Embracing a Personal Connection to the Ninefold

Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.    This week’s Femme Fatale Friday post is about finding your own personal Ninefold, through Goddesses of the Celtic lands that you are drawn to honor in your practice.    I find that given this post is so deeply rooted in the Divine Feminine, it is the perfect post for Femme Fatale Friday!   A personal Ninefold can take the form of a more traditional Ninefold association, like with the Glastonbury Goddess Temple way of looking at the Ninefold using Geoffrey of Monmouth’s names for the Ninefold Sisterhood of Avalon.    This can also take the form of Priestess archetypes, like with the Sisterhood of Avalon’s tradition.    While I find a lot of connection to both of these in their own right, and I do specifically connect with the Priestess paths of the Sisterhood of Avalon, I also find that I am developing my own personal way of working with Ninefold Goddesses which is to find a connection to Welsh Celtic and Arthurian Goddesses to draw on the Ninefold energy of this group!

I believe that all Celtic-based practitioners working with Ninefold energy can come up with their own group of Nine Goddesses (or Faery Women or archetypes depending on how you are choosing to engage with the Ninefold) to build a powerful bond with the Celtic Ninefold and with Avalon herself!    In the case of my Ninefold Goddesses who have been calling to me deeply, some of them are aspects of others, which is not uncommon in Ninefold traditions.    Now, I want to share what my Personal Ninefold Goddess Sisterhood is, as I have recently realized how much this has been impacting my life as an undercurrent for a long time, only now coming into focus as my spiritual journey is evolving.

~MARANDA’S NINEFOLD GODDESS SISTERHOOD~

MORGAN LE FAY: Obviously, my Matron Goddess, whom I am blessed to be a Priestess of, is the first and central Goddess of my own Ninefold!   She is a truly Great Goddess who is many-layered, and two of the other Goddesses in this Ninefold I view to be aspects of Morgan.   Her first literary reference is in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini, shown as a Goddess leading a Ninefold Sisterhood in Avalon, which is why she is often the center of many Ninefolds, including my personal Ninefold.   Morgana is the most talented of her sisters, but all Nine are important in their own rights, and Morgana is very much a Goddess who loves Sisterhood and having large spiritual teams surrounding her!   Beyond that, she is outright called a Goddess in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.    She is most remembered as the great baddie of the Arthurian legends, but she is so much more, a Goddess I firmly believe has likely been originally a Pan-Celtic deity much older than we can possibly imagine, just by different names, although I have no way to back that up, it is a personal gnosis of mine.    It must also be remembered that even as the baddie of the Arthuriad, she is always the Psychopomp who ferried Arthur to Avalon when he was dying after the Battle of Camlann!   

BLODEUWEDD: Being a Priestess of Blodeuwedd, as well, it is obvious that Blodeuwedd would be a Goddess central to my own personal Ninefold.   She is another Great Goddess, famously dual-aspected as both a Flower and an Owl.   However, I also view two of the other Goddesses on this list as aspects of her, showing her possible triplicate nature.    Blodeuwedd is often best known as a Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty!    The maiden born of Flowers was called forth from the Otherworld by magick to be the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, but when her marriage turned sour, she chose to follow her heart to true love with Gronw Pebyr.    Of course, this ends in pain and sorrow, with her Maidens being killed by Gwydion, drowning in the famed Lake of the Maidens, and her true love being killed by Lleu after he was healed from the attempt Blodeuwedd and Gronw had made on his life.   This is what led Blodeuwedd to be turned into an Owl, whether she was cursed by Math and Gwydion, or she chose to become an Owl of her own accord (as it is sometimes interpreted).   

ARIANRHOD: The Great Silver Wheel, of Fate, of Destiny, of the Moon, and of Motherhood.   However, Arianrhod is not a traditional Mother Goddess, as she is one who reminds us of being more than just a simple Mother.   In fact, she never wanted to be a mother and rejected the chance to raise her children, even placing Destinies upon Lleu Llaw Gyffes, but that may be more due to her desire to remain a sovereign woman and ire over the strange way her children were born (sometimes interpreted as having been due to sexual assault).  Arianrhod is never changing herself, always a Sovereign Goddess, but it still encourages all of us to change!   She encourages this through testing, like placing the Destinies upon her son.   I have stated before in other posts that I see her as a more important mother figure to Blodeuwedd than to Lleu, as her choices lead to the creation of Blodeuwedd, and we see Blodeuwedd embracing her Sovereignty in a way that mirrors Arianrhod’s energy.   Thus Blodeuwedd in a way followed in Arianrhod’s footsteps! 

NIMUE: Nimue is likely the most famed Lady of the Lake, but she is also an aspect of Morgan le Fay in my belief.   Most of the Arthuriad shows her as the positive side of magick to Morgana’s negative.    However, she is also shown in a negative light due to her being the one who imprisoned Merlin in the Crystal Cave or Hawthorn tree.   Even this act, I find to be an act of self-protection due to Merlin’s famed obsession with her, which could have become dangerous to Nimue!   Of course, Nimue also fostered an orphaned Lancelot in Avalon in many tellings and was the one to gift Excalibur to Arthur, proving what I said about her being seen as the positive side of feminine magick.   The fact that she is shown as a balance point to Morgan seems to prove her nature as an aspect of a more complex Great Goddess!         

GUINEVERE: Guinevere is most famously known as the High Queen of Arthurian legend.    I find her to be an aspect of Blodeuwedd, at least in my personal Ninefold!    She is also a Sovereignty Goddess whose marriage solidified the King’s right to rule, who became viewed as wicked due to her falling in love with a Knight when her husband was not giving her proper levels of attention.    Now, I have much empathy for the way Guinevere is often demonized as an adulteress, for she was a true Faery Queen and Sovereignty Goddess meaning her marriage to Arthur was his marriage to the land of Britain.   Guinevere was betrayed by Arthur when he lost interest in her, meaning that the love of the land left him, which is the true downfall of Camelot.   As a side note, I even referenced her love for Lancelot and nature as a Faery Queen in my wedding vows to my husband!    That felt like the most true way of expressing how much I love my husband, luckily without the dire consequences of being in a love triangle, but the devotion and love and utterly consuming romance is definitely part of my own love story!

RHIANNON: Rhiannon has always been a Mother Goddess for me, the comforting embrace of the powerful Goddess carrying us on her back like her sacred white mare!    She is the Goddess of Sovereignty, horses, and Death, in addition to her Mother aspect.    This energy of the balance of Womb and Tomb is a large part of my experiences with Rhiannon.    Her famed birds are always said to be able to lull the living to sleep and raise the dead, and it is this nature of the Adar Rhiannon that leads me to refer to her as a Goddess of Death.    She is a powerfully grounding presence who helps us endure the trials of life!

MODRON: The third Goddess of my Ninefold here that I find to be an aspect of Morgana is Modron.   I am far from the first to state this, as Modron is the Welsh Mother Goddess and we know that other than being the mother of Mabon, she is also stated to have been the wife of King Uriens and mother of the Knight Owain.   In the later Arthurian legends, it is Morgan who is the wife of Uriens and mother of Owain, which proves in the literature that they are one and the same!   Modron is seen as the Mother aspect of Morgan le Fay, the ideal nurturer.   I have even sometimes seen it stated that she was linked to the traditionally cyclical nature of the Mother of the Land who goes from Maiden to Lover to Mother over the course of the year.   She is mostly a warm and soothing presence to embrace us in times of hardship!

ISEULT: The third Goddess of my Ninefold here that I find to be an aspect of Blodeuwedd is Iseult.    Iseult is most famed as the Irish-born Queen of King Marc of Cornwall and lover of the Knight Tristan, which is what brings her into the Arthurian, Welsh, and British Celtic lore.    Iseult is best known for her skill with healing and herbal lore, which could be seen to link her to Morgan as well, but the aspect of Iseult I see very connected to Blodeuwedd is the aspect as a lover in a famed love triangle, just as Blodeuwedd and Guinevere are, they are all great Faery Queen Sovereignty Goddesses blessing the land!   Iseult, as a Goddess born in a foreign land who also is a healer, is what differentiates her from Guinevere.   The aspect of her love for Tristan possibly being brought on by a love potion (depending on the telling) is a reminder to keep our heads clear even when we are choosing to follow our hearts!

BRANWEN: The final Goddess of my own Personal Ninefold is Branwen.   Her story is sorrowful, with her famously being the White Raven, as her name translates to, who was the Queen of Two Lands.   Unlike Iseult being Irish-born and married to Cornwall, Branwen is Welsh-born and married to the High King of Ireland.    An insult on their wedding day almost ruined the marriage, but her brother Bran, High King of Britain/Wales smoothed it over.   The marriage was happy in the first year, but went downhill after the birth of her son, when she was imprisoned and beaten for three years until she taught a starling to speak so that a message could be taken to Bran.   The ensuing war lost all but seven men, with Branwen losing all the people she loved including her brother and son, leading her to die of a broken heart!    However, we know that when a Goddess dies in her story, she goes back to the Otherworld!    Branwen is a perfect Goddess to help us embrace our own pain and negative emotions, helping us cry through the grief and confront our Shadows in that way, making her an ideal aspect of my own personal Ninefold Goddesses!

~I hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit about my own personal connection to the Ninefold through the energies of these Goddesses!    Do you Embrace the Ninefold?   Do you desire to form your own Ninefold, of Goddesses, of Energies, or of Archetypes?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a gorgeous Chalice Well artwork.   I found the image on https://thestagsheadcreation.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/creation-in-the-form-of-the-chalice-well/.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading

• Avalon Within by Jhenah Telyndru
• Ninefold Way of Avalon by Jhenah Telyndru
• Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth
• Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
• The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight