Afallach

24M || 🌑 || Treating this blog like a sort of online grimoire to keep track of things since I never write anything down.|| Cymraeg 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[avallachaepannwn]

About me:

My ‘craft’ name is Afallach Dark-Waters. I am native Welsh, with Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Greek, Turkish, Danish and Cornish heritage. I am a triple Taurus ♉️, born under a new moon 🌑, just after Calan Haf.

I am an autistic FtM. Folklorists would likely consider me a changeling, or fae-touched… My hunger for raw honey, milk and butter doesn’t beat any allegations. 🤣

My guide/teacher is the Spider 🕷️, and my path is druidic. I would consider myself a Swynwr - a Cymraeg Male Folk Witch. I don’t often look to deities, but when I do, I look towards Arawn and Arianrhod.

Druidry has been in my life for a very long time; both of my parents are ‘witchy’, and I participated in one of the largest druidic ceremonies of my culture as a child. Anyone who has footage of the 2010 National Eisteddfod likely has footage of me. 😅

I’ve a particular talent for tarot readings, and am subject to very strange dreams from time to time. I’ve also got a knack for death work, and strong affinities with blood, fungi, apples and spiderwebs. I love to tell stories and weave poetry, but there’s very little I cherish more than a good riddle. The more you can stump me, the more excitable I get.

My birth cards are Justice and the High Priestess.

In my free time, I’m a bit of a gym rat; weightlifting, callisthenics, hiking, rock-climbing, surfing and wild swimming are my favourites. I’m polyjamorous (every genre of music, baby), I’m a big fan of video-games and D&D, and LOTR/The Silmarillion is a special interest of mine, alongside Skyrim, The Witcher and the works of Shakespeare. I also love foraging and cooking.

This is a safe space for:

LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈

Neurodivergents

Fellow Druids

Celtic Pagans

Witchy folk in general

Storytellers, bards and saucy rogues.

Fellow “changelings”

This is a hostile space for:

TERFs. I will fight you. And I will win.

Anyone who isn’t Welsh and thinks they can use the word ‘hiraeth’ without consequence.

Appropriators. Get yourself and your matted hair out of here.

Christians who can’t take “no, I don’t want to convert” as an answer. I do not want nor need your prayers. A hex on any who try.

Zionists. We support Palestine in this household and do not advocate for genocide.

Conservatives. We’ve had enough of you.

Literally anyone who either supports or simply ignores the hate spewed by JK Rowling because they ‘like Harry Potter’. A fictional universe is not more important than the lives of real people. Wake up.

White Supremacists. I know it’s not all of you, but I’m looking directly at the Norse Pagans with this one.

Saesneg (just kidding, the English are welcome here as long as they don’t get all fussy)

Wiccans who bump on and on about love and light and the threefold law. I do not abide by these things in my practice; do not force feed your beliefs to me.

Remember!!

Red flags in witchcraft books include:

Encouraging new witches to engage in closed practices such as voudun/voodoo, hoodoo, etc. also if it includes the use of white sage (it’s an endangered plant and sacred to Native Americans).

If your book mentions the word ‘g*psy’, encourages ‘aligning your chakras’, makes any nods towards Aleister Crowley, and decribes everything in terms of ‘maiden, mother and crone’, and forces you to follow the ‘rule of 3’

The horrifically wrong presumption that magic can only be performed by those in possession of a womb. Male witches have always existed.

Trying to force ‘love and light’ down your throat and fearmongering with the ‘threefold’ law. If it demonises baneful magic, it’s not the one. Also if it claims your spells won’t work without casting a circle 🤦🏻‍♂️

If it claims that crystals / meditation will heal your physical ailments. It won’t. See a medical professional.

Any reference to ‘indigo children’ or ‘starseeds’.

Treating deities like tools / attack dogs. Deities are a sacred part of your own psyche. Honour them.

‘Witches’ who can’t admit that they are not experts.

‘Wicca’. Wicca was created by a man (Gerald Gardner) who took practices from all over the world (including closed practices) and watered them down into a supremely shitty collage.

[avallachaepannwn]

Dyma fy nghelfyddyd ar farmor, y mae darluniad o ddwy coeden aur — yr enw o fy waithio gwyrdd ac aur yn ‘Alban Eilir’; dyma i gyhoeddi pryd ‘Golau o Ddaear’ yn dychwelyd.

Dwi’n eisiau fy waithio i werthu yn y farchnad yr dydd Mawrth yn farchnad Y Fenni toc lol

Hefyd. Os unrhyw un gallu helpu i mi gyda fy Nghymraeg… helpu mawr hynny. Dwi’n byw yn de Cymru - es i ddim yn mynd i’r ysgol gynradd siarad Cymraeg lmao

Yn Saesneg:

This is my artwork on marble. There’s an illustration of two golden trees - the name of my green and gold works is ‘Alban Eilir’; this is to herald when the ‘Light of the Earth’ returns.

I want to sell my work at the market at Abergavenny Market soon lol

Also. If anyone can help me with my Welsh, it’d be a great help. I live in South Wales and didn’t go to a welsh speaking primary school lmao

[zaatanna-moved]

anyway just a reminder for the myth lovers out there

king arthur was welsh. merlin was welsh. camelot was in wales. the lady and the lake she pops out of; welsh. excalibur; magic inanimate welsh object. etc.

on the way to see family, i drive past a lake that in which is welsh legend, is the last resting place of excalibur.

i’m just saying in my experience a lot of these legends had been so anglo-fied in the past and it’s like, all this cool shit is celtic welsh legend.

[jackironsides]

Arthur’s wife was called Gwenhwyfar first.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Like the kraken I emerge, summoned by the English theft of Arthur

Arthur is a Welsh name. It means ‘bear’. He’s likely derived from a Gaulish bear god

In the form of King Arthur, he is an anti-Saxon mythological WELSH figure, representing the native Brythonic people of Britain against the Anglo-Saxon invaders, dating from the 500s AD

The version appropriated by the English in the 1100s is the shitty boring sanitised version - they did it because they were trying to compete with the romance tradition on the continent at the time but didn’t have anything of their own to romanticise

Merlin is called Myrddin

Percival is Peredur

Kay is Cei, and also was subject to enormous character assassination in the English version - in the Welsh version he’s much closer to Arthur’s right hand man

Guinevere is Gwenhwyfar

There is no Lancelot, no Galahad, no tedious affair story

There is no Camelot. Arthur’s seat was Caerllion - modern Caerleon, putting him into both the region of the Silures (one of the most fearsome and warlike of the British tribes, modern South East Wales) and the old Roman fortress, which would have been an impossibly huge Palace for a warlord at the time.

They all have super powers and get up to wacky hijinks involving hair care, giants, strange giant wildlife, spectral revolving/glass fortresses in the Celtic sea, and a really fucking weird chess match. Also a cloak made out of beards.

What the fuck is the round table

Anyway it’s particularly irritating because traditional Welsh culture and beliefs have been so thoroughly stripped away and destroyed by England over the centuries, and Arthurian legend is one of the few surviving fragments we have left to preserve. And he’s specifically an anti-English figure. So the ubiquity of the boring and appropriative English Arthur across the whole fucking world is… Well, it’s not great.

[god-of-annwn]

The Gateways to Annwn (The Otherworld)

In Welsh mythology, Annwn or The Otherworld, is a land of paradise and eternal youth. It’s ruled over its king, Arawn, the God of death and traversed by Welsh gods and goddesses like Rhiannon.

Annwn is guarded by Cwn Annwn, the hounds of the otherworld, who are a part of the wild hunt, whose hunting grounds are said to be the mountain of Cadair Idris.

“The howling of these huge dogs foretold death to anyone who heard them".

It’s said that there are a number of entrances to Annwn across the Welsh landscape.

Pentre Ifan

Grassholm

Llyn y Fan Fach

Glas Llyn

Ffynnone

The Berwyn Mountains

[god-of-annwn]

~ Welsh Mythology - Arawn, King of the Otherworld, God of death

Hir yw'r dydd a hir yw'r nos, a hir yw aros Arawn 

Long is the day and long is the night, and long is the waiting of Arawn

[avallachaepannwn]

Current spider encounters:

- Garden spider; on the way to a job interview

- Money Spider; on the way to Job Centre

- Money Spider; landed on me in Tesco as I was getting prints for my art

- Noble False Widow Spiderling - dangling from my septum piercing just now (wasn’t doing anything but will ponder later), didn’t bite me, just chilled on my finger when I caught it until I guided it to an abandoned web for it to claim.

- Garden Spider; named her and fed her two flies earlier today.

[avallachaepannwn]

Current Crystal Setup

1 O’clock: Red Wine Quartz - transformation

2 O’clock: Gold Sheen Obsidian - healing, manifestation

3 O’clock: Witches Finger - Shadow self, banishing negative energy

1 and 2 fire up 3: charging my shadow-work and banishing with drive to transform and heal. 1 and 7 team up (transformation and warding), as do 2 and 8 (manifestation and purification), and 3 and 9 (shadow-work and visions).

4 O’clock: Tektite - Otherworld

5 O’clock: Nuumite - Regeneration, Communication

6 O’clock: Septarian - grounding

4 and 5 lock it in for 6: planting my feet firm enough for exploration. 4 and 10 team up (otherworld and charging) and so do 5 and 11 (communication and celtic ancestry) as well as 6 and 12 (grounding and balance).

7 O’clock: Black Quartz - warding

8 O’clock: Shungite - purifying

9 O’clock: Larvikite - visions, earth

7 and 8 boost 9: warding and purifying the visions without interruption

10 O’clock: Poppy Jasper - charging

11 O’clock: Preselli Bluestone - celtic ancestry

12 O’clock: Girasol - divination, creativity and balance

10 and 11 charge up 12: strengthening my overall craft as a Welsh witch

These are all displayed clockwise on a spiderweb pedestal.

[avallachaepannwn]

Vivid Dream List

(2013): I was shapeless, thoughtless, emotionless in a vast void where there was everything and nothing at once. I could create things by willing them into existence (not thinking or feeling, simply urging??) and the things I was making was like I was pulling apart strands of that void and putting them back together in new combinations, but before I could make anything else, I had an internal suggestion of the number ‘12’ and then something large and invisible swallowed me whole. It was like I was somewhere that I shouldn’t have been, but it was so blissful there and I keep finding myself wanting to go back there.

(2015): Standing in front of an ornate gold mirror. Mouth starts tickling. Scalp starts tingling. Spiders begin to crawl from my hair, and when I open my mouth, there are thousands of baby golden spiders being birthed from the soft and fleshy parts of my mouth (particularly my gums). Sounds disgusting but helping them be born wasn’t unlike popping a spot. It didn’t hurt at all, just tickled a little.

(2014/2015 I think??) Great grandmother sat on the foot of my bed. Seeing her in the nursing home, recently passed. I leant down and kissed her forehead and cheek - slightly lukewarm, waxy skin, wrinkled, smelled like her perfume. Extremely vivid. This was in the winter, and the night before I’d wake up to my mother sobbing after the news that my great-grandmother had passed in her sleep. My mother had a dream that night too, where my great-grandmother was talking to her before saying, very casually and cheerfully, “Right. I’m off now.” Before getting into a limousine.

(2016/2017): Walking through my old house in the dark, seeing a large spider on the wall (not afraid of it) just before the stairs, the bottom of which I couldn’t see. I ignored the spider and continued down the steps before a much larger pair of spiders spun their way down on a strand of gossamer in front of me, preventing me from descending the stairs any further. A warning.

(2024): More of a meditation than a dream - I was in a weird half awake state. Comforting weight on my thigh. Something pressed to my lips, a little like a caress, a little like a kiss - two spider legs emerging from my mouth to stroke my upper lip. I gently opened my mouth to find a spider languidly curled around my tongue. Another sensation at my upper back between the shoulder blades, like a warm and loving hand - another spider.

(2024): More like a nightmare (haven’t had such a vivid one in a while). Horrible creature in my room; a rat that ran out from under my chair/desk and morphed into this horrific looking rat-dog, that stood in front of my window with a ‘stalking’ stance, staring at me. Induced a primal sort of terror in me (the sort that remembering the way it looked makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end). I grabbed a chair and used that to shield me as I forced it out of the room, back through the window whilst it made these horrible yelping/growling/hissing sounds. The creature was this dirty, scraggly greyish black thing with canine teeth and rat-like eyes. It had a face that should have looked innocent but there was something very VERY off about it. Once it was out, I locked the window and went for a shower to cleanse myself. After my shower, I stood naked in front of three mirrors, whilst a disembodied and angry sounding voice kept snarling “face me”. I refused to indulge the voice in favour of seeking out my brother, mother and grandmother. Spiders present as a comfort. Dream frightening enough to wake me up a few minutes ago; it’s 02:39 now.

Important to note that the rat-dog nightmare happened after I broke my depression cycle of bed rotting - I washed and changed my sheets, showered, put on fresh pyjamas, charged and set out relevant crystals in the web-dish in front of my window (Red Wine Quartz, Septarian, Black Quartz, Nuumite, Preselli Bluestone, Witches Finger, Tektite, Shungite, Gold-sheen Obsidian, Girasole, Poppy Jasper and Larvikite) then double cleansed my room. Also lmao I woke up so frightened that I directed a very firm “Get out” at my window (where the thing was stood in the dream) and had to call my wife down to my room to sleep next to me. Mildly comforted by the mother spider on my ceiling who let her babies loose there a few nights ago - I have a small army of spiders above my canopy and I’m taking it as a sign of protection so that nothing nasty can enter my bed. Spider foreshadowing and protecting me.

[avallachaepannwn]

How I recognised that the Spider was my guide:

Dreaming of spiders; one that stands out to me is being stood in front of a mirror and feeling them in my hair, then opening my mouth to see them being ‘birthed’ from my gums and tongue. Thousands of little gold spiderlings. Another vivid dream involved me about to walk down a set of stairs and a large spider watching me from the wall. I ignored it and continued down the stairs; only got halfway down before two larger spiders descended on a web strand in front of me, preventing me from going further.

Spiders landing on my pillows when unable to sleep. A clear “this is the pillow. Put your head here.”

Spiders being in my bed as an incentive to get me out of bed. The bigger the spider, the more urgent the need (when I was a kid and had early onset of depression, I got into bed and pulled back the covers only to see an enormous house spider sat on my lap, which shocked me enough to get back out of bed). I was also very depressed recently, and a huge mother spider cast her babies across my ceiling directly above me. I took this as a clear “get your arse in gear”

As a kid, spiders seeking my attention. One vivid memory involves me just playing with my toys, and a hand-sized house spider crawling up onto my lap. Also when staying up late watching TV, a spider coming across the wall and into the TV light, as if to say “turn it off”

Waking up covered in gossamer (this has happened to me twice). Both times was early morning before a big day - one such example being the morning before going back to University. Love having spiders as an alarm clock.

Spiders just being on my person when I need to do something / have been neglecting doing something

Being bitten when in a negative headspace. Nastiest bite was when I was deeply depressed and a false widow decided to nip me directly over my Saturn finger tattoo while I was sleeping. Which, coincidentally, is the finger of ‘authority’. A very obvious scolding.

If a spider sets up a web on or near my altar I’ve done it right.

Seeing spiders in random public places when I’m feeling indecisive.

Also not a sign, but a fun fact: my mother is an arachnophobe and is also followed by spiders (ironically) - she’s had messages similar to mine where she’s been ‘scolded’ by a spider and had them seeking her attention/warning her, meanwhile my dad feeds them. He’s always had a wolf-spider as a sort of outdoors pet in every single house we’ve had, and it always sets up in the same place: to the right of the garage door. My grandmother also feeds spiders and was one of the first to encourage me to sit and watch them spin their webs (my gran was also the first to nickname me ‘changeling’)

As a side note: we don’t have a spider infestation. Because of my mother, we tend to search everywhere after seeing one and make sure the house is totally clean, and yet they still appear seemingly out of nowhere when the time is right.

[avallachaepannwn]

Routine for Rituals

Bathe first. Use milk, rosewater.

Cleanse face with honey-water

Wear some gold brocaded silks (hallmark of denizens of Annwn)

Gold jewellery

Find a spider, bring it inside (if it isn’t already inside)

Cleanse the altar

Do the ritual

Drink from the goblet and eat the apple

Let the spider back out (if it wants to go back out)

[avallachaepannwn]

Altar Setups

Autumn/Winter Altar

Black Celtic knotwork woven cloth

Incense

Red Candles

Bones, Dice and Divination Tools

Spiderweb Birdbath for water scrying and charging tools

Pouring jug for water

Drinking Horn and cauldron

Welsh soil to carry over into the Spring/Summer altar

Dried Apples, Salt and Ivy.

Spring / Summer Altar

White candles

Candlesticks and an abundance of candles

Daffodils and Snowdrops, and vases for flowers

Welsh gold

Branches of Willow, Alder and Rowan

Honey jars

Mistletoe to carry over into the Autumn/Winter altar

Permanent Fixtures:

Stack of skulls: Sheep skull, deer skull, bird skull (variation on the Roebuck, Lapwing and Hound stolen by Gwydion from Arawn)

Stones from the summit of Pen y Fan

🍃 jar

Wooden Lovespoons given to me by my grandmother

Great grandmother’s mirror

Crystal collection

Mother’s tarot deck and father’s runes

Father’s goblets

Anything spider related (spiders are sacred to me specifically)

[avallachaepannwn]

My birth chart, for future reference

[avallachaepannwn]

Welsh Druidic Dates to Remember (Rhod y Flwyddyn):

Calan Gaeaf - 31st Oct/1st Nov

Ivy under the pillow, bonfires and apple bobbing. Jump the veil. If there’s a good time to smoke 🌱 or take 🍄, this is it. Walk barefoot through the woods and listen to the trees. Connect with Earth.

Gwyl Ganol Gaeaf / Alban Arthan - 19th/23rd Dec (Winter Sol.)

Mari Lwyd; engage a loved one in a battle of wits. Play some drinking games. Give thanks to the elements, offer alcohol. Cauldron and mistletoe. Stir it clockwise. Set your intentions. Honor Lleu, the lightgiver.

Gwyl y Canhwyllau - 2nd Feb

Candles and ale, wassail, drinking from a horn. Commune with a river spirit and banish negativity before it can even start. Consume salty foods (in moderation). Connect with Water.

Gwyl Ganol y Gwanwyn / Alban Eilir - 19th/23rd Mar (Spring Equ.)

Watch the rising sun. Plant seeds. Gather daffodils and snowdrops.

Calan Mai - 1st May (Ysbridnos is the eve)

Divination, decorate with hawthorn, drink mead, eat honey. Climb a mountain and speak to its bones. Tell your secrets and wishes to the blistering winds at its summit. Connect with Air.

Gwyl Ganol yr Haf / Alban Hefin - 19th/23rd Jun (Summer Sol.)

Bonfire of 9 woods, storytelling and poetry. Dance until you drop. Watch the sun rise. Another great opportunity to smoke 🌱 or take 🍄. Commune with the fair folk. Spirit yourself away for a while. Get debaucherous with it. Drench yourself in honey. I tend to wash my face with honey-water and eat as much of it as possible: freezing a squeezy bottle and eating it cold is an ✨experience✨. Drink honey mixed with milk, melted butter and rum. Chew up some raw honeycomb.

Calan Awst - 31st Jul/1st Aug

Gathering mistletoe, mugwort tea, honey, baking. Bask in the sun. Connect with Fire.

Gwyl Ganol yr Hydref / Alban Elfed - 19th/23rd Sept (Autumn Equ.)

Welcome in and honour Arawn. Feast. Create a spiral of stones in a sacred place, obtain a black and a white candle. Obtain a stone from a special place, and an apple. Place the white candle at the outer spiral, and the black candle in the centre. Meditate on balance and equilibrium, lighting the white candle and walking the spiral inward to the black. Light the black candle. Place your stone and your apple between them, and sit down. Find your balance. Then devour the apple. Eat it as your body dictates. Do not pussyfoot; give in.