was endowed with
spirit by the kettle of Ceridwen. I was a harper at Lleon in Lochlyn. I
suffered hunger for the son of the maiden. I was in the white mountains in
the court of Cynvelyn in chains and bondage, a year and a day. I dwelt in
the kingdom of the Trinity [Tri-unity]. It is not known whether my body is
flesh or fish. I was a teacher of the whole world and remain till the day
of judgment on the face of the earth. [Briefly, Taliesin has the ubiquity
of [Symbol: Mercury].] I sat on the shaken chair at Caer Seden [Caer Seden
is probably the unceasingly recurrent cycle of animal life in the center
of the universe.], which continually rotates between the three elements.
Is it not a marvel that it does reflect a single beam?" Gwyddnaw,
astonished at the evolution of the boy, requested another song and
received the answer: "Water has the property of bringing grace; it is
profitable to devote one's thoughts aright to God; it is good warmly to
pray to God, because the grace which goes out from him cannot be thwarted.
Thrice have I been born; I know how one has to meditate. It is sad that
men do not come to seek all the knowledge of the world, which is collected
in my breast, for I know everything that has been and everything that will
be." (Nork. Myth. d. Volkss., pp. 662 ff.)

The story of Taliesin closely harmonizes with that of Hermes in the
Smaragdine tablet. Nork makes some interesting observations, which besides
the nature myth interpretation, contains also an allusion to the idea of
spiritual regeneration.

I have already mentioned that the uterus symbol is frequently the body
cavity of a monster. Just as in the previous myth the hero by introversion
gets three marvelous drops, so in the Finnish epic Kalevala, Waeinaemoeinen
learns three magic words in the belly of a monster, his dead ancestor
Antero Wipunen. The gigantic size of the body of the being that here and
in other myths represents the mother, has an infantile root. The
introverting person, as we know, becomes a child. To the child the adults,
and of course, the mother, are very large. For the adult, who becomes a
child and revives the corresponding images, the mother image may easily
become a giant.

Stekel tells (Spr. d. Tr., p. 429) of a patient whose dreams show uterus
and regeneration phantasies in concealed form, that he, advised of it by
Stekel, mused upon it some minutes and then said, "I must openly confess
to you these conscious phantasies. I