Taliesin : shamanism and the bardic mysteries in Britain and Ireland

Additional material by Caitl�n Matthews.

Part 1. 1 The story of Taliesin: Gwion's transformations. 2 Shamanism and th Celts: the fellowship of the wise. 3 The cauldron-born: Ceridwen and the goddesses of inspiration. 4 The life of song: Taliesin and the poetic mysteries. 5 The bardic schools: teaching the knowledge of things. 6 The art of transformation: hiding the familiar. 7 The art of prophecy: remembering the future. 8 The language of trees: Ogam and the Cad Goddeu. 9 The region of the summer stars: cosmologies and cosmogonies

'The writings of Taliesin, lost and forgotten for many years and still virtually unknown, fall into two groups: poems composed by the bard himself and a vast body of mythical allusion, story and song which constellated around him as the last of the Celtic Shamans--living embodiment of a racial memory stretching back thousands of years. From this remarkable body of authentic material John Matthews, drawing on nearly thirty years of research and an in-depth reading of every available text, has reconstructed what may be seen as the original Shamanic and Bardic mystery teachings of Britain and Ireland....'

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