Perspective On Ceridwen Transliteration

כ"ח באב תשס"ז

Elisheva commented on my Livejournal regarding today's earlier entry, Distinctive Cover, that she envisions the correct Hebrew transliteration of Ceridwen to be קרידואן because a Gaelic "C" seemingly always has a "K" sound. Consequently, I should clarify my chosen Hebrew transliteration (שׂרדון) of Ceridwen.

There is no rule that says I must use a Gaelic "K" sound in my Hebrew transliteration of Ceridwen as it pertains to my own archetypal experience. I am an American-Celtic Jew whose primary spoken language is English, an Indo-European derivative (as is Gaelic). The American English letter "C" certainly may have an "S" sound. Consequently, as far as my own soul experience is concerned, it is quite legitimate for me to ascribe the "S" sound to the "C" of Ceridwen. I don't have to use a Gaelic "K" to describe my intimate experience of the Ceridwen archetype. I can legitimately use the sound which truly correlates to my experience of the archetypal reality in my own life. I'm admittedly not of purely Gaelic/Celtic ancestry. I am a tapestry of many ancestries, including Gaelic/Celtic - all of my ancestries rightly influence my experience and perspective of the Ceridwen archetype.

Thus, regardless of other equally valid ways to transliterate Ceridwen into Hebrew, in my life the Ceridwen archetype manifests through the shoresh שׂרד (being distinctive) and not through the shoresh קרד (to cut off). My vision of Ceridwen comes through שׂרד. In this way, Elisheva and I differ. Our experience of Ceridwen is not the same.