Cerridwen: When Your Mother Is An Angry Pig

For some people, Mother’s Day is especially difficult. Not all mothers are loving, nurturing or kind. Being the child of an abusive mother isn’t easy, especially on Mother’s Day.

All mothers form the character of their children, for better or worse. Having a “dark Mother” can steel your character, much in the same way a “dark Father” can. Remember Darth Vader?

The most notable Dark Mother of Pagan lore is Cerridwen.

Cerridwen had a fair daughter and ugly son. She wished to give her son brilliance that would outshine his unfortunate physical features and so set her servants to helping her make a potion for him. After all her hard work, the three drops of divine inspiration jumped from the cauldron and onto the thumb of a slaveboy she’d set to work stirring her brew. He reacted by putting his thumb in his mouth to relieve the burn and gained the insight and wisdom meant for Cerridwen’s son.

Furious, she chased the slaveboy in a series of shapeshifting turns and finally devoured him once caught. She became pregnant, knew the child was the boy whose wisdom she’d meant for her own son and, when he was born, threw him into the sea in a leather bag. Obviously Cerridwen never read Dr. Spock.

It’s said Cerridwen’s name means White Sow, and her unmotherly nature is often attributed to a pig’s habit of eating it’s own young, just as Cerridwen ate the slaveboy. How must it have been, to know you were hated in the womb and to be conscious of being cast into the sea? How many shrinks must that poor slaveboy have seen in his reborn life?

That’s where the story surprises us. This mere slave, who is devoured by his mother, despised in the womb and cast for lost upon the capricious sea did not quiver and fail like a neurotic Woody Allen character. He became Taliesin, the most celebrated bard of all.

So if on Mother’s Day you feel lost and alienated because your mother isn’t someone you can call or send flowers to, remember you’re not alone. The lack of a mother’s love can be empowering too. You are strong, independent and you survived the Sow.

The gifts of the Dark Mother don’t come with ribbons and wrapping paper but they have a deep an lasting value. Consider the hard-won gifts your dark mother gave you, and how they made you who you are today.