So a earlier this year I started attending a druid group over zoom with my mom and we all started reading a book about Cerridwen. (by Kristoffer Hughes) Her son, Morfran Affagddu, was brought up and as we discussed I found myself drawn to him.
I knew his name (at least the Morfran part) from some research is did for my Sleuth Squad comic, but until then I didn't really have it in my head that he was a part of the Taliesin myth. (Or the Arthurian mythos) But the more I heard and the more we talked the more I got interested. You see, Affagddu and I share some interesting parallels.
I have known Cerridwen basically all my life, she was not only a figure I saw in picture books about goddesses as a kid, but her was figure I saw in my own mother. I'm sure this isn't uncommon for those with witches for mothers, to see The mother of magic in your magic mother.
My younger brother uses the name Taliesin. It's one of many names he goes by, but it is one he identifies with.
I have my own affinities for darkness and the unconventional to connect with too.
And these had me resonating with the deity of Morfran Affagddu. A different book by the same author had a chapter about him that I read to become more familiar. You see, I was to invite Affagddu into a ritual we were doing that week along side others who were calling in his sister and his mother. And the things the capter laid out for him were things I already had been mindful of. Of my own inner darkness and the part of myself I shy away from or hide. Of the questions of beauty and worth. Of accepting the 'ugly' parts of my being. The questions Affagddu asks were ones I was already answering.
And that night, I believe, he visited me. I had played with the idea that day (April 27th) of sitting down and reaching out, to connect with Affagddu like I do with Hades, Artemis, Loki and the like. I was expecting a very one way experience but it seems like I caught his attention.
As I laid in bed to sleep, I caught a shadow figure across my vision. I paid attention to it in case whatever was causing it was some earthly thing in need of my attention but it quickly became clear that there was no object going past a light source, (my room is underground and I need it to be basically pitch black in order to sleep) so I concluded that I must be seeing things, and I felt fine and focusing my mind didn't make the shadow impression leave so I figured it must be a thing of a magical nature I was seeing. And I did technically reach out to a deity of darkness that day.
I've never had an experience like that before. Artemis and Athena, Hades and Loki, these other mythic figures I connect with for magic have always been rather distant. They don't visit me in my room, they sit back and watch and send me gifts if they feel inclined to. I honestly had no idea what to do with one who wanted to be in the same space as me.
(I ended up asking him for a rain check as I was trying to get some rest at the time and I very much don't like things barging into my room without notice.)
But yeah, I've definitely decided the im going to be including him to list of deities I connect to for magic. I'll probably see if I get him back in the same space as me sometime to have a proper introduction and conversation.
And write my version of the Gwion Bach myth from his POV probably
