Читать книгу Celtic Moon Signs: How the Mystical Power of the Druid Zodiac Can Transform Your Life - Helena Paterson - Страница 55

In a Welsh version of Celtic star myths Cassiopeia was the ‘Chair of Ceridwen’, their great Mother goddess, and Andromeda was known as ‘the Maiden’, a Celtic Moon goddess, and another aspect of Ceridwen. In Celtic myths, stars had corresponding earthly domains which were notable landmarks and Cassiopeia was associated with the highest mountain peaks in Wales. Andromeda and Brigantia became associated with the ‘Lady and the Dragon’ myths in pre-Christian times which continued long after the introduction of Christianity.

The Church became so worried about the pagan origins of this myth that it reinvented it as the story of Saint George and the Dragon, with a Christian saint rescuing the fair maiden from a wicked dragon, which had become a symbol of sin and paganism. Originally, however, the Green Dragon, symbolizing the tree spirit or dryad of the Rowan Tree, had never been a threat to the maiden as he represented the magical energies of fertility and new life, which she was about to embrace. She would then transform into the ‘Mother’ aspect of their goddess at Beltane – the start of summer. A mythical painting by Paolo Uccello (c.1460) of Saint George slaying a green dragon held on a silver chain by a maiden, whom she appears to be protecting, must have puzzled many people in its day – but perhaps the artist had been more inspired by the original myth.