Cycle Through the Year with the Mermaid Archetype

Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.   Today’s post is about how to work with the Mermaid Archetype through the Wheel of the Year!   I think this is a fantastic post for Mermaid Monday, as well as working in conjunction with several posts of the past few weeks.   For this post, I will be looking at the Mermaid archetype across several different species of Water Fae, therefore, not all of them will have Fins, but they are all Watery by nature, linking them with Mermaid energy in my experience.   Without further ado, let’s look at Mermaid energy throughout the year!

SAMHAIN: WASHERS AT THE FORD

~For Samhain I have chosen the energy of the Washer at the Ford, which is the Welsh Death Predicting Faery Woman.   There are many similarities to traditional Banshees, but instead of Wailing at the upcoming death, the Washers at the Ford appear to show warriors a vision of their own bloodied armor being washed.   If you saw a Washer at the Ford cleaning your garments, it was a sure sign that you would not survive the battle you were going into.   In many ways, she served to give someone a heads up so that they could make peace with their fate, which is definitely Samhain energy in my opinion!

WINTER SOLSTICE: GWRAGEDD ANNWN (LADIES OF THE LAKE)

~For the Winter Solstice I have chosen the energy of the Gwragedd Annwn, the Welsh Lake Maidens, often associated with the Arthurian Lady of the Lake.   The Lake Maiden energy is one of healing and diving into the depths of the Lake to explore all of the hidden emotions, very much aligned with the energy of delving within that is occurring at the Winter Solstice, as the Winter season is one of inward reflection as the world becomes icy and still.    While the Lake Maidens are often depicted as youthful, they have an energy that can range from maternal to Crone-like.    The Lady of the Lake in the Arthruiad is a good example of maternal energy, as she was the foster mother of Sir Lancelot, hence his surname being Du Lac (French for ‘of the Lake’).    In the Crone energy side of things, the challenging of Knights, heroes, and other men to prove their worth is in line with the traditional testing of Faery Women, which we definitely see with Lake Maidens.    This relates to crone energy because Faery testers either appear as young women seducing men, or as Crone-like Hags, who fall into the Loathly Lady archetype.    Morgan le Fay, who is a Lady of the Lake herself, with other Ladies of the Lake often seen as aspects of her, tested Gawain as Loathly Lady by disguising herself as a Crone during his time spent in Sir Bertilak’s castle!    This is Gwragedd Annwn’s energy that I think is most representative of the Winter Solstice, wise, nurturing, yet also appearing youthful, with the youthful side showing the dawning light with each day gaining some sunlight as the Solstice season gives way to Imbolc.         

IMBOLC: SWAN MAIDENS

~For Imbolc I have chosen the energy of the Swan Maiden, which I deep-dived a bit into in yesterday’s post about Swans in folklore!   Swan Maidens are the ultimate youthful maidens truly embodying the Maiden archetype.    With Imbolc, the Earth is just slowly beginning to awaken from her slumber with the first blooms of snowdrops gracing the fertile land.   The Swan Maiden swims into our consciousness with the purity and serenity of Winter slowly burgeoning into Springtime’s youthful blooming energy!   She is the ideal Mermaid archetype aspect to embody this transition from Winter to Spring.

SPRING EQUINOX: MORGENS (MARI-MORGANS)

~For the Spring Equinox I have chosen the energy of the Morgen, or Mari-Morgan, Welsh Water Faeries whose name is famously linked to Morgan le Fay.    I find these Welsh Mermaidenly Fae to be perfect for the blossoming energy of Spring coming into full bloom.   Mari-Morgans are Water Fae who I personally associate with Morgana in her healing and Leader of the Avalonian Sisterhood aspects.    They are sweeter and more innocent than other Morgana Water Faery energies like the Washer at the Ford or Gwargedd Annwn discussed above.    The Mari-Morgan is a blossoming youth embracing the maidenly energy of the Swan Maiden with some growth toward the sexuality that will take hold at Beltane!

BELTANE: WELL MAIDENS (MELUSINE MERMAIDS)

~For Beltane I have chosen the energy of the Well Maiden, or what I also refer to as Melusine Mermaid energy.   While this could also be linked to the darker Arthurian tale of the Well Maidens’s defilement causing a Wasteland to be created, I associate the Melusine in her Well Maiden energy to be aligned with Beltane.   In the tale of Melusine, she is a Mermaidenly Water Faery who tended a Well in the forest when she was discovered by her future husband, only leaving her duties as a Well Maiden to marry Raymond and become the mother to his children.   She is deeply associated with sexuality and allure, often believed to be the mother of several half-Faery children, and has intense connections to Avalon, where it is believed she was raised and returned to when Raymond ultimately betrayed her.   The part of her tale when her marriage begins and she proves a fertile wife and capable creator (also the designer of castles) is exactly the energy of Beltane!    

SUMMER SOLSTICE: UNDINES (TRADITIONAL MERMAIDS)

~For the Summer Solstice I have chosen the energy of the Undine, while I am using the term Undine which is technically the Water Elemental, they are also often seen to be the most common image of a traditional Mermaid.   I chose the term Undine instead of simply Mermaid because I wanted to differentiate each seasonal aspect of Mermaid’s archetypal energy to have a name of a specific type of Mermaid to most directly explain the energy of the season through this Mermaid archetype lens.    The Undine energy is the sexual, sensual, fertile, and romantic Water Faery energy.   There is even a famed opera titled Undine, which has a very similar plot to Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, making Undine the ideal term for this ultimately traditional Mermaid energy.   The Summer Solstice energy is the energy of self-love and embracing the fun and excitement of the Summer season, very Undine energy indeed.       It is a great reminder to embrace our own sexuality fully and feel fully blossomed into our lover aspect, which is very much aligned with the Summer Solstice!

LUGHNASADH: MERROWS

~For Lughnasadh I have chosen the energy of the Merrow, the Irish Mermaid.    In line with the energy of the first harvest festival, there are some masculine energies in the male Merrows who trap human men in Soul Cages, also a darker aspect of Merrow lore, but in the light side, female Merrows are stated to rescue men from these Soul Cages, freeing them but leaving them forever changed, at least in some belief about Merrows.    This balance of light and dark, but the beginning of skewing towards darkness embraces the energy of the waning year, with harvests happening as the air will begin to get crisper as we approach the Autumn.   The other important aspect of the Merrow is the Cohellen Druith, a special red cloak and cap that allows them to go between the worlds of Land and Sea.     In some tellings, the Cohellen Druith is not a cloak or cap, but the Merrow’s red hair, but either way it is a coveted item allowing a person to transit between realms.    This transition between the two states of being is perfectly aligned with the energy of the waning year, as well, and is ideal for the transitional period that will come with the Autumnal Equinox, embracing that energy on a smaller scale!          

AUTUMN EQUINOX: SELKIES

~For the Autumnal Equinox I have chosen the energy of the Selkie, the Scottish Seal Maiden.   Much like the Merrows and their Cohellen Druith and the Swan Maidens and their feathered cloaks, the Selkies have magickal seal skins that allow them to transform into their seal forms.   This is a great alignment for these transitional periods, with Selkies being a darker and deeper feminine energy than the Swan Maidens, with sadness being called forth from her wish to return to the Sea in the tales where her husband has forced her into marriage by stealing her seal skin.   While there are tales of Swan Maidens being forced into marriage much the same way, in those tales the husband seeks to win back her love, inevitably succeeding.   In the case of the Selkie, she leaves her husband forever when finding her seal skin, wishing to return to her Watery home!   This darker and more resolute feminine energy is a great transition to the energy of the Washer at the Ford that will come about at Samhain!

~I hope you have enjoyed reading my journey through the Wheel of the Year with the Mermaid archetype.   I believe that I have found a great way to embrace and transition the energy seasonally in this analysis, but I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.   Do you think there is a better Mermaid energy for any of the holidays?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely Mermaid artwork.   I found the image on https://www.freepik.com/premium-ai-image/mermaid-with-spear-fish-her-hand-generative-ai_81140388.htm.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading

• Mermaids by Skye Alexander
• Mermaid Magic by Lucy Cavendish & Serene Conneeley
• Priestess of Avalon Priestess of the Goddess by Kathy Jones
• The Mermaid Handbook by Carolyn Turgeon 
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• The Fairy Bible by Teresa Moorey
• The Romance of the Faery Melusine translated by Gareth Knight
• Oracle of the Mermaids by Lucy Cavendish