Mermaid: A fictitious or mythical half-human sea creature with the head or trunk of a woman and the tail of a fish, conventionally depicted as beautiful and with long flowing golden hair.
Middle English - From Mere (sea) + maid
Siren: Any of a group of female and partly human creatures in Greek mythology that lured mariners to destruction by their singing; a temptress; a woman who sings with enchanting sweetness.
The main difference between mermaids and sirens is that sirens are predators, killers and dangerous creatures - seducing men with their voices and bodies. Mermaids are known as beautiful aquatic creatures that used their voices to enchant sailors and fall in love with them.
Once upon a time in a faraway land beneath the coral coves of the ocean lived a mermaid.
She was born on the Stormy Shipwreck Coast in the wake of the Sirens’ tragic Song and so her parents named her Siren.
Siren knew not of the tragedy of her birth, nor of the sacrifice of the Gods to bring her into the oceanic world, for her being was one of joy, of optimism, of open heart, of laughter and life.
And yet, amidst the light -
the shadow of her ancestry,
of her lineage, of generations of mermaids bound by silent promise, would ultimately haunt her, beyond control, despite her will to swim beyond the generational curses of what bound her to past & parallel lives.
As a young mermaid, Siren loved to swim out to the lighthouse cove.
The Lighthouse.
It filled her with dreams and aspirations. She could overcome the darkness within. For there was light. Light that could fill her. Inspire her. Inspire others. Lighten the shadow of all that she did not know and could not begin to comprehend.
Siren often cried rivers of tears, to fill rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, straits & oceans.
Her sadness was her undoing. And slowly all that she was, her very mermaid identity was threatened. She was losing her core integrity.
Siren loved to read. Her favourite book - The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Count was her hero.
She identified with the protagonist. A boy caught in a storm who must become a man of vengeance. Almost like a mermaid who had no choice but to become a siren in order to survive the cruelty of this 3D underworld.
There were days when the sun cast long shadows and sparkling rays through the levels of underwaters and Siren couldn’t help but feel 'how dare the sun shine while I cry rivers of tears?!'
On other days, Siren contemplated the age-old question 'To be a Fish or to be a Shark?'
Could she remain still in an alcove of coral and just be while wisdom flowed through her.
Or did she dare not stop for fear of forgetting how to breathe, and continue to do & go in order to sustain any semblance of existence in this vast underworld of unknown and uncertainty.
And grief. So much grief. She had once read that grief was love with nowhere else to go. So it collected as rivers of tears. Grief was really love unfinished and expressed in the sorrow of no vessel to hold it.
There was something about Song that Siren knew was Soul. Soul of her ancestry. Soul of her Shadow. She sang the haunting tune of generations. It echoed with 5D infinity across the vast oceans of the blue planet, transcending time and space, traversing dimensions and lifetimes.
But the haunting songs of soul came at a great cost, for the human Sailors who heard them were not ready to Sail away and Save themselves.
They were not brave, resilient and aware. They were drawn into the shadow of grey sadness. They stayed too long in the darkness, without light armour and inner core strength, ultimately crashing against the jagged coastline of Siren’s song.
Siren thought about her life and how she had evolved.
Alone but not lonely.
Brave but alone.
Would she ever find a life partner, a fellow merman who was not afraid of the vulnerability of shadow and truth?
What was the point of any growth & wisdom if she remained alone to battle and wage the wars that she did not want to fight?
As a warrior of light, was she the last to remember the lighthouse and how it could transform all shadow to greater good?
All of life was a work in progress. Siren understood that it was always a delicate balance. To desire and connect but still to remain detached so that she used her head & protected her heart and didn’t fall into a cycle of expectations or disappointments. She seldom got that right and sometimes wished that if only she had no desires or ambitions, flowing with the rivers and tides of life would be so much easier.
She was blessed to feel so much, to witness the serendipitous connections in every daily moment. Her life was truly different and interesting, as she sometimes comically observed with humour and natural curiosity. To commune with nature's plants, birds and animals.
To be moved by a fiery sunset.
To read the Universal signs and magically bridge all of its networks.....
Yet, those sensitivities also came at a cost. Sometimes she felt too much, it overwhelmed her. It felt so messy. Where she could easily cry from the written word, or feel the pain of a friend’s story, or when she knew things that were none of her business to know but her psychic sense was activated, or when her heart ached out of empathic care for every living thing, but simultaneously she would try to be aware of her own needs and honour the healthy independence of each existence. And in those dichotomous moments, she remembered the words of Glennon Doyle Melton "I'm not a mess but a deeply feeling person in a messy world. I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often, I say, 'For the same reason I laugh so often --- --- because I'm paying attention.' I tell them that we can choose to be perfect and admired, or to be real and loved. We must decide."
There was a constant push and pull. A lifelong struggle to sit with her highest self, tuned into her sixth sense, but at the same time, lean into her human frailty and fallibility; identify with another and honour their story, holding space for each.
As for letting go, Siren always felt that if she would let go of any more, she would slowly drift away. When she reflected on her life’s journey, she felt that in order to progress and to evolve, she had slowly left so many parts of her ideals in so many corners of this vast planet, and she had learned to compromise and to accept so much, despite the pain and lack of resolution or closure; to cut her losses and to take the high tide, time and time again. Often she felt like there was no more she even had to hold onto that she could possibly let go of.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past…” (The Great Gatsby).
Despite Siren's Spirit of resilience, she prayed for no more challenge to shatter her core. She simply prayed for a gentle, easy and kind flow of life’s current so that she could return Home. So that Home could be and become a Haven of Light and Song with infinite grace…..
And one day, the magic began to materialize. The Universe responded. Slowly, ever so gently, Siren felt that her tears that had filled thousands of oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, creeks and straits began to show yield….shipwrecked stormy coasts held sunshine and rebirth….barren, yellow farmyards watered with her salty words returned & flourished with the fruits and flowers of her labours.
A Transformation of sorts. For life goes on. Holding onto Hope she continues to thrive. And although there are periods of time when she loses her way….the spherical motion continues, spiraling upwards and outwards & creating domino light effects for all who tune in, for all whom her song touches.
Happy 2022!
Riv