You may leave dedications for Rigantona or Rhiannon here

[Heron]

For Rhiannon:

A mare rides through the enchanted day, she is wildness, 

uncanny, something out of twilight in the light of the Sun

enchanted, our eyes are turned away from the world we know

but as she turns to us, her turning is an embrace, a calmness

dissolves the vision of horse and a woman stands there. 

We are undone by the sight of her and everything she is:

Evanescent Horse, Endless Summer, Shining Goddess.

[Heron]

FOR RIGANTONA AT SAMHAIN

In this dark of the Moon
I hold vigil here
For your going into the Otherworld
Rigantona - I strew rose petals
About your altar
For your going into the Otherworld
Winter now is upon us
And the darkness.

Rigantona - the leaves are strewn
Upon the earth
The hawthorn tree is bare
For your going into the Otherworld.

The song of your birds is lost
In the sigh of the wind
In the shriek of the wind
But I listen still for its echo
With your going into the Otherworld.

[Heron]

RHIANNON

Though you are absent, I feel your presence,
A space in the landscape where you would be,
An echo returning from this very place
In the Otherworld where you followed Pryderi.
Did he go there to claim his birthright
In the country you left to be with us here?
Did you follow to give him your blessing
Leaving only the wraith of a riderless mare

To haunt the borders between us and Annwn?
For now we live with your memories lingering
Like elusive  scents  from a summer that’s gone
Or the sounds of your birds so sweetly singing.
In the unwoven woods Manawydan awaits you
Keeping the keys for the expected day
To open the gates when you will come riding
On a shining white horse in bright array.

[Heron]

For Rigantona at Calan Mai

Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar
For your coming from the Otherworld.

Spring is all about us,
The hawthorn tree has leaves
Emerging from the Otherworld.

I feel your presence in the blossoming boughs,
In the flowers of the fields,
In the green leaves and the many-coloured petals.

These petals from another year I have kept for you
Until roses bloom again
And you ride  
Through the gates of the Otherworld
Across the land in splendour.

Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar
For your coming from the Otherworld.

[Heron]

[Gwenno]

I'm visualising my own rose petals there too

[Heron]

As the Moon wanes through the month of November the shrine I made for you is lashed by rain and wind.

Soon you will leave us to go into the Otherworld. At the Dark of the Moon I will bid farewell, yet keep your shrine still both here and there.

Bendithion Llu  -  I offer thee as darkness falls upon this world   -  Bendithion Llu

[Heron]

For a Vigil at the Dark of the Moon following Samhain

By Orion's light
At the Dark of the Moon
Now the hawthorn tree is bare

A shadow passes through the veil
Of the Otherworld on a Grey Mare

Rigantona, roses are cast about your altar
As we keep your vigil here.

[Padug]

I dream of horses
Of soft whinnies and high pitched neighs
A sudden strong exhale of air through flared nostrils
That inflates my spirit.

I dream of horses
With twitching ears and flickering tails
Of bobbing, tossing heads with calm round eyes
That reflect the wide, bright orb of the world
And hide some secret knowing truth
Compelling me to look deeply within all shadows
To gaze placidly at the lushness of the green plentiful earth
Emitting a silent challenge to constantly expand my perspective

I dream of horses
Of rhythm and gaits
Speed and elegance
Of the steady clomp, clomp, clomp of patience
The swift sureness of decision and determination
The graceful beauty of the joy of being
Urging me to move forward
Guiding me to stop, to wait, to plod on

I dream of horses
And know that I dream of You
Sense Your presence, feel You near
I dream of horses and know that You are with me
That I am Your own.

[Padug]

I watch the first rays brush the hills, hazy with distance
Hills shaped like horses , the roundness of their rumps,
the curve of their backs, the gentle round rise of their necks

From such hills you come
The color of frost
With the freedom of wind
Ghostlike and graceful

 I sigh whisps upon the air
That prance the breeze like ponies
And see revealed what is unseen but sustains

Like puffs of breath
Their presence betrayed by the cold
You materialize out of whiteness

A dawn horse
The color of light
The color of all colors
You stride the quivering clouds
With deliberate slowness
Like the long exhale of extacy

With what little breath You have not stolen from me
I whisper Your name, "Rhiannon"
It escapes my lips, warm and alive
And lingers, just a moment
A white puff of a winged word
Suspended in the golden glow of awakening

[Heron]

Voices cluster in your praise
And I am joyful for all who offer here:
Their voices join with mine
In admiration of your presence in our world.

[Mabon]

Spring Equinox brings new light to your land
And this offering
To your shrine

[Heron]

A horse glides like cloud
across the land, no sound
but an intake of breath

Held in suspense
of your coming, expectant
for the gift of Summer

Promised on each blossoming bough
of blackthorn  ...  apple  ...  hawthorn:
the scents of your coming, gathering

Strength each week, each day
of the springing year until
the splendid opening of the Rose.

[Heron]

For Rigantona at Calan Mai


Rigantona, the gates of your world are open
As are the blossoms on the boughs
Scenting the air with Summer
As you ride across the land.

Rigantona, you are radiant in the dawn
As sunlight on the morning dew.
You are radiant at the middle-day
As the Sun climbs higher in the sky.

Rigantona, the evening twilight
Is suffused with your radiance.
As you are blessed we seek your blessing
Dwellers in your hallowed lands.

[:)]

    Inspiring!

               :)

[Heron]

Each rose I place on your altar
Is an act of love,
Of devotion :
Day after day
While roses blossom

[Heron]

This shrine is one of many, inside, outside or in this virtual world that I can visit; for you are everywhere and so I make a space for you in every place I can.

Bydded bendith ar bawb sy'n ymweld â safle hwn.

[Heron]

Tonight is Calan Gaeaf, Samhain, Halloween, call it what you will.

But the leaves are still on the trees and roses still bloom on my bushes so there are still some to put on Rhiannon's altar.

 I am not bound by the traditional date for the passing into Winter, but will wait a while until the next Dark of the Moon to mark the passing of Rhiannon into the Otherworld.

Until then I rejoice that she is still here with us though the season fades and I will also mark the traditional date with due reverence and observance.

[Heron]

For The Birds of Rhiannon at The Dark of the Moon in November
‘dyuot tri aderyn, a dechrau canu udunt ….. uch ben y weilgi allan’ (*)
Branwen Uerch Lyr
~§~
Birds of Rhiannon, sing for the dying
Over the waves of the wolf-grey sea;
Gather them with you, those who are leaving
Behind them the world’s sweet harmony.

Birds of Rhiannon, call to the dead
Over the waves of the wolf-grey sea;
Bid them witness the echoes fading
Out of the world’s sweet harmony.

~§~
(*) ‘three birds came and began singing to them ….. far out over the sea’

[Heron]

For Rhiannon in February

Bright days, cold streams, sun glittering on water
So I think of you far away in the Otherworld
Yet here too in our hearts.

Cloudy days, rain glistening on your altar
- the pale horse I have placed there for you -
So I think of you riding out of the mist:

Here ..... Not here
There ..... Not there
Seen ..... Not seen

But never forgotten.