readoldthings

In Barddas we read:

Some have called God the Father HEN DDIHENYDD, because it is from His nature that all things are derived, and from Him is the beginning of every thing, and in Him is no beginning, for He can not but exist, and nothing can have a beginning without a beginner. And God the Son is called IAU, that is, God under a finite form and corporeity, for a finite being cannot otherwise know and perceive God. And when He became man in this world, He was called JESUS CHRIST, for He was not from everlasting under a finite form and body. And the man who believes in Him, and performs the seven works of mercy, shall be delivered from the pain of Abred, and blessed for ever be he who does so. Jesus Christ is also called GOD THE DOVYDD; and He has also other names, such as PERYDD, and GOD THE NER, and GOD THE NAV.

Now, "Hen Ddihenydd" means "ancient and unoriginated one"; apparently it is the Welsh translation of "Ancient of Days." "Iau" means "Younger," in that the Son is younger than and generated from the Father-- but it also means "Jupiter" and is, I believe, the modern Welsh name for Thursday (Dies Iovis, Jupiter's Day). Notice, too, that the word IAU is a cognate of IAO, which is an ancient Gnostic name for the Supreme Deity. The suggestion is that the God whom we can see and name as Supreme Being, IAO, Iuppiter or Jesus Christ, is himself an image of the Hidden One, the First Father. This idea is also found in the Oracles, where we read:

The Father perfected all things, and delivered them over to the Second Mind, whom all Nations of Men call the First.

The titles given to Christ mean: Dovydd, the Tamer; Perydd, the Cause; Ner, the Mighty or Energy; Naf, the Shaper or Creator. And elsewhere in Barddas we encounter other Names of God, including a poem which reads:

Duw, Dofydd mawr, Ionawr, Iau.
Ener, Muner, Ner, Naf ydyw.

Each of these represents one facet of the Second Mind, the Divine Intellect, who is God as He appears to human minds. As we have discussed before, since God is superessential, the names are inexhaustible, both in their particular meanings and in their variety. The particular Names are given to humanity through inspiration, as we read in Dionysius:

Let the rule of the Oracles be here also prescribed for us, that we shall establish the truth of the things spoken concerning God, not in the persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit-moved power of the Theologians, by aid of which we are brought into contact with things unutterable and unknown, in a manner unutterable and unknown, in proportion to the superior union of the reasoning and intuitive faculty and operation within us. By no means then is it permitted to speak, or even to think, anything, concerning the superessential and hidden Deity, beyond those things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles

This is from the Areopagite's treatise on the Divine Names, which then proceeds to analyze many of the Names of God.

Let us come to the appellation "Good," already mentioned in our discourse, which the Theologians ascribe pre-eminently and exclusively to the super-Divine Deity...

For, even as our Sun----not as calculating or choosing, but by its very being, enlightens all things able to partake of its light in their own degree----so too the Good----as superior to a sun, as the archetype par excellence, is above an obscure image----by Its very existence sends to all things that be, the rays of Its whole goodness, according to their capacity. By reason of these (rays) subsisted all the intelligible and intelligent essences and powers and energies.

Readers of this blog will, of course, have no trouble identifying the source of this particular idea of Dionysius's.

This tradition, of reciting, contemplating and meditating upon the revealed Divine Names is an ancient one. We may well believe that the Druids of old practiced it, and it is preserved, as we see, in Dionysius, the great disciple of Proclus (or the great companion of Saint Paul, or both). Many know that the system of transcendental meditation is based on the repitition of one of the Names of the Hindu pantheon. The tradition of Dhikr, the meditative recitation of all of God, is an Islamic version of the practice. Moreover, the Ismaili tradition within Islam explicitly understands the Names to refer to the second divinity, Divine Intellect, their understanding of which is drawn from the writings of Plotinus.

Morganwg-- perhaps we should call him Saint Iolo Morganwg, or Niomh Iolo Morganwg-- was a trickster, to be sure-- just as the mysterious author of the Dionysian letters was a trickster. If Dionysius merits the title "saint," "holy," then so in my view does Morganwg. Perhaps we might call him "Niomh* Iolo Morganwg." And, reading from the deep well of the Barddas, we might pray,

Niomh Iolo Morganwg, ora pro nobis!

*(Yes, I did that on purpose, feel free to share if you get the joke.)