Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   This week’s Femme Fatale Friday blog post is about Melusine and Medusa and how they have common themes in their tales!    Just like the power of the Kundalini Serpent in our Chakra system, both Melusine and Medusa embody the aspect of being a Serpent Queen.   However, Melusine and Medusa embody Serpent Queen energy in different ways, which is what I will be exploring in this post!

Melusine is not always depicted as Serpentine, often shown as a more traditional Mermaid.   Yet, that Serpent energy is still present in her tale no matter what.   On the other hand, Medusa’s Serpent energy is always very much at the forefront of her story.   With her hair made of snakes and her gaze, that caused men to turn to stone.    While Medusa is the Gorgon, Melusine is the Siren, and the two are linked types of Dark Divine Feminine Energy.   Both of these types of Dark Feminine Energy can be seen to embody Female Rage, and we certainly see that in the stories of Melusine and Medusa!

Melusine’s energy is not all Dark Goddess, and neither is Medusa’s.   They both have connections to Priestess nature.   Medusa is often said to have been a Priestess of Athena in many tellings of her myth before being punished for being assaulted by Poseidon in the Parthenon.   Melusine spent her childhood in Avalon, home of the Ninefold Sisterhood of Priestesses, and it was to Avalon she returned after being betrayed by her husband!   The Priestess energy is one of nurturing, protecting, and devotion, clearly differing from the darker energies also associated with these Serpent Queens.

The Dark Feminine energy comes in when Medusa becomes a monster and is subsequently killed by Perseus in his hero’s journey.   For Melusine, her Dark Feminine energy is seen in two points in her tale.   The first is when she convinced her sisters to attempt to take revenge on their father when she was fifteen after learning he had betrayed her mother.   The second is after she is betrayed by her own husband.   That is when Melusine turned into a Dragon, full of Female Rage, at the fact that her trust had been betrayed.   Her husband had done the one thing that he had promised never to do: spy on her on a Saturday and see her in her Mermaid form.   He even called her a Monster, proving that he lost respect for Melusine when he found out the truth.   That is when Melusine became a Dragon to flee from him, taking away her blessings, and returned to Avalon!

While their stories are very different, Medusa and Melusine are connected to Serpents, the water, magick, Priestesshood, Sovereignty, fertility, sexuality, and Female Rage.    We can learn how to set firm boundaries and prevent being taken advantage of when we look at their stories.   While Medusa is ultimately defeated, her head becomes an apotropaic image that is still used widely.   Melusine went on to live full-time as a Faery Queen Mermaid Goddess in Avalon, still visiting her children to teach them and mourning the loss of members of her bloodline as a sort of Banshee!   It can be said that Melusine presents much less Female Rage on average when compared to Medusa, as she shows rage when being betrayed, but her temper cools off.   On the other hand, Medusa’s Female Rage is against all men, and all people really, and is not abated until she is killed.   That being said, I cannot say for certain how their energies or levels of Female Rage compare, as I have personally only worked with Melusine.   So, I want to finish by noting that this post has been exploring commonalities and differences based on their stories.

I hope you have enjoyed this short exploration of the Serpent Queen energy found in the tales of Melusine and Medusa.   What is your favorite thing about Serpentine Female Rage?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a medieval drawing of Melusine.   I found the picture on https://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/a-s-byatts-possession-and-melusine/.            

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: https://patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Further Reading

• Mythology by Edith Hamilton
• The Romance of the Faery Melusine, translated by Gareth Knight