The Goddess Rhiannon, "Great Queen", is the other face of the Mother. She Who is the White Mare, the Queen of the Otherworld, whose Birds could soothe the souls of the most troubled of mortals. She is the Nurturing Mother, devoted to Her children, Who gently guides us that we may learn the lessons before us.

Rhiannon appears in two Branches of the Mabinogion, Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed and Manawyddan, Son of Llyr. As told in these stories, She understands hardship and pain, separation and loss. But always, although She had been wronged, Her love was unfaltering, and Her honor unwavering. Known also as Epona to the Gauls, and Macha to the Irish, this much beloved Goddess is the Great Queen Mother of the Celts.

Cerridwen

I obtained my inspiration 

From the Cauldron of Cerridwen

- Hanes Taliesin

Cerridwen, the "White Sow", is the revered Crone Goddess - She who is the Dark of the Moon, into whose Cauldron we must enter to be reborn. She is the Washer at the Ford, the Dark Hag, the Cailleach. Those who do not understand Her regenerative nature, fear Her. Yet, from Her comes Awen - Inspiration.

The Great Bard Taliesin received his gift though a period of testing by this aspect of the Goddess. Once a serving boy named Gwion, he stole three drops of a brew Cerridwen was making for Her son, Avagdu. With this brew, came all Knowledge, and knowing She would punish him, he ran from the angry Goddess. A pursuit filled with shape-changing insued, until finally Gwion became a piece of grain and hid himself on the thrashing room floor. Cerridwen changed Herself into a hen, and ate the grain until she had consumed Gwion. Nine months later, Taliesin the Bard emerged from Her Womb, and She cast him out to sea on Samhain, where he was found in a Salmon weir.