At Allentide

At Allentide we arrive at the Eight Gates. For once the castle we come to cannot be seen. It is the revolving castle, sometimes called Cair Sidi, but it is not on a promontory or on an island, rather we reach it by traveling under the earth. By hidden gates we the common world and enter Annwn, the Other World, the Spirit World, the Underworld, the Not World, the Reverse Mirror Realm. This is the place we must pass through to come to the Land of Birth.

We want a world without seasons. This is not an accusation. We want a world with no winter, and if religions were simply making up what we preferred to believe as opposed to expressing what on some level we already know, then Christ would be born in the spring, the Holy Child would come amidst the lilies of May. But this has never been the story. Even with Jesus who most signs say was actually born in the spring, as the Son of God, Christ is always born in winter, and the Child on the back of the Roebuck comes with the snow. Dionysus and Zeus are winter children as well, and around their births is the mystery of murder and oppression. For true birth we must pass into Annwn, the place where everything dies and, because Annwn is a mirror, everything is reborn.

The Silver Castle of the South East, the Perilous Castle that is the Domain of the Scarlet Woman, is the place of trial, and in September we felt that trial truly, as  beloved summer died to become autumn and we let go of all of our summertime hopes and began to face the the ending of the year. But now we are at the door of the purely Western Castle, and of the Grey and Silver Woman, the twin sister of the Scarlet Queen. Her Silver Stone Castle is under the earth, and it is always turning so that, when you enter it through one door in one place, you are never entirely sure where you will come out. She is many named, Erishkigal, Persephone, and all of these names are a ruse. Her lord is Aidonais, Dis, Hades, Pluto, Admetus and in the Mabinogion he is Arawn. In Wales his Lady has no name, and this is the truest name for her. She is simply the lovely bride Pwyll does not dare deceive.  Here, in her dreamtime place, which exist beside all things, after all things and before all things, there is a lightheartedness and rejoicing as everything is lost, and all that is lost is restored again. This is the land that where “She changes everything she touches, and everything she touches changes.” Here, the old Horned Oe is about to become the Holy Child. The swollen river is the perfect metaphor not only for the border of the Silver Castle, but the Castle itself. Here we may stand on the bank, holding on for dear life to all that we were or let go and become all that the Mistress will make us. The God Changes, the world changes? Will we? What will we become once we have entered the Turning Castle, or will we refuse to become anything at all?