five cauldrons (brewing)

[David Dalton]

From the beginning of 1993 to early September 1994 I

three times experienced a 5.5 lunar month (162 days,
6 Carrington solar rotations) separation between a
waxing gibbous moon trial onset and a waning crescent
inspiration/high onset. (I predicted the third such high.)

In the following I refer to the book Taliesin: Shamanism and
the Bardic Mysteries in Britain and Ireland by John Matthews
(with additional material by Caitlin Matthews). The Aquarian
Press/an imprint of Harper Collins, 1991 ISBN 1-85538-109-5.

On p.97 as part of the poem The Hostile Confederacy, several
lines read

"Seven score muses
There are in the inspiration of song;
Eight score in every score
In the great abyss of tranquility
In the great abyss of wrath..."

The seven score muses I think refers to the number of
lunar months in an eleven year solar sunspot cycle.

The eight score, in days, corresponds to the above-mentioned
5.5 lunar month separation.

Taliesin also mentions "three times in the prison of
Arianrhod" (p.238) which I think refers to the
waxing gibbous moon trials (with release no later
than full moon), and "three times inspired by Ceridwen"
which I think refers to the waning crescent (old moon) highs.

The 5.5 lunar month separation is also related to the
following quote from Matthews' book, p.321,

"its inspiring brew ages over five cauldrons, (brewing)."

I discuss Taliesin (Gwion Bach) some more on my Salmon
on the Thorns web page, particularly on the subsubpage
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/celtic.html .

Another possible 5.5 lunar month separation is the
case of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who becomes a sick eagle
at/on his bath (waxing gibbous moon trial) and
restored six months (maybe 5.5 lunar months) later.

Another possible case in that of the Iowa Dakota
Salmon youth, transformed from ugly to handsome, and
given inspiration on the "fifth bow?" (Where the salmon
and the bow both can be related to the waning moon
shape.) This is the fifth bow after rebirth/ascent from
the underworld and travel to where Coyote dwells (first
full moon after the full moon of release from psychic
death) or I guess the sixth bow after the rebirth full
moon. There I am assuming that Coyote is associated with
full moon and salmon/bow with waning crescent moon.

Also, the rosary is a string of 165 beads. This is pretty much
the same, in days, as 5.5 lunar months, and is also 5 times
the length of an Islamic rosary (and 5 is the number of the
rose) and 1.5 times the length of a Hindu mala rosary of 108 beads.

But in posting now I mainly want to know if you know
of any other significant occurrences of 5.5 (or 5 or 5.25
or 6) lunar months (or 162 days) in mythology, folklore
religious history, or the biographies of any living mystics.

[David Dalton]

Post by David Dalton

From the beginning of 1993 to early September 1994 I

three times experienced a 5.5 lunar month (162 days,
6 Carrington solar rotations) separation between a
waxing gibbous moon trial onset and a waning crescent
inspiration/high onset. (I predicted the third such high.)
In the following I refer to the book Taliesin: Shamanism and
the Bardic Mysteries in Britain and Ireland by John Matthews
(with additional material by Caitlin Matthews). The Aquarian
Press/an imprint of Harper Collins, 1991 ISBN 1-85538-109-5.
On p.97 as part of the poem The Hostile Confederacy, several
lines read
"Seven score muses
There are in the inspiration of song;
Eight score in every score
In the great abyss of tranquility
In the great abyss of wrath..."
The seven score muses I think refers to the number of
lunar months in an eleven year solar sunspot cycle.

That corresponds to a low years period of seven years,
which I am also interested in finding past parallels
of. Some I know of are the seven years that Cu
Chulainn spent as hound to the smith, the seven years
Finnegas spent fishing for the Salmon of Wisdom
before Fionn tasted it, and the stag of seven tines
of The Song of Amergin, and the seven years of
ascetic years of the Buddha.

But in my case my low years (which are not very low
except in terms of creativity while I am on my
current medication regimen) did not end after
seven years but have lasted over 18 years (7 years
plus an 11 year sunspot cycle) so I hope they
will end soon and that I will enter into a period
of sustained productive creativity.

However the fact that I did not come out of the
low years after seven years does weaken my argument
that I am similar to the above past figures and
some others.