Guardians of the Circle 

The circle is Caer Sidi, the spiral or revolving castle 'whirling round without motion
between three elements' - fire, air and water. It is the abode of the White Goddess, and
houses the Cauldron of Cerridwen. It is a place of rest where the souls of priests,
magicians, kings and chieftains go to await rebirth. It is also the fortress of the Sidhe,
where the fairies dance and is the place where our world and the world of the gods meet.
At Samhain, souls of the departed can be summoned forth from the Caer to answer
questions of importance.

The Castle is entered from the northeast and is reached by dancing of the maze or
treading the mill showing that we must balance all the elements within ourselves before we
can enter the realm of the gods. The guardians of the circle are eight, corresponding to the
cardinal directions, the elements and the seasons of the year. They are called by name
after the circle is cast and bid farewell before the circle is broken. They are not summoned
or dismissed, for it is we who visit them, not they us.

If you are familiar with other methods of ceremony that use elemental designations at the
four quarters, you may notice that the Roebuck seems a bit different. Our quarters are
based on the traditional four Airts, the Gaelic term for the four cardinal points. The spirits
from these directions carry the traditional colors of red for east, white for south, grey or
blue for west and black for north. These attributes are reflected both in the wheel of the
year, the evolution of life, and the cycle of the day.

One can find in the wheel the fiery passion of youth at the dawn of the day and the Spring
of life in the East. Here then is the flame of battle in a young man's heart, and the gentle
warmth to be found in a young maiden's eyes. The fertility and vibrant strength of the
noonday and summer's earth are to be found in the South, both with the steadfastness of
the deep hills and the wild growth of the woods.

To the West we turn for the deep cup of wisdom, to be seen in the maturity of later
adulthood, and autumn falls on the year, and the sun sinks into the ocean's depths, visible
both in the British Isles, and in California. At last we come to the North, where winter's cold
winds whip 'round us blowing away all illusions, allowing the ancient guardians of Air to
teach us from an interminable collection of knowledge and lore.

So, then, our quarters are an outgrowth of the cycles to be seen around us, in every living
thing. The Guardians are where they are not as consorts or because they belong together
in the ancient tales, but because they represent the very properties of the elements we are
working with at that place and time.

Guardians of The East

Lugh

Lord of the East. He is called Lugh the Long Handed, or Llew

Llaw Gyffes, the Celtic Sun god. He is the god of all light,
knowledge, arts and crafts, and intellectual matters. His
element is fire and he gives enthusiasm, enlightenment,
mental agility and intelligence. He is the young King, the hero,
the divine child of the Virgin Goddess. His festival is the
Spring Equinox. He is pictured as a beautiful man, fair of hair
and muscular, wearing red or yellow garments, also as a
young warrior wearing armor and helmet and carrying a sword
or spear.

Bride

Irish triple goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft. She is the maiden, the virgin
goddess, and the Muse who brings intuition, inspiration, harmony and artistic
ability, and is the Patroness of all arts and crafts. She is mercurial, elusive and
follows her own whim, refusing to follow rules of logic and reason. She is the new
moon, the waxing moon and her festival is Imbolc. She is pictured as a young girl,
small and lithe, shrouded in a dark mantle with occasional glimpses of yellow hair.
She carries a lighted candle.

Guardians of The South

Cernnunos

Lord of the South. He is the horned god of the forest and

animals and he brings desire, lust, potency, fertility, and
sensual pleasures as well as the joy of living, a sense of
humor and laughter. His element is earth, and he is the
consort of the great Earth Mother. He presides over revelries,
matings and things having to do with animals. He brings the
ecstacy of orgasm and intoxication. His festival is Midsummer
or Summer Solstice. He is pictured as a well built man with
stag's antlers, cloven hooves and erect penis. He wears
animal skins and carries a wine skin and a harp or pipes.

Niamh

She is the love goddess who lures the love-struck poet to the Summerland where
he lives in bliss for three hundred years. She is also the Earth Mother who lusts
after her consort and brings forth all living things. She brings desire, fertility,
pleasure and sensuality and is the primal female. She gives prosperity, success
and material pleasures. She is the full moon who nourishes her children with her
breast milk. Her festival is Beltaine. She is pictured as a very beautiful red-haired
woman, dressed in a green gown and wearing flowers in her hair. She is obviously
pregnant. She comes riding a white unicorn.

Guardians of The West

Nodens

Lord of the West. He is also Nuada of the Silver Hand, or the

Fisher King who is lame and cannot rule. He is also Nudd or
Llyr, the god of the sea. He brings wisdom and patience
obtained through suffering, perserverance, insight and justice
as well as moral strength and forsight. His element is water
and his festival is the Autumn Equinox. He is pictured as a
middle-aged man with dark hair shot with gray with a graying
beard. He wears robes of dark blue or royal purple. His eyes
are sad and wise, and he leans heavily upon a staff or cane.

Cerridwen

The goddess of the Cauldron of Inspiration and Wisdom who bore the poet
Taliesin. She is the White Sow who eats her own farrow and gives them birth
again. She is also the grail queen of Arthurian legend. She brings wisdom, visions,
inspiration, dreams and the powers of divination. She also brings understanding
and acceptance of fate, for she is the goddess of rebirth. She presides over all that
has to do with deep emotions and feelings. Her festival is Lammas and she is the
waning moon, or the Crone of Wisdom. She is pictured as a mature woman with
dark hair flowing like waves about her shoulders. She wears a gown of the deepest
blue with stars upon it. She carries a large chalice filled with the Aqua Vitae or
waters of life which she pours out to all.

Guardians of the North

Tautes

The Gaulish god of death and justice, also Samhain, the Irish
god of the dead. He is Father Time and the god of fate who
keeps the Akashic records and sees that the laws of Karma
are obeyed. He is also the god of magic and the underworld
who brings power and the ability to control one's own fate and
that of others. His element is air and his festival is Yule or the
Winter Solstice. He is pictured as a very old man, bent and
withered with a long, white beard. He bears a sickle and an
hourglass and wears a white robe with a tattered cloak
wrapped around him to bear the cold, north wind.

The Morrigan

Irish battle goddess who chooses who will die and appears as a raven crow to pick
at the corpses. She is also Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's sister and nemesis, queen
of sorcery who ferried him away to the Isle of Avalon. She brings death and the
understanding of death, sorcery, vengeance and sickness, but also the end of
suffering and the peace of the grave. Her festival is Hallows or Samhain and she is
the dark moon. She holds a knife that drips with blood in one hand and a skull in
the other.

Guardians of the Center

(Beyond)
Goda

The White Goddess of love and death, her face half white,
and half black. She is Mother Nature, kind and cruel, merciful
and ruthless, wild and untamed, following no law but her own.
She brings both fertility and death, mating and killing, and is
the goddess of change and transformation. She is also the
goddess of the earth, moon and sea as well as the mother of
all elements. All goddesses can be seen in her for she
contains them all. She comes neither clothed or naked,
neither on foot nor on horseback, neither fasting or feasting,
neither attended or alone. She appears clothed in a net, with a
raven flying overhead, and a hare running before her. She is
wrapped in a net and rides on a goat.

Tubal Cain
The all-father, the god of time and all material things. He is the blacksmith god
who takes the raw material of th earth and fashions it into either constructive,
beautiful things that make life better or into instruments of death and
dismemberment. He is the magician, the sorcerer, the coal black smith who is the
lover of the White Goddess who she wins in the love chase, then maims, kills and
finally resurrects again. He is the father of all the gods and they are seen in him.
He comes as a strong, large and burly man, bearded with a black, sooty face and a
pair of ram's horns curling around his head. He is well muscled and wears a goat-
skin loin cloth and buckskins. He labors over a forge, swinging his hammer against
his anvil.