Faery Queens of Springtime

Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.   Today’s post is going to focus on some of my most beloved Faery Queens that embrace the energy of late Spring!   May is the ideal time to deepen into the energy of these Springtime Faery Queens, as they embody the sweet-scented floral beauty of the May Flowers that have sprung up from the April Showers.   In this post, I will be looking at three of the Welsh Faery Queens that have Springtime aspects.

BLODEUWEDD

~I just had to begin this post with Blodeuwedd, especially because I am a Priestess of Blodeuwedd!   Blodeuwedd is the most literal example of a Flower Bride, an archetype I strongly align with the May Queen in general.   Of course, there is duality with Blodeuwedd’s energy, that of the Flower and the Owl.   Still, as I have stated in other posts, her Owl energy is more prevalent during the dark half of the year with her Flower energy being prevalent during the light half of the year.   She is the Faery Queen Goddess of Avalon who was called forth by the magicians Math and Gwydion into physical form from the Otherworld in order to circumvent the destiny Arianrhod placed upon her son Lleu that he should not have a wife of the race of women of the Earth.    Blodeuwedd’s being formed from flowers of Oak, Broom, and Meadowsweet showed her to be a woman made of the plants of the Earth herself instead of a human woman, making her the ideal Sovereignty Goddess to fulfill Lleu’s need for a wife.   In her Flower Goddess aspect, she is kind, loving, nurturing, supportive, and a fertile source of inspiration!    Blodeuwedd is also the Goddess who embraces the energy of true love through her bold assertion that being in a loveless marriage to Lleu is not what she deserves and that she must follow her heart to be with her lover Gronw.    She is the Faery Queen who can help us embrace our inner truth and turn away from that which is not serving us!  

GUINEVERE

~Guinevere is most often remembered as the wife of King Arthur, and like Blodeuwedd, she is the Sovereignty of the Land made manifest which is why the marriage to her is what cements Arthur’s right to rule as King.    She is forever linked to the festivities of the month of May, as all through various tellings of the legends she is said to ‘go a-Maying’ spending time in nature and aligning with the season of fertility, abundance, and the first blooms of fresh flowers.   This is what cements her nature as a Flower Bride and May Queen unequivocally!    Her disenchantment with her marriage leads to the most famed affair of the legends, although it was not always Lancelot who was her lover.   In the terms of being a Faery Queen and Sovereignty Goddess, finding another mate is a way of showing nature’s displeasure with Arthur’s disrespect of the Divine Feminine!  

RHIANNON

~Rhiannon’s nature as a Springtime Faery Queen comes from the earliest parts of her tale in the first branch of The Mabinogion.   She appears to Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed because she is being given in marriage to a man she does not love, and she desires to marry Pwyll instead.    She is showing her own power and determination to plot her own destiny.   However, the marriage is one that both she and Pwyll have to fight for, as he accidentally offers anything a guest wants at the wedding before the marriage has been consummated.   This led to their first wedding not being consummated, as the man who asked for a favor was the one Rhiannon was originally betrothed to marry.   A year later, when Rhiannon was set to marry this other man, she arranged a plan with Pwyll where she gave him a magickal bag that would not be able to be filled.   Pwyll dressed as a beggar and asked for his bag to be filled with food at the wedding feast, which as a reasonable request was freely given, but the bag did not fill.   This is how Rhiannon’s undesired suitor was tricked into getting into the bag, being restrained until he gave up his claim on her hand in marriage!   So, Rhiannon’s Springtime energy is one of fiery perseverance and determination to marry only the man whom she actually loves.   That perseverance is also ignited later in her tale when she is a mother falsely accused of infanticide, but that does not apply to her Spring energy, so I will leave the story off here.   As a Springtime Faery Queen Rhiannon reminds us to never give up on what we desire and to have the self-respect and self-love to choose our own path!

~I hope you have enjoyed this look at the Springtime energy of three of my most beloved Welsh Celtic Faery Queens.   Whose story is your favorite of the three?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a gorgeous Guinevere as May Queen artwork.   I found this artwork on https://www.deviantart.com/verbeley/art/Guinevere-the-May-Queen-466296099.

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

• The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
• Blodeuwedd: Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty by Jhenah Telyndru
• Rhiannon: Divine Queen of the Celtic Britons by Jhenah Telyndru
• Once and Future Queen by Nicole Evelina