The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

146 HISTORY OF INITIATION
he was now about to be fully instructed. It was the
death and burial of the mysteries ; and on its expiration
he was said to be newly born from the womb of Ceridwen,
and was pronounced a regenerate person, cleansed
from his former impurities by the mystical contents of
her cauldron. When his term of probation expired, his
qualifications were ascertained by propounding many
abstruse queries in the branches of science to which his
attention has been directed. 64
This confinement and subsequent emancipation was
represented by a continuation of the former kind of
symbols. The candidate, while under the supposed
form of a grain of pure wheat, was encountered by
his pursuer, Ceridwen the fury, 65 in the shape of a highcrested
hen, 66 who selected him from the heap amongst
which he lay, and swallowed him. He is said to have
remained nine months in her womb, to depict the period
of his seclusion from the world in the Pastes, the door
of which was reputed to be under the guardianship of
the terrible divinity Buanawr, 67 armed with a drawn
sword, whose vindicative rage, excited by the pusillanimity,
or unworthiness of the aspirant, would make
earth, hell, and heaven itself tremble. 68 When the full
64 The nature of this intellectual investigation may be estimated
from the following specimen selected out of Davies's Druids, (p. 50).
"At what time and to what extent will land be productive ? What
is the extent and diameter of the earth? Who is the regulator
between heaven and earth ? What brings forth the glain from the
working of stones ? Where do the cuckoos, which visit us in the
summer, retire during the winter ? Who carried the measuring line
of the Lord of causes what scale was used when the heavens were
reared aloft; and who supported the curtain from the earth to the
skies ? Knowest thou what thou art in the hour of sleep ; a mere
body, a mere soul, or a secret retreat of light ? What supports the
fabric of the habitable earth ? Who is the Illuminator of the soul ;
who has seen who knows him ?" &c.
65 Geridwen wrach. Welsh Archseol., vol. i., p. 19.
66 Vid. Davies. Remarks on British Coins.
67 Dav. Druid. Append., No. vii.
68 The duty of this relentless Janitor was, to prevent unlawful
intrusion, and to see that the candidate went through his probation
with becoming fortitude and perseverance. On the flat stone which
covered this miserable place of penance, denominated by Taliesin,
the gate of hell, (Priddeu Annwn. W. Archseol., vol. i., p. 45,) a
sheathed sword was placed, to denote equally a love of justice and
peace, (Owen's Diet. v. Cromlec.) and a certain retribution if the
sanctuary were profaned by cowardice or irresolution.