BOOK OF SHADOWS

INVOCATION OF THE HORNED GOD & WHITE GODDESS

I am a salmon in a pool,

I am a lure from paradise,

I am a hill where poets walk,

I am a boar ruthless and red,

I am a breaker threatening doom,

I am a tide that drags to death,

I am an infant who but I
Peeps from the unhewn dolman arch?

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As well as reconstructions from two other sources:

•From "The Romance of Taliesin"

I have been a fierce bull and a yellow buck.

I have been a boat on the sea.

I fled vehemently... on the foam of water.

I have been a drop in the air.

I journeyed as an eagle.
God made me of blossom.
I have been a tree-stump in a shovel.

I fled as a spear-head of woe to such as wish for woe.

I have been a blue salmon.

I have been a spotted snake upon a hill.

I fled as a bristly boar seen in a ravine.

I have been a wave breaking on the beach.
On a boundless sea I was set adrift.

•From "The Legend of Finn Mac Cool"

I am a stag of seven tines.
Over the flooded world

I am borne by the wind.

I descend in tears like dew, I lie glittering,

I fly aloft like a griffon to my nest on the cliff,

I bloom among the lovliest flowers

I am both the oak and the lightening that strikes it.

I embolden the spearmen,

I teach the councillors their wisdom,

I inspire the poets,

I rove the hills like a ravening boar,

I roar like the winter sea,

I return again like the receeding wave,
Who but I
can unfold the secrets of the unhewn dolman?

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•According to Graves, each of the thirteen lines of this "Song" represent one of the thirteen months of the lunar year, with its corresponding tree and letter (in specific, its consonant) from the Ogham, or tree-alphabet of the ancient Celts. When reconstructed thus:

•VERSE

I am a stag of seven tines,

I am a wide flood on a plain,

I am a wind on the deep waters,

I am a shining tear of the sun,

I am a hawk on a cliff,