I'm Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird, and Deep Discussions is where I teach the Celtic mythological tradition the way I believe it deserves to be taught: from the primary sources, read closely and in translation, with real scholarly care and a genuine feeling for what these stories mean.
There's a live session every week. Everything is recorded into a library you can explore whenever you like. And the serialised Mabinogi books are included, at no extra cost. One membership, with everything in it, and you're welcome to join at any time.
Three things, and you get all of them from the day you join.
A growing library of recorded courses. Years of teaching, filed by subject, yours to watch at your own pace. And it grows every week, because every live session is recorded and added to it.
Weekly live teaching. A new thread each season, taught live on Sunday evenings. This year we follow the figure of The Teller of Tales from the deepest roots we can reconstruct all the way to Merlin.
The Mabinogi books, included. The serialised Cyfarwydd: The Storyteller's Mabinogi. A finished chapter each month with its scholarly companion and a monthly discussion. Normally £10/month on its own. As a member you have it for nothing.
The library, in more detail
The library tends to be larger than people expect. It already holds in-depth courses on:
- The Goddess of Sovereignty
- Y Tylwyth Teg, the Welsh fairy tradition
- The Irish Mythological Cycle
- The Celtic Rites
- Tales of Fionn
- Native Tales
- The Picts
- The Arthur of the Welsh
- Taliesin Origins
- The Mabinogi essays
And, coming out this September as library courses in their own right:
- Four in-depth courses, one on each branch of the Mabinogi. Eight weeks each, and the deepest treatment of the branches we've ever done.
- The Welsh Bardic Craft. A full thirty-six weeks on cynghanedd, the intricate sound-craft at the heart of Welsh poetry.
- The Mabinogi of the Tylwyth Teg. Tracing the threads that run from the Mabinogi into the later Welsh fairy tales
- The Head and the Grail. Following the Second Branch out into Arthurian romance.
You do not have to work through any of this in order, or on any schedule. It's a library. You read what calls to you whenever you're ready.
This season's live thread: The Teller of Tales
The living heart of the membership is the weekly session, and this year it tells one long story across three terms.
We follow the figure of the poet-seer, the Teller of Tales, from the oldest related traditions we can reach, through the living lore of Wales and Ireland, into the medieval imagination where poet, seer and druid blur together and finally take the shape of Merlin. Throughout, we stay close to the primary sources and let them speak for themselves.
And there is a second figure, without whom the first means nothing. In tradition after tradition, inspiration itself is imagined as feminine: the presence who grants the poet vision, purpose and craft. She is Sarasvati and the Muses; Ceridwen at her cauldron; Brigid, under whom the poets gathered. The Teller only speaks when she moves.
Autumn (from 20 September 2026)
Origins: The Indo-European Poet (8 weeks). The poet before the Celts: the Vedic seer, the Homeric singer, the Norse skald, and what they share.
The Celtic Expression: Discipline, Ceremony and Sacred Office (4 weeks). Turning those archetypes toward the Celtic world, and what the calling may really have involved.
Winter (from 3 January 2027)
The Poet Archetype: Cosmology and Mystery in the Insular Traditions (8 weeks). Wales and Ireland read together: awen, imbas, the cauldron, and where inspiration comes from.
Myrddin: The Wild Man in the Wood (4 weeks). Taliesin's overshadowed counterpart, through his own poems and his northern and Irish cousins.
Summer (from 18 April 2027)
The Making of Merlin (8 weeks). The figure travelling out of Wales through Geoffrey, Robert de Boron and the French cycles, into Malory, and the enchantress at the centre of it all.
Sessions are Sunday evenings, 7–8:30pm UK. Miss one and it's in the archive by the time you next sit down.
Who's teaching this
I'm Gwilym Morus-Baird. I hold a PhD in the Welsh Bardic Tradition, and I've spent 25 years studying and teaching these traditions, to complete beginners and long-time readers alike. I studied at Bangor School of Welsh and I've taught online for the past 14 years.
I mention it because it's the whole point. A great deal is written about Celtic myth by people who never went to the sources. My work is the opposite: staying close to the oldest texts we have, reading them carefully in translation, and being transparent about what we actually know, what we're reconstructing, and where we can only guess.
I'm also a Welsh speaker and a musician working in the language, so these aren't distant subjects to me: they're the tradition I come from.
That's the promise behind everything here: depth you can trust, taught by someone qualified to teach it, without ever losing the wonder that brought you to these stories in the first place.
How it works
A good number of members never attend a live session, and get their full worth from the library alone. The recordings aren't a bonus tucked behind the live teaching; for a lot of people they are the membership: a deep, browsable library to dip into on their own evenings, with no schedule to keep up with.
So if live calls aren't for you, or your Sundays are spoken for, that's completely fine. Log in, browse, and watch what interests you.
Come to the live sessions when it suits you
When you can join, the weekly Sunday session is where the current thread is taught in real time, and where you can ask questions, share what you think, and hear the discussion. It's the same careful, source-led teaching as the recordings. Nothing is gated behind attendance; every session is recorded and filed, usually within a day or two.
There are no terms to enrol in and no checkout that opens and closes. The membership simply runs. A new course thread begins each season, but you needn't be there at the start, just join whenever you like and catch up through the library.
Your books arrive each month
Your membership includes the whole Cyfarwydd books subscription. Each month a new chapter of the serialised Mabinogi arrives, a finished chapter of the main book, its scholarly companion chapter, and a dedicated discussion session on the third Sunday. There's nothing to set up; it's simply part of being a member.
What members say
"Holy moly, these folks have really studied this. I found the right teacher, and I'm immensely grateful for that. It's brought so much literary depth that isn't appreciated in the stories that get tossed around in the neo-pagan community."
"I'm blown away by the depth of this course. It's full of so much that I'm going to have to go through all the videos again."
"I want to encourage people that don't know anything: this is the place to start. A good place to start, and stay with it."
£49 per month. Everything included.
- The full growing library of recorded courses
- Weekly live teaching, this season and every season
- The Cyfarwydd Mabinogi books (a £10/month product) included free
- Every future session, added to your archive as it airs
No tiers, no add-ons, no term-by-term fees. One membership that gives you all of it. Join any time, cancel any time, it's a rolling monthly subscription, and you keep access for as long as you're a member.
QUESTIONS
Do I have to attend the live sessions? No. Many members never attend live and take full value from the library alone. Every session is recorded and added to it, so nothing is lost by watching later.
I'm completely new to this. Where do I start? Wherever you like. There's no set order and no prerequisite. Most people follow whatever subject drew them in, then wander from there. If you'd like a spine to walk, this season's thread, the Teller of Tales, is a good one to follow from the beginning in the library.
Do I need to read Welsh, or Irish, or any of the old languages? No. We work from the primary sources in translation throughout. The aim is to bring you close to what the texts actually say in the best translations we have.
What's the difference between the recorded branch courses and the Mabinogi books that come included? They're two ways into the same material, and they sit well together. The four branch courses are recorded live lecture courses, the first initial teaching, to watch any time. The Cyfarwydd books are the refined, written form of that same thinking, with all the additional concepts and research we didn't cover, reworked to publishing standard and serialised a chapter at a time to read and keep. Watch the course to start now; collect the books as the finished, deeper version.
Is this per-term? Can I join in the middle? Join whenever you like. It isn't per-term enrolment, the membership runs continuously. A new thread begins each season, but you're never late: catch up through the library and pick up the live sessions wherever you come in.
What happens to a course when its term ends? It stays in your library, permanently. The live thread moves on to the next subject; the recordings of the one just finished remain for you to revisit any time.
Is it too academic? I'm here for the meaning, not a lecture hall. It's rigorous, but it isn't dry, and you don't need a background. The whole approach is scholarly depth and genuine imaginative and spiritual insight, the sources taken seriously, and taken to heart. What I avoid is the vague, invented "Celtic" that has nothing much behind it.
How do the books reach me? Automatically, as part of your membership, a new chapter each month, with the monthly books discussion. Nothing extra to buy or arrange.
Can I cancel? Any time. It's a rolling monthly membership with no minimum term. Cancel and you simply stop being billed.
One membership. The whole tradition, taken seriously. The library to explore at your own pace. The live season to follow when it suits you. The books, included. All of it grounded where it should be, in the sources themselves.