For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday post, I have decided to take a look at objects and animals sacred to the Great Goddess Rhiannon. I know that this is slightly different from the average Femme Fatale Friday, as it is more centered on sacred objects than on the plot of the story of the female being highlighted, but I believe that this will be an interesting post. Rhiannon is a Great Goddess and Faery Queen of Welsh Celtic mythology who has her roots in The Mabinogion, as do many Faery Queens of Welsh Celtic myth. She is a Goddess of Sovereignty and is associated with the Moon and Dreams, but was originally seen as a Sun Goddess (similarly to the Irish Faery Queen Goddess Aine).
The first sacred object to Rhiannon I want to mention is her bag. This is the bag that her former fiancé is trapped into by her husband-to-be, Pwyll. This bag is one of a Faery nature that Rhiannon had magically enchanted to hold a limitless amount of food and other items. I find that it can be related to the concept of mermaids and the crane bag, which can be used for healing. That would further link Rhiannon to Aine (who has a mermaid form).
The second sacred object of Rhiannon I want to focus on is her relation to white horses. The White Horse is the animal most commonly referred to as sacred to the Goddess Rhiannon, as it is related to her story of meeting her husband Pwyll. The White Horse is also the link to her nature as a Sovereignty Goddess because horses are related to the concept of sovereignty across cultures. Horses are shown as important to her story in other ways, like her punishment being to carry people on her back, essentially acting as a horse herself. Finally, her son was born on the same night as a horse foal on the farm where he would end up being raised when he was stolen from her.
The final sacred object of Rhiannon I want to focus on is the Adar Rhiannon. These are the famed Birds of Rhiannon, a trio of birds that have immense power in and of themselves. They are famously said to be able to raise the dead and lull the living to sleep. I personally always have believed these three birds to be starlings, as they are often said to be blackbirds and starlings give off an energy that I find similar to Rhiannon’s. This is just my personal gnosis and opinion, but I wanted to share this here given I am speaking about Her sacred objects. The concept of being able to lull the living to sleep and raise the dead allows Rhiannon to be a Goddess who can be both a Goddess of Night and Dreams as well as one associated with control over the cycle of life and death! This really shows her immense power as a Great Goddess, after all having control of the cycle of life and death is one of the most potent powers there is.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this brief post where I have shared my thoughts on the sacred objects of the Goddess Rhiannon. What is your favorite sacred object of Rhiannon? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Rhiannon on her horse in a very Lady Godiva-esque look. I found the image on https://sacredwicca.com/rhiannon.
Further Reading
- Rhiannon: Divine Queen of the Celtic Britons by Jhenah Telyndru
White Rose of Avalon 