Rhiannon Is About A Goddess

Stevie Nicks’s Rhiannon was the first song about a goddess I ever heard. Not that I realized it when the song was released in 1975 – I was a child and it saturated the airwaves for months, merging into the general Neptune in Sagittarius soundscape.

But I knew it was energetically different. Re-hearing it later as a teen – I don’t think it had ever stopped being played – I figured it out: every other song about a woman was from the point of view of a guy with the hots for her – sure, there were variations on the theme like Billie-Jean (‘the kid is not my son’) or Roxanne (‘you don’t have to sell your body to the night, Roxanne‘) but there was nothing like Rhiannon.

This was a song written and performed by a woman whose hippie chic influenced the Seventies aesthetic to an incalculable degree and it was about another woman who, at the very least, appeared to be magic.

Nicks wrote the gist of it in ten minutes and under less than salubrious circumstances. It was Halloween 1973 and the then 25 year-old triple-Gemini was at an airport with strep-throat and Mars Retrograde squaring her Moon. Fittingly, for that particular transit, she had man troubles.

This was before Fleetwood Mac or fame and she’d fled from waitressing at a singles bar in Los Angeles to hang out in Aspen, hopefully writing music while her boyfriend went on tour. According to the biography Visions, Dreams and Rumours, it did not work out as planned:

“Nicks recalls Lindsey Buckingham (the then b.f.) returning early from his tour in a foul mood. She wondered if he’d been unfaithful on tour and his mood soured even more. ‘He was very angry and he left me, taking our poodle and the car, leaving me in Colorado with the bus drivers all on strike.'”

Her parents had reluctantly footed the bill for her flight back home, she’d been dumped, there was the strep-throat and no money but then she chanced upon an airport novel (literally) called Triad.

Flipping through it, she was drawn to the name Rhiannon and general gist of the book -within ten minutes, she’d practically channelled the whole concept of a ‘compelling white witch, taken by the sky and enchanting all who encountered her…‘

It wasn’t till 1978, after the song had become a huge success, that she learned more about her Rhiannon character. A Welsh goddess, mythical Queen and renowned witch, she is a key character in the Ancient Welsh Mabinogion stories and so-called ‘fairy tales.’

“My story was definitely written about a celestial being,” she told an interviewer at the time. “I didn’t know who Rhiannon was, exactly, but I knew she was not of this world.” Rhiannon is the story of a lady that is from another world ~ called the Bright world ~ and she leaves her kingdom to become the wife of a king ~ a mortal king ~ but goddesses really can’t marry mortal kings, if they do they lose their powers ~ their magic powers.

And they don’t lose the knowledge of them they just ~they know everything that’s going to happen they just can’tdo anything about it. Which is a much more difficult way to live than not having magic powers is to not be able to use them and know exactly what’s coming and to not be able to tell anybody…

Rhiannon is the Goddess of Steeds and the Maker of Birds, and her song is a song that takes away pain. When you hear her song, you close your eyes and fall asleep, and when you wake up the pain is gone or the danger is gone and you’ll see her three birds flying away. That’s the legend. I realized that somehow, I had managed to pen a song that went very much with the mythical tale of Rhiannon.”

Transit-wise, Retro-Mars square her Moon certainly suits the gnarly presenting situation but what would align with such brilliant synchronicity? The song wasn’t just on-zeitgeist, successful and personally meaningful  – it established Stevie Nicks and so much of her vibe.

Well, she was born with Mercury conjunct Uranus and that Halloween, Uranus in Libra was trining that natal Mercury-Uranus as well as her Lilith in Aquarius – so was a beautiful Grand Air Trine right there. Also, Lilith in Capricorn was approaching her natal Moon-Midheaven there AND the Node in Sagittarius was (a) on the Galactic Center and (b) crossing over her natal Jupiter there.

One of the goddess Rhiannon’s many attributes is the Moon, along with nightbirds, rivers and horses. It’s interesting that Nicks has worn a  moon pendant more or less consistently since the mid-70s and that she also gifts them to people she deems worth of such selenian magic.

Having acquired the film rights to Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogion series, Nicks spoke during the pandemic lockdown about making a Rhiannon movie – she mentioned casting Harry Styles – but I don’t think it’s gotten any traction. The upcoming new vibe – Neptune in Aries, Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius would be perfect for it though, right?

Thoughts?

Images: Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham pre-Rhiannon, the book that inspired her, the Moon pendant and a side of the Gundestrup Cauldron that may represent Rhiannon.