Themes in The Mixtape of Taliesin: Youth And Age In the Suit of Clubs

In our earlier article on The Mixtape of Taliesin we discussed how the structure of the book affects the experience of it, and we said that we would later return to discuss some of the themes of the book.

One of the more prominent themes are those of Youth and Age, of course the mythical Taliesin is all about youth.

Before he was Taliesin he was Gwion Bach, literally “Stupid Boy”, but after being eaten by Ceridwen and then reborn as Taliesin of the ‘radiant brow’ he is a child in the court of Elphin, but of course no longer a fool, or as the poem The Birth of Taliesin in the first section of the book — The Suit of Spades describes it:

I stole my inspiration

from Cridwen’s cauldron

the witch had me stir

for a year imprisoned

then I was just Gwion Bach

but in a moment enlightened

with the gift of the Radiant Brow

…… after which he gets chased after by the witch, and swallowed up among a pile of grain, after which

I rolled in the Hag’s belly

for 9 months till bursting forth

covered by her blood & bile

spouting Marwysgafn at my birth

quite an ordinary boy

brained with poetic genius.

Taliesin is of course generally represented as a young man full of poetic spirit, a Rimbaud not a Verlaine.

In the Taliesin myths proper all of Taliesin’s interaction with age is confrontational, the poets at the king’s court, the evil king Maelgwyn, obviously Ceridwen is confrontational. Elfin is not confrontational but there is not the feeling of him being especially old either, after all his father still lives, although with Taliesin as his son I suppose he ages as the mythological story does span some years (although difficult to say with mythology, exactness regarding the passage of time is not mythology’s strong point)

As a side note I asked Agent 18 why the difference in names — Ceridwen and Cridwen — and he said “some have used Cridwen, I prefer that name because of the meaning”, pressed he provided the following “Well, it might make sense that Taliesin was born from Ceridwen since one of the meanings is Poetry. But they are antagonistic, I sort of go back and forth on that one and there is a lot to be said to Taliesin being born from Poetry — a force that is trying to kill him — although that is maybe a more Romantic notion than one expects from mythology. Cridwen often means unpredictable, so I thought that was a better name for the antagonist of the poetic genius. But maybe I was wrong.”

But in some of the hermetic poems of Taliesin he interacts with older beings and past times as well as the far future, with characters such as Merlin meant to convey a greater age than that possessed by Taliesin the character in the poems, a useful source of which can be seen here https://www.wisdomlib.org/celtic/book/taliesin/d/doc118490.html

Probably the Suit that best exemplifies this Theme is the Suit of Clubs — the poems of which are:

The Spoils of Taliesin

The Emperor

Taliesin Incarnated

The Tower

Prophetia Taliesin

In The Spoils of Taliesin, a poem in the Suit of Clubs, it is said:

Long, Long this infinite life

Still small my memories of pleasure

And as the poem progresses the character is of a warrior who has lived through seasons of peace and seasons of warfare, and for whom the seasons of warfare seem to blend together

Yet when the peaceful moment has worn out

We find that season which now threatens

When the well-thewed arm in violent clench

Is better praised than a lover’s tender touch

And in that season of violence he remembers fighting on the side of Arthur, evidently King Arthur, although with details that are anachronistic, meant to merge the moments of warfare into one vision.

Confused, as if time had turned to snap itself

Catching me on its serpent tail

I cried out “Men of Catraeth, ARISE!” -

Fog-bound we hugged our rifles

That poem is followed by a Tarot poem — The Emperor — which deals with King Arthur as a form of the Grail King (also known as The Fisher King), the wounded king whose wound mirrors the problems of the land.

A King who feels that he is dying and that his death is a good thing for the country:

I rely on you to see my bones

are preserved, perhaps in that hillside shrine

none should gainsay such small honor

dry bones can hurt no one

maybe that will set my lands in order.

Youth in this poem is represented by the King’s son, evidently the well known Mordred from later Arthurian tales, in the last verse

In the courtyard’s darkness

my son paces incessantly

in rigorous six-step paths

turning from his left to right

as black hair falls on white forehead

his pale hand sweeps slowly by

the dagger at his belt

& every step seems a voice calls out

to set my lands in order.

But here we can say that the refusal to “set my lands in order” on the part of the King is the core fault, tired and weary with age the King abdicates responsibility but not power, creating all the problems with the lands which are out of order.

Taliesin Incarnated has references to concepts of reincarnation and immortality, differently from the other poems it is quite short so I will quote it all here

We do these shadows tread

Cast back by those before us

& that which once our betters said

Become baubles to adorn us

In a round of reborn remembrance

Our brief conversation’s sped

& at its end we take the semblance

Of others long since dead.

After which The Tower, which is of course full of views of death and rebirth.

The longest poem is the Suit is Prophetia Taliesin — the Prophecies of Taliesin — the character of this poet here is a very old and tired writer, a scribe as it were, who is writing a selection of prophecies important for the future. His old age is shown throughout the poem, in contrast to images of youth

I work within the garden

Pruning a rosebush back

I totter along — a grin

Salivating from my jowls -

A young man comes to see me

In my mirror, sure; self-confident

I’d smirk like that if my loins worked

We both in the Chain of Awen

Initiates to Ogham speech

There is much for talent to teach skill;

He gestures with a reminiscent wave

A fountain flows beneath the bed

I see within what must be seen.

The old writer prophecies, aided by infusions of youth drawn from memory to power the prophecy itself, as to prophecy is represented as a demanding process.

The structure of the poem then follows

A prophecy

Followed by A description of old age, perhaps in contrast to youth

Followed again by Prophecy and so on

Until in the conclusion

In the grave, again, again in the grave

Old friends, alongside or waiting

To join me, kept in sleep beneath the ground

As on the Lathe of Tomorrow

A new form turns for me

O I have seen the image of my past

& all the pictures of my future there

The hair clipped to cover

A skull with ruined eyes of Granite

Above a jutting nose

& woven in the lips a secret

Unravels from me to me.

Well it’s hard to follow that conclusion with a conclusion to our article, so I will say that just as Taliesin in the Suit of Clubs goes through a process of youth to age and death, to be returned again to youthful energy at the end of the Suit ( a process repeated in other parts of the book, although not as pronounced as in The Suit of Clubs) , we will be back with other articles regarding the themes of The Mixtape of Taliesin, as well as various selections from the book.

This article was written by IG Agent 13.

An ebook version of The Mixtape of Taliesin is available.

Previous Critical writing on The Mixtape of Taliesin — Structure in The Mixtape of Taliesin