Shaman Pathways - The Celtic Chakras - Elen Sentier 2011

Preiddeu Annwfn: Arthur ’s Raid on the Underworld

This 9th century Welsh poem is the earliest known story of Arthur; Caitlin & John Matthews have written a good book on Arthur ’s quest to bring back the cauldron from the Sleeping Lord; but, as well as that, it is also a story about discovering and learning the chakras.

The poem, the Raid on the Underworld, is attributed to the 6th century poet and shaman Taliesin; it’s one of the oldest and most enigmatic documents relating to Arthur that we still possess. Within the 61 lines are clues to the Celtic traditions including the chakras.

Arthur and his comrades go down into Annwfn on the ship Prydwen. The name Annwfn means “in-world” and that is worth thinking about. It takes me again to Jung and what he called the unconscious, a place within ourselves that we don’t yet know and where our treasure is hidden. The story goes that Arthur heads for the in-world to steal the wonder-working cauldron from the Lord of Annwfn. In many shamanic traditions the concept of “stealing” from the master is very strong and a vital part of the apprentice’s training. If we only consider this with our 21 st century minds then we are likely to be shocked; if we let go of preconceived ideas and journey on the concept of “stealing from the master ” then we will expand our knowing.

In shamanic initiations the “stealing” is a test, of ourselves; do we have the nous and the gumption to get past the master ’s wards and take the treasure? A good shaman hopes his apprentices will be quick and sharp and bright enough to do just that; then he will have succeeded not only in teaching them all she or he knows but in enabling them to be better than she is … evolution.

So, Arthur, as “once and future king” sets off with companions to pass his initiation test.

The cauldron Annwfn is guarded by nine maidens whose breath warms the brew. These are the keepers of inspiration, the British muses. The ancient Greek word from which our word “muse” comes may well have grown out of the Proto-Indo- European root-word “mens” which means “to think”; however the thinking referred to is a lot deeper than our ordinary, everyday usage of the word. Taking this on board, our muse is the one who helps us to think, ponder, consider, learn and so come to know . A cauldron that is breathed into life by nine such beings must be quite something.

Then there are the seven Caers or Towers which the ship, the Prydwen, sails past. Each caer has its own secrets, the secrets of the chakras whose energy it holds and each one is protected by warriors who defend its energy — we will be talking about them shortly, they are a fundamental part of the chakra system both east and west.

Arthur journeys with three ship-loads of men packed into his vessel. Again, this pinged off lots of light bulbs inside my head when I read it: I got the connections — the three pairs of chakras, each having their guardian-warriors. His vessel is both the physical thing and the symbol for his self; the incarnate self is often called the vessel in esoteric work and this is certainly esoteric work. Esoteric means obscure, mysterious, abstruse, impenetrable, cryptic, arcane, secret, occult; the Celtic stories, like most mystery traditions, are certainly all of these!

The warriors help to make sure of this too. Earlier we spoke of the shamanic significance of stealing, how the master hopes the student will find their way through the labyrinth, past the wards and to the treasure. The warriors hold the same signifi- cance as dragons guarding our treasure or all the other things we learn about in faerie stories (lore and grammarye stories). We have to find our way with the warriors. Arthur ’s story doesn’t say anything about this; it is a 9 th century copy of a 6 th century poem, copied by a monk who was of the new rather than the old

ways and may not have had sympathy with them. It’s likely some of the original lore-story got lost in the years between.

These are the first five verses of the poem. I’ve done this as a table so you can see the seven caers Arthur passes; his work at each caer is hardly detailed at all although hints are given.

I praise the Sovereign, High Prince of the kingly land,

Who encompasses the margins of the world.

Gweir ’s captivity in Caer Sidi was resonant With the tale of Pwyll and Pryderi.

None before him was sent into it,

Into the heavy blue chain that bound the faithful youth.

Because of the raid upon Annwfn he sorely sang.

Until the world’s ending our poet’s prayer shall sound:

Three ship-burdens of Prydwen entered within;

Except seven, none rose up from Caer S IDI .

1. Caer Sidi

I am renowned in fame: the song was heard

In Caer Pedryfan, four times revolving.

My original song stems from the cauldron,

By the breath of nine maidens was it kindled.

The Chief of Annwfn’s cauldron, what is its power?

Ridged with enamel, rimmed with pearl,

It will not boil the coward’s portion, it is not destined.

The sword of Lleawc flashed before it

And in the hand of Lleminawc was it wielded.

Before hell’s gate lights were burning.

When with Arthur we went to the harrowing.

Except seven none rose up from Caer F EDDWIT .

2. Caer Feddwit

I am renowned in fame: the song was heard

In the four-square fort, in the Island of the Flaming Door.

Fresh water and jet are mixed,

Bright wine is the drink served to the host.

Three ship-burdens of Prydwen we took to sea:

Except seven none rose up from Caer R IGOR .

3. Caer Rigor

I give no reward to the Lord’s book-men

Who beyond Caer W YDYR saw not Arthur ’s valour.

4. Caer Wydyr

Six thousand men there stood upon the wall,

Hard it was to parley with their sentinel.

Three ship-burdens of Prydwen we went with Arthur:

Except seven none rose up from C AER G OLUDD .

5. Caer Goludd

I give no reward to the clerics with trailing shields,

Who know not who created who,

Nor the hour when the chick was born,

Who made him, why he went not to the meadows of Defwy.

They know not whose the brindled ox, thick his headband,

With seven score links upon his collar.

When we went with Arthur on arduous visit;

Except seven none rose up from Caer F ANDWY .

6. Caer Fandwy

I give no reward to the clerics of weak intent

Who know not on what day the Chief was made,

Who do not know the hour of the owner ’s birth,

Nor what silver-headed beast they guard.

When we went with Arthur, disastrous contention:

Except seven, none rose up from Caer O CHREN .

7. Caer Ochren

I’ve left the last two verses out as they have a different feel (for me) to the first five. I wonder when they were added and am extremely suspicious of the last line, “ Christ is my guerdon ”; this

is certainly a Christian monk’s addition and would (obviously) have had no place in the ancient lore story which is very much older than Christianity.

Arthur ’s journey begins at C AER S IDI , Arianrhod’s caer, the first caer of his journey. It speaks of the sovereign as a prince but that could either be the monk or the deeper sense of the word prince which is not gender-dependent but is a job description, and was still used as such even into Medieval England — Elizabeth I was described as a puissant prince. The sovereign is of the kingly land — this is how our ancestors (like all shamans) think of the land, the earth, with themselves as the guardian-kings serving their folk. Arthur enters with three ship-burdens; this, for me, strongly suggests allusion to the three pairs of chakras which, at this point in his journey, will not be organised or aligned as they will once he has learned to work with them.

The journey continues to C AER F EDDWIT , the second caer of the journey, which it tells us is sung of in Caer Pedryfan as four times revolving . It goes on to tell us that here is the cauldron kindled by the breath of nine maidens. It also tells us that this cauldron will not boil the coward’s portion, suggesting we need to have our courage and our confidence up to work with this one. It offers us a sword wielded by Lleawc, for whom it flashed, and by the hand of Lleminawc. We are told that before hell’s gate lights were burning. All very enigmatic stuff but journeying with it, asking to see it (almost like watching a film and sometimes like taking part in the action) brings many insights to the mind’s eye.

Next is C AER R IGOR . We are told it is a four-square fort; this immediately brings up four-ness, four seasons, four elements, the horizontal axis. Four-square is also about squares and cubes which are so often symbols for the Earth, for grounding, for working in the everyday world of our incarnation. It goes on to say the caer has a flaming door — quite a challenge! — and that fresh water and jet are mixed; water and the beautiful black crystal, jet; then that bright wine is served to drink. This is more symbolism; water is often thought of as white (waterfalls perhaps), the jet is definitely black, and wine is often imagined as red. White, black and red … the three sacred colours that hold the energy of the three worlds and all they pertain to.

Then on to C AER W YDYR where the poem talks about the Lord’s book-men , what could they be? It says that beyond this place they did not see Arthur ’s valour. Books speak of the lore and of the ancestors to me, wisdom keepers and knowledge keepers, a library place.

We go on to C AER G OLUDD . It says six thousand men stood upon the walls … six? The three pairs of chakras are made up of six individual chakras; this number is followed by four zeros to make the number 6000. Zeros have esoteric as well as mathe- matical functions; if you add a zero to a number you raise it what is called “an order or magnitude”, this is similar to raising it up a plane of consciousness. So, adding three zeros takes a number though three planes of consciousness; the three worlds. The verse tells us it was hard to parley with their sentinel … I can imagine it might be!

Finally we get to the seventh caer, C AER O CHREN . Taliesin says he gives no reward to the clerics — book-learners all, one thinks — who trail their shields; he says that they know nothing of the hour when the chick was born, nor who made him, nor why he went to the meadows of Defwy. He says the clerics know not whose was the brindled ox nor of his thick headband, nor of the seven-score links of his collar. Well … brindled being red and white, and oxen having black hooves brings me back again to the red-white-black of the Celtic triplicity; oxen being of the cow family takes me to Brighid whose totem is the cow and who we visit in another chapter.

The chorus of ’ except seven’ comes at the end of each of the first five verses of the poem and is the last line of all; this puts great emphasis on the fact only seven rise up out of each of the seven towers. The poem is deep and mysterious, hard to fathom in the manner of all esoteric lore, all grammarye; to come to know grammarye, how the world and the universe work, requires effort from us. Learning is a journey for each of us with all that that means, as Arthur ’s journey is in the story. The emphasis on seven, along with all the other hints through Celtic story lore, shows me the chakras. The chakras are fundamental to all life, in all shamanic and later traditions throughout the world, however hidden they may be they are always there. The chakras are part of the framework of the Earth as well as of ourselves and all other life forms. Knowing them is hard work though; we, like Arthur, meet and wrestle (in words, magic and the physical) with other- worldly beings; we journey to strange places, have wild adven- tures. The voyages are stories, immrama and dreams that run through shamanic traditions offering us clues and hints which, if we follow them, will bring us to truth. The quest is a central part of all shamanic traditions and Annwfn — the in-world — is one of the essential places where we quest.

This story is one of many; Culhwch and Olwen is another which involves travelling through caers, strongholds of wisdom. It’s worthwhile following up on all the stores, sitting with them, pondering, allowing their wisdom to seep into you and teasing out the threads of truth.

The cauldron Arthur is hunting in this story is a like the grail and, as we’ve seen, both grail and cauldron are chakra-symbols in the British tradition. The Celts never confine themselves to one meaning when they can get a whole squadron out of one word, this the poet’s skill. The grail is a symbol for each individual chakra and for the whole chakra system and for the Earth herself, to name just a few things; and/and yet again. So a quest for the grail will be a quest for one’s own grail and the knowing of the chakras as well as for other outer symbols.

The grail-quest, particularly in terms of re-finding the chakras, occurs in every lifetime for us; every time we incarnate we have the opportunity to deepen and broaden our knowing and our knowledge, to increase our awareness another order of magnitude, become more inclusive and find more connections.

The Warriors

In each of the seven towers Arthur goes to there are bands of Warriors defending it. Who and what are they? The poem doesn’t tell us, we have to go elsewhere and search around to find our answer.

You may well have heard of or know the prophecy of the Warriors of the Rainbow; the best known version comes from the North American native tradition.

When the Earth is sick and all the animals are dying a tribe of people will come, of all colours and creeds, who will restore the Earth. They will be called Warriors of the Rainbow.

They are also mentioned in the Book of Revelations where it says that “the number of the saved” is 144,000.

Representations of the chakras from the east show them as lotus flowers; each flower has the relevant number of petals for its chakra. These “petals” are the Warriors, the individual elements that do the actual work within the chakra.

How 144,000? Each tower has its complement of warriors as follows …

Chakra no. of petals/warriors

Crown

x1000

Brow (48 yin + 48 yang petals)

96

Throat

16

Heart

12

Solar Plexus

10

Sacral

6

Base

4

Number of chakra petals within the body

144

Body petals times crown petals

144 x 1000 crown petals

Number of petals in each human (or other) being

144,000

✵ There are 48 warriors in total in the chakras of the body — base, sacral, solar plexus heart and throat.

✵ The brow has two petals — looks like a lemniscate — and each of these carries higher levels of the 48 body warriors; one petal carries those with queen-energy, the other carries those with king energy; in the east they call these two energies yin and yang.

So, the body chakras + the brow carry 144 petals … or warriors.

The crown chakra carries 1000 petal-warriors and is a different kettle of fish to the others as it has the direct connection to other- world. Instead of adding these petal to the others we multiply the others by the 1000 … this brings us to 144,000, the number of the Rainbow Warriors.

Addition and multiplication have esoteric as well as mathe- matical significance.

Addition is simple and basic; it takes two or more numbers and adds them together making a sum of them: 1+2=3.

Multiplication is a different operation; it gives a product rather than a simple sum. It moves the number up a level … 8 x 10 = 80, for instance. Multiplication moves the 8 one place to the left, it’s called up an order of magnitude in maths.

80 x 10 = 800; the 8 has moved two places to the left, up two orders of magnitude.

800 x 10 = 8000; the 8 is now three places to the left, followed by three zeros; has moved up three orders of magnitude.

In the case of the Warriors, the 144 is followed by three zeros and so moves three places to the left; it has moved up three orders of magnitude … three-ness again.

The warriors in the Crown connect directly across the worlds in ways the body and brow warriors do not. Multiplication gives us the sense and realisation of these powers.

This brings us to a different sense of our responsibilities … the 144,000 warriors are in each of us, they are us. They’re not some mythical troupe to which we can aspire to be accepted. They are already there within us, within the chakras which make up each and every one of us.

We all contain the 144,000, the number of the saved, the Warriors of the Rainbow, within us. All we have to do is realise them, enable them to come alive within us; I say “all we have to do” but it’s not an easy thing and can be very scary. It means we each of us have to accept our responsibility for everything we do here on Earth and accept that we have the ability to change things, maybe only in little and only as far as each one of us can go, but the responsi- bility is to accept that and then to take those little steps. If — no, when — each of us does this we help the world. Think about that in relation to yourself. Each of us is a part of the whole; we can work for the good of that whole, or selfishly for our own good. The latter won’t have a lasting or satisfying effect, even for ourselves. The former will automatically mean that we help ourselves at the same time as we work for the good of the whole.

Your journey through this book begins your path of bringing yourself to light. Each of us is the 144,000 Rainbow Warriors, if and when we choose to realise it and take on our responsibility. We will do just that one lifetime or another. It’s about becoming conscious.

It’s quite a responsibility to acknowledge, to be part of that which saves the Earth, but that acknowledgement is necessary in order for us to be of use to the Earth. As we all contain the 144,000 warriors — we all have chakras — we are each of us the number of the saved ; our purpose is to become conscious of this and able to work with it along with working with Otherworld. Are you, when all your warriors are awake and spinning with life within you, willing to be a part of that saviour?

The Native American prophecy fairly well describes the times we are currently living in. Only by being conscious of our place as a vital part of the whole, and that we can, through being conscious, make a difference can we restore the Earth. Our first conscious learning is of how we are made and that we are all made of the same stuff as the rest of creation. Joni Mitchell put it rather well in her song when she said we are stardust ... we are indeed and we need to know the Rainbow Warriors within ourselves and work with them for the good of all.

What is a warrior?

Working through the dictionary and the thesaurus offers us many more words than we might have originally associated with the idea of warrior. People tend to stick to one or two translations of a word without exploring further or enlarging their viewpoint. When working with Arianrhod it’s much more useful to go outside one’s box.

Some of the words I came up with are … soldier, fighter, opponent, combatant, challenger, partaker, accomplice, member, contributor, participant, rebel.

Umm! Far more concepts than the basic things most of us probably think of first when we consider the word warrior.

A warrior does all of these things.

Warrior is a challenger. Warrior is one who stretches the imagination, takes you outside of the box. Warrior is an accom- plice when you want to go beyond what you know, what your society tells you is “the norm”. Warrior is a partaker of the joy and pain of life, exploration and discovery. Warrior is a member of your family, your soul-group, your tribe, your Self; a contributor to the wealth of knowledge and knowing you and your soul-group build up between you. Warrior is a contributor to the pool of knowing of all Life; a participant in Life. And Warrior is a REBEL … without which everything stagnates.

With this enlarged view of a warrior it’s possible to step out on the road of discovery. The spinning towers are the homes of the warriors: they are the CAERS within the body.

The Seats of the Chakras

This is a simple exercise but it will help you know yourself, understand things about yourself and begin to learn how to change things within yourself.

The following piece of wisdom may be new to you but K NOWING IT IS IMPORTANT :

✵ The seats, seeds, essences, spiritual atoms, of each chakra — except the brow — are AT THE BACK of your body, behind the spine, NOT at the front of the body. If your chakras are at the front of your body you will be out of balance and may well feel as if everything is “in your face”.

✵ The BROW is a lemniscate that sits just above and between your eyebrows: its seat is at the front right behind where the two parts of the lemniscate cross.

The journey you’re about to do will help you find out where your chakras are; it will also help you begin to learn how to move them towards the spine.

You only need to do this just a little bit further than is quite comfortable . Some chakras may go back easier than others or may already be there. Women tend to have trouble getting their heart and solar plexus centres back. Men tend to have trouble with throat and sacral centres.

Journey: where are your chakras seated?

Sit, as in the diagram above, and do the following …

Get in touch with the warriors of your HEART chakra, see where its seed-atom is situated in your body. If it’s not by the spine ask it to move that way — you may need your negotiating skills here as it’s probably got into a nice rut and doesn’t want to change … just like you!

When you and H EART have achieved the best compromise possible at this time, assuming it’s not yet in the right place, move on to Heart’s partner, the S OLAR P LEXUS , and repeat the exercise.

Go next up to the T HROAT and ask it to move towards the spine, then move down to Throat’s partner, the S ACRAL .

Next go up to the C ROWN — you should have NO PROBLEMS here! So greet the Crown, see how beautiful it is and move down to Crown’s partner, the B ASE . You may well have difficulties here; it could be too far back instead of too far forward. Negotiate its return to just behind the spine.

Finally, go to the B ROW . If this chakra is not just between and in front of your eyebrows you can probably make a mint out of your story; however, you won’t be able to do much but look for the time being, so just look — do NOT try to make any changes here, leave it be.

When you are ready to leave, thank all the chakras and say you will visit them again soon to see where they are as you learn more and progress.

Now it is time to come home, to return to the everyday world.

Take a deep breath and sigh it out, take another and sigh that out too, and a third. Swallow, move your mouth, wiggle your fingers and toes, rub your hands together then rub your knees and legs and arms, have a good stretch and a yawn, then open your eyes. Blink a few times, move your head gently on your neck, hunch your shoulders and let go, rub your feet on the floor. When you feel that you’re safely back in your body thank your body for being there for you to return to.

Make some notes and drawings to remind you of your journey then make yourself a warm drink and have something nice to snack on. You may not realise it but you’ve done a lot of work just in that simple-seeming journey and you need to replenish your body for the energy it gave you while you worked … this is exchange again.