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From the Cauldron Born: Exploring the Magic of Welsh Legend & Lore
The tale of Taliesin and the magical cauldron of Cerridwen speaks from the heart of the Celtic Pagan tradition. In From the Cauldron Born, you are invited not only to read the story but to live it. You are invited to resonate with the magic of the witch mother Cerridwen and her cauldron of inspiration. You are invited to become Taliesin, the prophetic spirit with the radiant brow. You are invited to awaken to a lucidity of spirit born from the archetypes of sacred myth.
Join Kristoffer Hughes on a yearlong journey of rituals based on one of Wales's most profound legends. With deeply transformative exercises and lyrical wisdom, you will experience beauty and knowledge, imagination and creation as never before.
"If you are captivated by the exploration of Welsh and Celtic myth, Kristoffer Hughes's in-depth, scholarly work belongs on your bookshelf."—Ellen Dugan, author of Seasons of Witchery
"In this book, Kris Hughes takes up his Druid's staff and guides us through the winding paths of the tale of Taliesin with insight, learning, and inspiration so that we too may drink the magical brew in the cauldron of Cerridwen and emerge transformed."—Anna Franklin, author of The Sacred Circle Tarot
Join Kristoffer Hughes on a yearlong journey of rituals based on one of Wales's most profound legends. With deeply transformative exercises and lyrical wisdom, you will experience beauty and knowledge, imagination and creation as never before.
"If you are captivated by the exploration of Welsh and Celtic myth, Kristoffer Hughes's in-depth, scholarly work belongs on your bookshelf."—Ellen Dugan, author of Seasons of Witchery
"In this book, Kris Hughes takes up his Druid's staff and guides us through the winding paths of the tale of Taliesin with insight, learning, and inspiration so that we too may drink the magical brew in the cauldron of Cerridwen and emerge transformed."—Anna Franklin, author of The Sacred Circle Tarot
314 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2012
90 people are currently reading
496 people want to read
About the author
Kristoffer Hughes
16 books78 followersKristoffer Hughes (Wales) is Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, a Mount Haemus Scholar, and a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. He is a teacher, writer, workshop leader, and guest speaker at Pagan conferences, camps, and festivals throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America. Hughes has also contributed to Welsh and English television and radio. He's the author of four books and the creator of the Celtic Tarot.
Hughes is also a Death Services Professional for Her Majesty's Coroner service. He hosts frequent Amicus Mortis/Friends Death, Death Midwifery and Mortality Salience courses in person and online.
Hughes is also a Death Services Professional for Her Majesty's Coroner service. He hosts frequent Amicus Mortis/Friends Death, Death Midwifery and Mortality Salience courses in person and online.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 10, 2015
In From the Cauldron Born, Druid Kristoffer Hughes explores the transformational magic inherent in the Hanes Taliesin, the Welsh story of the Goddess, Cerridwen, her cauldron of inspiration, and the origins of the bard, Taliesin. This story is perhaps one of the oldest in the folklore of the British Isles, and presents fertile territory for personal growth. Taking it as a starting point, Hughes has developed a series of meditations and a year-long cycle of ritual designed to introduce the reader to the archetypes represented by the characters in the story and give a meaningful experience of the power of inspiration.
Having been fond of the Welsh myths myself from a young age, I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to my expectations. Hughes obviously has an intense relationship with the subject matter, but he falls prey to the annoying mistake prevalent in so many works geared toward a Pagan reader: he talks down to his audience and he employs such effusive language that the main point I carried away from reading was “This is so great! Wow!” Someone new to Paganism and ritual personal work might not find this as grating as I did. However, for anyone who has been on the path longer than about five years, it’s plain tedious.
The book starts out with a huge structural flaw: Although he is basing his entire premise on a particular story, Hughes doesn’t relate the story until his second section, forty pages in. It’s possible anyone who picks up this book might already have some familiarity with the tale, as Cerridwen and her cauldron have become popular motifs in every Pagan art form from calendars to jewelry. However, to rely on this seemed short-sighted. I think Hughes’s purpose would have been better served if he had told the tale at the beginning. A good grounding in the tale from the start is particularly important as one of the first exercises Hughes presents is a dedication to the path and the beings involved. It doesn’t strike me as wise or safe to make this kind of dedication without knowing what you’re getting into. Of course, Hughes does advise reading the entire book before doing any of the exercises. However, my personal experience both as student and teacher makes me think that a lot of people, especially new Pagans, get so excited that they rush ahead. In the case of making a dedication to Cerridwen, this might prove extremely uncomfortable, to say the least.
Hughes also has the bad habit of presenting his subjective experience as objective fact. For example, he constantly refers to the Cerridwen myth as “the most mysterious, profound, and transformative story to arise from Celtic Wales.” I believe this is arguable. Incredibly profound, sure. But “most profound?” Depends on whose experience you’re talking about. Too, for someone trying to teach, Hughes has a bad grasp of the fact that people relate to information in differing ways. He takes it for granted that people are distanced from their experience and their environment, and that they need strong encouragement to connect with the material. This stance made it difficult for me to keep reading the book, as inevitably just when he got to some juicy exercise Hughes felt it necessary to give a pep talk on how it’s okay to have an experience. Thanks. I got that.
When he gets down to the nitty-gritty, Hughes does an okay job. He clearly knows his material and has a deep personal relationship with it. I particularly admired the fact that he’d done much of the major translation from original source material himself. In the later portions of the book, he presents some good scholarship on the development of Cerridwen from a figure of folklore into a goddess, as well as compelling examination of the etymological derivation of character names and references to them in other Welsh myths and poems. I’d been skeptical about his basing whole chapters on minor characters in the story, but he managed to pull it off. Sometimes, though, he allows himself to be distracted by irrelevancies, and he spends far too much time defending the validity of a Pagan path. I felt this detracted from his main point.
His exercises are well-designed and should be effective, although they are a short-sighted in places. For example, going to a beach to do a water meditation might be difficult for those in landlocked areas. The year-long ritual cycle in which the book culminates looks both interesting and powerful, but again requires materials that may not be available to everyone. Although Hughes states that one may make personal adaptations, he doesn’t give enough information about how he derived the substances he uses for this to be feasible.
I appreciated the times when Hughes broke out of what sounded like his “teaching voice” and used more colloquial and natural language, like telling you to envision your head as the T.A.R.D.I. S. from Doctor Who, or reminding you that your visualizations “don’t have to be all mystical and spooky.” It made me think that in person he must be a really good teacher, but he just isn’t very good at communicating his ideas in writing.
In the end, I found this book disappointing and somewhat tedious. The author’s excitement about his material didn’t make up for the repetition, occasional incoherence, and plain bad writing. It didn’t keep my attention, and it didn’t draw my interest. It might be a good starting place for someone unfamiliar with transformational ritual and personal relationship to myth and spirit. For anyone else, I would recommend studying the original source material and coming up with your own plan.
Having been fond of the Welsh myths myself from a young age, I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to my expectations. Hughes obviously has an intense relationship with the subject matter, but he falls prey to the annoying mistake prevalent in so many works geared toward a Pagan reader: he talks down to his audience and he employs such effusive language that the main point I carried away from reading was “This is so great! Wow!” Someone new to Paganism and ritual personal work might not find this as grating as I did. However, for anyone who has been on the path longer than about five years, it’s plain tedious.
The book starts out with a huge structural flaw: Although he is basing his entire premise on a particular story, Hughes doesn’t relate the story until his second section, forty pages in. It’s possible anyone who picks up this book might already have some familiarity with the tale, as Cerridwen and her cauldron have become popular motifs in every Pagan art form from calendars to jewelry. However, to rely on this seemed short-sighted. I think Hughes’s purpose would have been better served if he had told the tale at the beginning. A good grounding in the tale from the start is particularly important as one of the first exercises Hughes presents is a dedication to the path and the beings involved. It doesn’t strike me as wise or safe to make this kind of dedication without knowing what you’re getting into. Of course, Hughes does advise reading the entire book before doing any of the exercises. However, my personal experience both as student and teacher makes me think that a lot of people, especially new Pagans, get so excited that they rush ahead. In the case of making a dedication to Cerridwen, this might prove extremely uncomfortable, to say the least.
Hughes also has the bad habit of presenting his subjective experience as objective fact. For example, he constantly refers to the Cerridwen myth as “the most mysterious, profound, and transformative story to arise from Celtic Wales.” I believe this is arguable. Incredibly profound, sure. But “most profound?” Depends on whose experience you’re talking about. Too, for someone trying to teach, Hughes has a bad grasp of the fact that people relate to information in differing ways. He takes it for granted that people are distanced from their experience and their environment, and that they need strong encouragement to connect with the material. This stance made it difficult for me to keep reading the book, as inevitably just when he got to some juicy exercise Hughes felt it necessary to give a pep talk on how it’s okay to have an experience. Thanks. I got that.
When he gets down to the nitty-gritty, Hughes does an okay job. He clearly knows his material and has a deep personal relationship with it. I particularly admired the fact that he’d done much of the major translation from original source material himself. In the later portions of the book, he presents some good scholarship on the development of Cerridwen from a figure of folklore into a goddess, as well as compelling examination of the etymological derivation of character names and references to them in other Welsh myths and poems. I’d been skeptical about his basing whole chapters on minor characters in the story, but he managed to pull it off. Sometimes, though, he allows himself to be distracted by irrelevancies, and he spends far too much time defending the validity of a Pagan path. I felt this detracted from his main point.
His exercises are well-designed and should be effective, although they are a short-sighted in places. For example, going to a beach to do a water meditation might be difficult for those in landlocked areas. The year-long ritual cycle in which the book culminates looks both interesting and powerful, but again requires materials that may not be available to everyone. Although Hughes states that one may make personal adaptations, he doesn’t give enough information about how he derived the substances he uses for this to be feasible.
I appreciated the times when Hughes broke out of what sounded like his “teaching voice” and used more colloquial and natural language, like telling you to envision your head as the T.A.R.D.I. S. from Doctor Who, or reminding you that your visualizations “don’t have to be all mystical and spooky.” It made me think that in person he must be a really good teacher, but he just isn’t very good at communicating his ideas in writing.
In the end, I found this book disappointing and somewhat tedious. The author’s excitement about his material didn’t make up for the repetition, occasional incoherence, and plain bad writing. It didn’t keep my attention, and it didn’t draw my interest. It might be a good starting place for someone unfamiliar with transformational ritual and personal relationship to myth and spirit. For anyone else, I would recommend studying the original source material and coming up with your own plan.
November 12, 2020
Just... very poorly written. What’s especially disappointing is that the author has some good ideas (and obvious enthusiasm for the subject), but the book reads like a rough draft that could have benefited from editorial oversight and a good deal of revision. It was tedious to get through — like trying to listen to a song you love that’s being played by a middle schooler who hasn’t learned how to tune their instrument or keep time.
I’m generally suspicious of writers who begin their work by denouncing how “limited” and inadequate the written word is for expressing their ideas. It’s usually not a good sign when a craftsperson has such a hostile relationship with their medium. Anti-intellectualism crops up frequently throughout this book when the author runs up against ideas he finds challenging, which is pretty common for material as complex and at times obscure as Celtic mythology. That he projects this frustration onto the reader and talks down to them in such a patronizing way is also off-putting.
The basic structure and concept of the book — examining in-depth different aspects and characters of a single story and using them as a gateway to deeper inquiry — could have been very fruitful if handled well. Unfortunately, the table of contents is arguably the best written part of the book.
*SAFETY WARNING* Also, absolutely DO NOT follow the instructions for the final year-long ritual he includes at the end of the book. Storing food in a cast-iron container for months at a time will not only completely ruin your cast iron (and probably result in a rancid, rusty mess), but it can leach iron into the food and potentially cause iron toxicity if you consume its contents.
The fact that he claims that this ritual has been "tried and tested" by others is highly suspicious -- it makes me think he has not actually attempted the ritual himself. Anyone who actually followed his instructions as written would end up with something that was clearly unsafe to consume by the end of the year-long process. Maybe this is just another example of his poor writing skills. Maybe he expects the reader to ignore his instructions and instead to prepare and store all of their ingredients properly. But the fact that he does not include important safety precautions and other basic, practical information for carrying out the rituals he includes is just another major flaw of this book.
I’m generally suspicious of writers who begin their work by denouncing how “limited” and inadequate the written word is for expressing their ideas. It’s usually not a good sign when a craftsperson has such a hostile relationship with their medium. Anti-intellectualism crops up frequently throughout this book when the author runs up against ideas he finds challenging, which is pretty common for material as complex and at times obscure as Celtic mythology. That he projects this frustration onto the reader and talks down to them in such a patronizing way is also off-putting.
The basic structure and concept of the book — examining in-depth different aspects and characters of a single story and using them as a gateway to deeper inquiry — could have been very fruitful if handled well. Unfortunately, the table of contents is arguably the best written part of the book.
*SAFETY WARNING* Also, absolutely DO NOT follow the instructions for the final year-long ritual he includes at the end of the book. Storing food in a cast-iron container for months at a time will not only completely ruin your cast iron (and probably result in a rancid, rusty mess), but it can leach iron into the food and potentially cause iron toxicity if you consume its contents.
The fact that he claims that this ritual has been "tried and tested" by others is highly suspicious -- it makes me think he has not actually attempted the ritual himself. Anyone who actually followed his instructions as written would end up with something that was clearly unsafe to consume by the end of the year-long process. Maybe this is just another example of his poor writing skills. Maybe he expects the reader to ignore his instructions and instead to prepare and store all of their ingredients properly. But the fact that he does not include important safety precautions and other basic, practical information for carrying out the rituals he includes is just another major flaw of this book.
December 19, 2024
This was non-fiction, and so in addition to falling into a reading slump, it is something I would struggle with anyway, so it took me a while to read.
This did not mean it was not an interesting book. I liked the formatting, I felt it was paced quite well. I liked the inclusion of rituals at the end.
This is the second book I have read by this author, and the author has really been my proper introduction into Welsh legend. He cites other resources in the text, and recommend other resources for further learning. Which I appreciate.
This did not mean it was not an interesting book. I liked the formatting, I felt it was paced quite well. I liked the inclusion of rituals at the end.
This is the second book I have read by this author, and the author has really been my proper introduction into Welsh legend. He cites other resources in the text, and recommend other resources for further learning. Which I appreciate.
March 16, 2024
Great book. This is a deep dive into the Cerridwen myth, complete with exercises to really understand the complexity of all who were involved.
Kristoffer is a native of Wales and is able to explain the entomology of names and uses that to help aid in the discovery of the myth.
Kristoffer is a native of Wales and is able to explain the entomology of names and uses that to help aid in the discovery of the myth.
July 13, 2023
I came to this book looking for a deeper appreciation of the tale of Taliesin, a story much used by the neo-Druid community. The author's exploration of the symbolism of the narrative and various characters was helpful, and I came away from the book with a better understanding of the story. Unfortunately I also found this a difficult book to like. I couldn't get on with the author's florid style. I grew tired on the author's attempts to prove the antiquity of the tale of Taliesin when there is so little evidence. I think if we find the tale works for us today, then that's reason enough to use it. I was also frustrated by the author's comparing of Druidry to 'the revealed religions.' This phrase is a very unhelpful generalization that leads to many inaccuracies. I should say these criticisms are not unique to Hughes, and I've had these difficulties with other neo-Pagan books.
August 15, 2020
I read this book wanting to learn more about Cerridwen. It was a good start and can't wait to do the exercises. Good bibliography to find other books on the subject.
August 27, 2019
This book really helped me understand the story of Cerridwen and Taillisin much better and how it is an initiation. Kristoffer first tells three versions of the story and then describes in detail each character, even if their name is just mentioned, he explains why they are important and what their name means. I have been to many of Kristoffer's presentations and rituals at Pantheacon, he writes the way he talks, comfortably and with humor.
April 11, 2023
I love Welsh mythology and the tales from the Mabinogion. I am a member of the obod and pagan for over 25yrs. This book however is sadly not for me. Non of the exercises reached out to me and they felt just cobbled together and random.
The author has a very complicated writing style that attempts to be an academic approach but falls short of that, making many sections a hard tedious slog.
As I said not for me. Disappointing.
The author has a very complicated writing style that attempts to be an academic approach but falls short of that, making many sections a hard tedious slog.
As I said not for me. Disappointing.
July 18, 2022
So much potential
The information and knowledge in this are excellent. Wonderful instruction and teachings. However the narration is to me quite boring. The legend & lore fascinating, the storytelling dull.
The information and knowledge in this are excellent. Wonderful instruction and teachings. However the narration is to me quite boring. The legend & lore fascinating, the storytelling dull.
November 23, 2021
Kristoffer's easy writing style is always a delight. This book was an accessible introduction to the lore of Cerridwen and Taliesin.
August 13, 2016
I can describe this book with one word: redundant. Hughes took a beautiful story found in Welsh mythology and extended it for 253 pages. Clearly he's never heard of less is more. More than half of the book did not need to exist. If I was his editor I would have included the introduction and the end with the year and a day ritual on how to make your own Awen.
The book is split into three sections: general exploration of the tale, the re-telling of the tale and a character analysis. I understand what Hughes was trying to do, but he did not have to include three versions of the same story. Even someone who is not Pagan and is just interested in Welsh mythology would have understood. The title of this book is misleading because it implies all of Welsh mythology being discussed not one story being dissected into pointless minute details for the joy of the author. It's very hard to get through this book because Hughes talk down to the reader like we're children. If you've been a practicing Pagan for 5+ years this book will just make you roll your eyes.
Overall I tried to like this book, but it just wasn't working. Hopefully his other books will be better.
The book is split into three sections: general exploration of the tale, the re-telling of the tale and a character analysis. I understand what Hughes was trying to do, but he did not have to include three versions of the same story. Even someone who is not Pagan and is just interested in Welsh mythology would have understood. The title of this book is misleading because it implies all of Welsh mythology being discussed not one story being dissected into pointless minute details for the joy of the author. It's very hard to get through this book because Hughes talk down to the reader like we're children. If you've been a practicing Pagan for 5+ years this book will just make you roll your eyes.
Overall I tried to like this book, but it just wasn't working. Hopefully his other books will be better.
March 16, 2014
Normally I never rate a book so low, this will be a first for me. It is possible that this book just wasn't my cup of tea so to speak but in all honesty I find one word to best describe this book; boring. There were a few interesting things in this book such as the topic of the magic souce flowing through all things and I understand where different version of the original story were needed but there was SO much repetition in this book it was like some one was trying to drill into my head. It is also rare that I do not make it through a book no matter how bad I personally find it to be but this one I made it most of the way through and had to stop. This book could have been half it's size if there hadn't been so many repeating type sentences. I do admit that the author did do his research on the topics though. It just was't my type of book I suppose.
November 10, 2024
this book was recommended to me, and impersonally enjoyed it! i won’t say there was not a lot i didn’t know, however, in my opinion and studies over my years of practice x which are many, i still found some very educational points! i would say no matter how knowledgeable you are of any practice there is always another who can teach you if you have an open mind! i took away things i knew and things i didn’t! for myself i enjoyed the book and any knowledge i didn’t have i gained c knowledge i did have i was able to look at it from another’s practices and teaching! thank you!
October 24, 2020
One of my favourite authors on Druidry, in fact, he's responsible for me looking to expand my paganism down this path. In real life, he's a wonderful, charismatic man, very down to earth, encouraging and willing to help and discuss your paganism with.
Want to read
May 23, 2016Beta Reading for one of my best friends. I'm a little late with it, but I'm honored to be one of the first to read it.
November 1, 2012
Well put-together book that will satisfy anyone with a desire to steep themselves in occult legend and lore!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews