The Mythology
The Welsh horse Goddess of the Underworld-Rigatona, or Great Queen-was Rhiannon's (pronounced ree-ah'nin) original name. Her story was reduced to something of a fairytale, just as her name was changed from Great Queen. Though not human, she married Pwyll, a mortal, and bore him a son who disappeared at birth. The attendant maids smeared the blood of a puppy on Rhiannon's face and accused her of eating her child. Rhiannon was sentenced to carry all her husband's guests on her back. When her son reappeared after seven years, all lived happily ever after.
The Lessons of this Goddess
Rhiannon gallops into your life to tell you how to work with
doubt. To doubt someone or something when your instincts are
giving you warning signals is healthy. To spend time doubting
yourself is self-negating and not very helpful. The best way of
working with self-doubt is to turn it into self-questioning. Self-
doubt leads you nowhere. Self-questioning gives you answers. Do
you get stuck in doubt and let it turn your optimism into despair,
your confidence into low self-esteem, your vitality into sluggishness
and procrastination? Does doubt align itself with your fears
to keep you from succeeding? Do the doubts of others shipwreck
your dreamboat? Perhaps where the outside world is concerned
you need to exercise a bit more skepticism, rather than trusting
blindly. The Goddess tells you not to let doubt erode your sacred self.
Allow yourself to question rather than doubt so that you can gain
the answers you need to continue on your path to wholeness.