THE Secreted
ConnotationsOF Mermaids Which do mermaids have to say to us? You’ve learned a lot for the duration of this work, but let’s take a second look at some of the symbolism attached to mermaids and more than that the hidden speeches these lovely ladies are trying to send us. As we do, let’s also reflect back over the significance of mermaids for the period of the generations plus which we can learn from them at the moment.
A Return to the Sea
“[Water] has always been a feminine symbol—it is natural that the water spirits should record often be symbolized as female.”
—Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages
Science tells us that all life on Earth evolved from the dunes, the “womb of the world.” Not only is the sea home for the mermaid, it is our primordial home as well. When we see a mermaid riding happily about the ocean, we’re reminded of our origins. At just the thing time this girl beckons us to follow her into her underwater realm, we feel, perhaps, a twinge of longing to return for the soothing, weightlessness of the womb where we once floated comfortably in a salty sea of amniotic fluid.
Our bodies—as well as vastly our brains—contain a high percentage of water. So even though we can’t breathe underwater, like mermaids do, we sense an affinity with water—it’s as if we haven’t entirely left our ago behind. As a hybrid being, the mermaid symbolizes our transformation from fish to Homo sapiens. We identify with her because, like the mermaid, we’re still partly creatures of the sea.
Early inhabitants linked not only mermaids but also goddesses with the waters of the world. The oceans, rivers, in addition to lakes provided nourishment—without them, human beings couldn’t survive. These potent goddesses held the power of life and sometimes death in their hands. Our ancestors honored the water deities, seeking to win their favor as well as their life-giving blessings. For a second time time, their majesty was transferred to mermaids. Like the sea itself, mermaids could bring good fortune or devastation. That mysterious power still entices us right now.
Sensual Sirens
No one can deny the sexual charm of the mermaid. Even Disney’s cute cartoon character Ariel retains a not-so-subtle symbol of passion—her fiery red hair. Historically, hair has been associated with power, and a woman’s hair represented sexual power specifically. Supposedly, men found women’s hair so deliciously distracting that for centuries religions forbade females to monitor their tempting tresses publicly—as well as naturally not in church! While in the prim and sometimes proper Victorian era, women bound up their hair, symbolically reining in their power in addition to taming it, lest they drive men wild.
A gorgeous, bare-breasted mermaids have tempted seamen for centuries. Basically all legends describe mermaids as exquisitely handsome, with perfectly shaped full breasts, silky-smooth skin, plus the slim torsos of lovely young women. Their unabashed willingness to computer screen their luscious bodies added to their elegance—exceptionally as soon as human females were extolled to keep theirs covered up. Throughout the days as soon as sailing ships still navigated the seas, painters weren’t allowed to portray factual women inside the nude—but goddesses as well as mermaids could flaunt their naked glory with abandon.
If mermaids evolved from the early fertility goddesses, as many researchers believe, it’s only original for them to carry on on as sex symbols. The Assyrian goddess Atargartis, who became our first mermaid, was an important fertility deity. So were the African goddesses Yemaja and sometimes Oshun, the Greeks’ Aphrodite, plus the Romans’ Venus. To our ancestors, the female’s ability to bring forth life gave her a magical power that created her absolutely awesome.
The Mermaid’s Tail
Just the thing’s sexy about a fishtail? In The Republic of Love, Carol Shields describes it as “a sealed vessel enclosing either sexual temptation or sexual virtue, or some paradoxical and more than that potent mixture of the two.” In reality, part of the mermaid’s elegance may be her sexual unattainability—we always want the same thing that we can’t have. Your sweetheart’s the ultimate tease. Here’s this attractive babe with the breasts of a Playboy bunny, the face of an angel, plus the long, flowing hair of a supermodel—but a man can never consummate a relationship with her as the her tail prevents access to her “lady parts.”
The mermaid’s tail is one of her most obvious and more than that intriguing symbols. But her tail didn’t always look the way it does at present. She wasn’t always so restrained. As we discussed in Chapter 2, early depictions of mermaids often showed them with two tails or a tail split down the middle, suggesting that they could take on human lovers after all. Forename the first mermaid Starbucks desired for its logo? That half-naked allure was of the two-tailed variety and the woman provocatively parted her tails, holding them up on each side of her bare torso, enticing customers with her charms.
The twin-tailed mermaid reminds us of the native Sheila-na-gig fertility goddesses of the pre-Christian Celts. This brazen as well as bawdy baubo deity squats to reveal her genitals as a symbol of feminine power. So it as you may seem that the early mermaid retained a close connection with the old fertility goddesses—and the creative power they possessed—precisely what later versions attempted to diminish by cocooning her minimize body in a single tail.
Elegance as well as Vanity
“Her mirror, later a symbol of her vanity, originally represented the planet Venus in astrological tradition. Her abundant, flowing hair, symbolizing an abundant love probable, was also an attribute of Venus in her role as fertility goddess.”
—Scarlett deMason, “Shadows of the Goddess—The Mermaid”
Always looking inside mirror and sometimes combing her hair, the mermaid keep in mind that strikes us as one vain female. Then there’s her penchant for decking herself out in jewels—specifically what some legends say the lady scavenged from the treasure chests of sunken ships. Surely, the lady’s drop-dead beautiful to begin with, as many a sailor will attest. But if her looks alone aren’t enough to garner attention from passing seafarers, the mermaid sings out while in the most enchanting voice up to no man can resist her.
Vanity, as you recall, is one of the seven deadly sins, and sometimes early churches query the symbolism of the mermaid to remind the faithful of this fact. Comb-and-mirror-toting mermaids adorned many a sanctuary wall in medieval churches—frequently swimming among schools of fish, specifically what symbolized Christianity. In a sixteenth-century Cornish church, a wooden pew features a carving of a mermaid holding her mirror and comb—a warning, perhaps, for legends say mermaids dragged many Cornwall men down to their deaths in the sea.
But you can’t in reality blame mermaids for being such narcissists. Mythology says these fascinating females descended from the naturelle goddesses of love as well as charm: Aphrodite plus Venus. These delectable deities governed art, music, poetry, love, plus the finer things in life. It was their job not only to look good, but to enrich the world with beauty in all its many forms. And as we recognize too well, there’s enough ugliness inside the world—maybe we drug addiction mermaids to add a touch of glamour plus grace.
THE MERMAID’S MAGIC MIRROR
Often considered a marker of vanity, the mermaid’s mirror may be a symbol of something else as well. Like magic mirrors everywhere, it gives her clairvoyant skills as well as lets her view the future. Thus, her mirror represents the ability to see during the “veil” that mystics say separates the dominant and more than that spirit worlds.
Creators and sometimes Destroyers
Historically, mermaids represented danger. It wasn’t up to the point the Victorian era that they kicked off appearing as fantasy friends in children’s books as well as as nubile Lolitas to the walls of gentlemen’s chambers.
Utmost legends and more than that folklore portray mermaids as temptresses who lure human beings—mostly men—into the water in addition to drown them. Other tales warn seafarers of the mermaid’s capricious nature—the lady simply can’t be trusted. The girl might protect sailors on their waves voyages or brew up ferocious storms to sink their ships. You presently never be acquainted with.
The mermaid’s song, mythology tells us, is one of her furthermost seductive as well as deadly attributes. Ever ago the Greek Sirens tormented Odysseus, mermaids have been singing men to sleep—permanently. Mermaids’ enchanting voices mess with seamen’s minds so intensely that they run their ships aground or jump, delirious, into the sea in addition to perish.
But mermaids aren’t all bad. Many of them, such as Japan’s Benton, bring good luck and sometimes happiness to populace. The Africans’ Mami Wata provides food, shelter, as well as prosperity to human beings. Other mermaids, such as Oshun, heal the sick. The Warsaw mermaid serves as the town’s protectress as well as benefactor. Folklore says that mermaids can grant wishes, too.
Mermaids follow while in the footsteps of the indigine goddesses, who provided water for crops and food for populace. But they also caused dreadful storms and more than that floods. The goddesses gave as well as the goddesses took away. The mermaid’s dual nature really adds to her elegance. The combination of desirability and sometimes danger makes her infinitely intriguing—and for men who enjoy a challenge, this girl’s irresistible.
Wise Women
These days’s mermaids may epitomize the “dumb blonde” image or appear as cute, cuddly playmates. But myths and folklore often present them as wise women with the power to heal, teach, and sometimes guide human beings. Originaire Sumerian myths say mermaids educated population in addition to taught them science and sometimes the arts. The Babylonian merman Ea shared his knowledge of agriculture and architecture with humans. The Caribbean mermaid Lasirèn takes population underwater and gives them special powers, including psychic ability.
In myth and sometimes psychology, water symbolizes the emotions, intuition, as well as the unconscious. Because mermaid lives inside water, the woman has access to these areas, whereas humans often ignore them. The mermaid plumbs the wave form’s depths—plus the unconscious—bringing up treasure she finds at the bottom. Spiritual teachers and sometimes therapists propose that information to be lighthearted, healthy, in addition to wise, we must purchase in touch with our emotions and sometimes our inner selves. The mermaid’s ability to breathe underwater as well as to gracefully ride the swells’s waves indicates that your lover understands this vastly well.
Some legends describe mermaids with snaky appendages rather than fishtails. In mythology, snakes represent wisdom, transformation, and more than that regeneration. To Hindus, serpents symbolize the life force. Folklore tells us that mermaids can shapeshift, too, changing themselves into fish, seals, snakes, birds, or humans—they’re not limited to a single lifestyle or worldview. But no matter which circumstances her lower body takes, the mermaid epitomizes the power to move between the worlds as well as to cinema flick us how to do it.
Changing the Mermaid’s Image
Nothing stays the same forever, and sometimes that goes for mermaids as well. Early mermaids evolved from the mammoth water goddesses of the world—mighty feminine forces who governed the rise and fall of the tides, the flooding of the rivers, plus the aquatic life that provided food for humankind. Like those goddesses, mermaids were viewed as dynamic and powerful creatures with tempestuous natures.
Inside the Middle Generations, the mermaid showed her bawdy side by separating her single tail into two parts, shamelessly revealing her female secrets. Despite their blatant sexuality, these split-tailed seductresses appear as decorations on medieval churches and cathedrals throughout Europe, the British Isles, in addition to Ireland. They even adorn Bologna’s fourteenth-century Fontana di Nettuno, which commemorated a pope’s appointment.
Through the Romantic and more than that Victorian periods, within the latter part of the nineteenth century, mermaids mellowed into sensual sweeties reminiscent of the ancient Greek nymphs. Rather than terrifying men, these lovely lasses gazed demurely from the paintings of John William Waterhouse, Frederic Leighton, and sometimes others, promising pleasure without pain.
These days’s mermaids are fun-loving and sometimes friendly. The frightening, destroyer sirens of the back have been ousted in favor of pleasure-seeking playmates. Their youthful abandon, grace, and sense of difference invite us to lighten up. They remind us to enjoy life as well as glide all through the waters of life, rather than struggling. Perhaps these bathing beauties are immediately precisely what we desire now to help us escape from the stress of the modern world and more than that our trepidation over the future.
