Pagan Portals - Blodeuwedd

Book excerpt: Like a gathering of flowers from hedge and field, or a cloak made of owl feathers, Blodeuwedd is a figure of great complexity. She is both Flower Maiden and Owl of Wisdom… unfaithful wife and representative of Sovereignty… fallen woman and feminist heroine… medieval cautionary tale and reclaimed divinity. Yet, for all of these seeming inconstancies, the key to understanding Blodeuwedd is being able to see her as a whole. Bringing together strands of Celtic lore, Welsh literature, British folk practice, and modern devotion, Celticist Jhenah Telyndru weaves a solid foundation from which scholars and seekers alike can come into deeper relationship with this oft-misunderstood figure. Ultimately, this journey to reclaim Blodeuwedd’s identity - a Sovereignty Goddess who ensured the cycle of the seasons by choosing, in turn, to partner with the Solar Hero of Summer and the Otherworldly Champion of Winter - reveals a transformational mythic pathway that can also guide us in the reclamation of our own sovereignty.