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The Celtic Goddess Arianrhod
Arianrhod
('Silver Wheel') Major Welsh Goddess. A star goddess. Her palace
was called Caer Arianrhod (Aurora Borealis), Goddess of time and
karma. Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess in Wales. Goddess of
beauty, the Moon, fertility and reincarnation. Mother of Llew
Llau Gyffes by her brother Gwydion. Her consort Nwyvre ('Sky,
Space, Firmament') has survived in name only. Caer Arianrhod is
the circumpolar stars, to which souls withdraw between
incarnations, she is thus a Goddess of reincarnation. Honoured
at the Full Moon.
Celtic Moon-Mother Goddess. Called the Silver Wheel that
Descends into the Sea. Daughter of the Mother Goddess Don and
her consort Beli. She is ruler of Caer Sidi, a magical realm in
the north. She was worshiped as priestess of the moon. The
benevolent silver sky-lady came down from her pale white chariot
in the heavens to watch more closely over the tides she ruled.
Her Festival is on 2nd December, she is also honoured at the
Full Moon.
In addition to native variations by locality or over time, there
are often several possible transliterations into the Roman
alphabet used for English, Arianrhod Aranrhod - Arianrod.
A star and moon Goddess, Arianrhod was also called the Silver
Wheel because the dead were carried on her Oar Wheel to Emania
(the Moon-land or land of death), which belonged to her as a
deity of reincarnation and karma. Her consort Nwyvre 'Sky,
Space, Firmament' has survived in name only. Caer Arianrhod is
the circumpolar stars, to which souls withdraw between
incarnations, thus she is identified as a Goddess of
reincarnation. The Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess in Wales,
her palace was Caer Arianrhod (Aurora Borealis), or the secret
center of each initiate's spiritual being.
The moon is the archetypal female symbol, representing the
Mother Goddess connecting womb, death, rebirth, creation.
(Albion, the old name of Britain, meant 'White Moon'). The Celts
"know well the way of seas and stars", and counted time not by
days, but by nights, and made their calendars, such as the
famous Coligny Calendar, not by the sun, but by the moon.
Ancient astrologers took their observations from the position of
the moon and its progress in relation to the stars - the starry
wheel of Arianrhod.
In Celtic Myth the Goddess has three major aspects: the maiden,
the mother and the crone. These three represent the three stages
in life of a woman. Blodeuwedd is the flower maiden, Arianrhod
represents the mother and The Morrigu at last is the crone.
These three aspects of the Celtic goddess may have different
names in different regions and regional legends. For example,
Morrigan also takes the mother role at times.
Arianrhod is said to be able to shapeshift into a large Owl, and
through the great Owl-eyes, sees even into the darkness of the
Tribal MasksOriginal Tribal masks are often seen by unknowing eyes as art objects in themselves. That is ..... human subconscious and soul. The Owl symbolizes death and
renewal, wisdom, moon magick, and initiations. She is said to
move with strength and purpose through the night, her wings of
comfort and healing spread to give solace to those who seek her.
Arianrhod is the daughter of the Welsh Goddess Don and the
sister of Gwydion. Gwydion was counselor to King Math who could
only remain alive if his feet lay in the lap of a virgin at all
times except when he led his armies into battle. During one such
battle the virgin who had held King Math's feet was raped, and
so there was need for a replacement. Gwydion recommended his
sister, Arianrhod. King Math put her virginity to the test by
asking her to step over his magic wand. As she stepped over the
wand she gave birth to a boy child with yellow hair. The child
cried loudly, and Arianrhod, humiliated, ran for the door,
dropping yet another small object on the ground in the process.
Before anyone could catch a glance at the object, Gwydion
wrapped it and hid it inside a chest. King Math then performed
rites for the yellow haired boy child, naming him Dylan. Dylan
immediately ran for the sea and received the sea's nature and
was never seen again.
A time later Gwydion presented Arianrhod with the object that he
had hidden in the chest - a second boy child. Arianrhod was
outraged at the "evidence" of her humiliation at the hands of
King Math and rejected the child.
She laid on him three curses:
He shall have no name except one she gives him.
He shall bear no arms except ones she gives him.
He shall have no wife of the race that is now on the earth.
Gwydion was outraged by these curses and worked to break them.
He disguised himself and the boy child as shoemakers and
traveled to Caer Arianrhod. When Arianrhod went to have shoes
fitted, the boy child threw a stone at a bird and deftly hit it.
Arianrhod commented on the child's skillful hand. At that
Gwydion revealed himself and the child and stated that she had
just named him - Llew Llaw Gyffes, the Shining Skillful Hand.
This threw Arianrhod into a firey rage and she stormed back to
Caer Arianrhod swearing that the boy would never bear arms or
have a human wife.
Again Gwydion tricked Arianrhod into breaking her own curse. He
disguised himself and Llew as travelers and sought refuge in
Caer Arianrhod. While they were there Gwydion caused an illusion
showing a powerful armada of ships advancing on Caer Arianrhod.
Making ready for battle Arianrhod threw open her armory and
armed her retainers. Gwydion suggested to Arianrhod that she
give arms to him and Llew (still in disguise) and they would
fight at the defense of the castle. She readily agreed and
thereby, unwittingly, granted arms to her son, breaking the
second curse. Gwydion then revealed themselves to Arianrhod and
told her that she may as well take the arms back from her son,
as there really was no battle to be fought.
Enraged at being tricked a second time, Arianrhod took comfort
in her third curse - that Llew would have no human wife.
Gwydion, upset at the cruelty Arianrhod was showing her son,
vowed to break this curse also. Gwydion went to King Math and
explained Llew's plight. Combining their magic they created a
woman made of flowers, Blodeuwedd, to be wife to Llew, and broke
Arianrhod's third curse.
Humiliated by King Math, thwarted by her son, forsaken by her
brother, Arianrhod retreated to her castle Caer Arianrhod. Here
she later drowned when the sea reclaimed the land. Bibliography
[1] Gruffudd, Heini. Enwau i'r Cymry/Welsh Personal Names
(Talybont: Y Lolfa, 1984) s.nn. Ariannell, Arianwen, Arianrhod.
[2] Bromwich, Rachel. The Welsh Triads (University of Wales
Press, 1978) p.277.
[3] Evans, J. Gwenogvryn. The Text of the Book of Llan Dav
(Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1979) (Facsimile of the
1893 Oxford edition) p.82.
[4] Bartrum, P.C. Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 1966) p.15, 18.
[5] O'Brien, M. A., ed. Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin:
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976).
[6] Royal Irish Academy. Dictionary of the Irish Language: based
mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials (Dublin : Royal Irish
Academy, 1983) s.v. argat.
[7] Withycombe, E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian
Names, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press) s.n. Ariadne.
[8] Solin, Heikki & Olli Salomies. Repertorium Nominum Gentilium
et Cognominum Latinorum s.nn. Arianius, Arrianilla, Ariannus,
Arrionilla (Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann, 1988).
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