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readoldthings) wrote2023-09-09 10:28 am
readoldthings) wrote2023-09-09 10:28 am
The Seventeenth Triad, and Cythraul
Iolo's Seventeenth Triad reads:
I want to zero in on one of the terms he uses here, "Cythraul." This word means "Devil" in Welsh, and in Iolo's theology it stands in for the principle of Evil, opposed to the Good. This principle, however, has a rather different meaning than that found either in dualistic systems such as those of Gnostics or Manichaeans, or even in traditional Christian theology. In these systems, whatever else the principle of Evil is, it is a principle of Power. In Iolo's vision, it is quite the opposite-- a principle of utter powerlessness.
Elsewhere in Barddas we read:
In The Mysteries of Britain, Lewis Spence elaborates:
This idea sees good as order and harmony, and, in Plato, it is directly linked to the harmonies of music. (Remember that professor from a while back who claimed that Plato wanted to ban music? Here we see the reality, which is that music has a specific metaphysical meaning in the work of Plato. It is united both to mathematics and the practice of the virtues. Its opposite is Chaos, which is inharmonious, disorderly, unmusical. It is also utterly weak-- evil accomplishes nothing. Chaos is linked to the Dyad in numbers, and to Matter, which is incapable of accomplishing anything on its own but is only the final expression of active Spirit.
If some of these ideas seem familiar, there's a reason for that. A version of this teaching-- simplified, but apparently still quite helpful for some people-- has in recent years been taken up by the pop intellectual Jordan Peterson. Now, by the way, you know the meaning of the hysterical opposition Peterson has attracted from the media. And I think you can also see the hidden meaning of Materialism, the belief that Matter is the only reality and mind or spirit a mere "epiphenomenon."
Each of us has within us certain capacities, a certain level of energy, and a certain destiny or telos. In keeping with the Druidical teachings, we can call this latter our personal Awen. This is the summit of what we can accomplish in this incarnation. Each of us also comes equipped with a whole series of vices and negative tendencies. If you pay attention, you will discover that each of your vices is in fact the root of a virtue. The vain and pretentious are often natural leaders who can do a world of good if they can temper their vanity with humility. The violent are often those who possess both great will and great strength, but need to learn to use them in service of a high cause, and not their passions. Addicts are very often seeking a higher state of consciousness, and programs like AA and NA can teach them to find that in a direct encounter with the divine, rather than a bottle or a needle. Notice that the person living from their vices is 1. powerless, being driven from one thing to the next by whims of the moment; 2. incapable of accomplishing anything; 3. easy prey for the manipulative, including those who wish to sell
In Thaeatetus, Plato teaches us that the goal of the philosophical life is to become like God. The Timaeus as well as Iolo's triads teach us exactly what this means. Just as the Creator impresses order onto the primordial chaos of existence, we must, with divine aid, impress order and virtue onto all that is chaotic and inharmonious within ourselves.
The journey of the soul in Abred is precisely this process of becoming like God, by gathering, over long ages, the knowledge of the nature of all things, that we may overcome the Cythraul within and take our place in the Luminous Life of the Gods.
The three necessary occasions of Abred: To collect the materials of every nature; to collect the knowledge of every thing; and to collect strength to overcome every adverse and Cythraul, and to be divested of evil; without this traversing of every state of life, no animation or species can attain to plenitude.
Overall, this triad presents Iolo's evolutionary vision of the incarnate human soul, and the purpose of material existence. We have our beginning-- according to this view-- in the Cauldron of Annwn, which is identical with the mineral creation. Over the course of long ages we rise through the various forms of material life, plant, animal, and finally human. The human is the balance point, wherein the evil of Abred is balanced by the light of Gwynfydd; here we may press onward and establish ourselves in the Luminous Life of Gwynfydd, or else fall back into animal existence for a time. I want to zero in on one of the terms he uses here, "Cythraul." This word means "Devil" in Welsh, and in Iolo's theology it stands in for the principle of Evil, opposed to the Good. This principle, however, has a rather different meaning than that found either in dualistic systems such as those of Gnostics or Manichaeans, or even in traditional Christian theology. In these systems, whatever else the principle of Evil is, it is a principle of Power. In Iolo's vision, it is quite the opposite-- a principle of utter powerlessness.
Elsewhere in Barddas we read:
Cythraul is destitute of life and intention--a thing of necessity, not of will, without being or life, in respect of existence and personality; but vacant in reference to what is vacant, dead in reference to what is dead, and nothing in reference to what is nothing. Whereas God is good with reference to what is good, is fulness in reference to fulness, life in life, all in all, and light in light.
In The Mysteries of Britain, Lewis Spence elaborates:
God is goodness and power, and is opposed in duality to Cythraul, darkness and powerless inability . God mercifully united Himself with this lifelessness or evil with the intention of subduing it unto life or goodness, and from this intellectual existences and animations sprang.
These began in the depths of Annwn, or the abyss, the lowest and least grade, for there can be no intellectual existence without gradation, and in respect of gradation there cannot but be a beginning, a middle, an end or extremity-- first, augmentation, and ultimate or conclusion.
This view both of evil and of God is a bit foreign to our usual way of thinking about these things. It isn't a new conception, however, nor foreign to the ideas that I've been developing on this blog. Compare this account to Plato's account of the Demiurge's reason for creation in Timaeus 30A:These began in the depths of Annwn, or the abyss, the lowest and least grade, for there can be no intellectual existence without gradation, and in respect of gradation there cannot but be a beginning, a middle, an end or extremity-- first, augmentation, and ultimate or conclusion.
Now let us say through what cause the Creator constructed becoming and this All. Good he was, and in one who is good there never arises anothering whatosever of grudge, and so, being free of this, he willed that alll things should come to resemble himself as much as possible. That this above all is the lordliest principle of becoming and Cosmos one must receive, and correctly so, from wise men. Since he wanted all things to be good and, to the best of his power, nothing to be shoddy, the God thus took over all that was visible, and, since it did not keep its peace but moved unmusically and without order, he brought it into order from disorder, since he regarded the former to be in all ways better than the latter.
This idea sees good as order and harmony, and, in Plato, it is directly linked to the harmonies of music. (Remember that professor from a while back who claimed that Plato wanted to ban music? Here we see the reality, which is that music has a specific metaphysical meaning in the work of Plato. It is united both to mathematics and the practice of the virtues. Its opposite is Chaos, which is inharmonious, disorderly, unmusical. It is also utterly weak-- evil accomplishes nothing. Chaos is linked to the Dyad in numbers, and to Matter, which is incapable of accomplishing anything on its own but is only the final expression of active Spirit.
If some of these ideas seem familiar, there's a reason for that. A version of this teaching-- simplified, but apparently still quite helpful for some people-- has in recent years been taken up by the pop intellectual Jordan Peterson. Now, by the way, you know the meaning of the hysterical opposition Peterson has attracted from the media. And I think you can also see the hidden meaning of Materialism, the belief that Matter is the only reality and mind or spirit a mere "epiphenomenon."
Each of us has within us certain capacities, a certain level of energy, and a certain destiny or telos. In keeping with the Druidical teachings, we can call this latter our personal Awen. This is the summit of what we can accomplish in this incarnation. Each of us also comes equipped with a whole series of vices and negative tendencies. If you pay attention, you will discover that each of your vices is in fact the root of a virtue. The vain and pretentious are often natural leaders who can do a world of good if they can temper their vanity with humility. The violent are often those who possess both great will and great strength, but need to learn to use them in service of a high cause, and not their passions. Addicts are very often seeking a higher state of consciousness, and programs like AA and NA can teach them to find that in a direct encounter with the divine, rather than a bottle or a needle. Notice that the person living from their vices is 1. powerless, being driven from one thing to the next by whims of the moment; 2. incapable of accomplishing anything; 3. easy prey for the manipulative, including those who wish to sell
In Thaeatetus, Plato teaches us that the goal of the philosophical life is to become like God. The Timaeus as well as Iolo's triads teach us exactly what this means. Just as the Creator impresses order onto the primordial chaos of existence, we must, with divine aid, impress order and virtue onto all that is chaotic and inharmonious within ourselves.
The journey of the soul in Abred is precisely this process of becoming like God, by gathering, over long ages, the knowledge of the nature of all things, that we may overcome the Cythraul within and take our place in the Luminous Life of the Gods.