Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. This week’s Femme Fatale Friday is about embracing the energy of the Flower Bride! I thought this would be an ideal topic choice as this is the first Friday of May.
When we think of Flower Brides, the most obvious ideas that come to mind are Sovereignty Goddesses and Faery Queens who marry a King as a direct representative of the Land made manifest. Examples of very powerful Flower Brides in Celtic lore include Blodeuwedd and Guinevere. Blodeuwedd is the most obvious example of a Faery Queen Goddess who is a Flower Bride, as she was literally made of flowers of Oak, Broom, and Meadowsweet, called forth from the Otherworld into physical form by the magicians Math and Gwydion! Guinevere is also very Flower Bride associated in Arthurian tales, as she is often depicted as going-A-Maying, celebrating Beltane by picking flowers with her handmaidens. The Flower Bride can also be represented in the energy of any Goddess of Sovereignty who married a King having the marriage cement the Kingship, even if she is less associated with the floral energy than Blodeuwedd and Guinevere. This type of Flower Bride includes Sovereignty Goddesses Rhiannon, Melusine, and Maeve!
Now, you may wonder what exactly I mean by my phrasing of Embracing the Flower Bride. The answer is that I am referring to embracing the energy of the archetype of the Flower Bride as a powerful type of Faery Woman and Goddess energy. To embrace the Flower Bride is to embrace the innate magick of the natural world! For example, the Earth Mama and Well Maiden energies are prime aspects within the Flower Bride’s archetype. The Flower Bride is the manifestation of the Earth herself, tapping into the deeply rooted energy of the grounded and ever-fertile Earth Mama. Rhiannon’s deeply rooted energy and association with horses reminds me much of this Earth Mama side of the Flower Bride, especially as she later becomes a mother when she transitions from being a Flower Bride to a High Queen in her tale! Blodeuwedd also shows this very rooted and earthy Flower Bride energy, as she was made from the flowers of the land. The Flower Bride is also the manifestation of the endless well of the Psychic Waters tapping deeply into the introspective, psychic, oracular, and clear-sighted energy of the ever-compassionate Well Maiden. Melusine’s tale begins with her being a Well Maiden who spends Saturdays as a Mermaid and her nature as a Sovereignty Faery Queen Goddess is shown when she marries her husband, making her an ideal example of the Flower Bride’s connection to the Watery Well Maiden aspect!
For me, tapping into the Flower Bride energy is best done in nature, like in the photo at the top of the post. Earthing, that is walking barefoot in the grass, meditating outside, and walking serenely in natural settings, especially with loved ones, are all ideal ways to begin to embrace the Flower Bride within! Flower Brides are magickal Faery Women who are often shown to be ideal wives at the beginning of their stories, before having a separation from their husbands because of broken trust. At that point, they are no longer in their Flower Bride aspect anymore. We must remember that they are also the Sovereignty of the land incarnate, meaning that a healthy relationship with respect between both partners is imperative to keeping the sacredness of the bonds intact. Flower Brides who are not respected or properly loved by their husbands end up taking the Sovereignty away from the husband in some way, as is seen in the stories of both Blodeuwedd and Guinevere when Lleu and Arthur no longer give them attention of appropriate respect! So, another incredibly important aspect of embracing the Flower Bride archetype is to truly respect and show true love and compassion to your partner (if you have one), knowing that you will get the same level of love and respect in return. I am very lucky to have a healthy and very loving and respectful relationship with my own husband Andrew, so I find that aspect of embracing the Flower Bride to be already aligned in my own life!
I hope you have enjoyed this rambling post about Embracing the Flower Bride. What is your favorite aspect of the Flower Bride archetype? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a photo of me meditating on Beltane Day in a local park taken by my husband. I definitely felt my most Flower Bride archetype energy in the park Earthing, meditating, and walking through nature on Beltane day!
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
- Once and Future Queen by Nicole Evelina
- Blodeuwedd: Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty by Jhenah Telyndru
- The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
- Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
White Rose of Avalon 