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Water Dictionary; 1. A clear, colorless, nearly odorless and
tasteless liquid, H2O, essential for most plants and animal life and the
most widely used of all solvents. 2. Any of various forms of water such
as rain. 3. Any body of water, such as sea, lake, river or stream 4. Any
one of the liquids passed out of the body, such as urine, perspiration,
tears. 5. The fluid sorrounding the fetus in the uterus. The truest and greatest miracle wrought by water was the creation of life itself. In humans it coursed through the veins as a primordial component of blood, it flowed from the breast as milk to nurture the infant that had journeyed into earthly existence floating in the private sea of it's mother womb. In the world around rain wrought the wonder of nourishing grasses, rising straight and green. In the pageant of mortal lives the sea played many roles it was both cradle and grave, the wellspring of life and it’s destroyer. It was both alien and kindred, a link connecting the finite shore to the mysterious realm of the infinite. The oceans are governed by the moon, so, like the moon, water has associations with mystery and the femenine principle. Water is central to many creations myths in which a "great flood" is a common theme. The oceans finally represents the unconscious and infinity, the cosmic ocean from which all life has emerged and into which it must eventually dissolve. “If there is magic on this planet it is contained in water... It’s substance reaches everywhere: it touches the past and prepares the future: it moves under the poles and wanders thinly in the heights of air. It can assume forms of exquisite perfection in a snowflake , or strip the living to a single shining bone cast up by the sea, Loren Eiseley (One Earth) The mermaid a beautiful girl to her waist but a fish
from there down, and her male counterpart the merman are still among the
most popular of legendary creatures. The mermaid of tradition is a seductive
singer with the innocence of a seal or also a seductive fatal fish woman
that leads you to your death. She is an enchantress, who personifies the
beauty and treachery of the sea and specially of the shores and rocks
of the coastlines. She is also closely associated with the moon (the ruler
of the tides), which is represented by the mirror she holds in her hand.
Her long hair it is to be composed of green seaweed or perhaps of the
ivy of the sun as they fall upon the water. In folklore this green haired
spirit appears constantly in strange legends of lake, river and sea. In most legends there is a distinction between sirens and mermaids. Both can kill humans, but some good number of mermaids have a protecting, guiding nature to them, which sirens don’t have. Sirens were supposed to dwell in an underwater world of great splendor to which they lured their victims and kept their souls close prisoner in the kingdom beneath the waves. This theme occurs again and again in the lore of the sea with a constant emphasis on the presence of a mermaid as foreshadowing some calamity-storm, shipwreck, drowning. Some mermaids songs can protect you, sirens songs can seduce to kill you. On the other hand, power over a mermaid could always be obtained by possession of her cap or belt. There are many tails in which a human being brings a mermaid to a shore to be his wife, in the Gironde in France mermaids have two tails. The fisherfolk in the channel islands believed in a strange sea creature called the king of the auxcrinier, whose presence was feared as the forerunner of storm. A Nakki maiden is very pretty, combs her long locks with a golden comb and only sometimes have the tail of a fish. The Nakki of Finland are very similar and their women have gleaming white bodies, and breasts so long that they can throw them over their shoulders. The nixes or nixies of Germanic lore are spirits of fresh waters, green haired and lovely, they can transform themselves into old women in which form they venture on land on market days. They lure humans to drown in treacherous waters, and must have a victim once a year. In 1403, it is said a mermaid was found becalmed in shallow water at Edam in Holland. She became accustomed to life but never learn how to speak. She lived for some 15 years after her capture and was given a Christian burial. There is a tradition that the people of Machaire of Ireland are the descendants of mermaids. The Irish thought that mermaids were originally pagan women, transformed into mermaids by St. Patrick. They vanished from the Emerald Isle forever. With the passing age of magic, dedicated naturalists attempted to discover in natural history the true source of the mermaid legend. Manatees and dugongs have been considered like candidates. Both are sea mammals (of the order Sirenia, found in coastal waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and they suckle their young, holding them with their flippers in the manner of a woman with a baby. The walrus and the seal are other candidates. one naturalist commented. "I have seen many plain women but never yet one quite so plain as the face of a Dogong." Doing research among different Amazonian cosmology I realized that the majority of mermaids are of good nature. It is for instance found among the Yagua, the campa, the Shipibo, the Andoque, the Witoto, the Ere Eja of Tambopata, the Canelos Quichua and among mestizo practitioners. mermaids are also invoke in mestizo and indigeneous ayahuasca sessions and it is believed that some powerful shamans, are the offspring of mermaid and human unions. Although the form or image of mermaids was probably borrowed from European contact, it is almost certain that the indigeneous people who adopted it already had female water spirits in their cosmologies. The Peruvian painter/shaman of Shipibo descendance, Pablo
Amaringo, in his book "Ayahuasca Visions", portraits many paintings
dealing with the underwater world. In his Ayahuasca Visions, Pablo depicts
mermaids of various colors (green, blue, pink, red, white, black, with
one, two, three fish tails. There are also those whose bodies are partially
anaconda, dolphin, sloth, manatee, or other animal. Mermaids live in many
parts of the multilayered worlds of the subaquatic realms. According to
Amazonian folklore mermaids are Dolphins and other water spirits animals are especially attracted to menstruating women, which is the reason why among certain Indian groups like the Cashinahua, women are prohibited from bathing in the lakes or rivers when they are menstruating. There are so many stories of people who claim had made love to female dolphins, either transformed into women or in their animal shape. There isn’t much specifically written about mermen, since in most mythology and folklore most of the water spirits are of feminine nature. Water is the giver of life just like the concept of the Goddess of procreation. Now in Greek mythology, Poseidon is the God of the sea and Neptune his assistant, both follow a masculine concept of dominance. from time of the Iliad. Poseidon presided over the sea, just as Hades ruled over the underworld and Zeus over the skies and earth. He could not only command the waves but could provoke storms, create landslides on the coast with a flourish of his trident, and cause springs to flow. His power seems to have extended over springs and lakes as well as over the seas. in the few drawings I have found of mermen from different cultures, they resemble very much the archetype of Poseidon, muscular men with long beard, and strong arm holding a trident. I feel like the mythology of mermen is still to be created according to the particular signs of time. |
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