Rhiannon, Sovereignty, and the Power of Choosing Yourself
Real power doesn't chase. It doesn't prove. It doesn't rush. It moves at its own pace and still arrives exactly where it's meant to be. There is a goddess who embodies this so completely it almost feels uncomfortable. And I say that from personal experience.
Her name is Rhiannon. She is the Celtic and Welsh goddess of sovereignty, transformation, and the white horse that no one could catch. And she is, without question, the goddess who has shaped me more than any other.
Today, I want to introduce you to her properly, because I genuinely believe she is one of the most underrated goddesses in the craft. And once you understand what she actually offers, I think you'll feel the same way.
Who is Rhiannon?
Rhiannon comes from the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales drawn from even older Celtic oral traditions. Her name is thought to derive from a Proto-Celtic root meaning great queen or divine queen. She is also known as the May Queen, which is why she is our goddess of the month at Inked Goddess Creations for May.
She is associated with sovereignty and rightful power, horses and freedom, the moon and lunar cycles, the Otherworld and the liminal spaces between realms, fertility, transformation and rebirth, justice, endurance, forgiveness, and inspiration. She is closely linked to Epona, the Celtic horse goddess, and like Epona, she serves as a bridge between worlds, helping you move between this realm and the spirit realms, the mythical, the intuitive, the psychic.
But here's what most people miss: she is not just a horse goddess. She is a queen of embodied sovereignty. She is deeply relevant for anyone navigating power, purpose, or personal truth right now.
Her Stories Are Her Teaching
Rhiannon was not born a goddess. She was a woman whose trials, choices, and unshakeable sense of self elevated her to that status over time. Her myths are not just mythology. They are maps.
The woman on the white horse. Rhiannon first appears riding a white horse through the village, and men immediately start chasing her. Day after day, faster and faster horses, and still they cannot close the gap. Finally, one man simply asks her to stop. Her response? "All you had to do was ask."
She wasn't running. She wasn't trying to be caught. She was waiting to see who would approach her with alignment instead of force. She selects her partner on her own terms and moves forward exactly as she chooses. This is the foundation of everything she represents. Sovereignty responds to sovereignty. Desperation repels. Clarity invites. And those who are energetically matched to you will meet you where you are. They won't ask you to shrink.
Ask yourself: where are you making yourself smaller to fit in, only to find that once you get there, these people exhaust you? That's not a fit. That's you abandoning your energetic level to chase something that was never aligned.
The false accusation. After the birth of her son, the baby disappears under mysterious circumstances. Her own handmaids accuse her of killing her child. Her punishment was public and humiliating, made to stand outside the city gates and carry visitors on her back like a horse.
She endured all of it without collapsing. Without over-explaining. Without performing her innocence for people who had already decided. She held her chin up, she knew who she was, and she waited for the truth to come to light on its own.
And it did. Her son was found unharmed. She was restored to her rightful place. Not because she proved herself into freedom, but because she held her truth and let it surface.
This story hits home for a lot of us. Over-explaining your motives. Defending yourself to people who aren't actually listening. Exhausting yourself trying to be believed. Rhiannon says stop. She says: I know who I am, and that is enough. Not passive. Unshakeable.
What Working with Rhiannon Actually Feels Like
Working with Rhiannon is not flashy or loud. It is stern. It is the kind of power that does not need to announce itself but that you absolutely know is there.
She showed up for me in a dream when I was 21 years old and newly stationed in England, just starting to open myself to the craft. I was in the woods on a horse, and a woman with bright red hair and a green cloak rode up beside me, also on a white horse, and said, "Follow me." We flew through those woods and ended up at the shore of a body of water, and she looked at me and said, "You're home now."
I told some pagan friends about that dream, sure they'd think I was dramatic. They looked at each other and said, "That was Rhiannon." That dream led me to the Avalonian tradition, to the Sisterhood of Avalon, to Arthurian legend and the Lady of the Lake, and everything I had believed as a child suddenly made sense and became real. She has been my matron goddess, my anchor, my steady voice, ever since.
In my day-to-day practice, she is not loud. She is subtle. She taps under my chin when I start to lower my head, reminding me to keep it up so my crown stays straight. When I spiral into self-doubt or start over-explaining myself, I hear a quiet voice in the back of my head: who are you? And that question alone brings me back to myself immediately.
She is also an anti-hustle goddess. Her energy is directly opposed to the idea that you need to force, rush, or grind your way somewhere. What is meant for you will meet you at your pace. This has been one of her biggest teachings for me as a business owner. I spent years thinking: if only I had started sooner, done more, moved faster. Rhiannon helped me understand that if I wasn't moving forward 10 years ago, it was because I wasn't energetically aligned to hold it safely yet. That reframe changed everything.
Signs She Might Be Calling You
Dreaming of white horses or mysterious women, especially if the imagery feels charged and sticks with you. Hearing birdsong in unusual or significant ways. Going through a season of being falsely judged or publicly misunderstood. Feeling pulled toward lunar magick or Celtic mythology. Feeling called into your own sovereignty, your power, your queen energy. Any of these can be her reaching out.
How to Work with Her
Her altar doesn't need to be elaborate. A white candle, some moonstone, an image or figurine of a horse or a woman on horseback, herbs like jasmine, sandalwood, orange or frankincense, an offering of oats, honey, milk, herbal tea, or mead. I also use purple with her from my own practice, and on my Avalon altar she shares space peacefully with Brigid and Mary Magdalene.
Connect with her through the full moon. Sit in open meditation and ask: what messages do you have for me? What needs to move? What pace do I need to be at? She answers in the quiet.
For dream work, brew a sleep-supporting tea with chamomile and lavender, add a small amount of mugwort if you aren't pregnant to open the psychic centers, set an intention to receive her guidance, and keep a journal on your nightstand.
And most importantly, practice embodying her energy in daily life. Where are you saying yes out of guilt or obligation? Where are you exhausting yourself proving your worth to people who aren't aligned with you anyway? Where are you rushing when you could simply trust your own pace? These are her questions. The answers are your work.
Her Correspondences at a Glance
Animals: horses, blackbirds, badgers, foxes, dogs, dragons.
Colors: white, silver, soft gray, muted gold, dark green, maroon and ruby red.
Crystals: moonstone, selenite, clear quartz, labradorite, rose quartz.
Herbs and plants: jasmine, mugwort, lavender, sandalwood, hawthorn, white rose, meadowsweet, orange, frankincense.
Offerings: milk or cream, honey, oats or oat cakes, bread, herbal tea, mead or light wine.
The Bottom Line
Rhiannon moved through her life on a white horse with calm, sovereign authority. She was never running. She arrived exactly where she was meant to be, in her own time, on her own terms, with nothing to prove to anyone.
That is the invitation she extends to you. Move at your own pace. Speak your truth without shrinking it. Hold your energetic level and let what is aligned with you come to meet you there. Stop proving yourself to people who have already decided. Keep your chin up. Adjust your crown.
She has been waiting for you to remember that you are a queen too.
This post is pulled from Episode 220 of Busy, Gritty, Inked, and Witchy. If you want the full conversation, including my personal stories, 24 years of working with Rhiannon, and all the tangents in between, watch or listen below. New episodes drop every Wednesday.