheryllt was brought to the attention of the public with the publication of The 21 Lessons of Merlyn by Douglas Monroe, which claims to be a rendition and commentary of an obscure Welsh text known as The Book of the Pherllyt. According to this text, the Pheryllt arrived in Wales from the sinking Atlantis before setting themselves to the task of building the towering megalithic circles of Britain. The Phe­ryllt are reputed to have been residing in Glastonbury around 2000 B.C., when the region was still under water and composed of a group of islands. Perhaps it was their sojourn in Glastonbury that eventually led to the sacred site be­coming one of the principal headquarters of alchemy in Britain, as well as a special British home of Kerridwen (some say she lives inside the “Spiral Castle” of Glastonbury Tor).

The 21 Lessons of Merlyn has lately come under attack by those who have no knowledge of there ever having been a Book of the Pherllyt. But even if the text is spurious, there has for many years been a general consensus among the Welsh Bards and British Druids that the Pheryllt did indeed once exist and that their wisdom was anciently compiled in the lost “Books of the Pheryllt.” These extinct books are principally mentioned in the Welsh Book of Taliesin, which is a series of alchemical poems supposedly composed by the greatest of bards, the sixth-century Taliesin. Talie­sin’s allegorical poems, which according to some modern Druids present a veiled description of an authentic Druid initiation rite, recount how Kerridwen once prepared a potion within her cauldron of inspiration (or immortality) from an ancient recipe she found in the Books of the Pheryllt. The poems assert that while preparing a potion for her son, Kerridwen mixed together in her cauldron certain ingredients, including sea salt, which would be recognizable to any modern-day alchemist as a basic ingredient for the elixir of immortality.

Kerridwen subsequently made the mistake of leaving her pot to cook under the watchful guidance of a boy named Gwion, who inadvertently allowed three scalding drops of the magic potion to land on his finger before quickly lick­ing off the burning liquid, thus receiving the blessings (or initiation) which were meant for Kerridwen’s son. Kerrid­wen’s anger was thus kindled and a chase ensued between her and Gwion—one that is believed to cryptically expose the lessons and transformations that a Druid would undergo after imbibing Kerridwen’s cauldron of immortality dur­ing his or her initiation ceremony. During the chase Gwion transformed himself successively into the forms of a hare, a fish, a bird, and then finally into a grain of wheat. Meanwhile, while in hot pursuit of Gwion, Kerridwen trans­formed herself into a greyhound, an otter, a hawk, and then a hen that finally caught Gwion and consumed him as a grain of wheat. While inside Kerridwen Gwion gestated within the womb of the dark goddess for nine months, ulti­mately being born from her as the immortal Bard Taliesin. The allegorical Taliesin was then to live for many years as the archetypal Druid initiate.

One of the most remarkable gifts acquired by Gwion during his transformation into Taliesin—and what made Ta­liesin truly great—was Awen, which is loosely translated as “inspiration.” It is because of this special gift received by initiated bards that Kerridwen’s cauldron is commonly referred to by them as the “cauldron of inspiration.” Through the power of Awen” a bard is able to access inner inspiration and intuitive wisdom emanating from the deepest levels of his or her being. As this wisdom bubbles to the surface he or she is then able to articulate it in the form of poetic verse. Perhaps a more relatable and modern translation of Awen is “gnosis,” a word that denotes the intuitive wisdom that emerges from deep within oneself as the result of spiritual practice and answers many questions about oneself and the universe. But Awen is not just gnosis; the term contained an even more inclusive meaning for the Druids. It also denoted the primal sound that creates the physical universe. Awen is thus the Druid counterpart of the Hindu AUM, which is a name for the creative force of the universe as well as the primal Goddess who is that force. This pri­meval Goddess force is also known among the Hindu sages as Shakti or Kundalini.

But power of Awen and Kundalini—which are names of the Triple Goddess—is also destructive. It is as Kundalini that the Hindu yogis traditionally invoke the destructive goddess during their transformative yogic practices. The yo­gis believe that the goddess as Kundalini becomes destructive following the creation of the human species, when she curls up at the base of the human spine and waits until a person is ready to destroy the limitations that keep him or her from knowing their true nature as spirit and accessing their inner gnostic wisdom. In this destructive aspect Kundalini is a name for Goddess as Kali, and therefore a name for the Greek Hecate and the Druid’s Kerridwen. Thus, Awen, AUM, Kundalini, Kali and Kerridwen are all interconnected, and they all denote the goddess and her power. Therefore, it can be said that Kerridwen and her cauldron of inspiration and immortality dwell at the base of every­one’s spine.

A Welsh reference to Kerridwen and her home at the base of the human spine is ostensibly woven into The Spoils of Annwn, one of the alchemical poems contained within The Book of Taliesin. According to the allegory alluded to in the poem, while traveling through Annwn, the underworld, King Arthur and his knights discover the Holy Grail (the cauldron of Kerridwen) in the four-cornered castle in the Isle of the Strong (or closed) Door. This poetic location of Kerridwen’s Cauldron appears to be a cryptic allusion to the Kundalini of the Hindu yogis that lies deep within a per­son (their underworld) in the four petal Muladhara Chakra (the Four Cornered Castle) at the entrance to the Su­shumna energy meridian (the Closed Door).

Obviously, there are salient similarities between the Druid Pheryllt and the yogis of India. Such outstanding links have inspired researchers to seek an ancient relationship between the two cultures; and at least one appears to have been found. Welsh records maintain that the very first Druids, i.e., the Pheryllt, arrived in Wales as part of the migra­tion of Cymry, a people who had traveled from the “Summer Land” of “Defrobani.” Defrobani is the Welsh word for Taprobana, an early name for Sri Lanka, an island off the coast of India that shares the same yogic culture. It is said that the Cymry were guided from Defrobani or Sri Lanka to the British Isles by the Welsh culture hero Hu Gadarn, and the proof of their journey can be found in the Welsh language which is full of Sanskrit root words. Once in Wales Hu Gadarn founded the first sect of Druids, who were worshippers of Kerridwen and believed to have been the Phe­ryllt. Spence contends that the Cymry looked upon Hu Gadarn and Kerridwen the same way the Hindus regard Lord Shiva and the Goddess Shakti of India. Thus, the Welsh divine pair may have originated as the Hindus’ primal couple before being brought to Britain.

Who Built Stonehenge & Avebury?

There are numerous reasons to believe that the Pheryllt built many of the megalithic circles in Britain, not the least of which is that they are natural alchemical crucibles for initiation and, therefore, made-to-order structures for Pheryllt ritual. Of course, the Pheryllt must be considered to be much more qualified as candidates to have built these structures than those currently suggested by the academic community—the five-foot-tall primitive “Beaker People” of Neolithic times. And the Pheryllt were more likely to have been in possession with the supernatural abili­ties and advanced technologies required for the task of transporting 10-20 ton stones hundreds of miles, because such abilities naturally accrue from the practice of inner alchemy. The use of magical powers in the building Stone­henge was originally suggested by the thirteenth-century Welsh historian Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain. After closely studying ancient Welsh records, Geoffrey maintained that the stones of Stonehenge were moved to their present location by Merlin—a Druid descendant of the Pheryllt—through magical means. Magic or the use of anti-gravity technology is the only possible explanation for how many of the worlds’ ancient megalithic structures, including those of Peru and Egypt, could have been built.

The alchemical properties of the British stone circles can be readily discerned through their polarity-uniting de­signs. The theory of alchemy stipulates that for a structure to generate the power of alchemy—i.e., the destructive power of the goddess—the ability to unite the male/female polarity must be incorporated into its design. In ancient times the alchemically designed pyramids and stone circles of the Pheryllt and other sacred architects worldwide were placed over vortexes that by nature already united the male/female polarity and produced the alchemical power.

Thus, the power these ancient megaliths produced added to a preexistent alchemical force and amplified it. This is certainly the case in Britain, where many of the stone circles have been proven to lie on vortex points where two po­lar opposite lines, the St. Michael and St. Mary lines, bisect each other. These two major ley lines run north from Cornwall, and their crossing is especially noticeable at the stone circle of Avebury and Glastonbury Tor.

Avebury’s role as an “alchemical crucible” is decidedly enhanced by its megalithic structure. Avebury consists of one large circle within which reside two smaller male/female circles. The small female circle is located in the north­ern part of the larger circle, and is therefore associated with female darkness and cold residing in the northern direction. By contrast, the small male circle is located in the southern region of the larger circle and therefore absorbs the fiery and light qualities that exist in that direction. The male circle also once possessed a huge defining “male” obe­lisk within its center. It has been suggested that during sacred times of the year the ritual leaders of Avebury knew the secrets of how to unite the energies of the two smaller polar-opposite circles and thereby produce the power of Kerridwen. The eighteenth-century antiquarian William Stukeley was adamant that a head and tail were once at­tached to the larger Avebury circle, thus making it a gigantic serpent and an undeniable temple of Kerridwen, whose symbols include a dragon or serpent.

Stonehenge’s design also makes it a perfect megalithic alchemical crucible. The universal polarity is obviously united at Stonehenge during sunrise at the Summer Solstice when the first male rays of the sun rise over the heel stone and inseminate the female circle or ovum. But at other times of the year a union of the polarity is generated by the union of the “female” circle of 30 sarsens that is bisected or inseminated at its center by the phallic male “horse­shoe” of 10 larger sarsens. The number 30, which corresponds to the lunar month and the triple goddess, is associat­ed with the female principle, while the number 10, the numerological equivalent of the Hebrew Yod, is associated with the male principle.

Thus it appears that the ancient Pheryllt Druids may have indeed been the original Druids in Britain and the builders of its stone circles. Future researches into the ancient past of Britain should, therefore, include the mysteri­ous Pheryllt alchemists.

Mark Amaru Pinkham is the North American Grand Prior of the International Order of Gnostic Templars (www.Gnostic Templars.org) and the author of four books on earth’s ancient mystery traditions.


What is the Book of Pheryllt?

 http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/opinionated-celtic-faqs/pheryllt/

I keep seeing references to a supposed medieval Welsh manuscript called The Book of Pheryllt. I have a suspicion that most, if not all of these references, are inspired by the truly wretched and quite idiotic book The 21 Lessons of Merlyn by Douglas Monroe. Monroe, who has neither Irish nor Welsh, refers to The Book of Pheryllt as a sixteenth century manuscript of arcane Welsh mystical learning.

“Drivel” is the most polite way I can refer to Monroe’s claims. There is no such sixteenth century manuscript. Monroe’s recent “sequel” to 21 Lessons of Merlyn, The Lost Books of Merlyn is an obvious fake from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, full of egregious factual errors and offensive sexist and racist assumptions. At best it is a piece of poorly thought out fiction; it has no scholarly value as an authentic early manuscript at all. Monroe clearly knows nothing about ancient Celtic practices, languages, druids, botany, or mythology, and his ritual practices are derived from modern Wicca and ceremonial magic rather than authentic ancient pagan Celtic practice.
What then, is The Book of Pheryllt ?

Pheryllt is the Welsh spelling for Virgil; the Latin V in “Vergilius” goes to an initial F in Welsh, which in medieval manuscripts may be written Ph. You may also see ff, as in fferyllt. The Book of Pheryllt then, is a reference to The Book of Virgil

Virgil is the Latin poet who wrote the Eclogues and The Aeneid and lived 70-19 B. C. E. During his lifetime, Virgil was famed as a poet and his works became classics soon after his death. Both Christians and pagans would select a passage at random from Virgil’s works as method of divination. The Roman Emperor Hadrian is said to have consulted the sortes Vergilianae in an effort to inquire into his future. Virgil’s fourth Eclogue (Written c.41 or 40 BCE) was thought by many, including St. Jerome, to predict the birth of Christ. Indeed, Virgil’s medieval and renaissance popularity was close to that of the Bible, so popular that a letter by Jerome praising Virgil’s wisdom was included as a Preface to most Latin Vulgate Bibles from the ninth century (Williams and Pattie 1982, 86).

By the twelfth century Virgil’s reputation as a poet, and sometimes prophet, had evolved to that of a magician. Gervase of Tilbury reports various “miracles” attributed to Virgil, like a piece of meat that kept other meat from ever spoiling, no matter how old it got (Williams and Pattie 1982, 90). Eventually Virgil’s reputation grew until he was the magical protector of the city of Naples. There are numerous medieval references to Virgil as a magician, and folklore about his prowess continued to multiply until the Renaissance.

The medieval tradition of Virgil as a worker of wonders and as a magician flourished in Welsh literature as well. The Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilim refers to the patterns on a garland of peacock feathers given him by his beloved as “drychau o ffeiriau Fferyll, “mirrors from Virgil’s fairs.” In another poem ap Gwilim’s beloved (one of many) is described as an enchantress; ap Gwilim describes a silver harp to be given to her as
Ei chwr y sydd, nid gwydd gwyll,
O ffurf celfyddyd Fferyll.
Its frame not made from forest wood
but conjured by Virgilian art (Bromwich 1982, 38-39).
The central Welsh reference to the Book of Pheryllt is in the late sixteenth century Welsh prose tale the Hanes Taliesin in which Ceridwen is described as knowledgeable about “gelfyddyd Llyfrau Pheryllt,” or “the art of the Books of Virgil,” in reference to a spell intended to make her son wise.
Ag yna yr orediniodd hi drwy gelfyddyd llyfrau Pheryllt i ferwi pair o awen a gwybodau oi map fal y bai urddassach ei gymeriat am ei wybodau ai gyfrwyddyt am y byt a ddelei rrag llaw (“Y Hanes Taliessin.” In Ystoria Taliesin. ed. Patrick K. Ford. 133).

And so to encompass this matter, she turned her thoughts to the contemplation of her arts to see how best she could make him full of the spirit of prophecy and a great prognosticator of the world to come” (Ford, Patrick K. 1977, “The Tale of Gwion Bach,” 162).
The reference to the Book of Pheryllt in the Hanes Taliesin is not to a genuine book, but rather to the myth of Virgil the wondrous magician (Wood 1983, 97). The scribe, needing a suitable magical text, seized upon Virgil as the magician’s magician. Patrick Ford has edited one manuscript of the Hanes Taliesin in his Ystoria Taliesin, and translated the tale in his The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. Lady Charlotte Guest also translated the Hanes Taliesin, but Ford’s translation is much better, and more reliable. Lady Charlotte, like many first generation Welsh scholars, was taken in by the various forgeries Iolo Morganwg/Edward Williams (1747-1826) created in the 1790s, and inadvertently relied on some forged material for her translation. Indeed, Williams’ forgeries are still wreaking havoc today since many neopagan scholars have been as taken in by Williams’ inventive scholarship as Lady Charlotte was in her era.

There are other references to Virgil as a magician in the Taliesin material, including “Cad Goddeu,” where the poet claims “And I shall be in luxury because of the prophecy of Virgil” (Ford, Patrick K. 1977, 187). 

The word “pheryllt/fferrylt” itself is not cited in Welsh until 1632, and most of the citations for fferyll(t) in the major Welsh dictionary are more pharmaceutical than wizardly (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. p.1284 Ed. R. J. Thomas, Cardiff: University of Wales, 1950-). Fferyll(t) became synomynous with “magician,” so great was Virgil’s reputation for wonder working. Even today Virgil’s mythic reputation as a maker of potions has left its mark. In Modern Welsh fferyll(t) usually means “pharmacist.” There’s a false etymology for pheryllt floating around the web that links it to “fferu” or “congeal” and hence to the Modern English “ferrous.” This folk etymology is inaccurate because ferrous is a Latin borrowing from “ferrum,” the word for iron.

If you’re truly interested in druids and authentic pagan Celtic practices, go to legitimate scholarly sources based on genuine scholarship. If you’re still not convinced that Monroe’s Twenty-One Lessons of Merlyn and The Lost Books of Merlyn are works of fiction, (after all, I’m a Celticist, not a druid) take a look at what these Neo Pagan authorities have to say about Monroe’s works:

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