Arianrhod Tattoo Meaning
Fate, the moon, the turning year, and the weaver of destiny in her star-fort.
Arianrhod is the 'Silver Wheel' — the proud, powerful Welsh goddess of the moon, fate, and the turning year, who dwells in her star-castle among the circling stars and spins the threads of destiny, the mother who withheld name, arms, and a wife from her son and was outwitted at every turn. To carry Arianrhod is to carry fate, the moon, the turning year, and the weaver of destiny in her star-fort — the silver disc of the moon and the wheel of fate, the sovereign giver and withholder at the fixed center of the turning sky.
Arianrhod appears in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi as the daughter of the goddess Dôn and the sister of the magicians Gwydion and Gilfaethwy. When the magician-king Math needs a virgin to hold his feet, Arianrhod is proposed, and to prove her virginity she must step over Math's magical wand. As she steps over it, she unexpectedly gives birth — twins, or near-twins, fall from her: a boy who is taken to the sea, and a small form that Gwydion snatches up and secretly raises. Arianrhod, proud and humiliated by this public exposure, turns against the son Gwydion rears.
She lays upon this son three powerful denials — three destinies, or tynged — refusing him the three things a man needed to be whole in that world: she swears he shall have no name unless she gives it, no arms (no weapons, no warrior status) unless she arms him, and no human wife. But her brother Gwydion, master of disguise and enchantment, tricks her into granting each one. Disguised, he brings the boy before her and maneuvers her into naming him (Lleu Llaw Gyffes, 'the bright one of the skillful hand') and into arming him, each time through disguise and trickery. Arianrhod is presented as proud and powerful, and the tale leaves her ambiguous — perhaps a woman wronged and exposed, perhaps herself the wrongdoer; both the victim of a violation and the one who punishes an innocent child. The Welsh Arianrhod denied her son a name, arms, and a wife — and her brother Gwydion tricked her into granting each through disguise. The Welsh Arianrhod is the mother who denied her son three things — in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, daughter of Dôn and sister of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy, subjected to a virginity test by stepping over a magical wand (whereupon twins fall from her); she denies one son three things — a name, arms, and a wife — and her brother Gwydion tricks her into giving each through disguise; she is presented as proud and powerful, perhaps wronged, perhaps the wrongdoer, both victim of a violation and the one who punishes an innocent child.
The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi is the most mythologically complex of the four — it involves Math (who must keep his feet in a virgin's lap except during war), Gwydion and Gilfaethwy's rape of Goewin (Math's footholder), their punishment (transformation into animals), and Arianrhod's test, twins, and curses. The triple curse on her son Lleu (no name unless she names him, no arms unless she arms him, no human wife) is the structure of the narrative — Gwydion tricks her into naming him Lleu Llaw Gyffes (Bright One of the Skillful Hand) and into arming him. Arianrhod's identification with the Corona Borealis is traditional in Welsh interpretation — 'Caer Arianrhod' (the Fort of Arianrhod) was the Welsh name for Corona Borealis. The Celtic mother goddess Dôn (Arianrhod's mother) is cognate with the Irish Danu, the mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann — connecting Arianrhod to the pan-Celtic divine feminine tradition. Robert Graves's The White Goddess (1948 CE) made Arianrhod central to his poetic mythology of the goddess — though Graves's scholarship is debated, his influence on neo-paganism and modern poetry is significant.
Arianrhod across cultures
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