The Lookout
Volume 7 Issue 1 | 2019
Rhiannon and Aine: Goddesses of the Ancient Celts Alexandra Franklin Introduction In comparison with many other cultures, the
being the goddess of magick, fertility, rebirth,
ancient Celts had their own pantheon of god-
wisdom, beauty, poetry, and artistic inspiration
desses and gods and, like these other cultures,
as well as the wind, gates, horseshoes, and
the Celtic deities regularly intermingled with
the number seven (Goddess Rhiannon). Her
the human race. While having the fallible
“themes” include leadership, communication,
tendencies of both their contemporaries and
movement, rest, and ghosts (Shaw). Despite
the human race, the Celtic deities possessed
Rhiannon’s association with fertility, she is
a wide range of powers from the realistic to
also worshipped as a goddess of the Other-
the fantastical and also regularly intermingled
world, a goddess of death, and a “bringer of
with an array of fantastical creatures, such as
dreams (Shaw).” The name Rhiannon means
faeries. Historical texts and archaeological
“Night Queen” and, like many other Celtic
evidence has provided us with a knowledge of
deities, it is thought that Rhiannon may be re-
these deities as well as evidence of their wor-
constructed from another, much older goddess
ship - a worship that is slowly being revived
by the name of Rigantona (Shaw). As a god-
in our modern world through the emergence
dess, she is believed to be a merge between the
of Wicca and other spiritual practices. Of all
Gaulish horse goddess Epona, the Irish horse
the deities, both god and goddess, in the Celtic
goddess Macha, and Matrona, the great mother
pantheon, Rhiannon and Aine are two of the
(Goddess Rhiannon). Rhiannon is described
most well-known, the former known as “The
as a beautiful young woman in a golden dress
Night Queen” and the latter considered to be
who rides upon a pale white horse with a calm
“The Queen of Faeries.”
expression upon her face. The white mare that she rides upon and its swift capacity is
Who was Rhiannon?
believed to represent her as a lunar goddess
The Celtic goddess Rhiannon was born during
(Rhiannon). She is often surrounded by ani-
the first rise of the moon and is predominantly
mals, particularly songbirds whose music can
worshipped as the goddess of the moon and the
awaken spirits and put mortals into a deep
queen of night (Shaw). She is also hailed as
sleep (Rhiannon). The main source of informa-
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