The Lady of the Lake, Mermaids and Water Magic with Annwyn Avalon

Untitled project from SquadCast

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[00:00:00] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Hello everybody and welcome to Dine with the Divine. I'm Ashley, your host, and I'll be your guide today into the magical, the mystical, and everything in between. So on today's episode, we'll be talking about the Lady of the Lake, and we're going to talk about some unusual mermaid stories. I hope everyone's having a fantastic week, and if not, I hope it gets better much Like way sooner than you expected So we have a absolutely fantastic guest as always on this show Today we have annwin avalon.

[00:00:35] So annwin is a water priestess and Celtic or celtic fight me. I don't know

[00:00:40] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Yeah, that's good.

[00:00:44] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: some people say celtic and some people say celtic and I don't know, like, I don't want anyone to get mad at me. So today we're saying Celtic. Okay. Sorry, let's go back to the actual introduction. She's the author of the way of the water priestess, water, witchcraft, magic, and [00:01:00] lore from the Celtic tradition. And. Celtic goddess Grimoire. She's the founder of the Water Priestess, of Water Priestess Training, the Water Priestess Confluence, Bewitching the Waters Symposium, and Triscula Rose Witchcraft, an Avalonian witchcraft tradition. She has devoted her life to the study of esoteric water mysteries. Her path is one of sacred service to the waters of this world and her ancestors. She's an initiate, initiated witch and priestess. She's the author of Patheo's blog, The Water Witch. She now lives in Glastonbury as a sacred steward of the water.

[00:01:42] Chalice Orchard, the former home of the famous occultist Dion Fortune, ooh, and is a keeper and lead ceremonialist at White Spring, one of the Sacred Springs located in Glastonbury. How are you today, Anwen?

[00:01:57] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having [00:02:00] me.

[00:02:00] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: No problem. After that glorious introduction, I would love for you to share with us how you became a water priestess and how you got into this journey.

[00:02:12] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Oh my gosh, okay, that's a really long story that like, could honestly take me three hours. But I have in recent years figured out how to whittle this down. , It all began when I was born back in the beginning. No, but for real my mother's British. And my father was this guy in the Navy, this, American Navy submariner and and they had me and I was born under the cancer sun and a Pisces moon.

[00:02:42] My mother's an Aquarius, the water bear, which makes so much sense because she bore this body of water, which is me. But I ended up growing up in Florida around Daytona beach, about five to 10 minutes from the beach, about five minutes from the Rivers, creeks there was a [00:03:00] swamp in my backyard because our house was like right on the edge of a wetland preserve and I spent hours in all of the sacred springs.

[00:03:09] So I was a water baby. It, there was a hurricane and the hurricane stopped and everything was flooded and I had my bathing suit on and I was out in the puddles. Just like, if there was water, I was in it. And of course I didn't know this at the time. I was in, I was raised in a very fundamental Christian home, Southern Baptist, evangelical.

[00:03:30] So there was an emphasis on understanding that spirits existed. Of course they were all framed in that light as, as bad.

[00:03:39] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah.

[00:03:40] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: So I had my first water spirit contact when I was around puberty, 11, 12 years old. And I was at a spring in Florida and there was some injustice that happened. I couldn't tell you what it was, but I remember being barefoot in my bathing suit, bawling my eyes out [00:04:00] and running along the the edge of this, Sacred Spring, and the Sacred Spring was different than other Floridian springs because a lot of the springs will bubble up from the ground and they'll look like a pool or a lake, but this one was unique in the fact that it came out of the side of a rock and then created like a river type of landscape and people would come here to Tube and they basically Go to this one place where you get in the tube and then you a lazy river type of thing, right?

[00:04:32] Get in the tube and then you float down the lazy river and then you walk back up and then you float down the lazy River, so this kind of concept but above where you could get into the pool or into the water with this your inner tube I went further up to where the Like water was pouring out of the earth and into, and to create this kind of river and I was crying and I was upset and I just was like, it was awful.

[00:04:59] And [00:05:00] I very dramatically as teenage girls do through themselves through themselves, through myself into the water. Just like dramatically threw myself in headfirst and this current was pretty strong, especially when you were like low on in, in the water. And so it started taking me through the water and it just like swooshed me through and I'm crying underwater.

[00:05:23] And one of the most amazing things that I love about water is you can put your head underwater and scream on the top of your lungs and nobody can hear you.

[00:05:31] . Or so I thought, because I screamed. And I bawled, and I was all emotional, and I was asking for help, and I was asking to be saved. Like, just save me from this existence.

[00:05:43] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Like, I, like, I can't do this. And there was an answer. There was this answer, and I remember having this dialogue in my head, and I remember there being this presence, this being that [00:06:00] answered, and basically, like, Said, we'll save you like you're saying, we'll take you and moments later, my foot, my left foot, very important left because the distinction at that time was like Christianity was the right hand path and anything else was left handed.

[00:06:21] So it was left foot as I'm whisking over the rocks and screaming and, being very dramatic the top of my foot strikes a rock and it is like, it is hurting so much. I can feel the pain radiating through my body and it created a puncture mark on the top of my left foot that was in the perfect shape of a triangle, a downward pointing triangle.

[00:06:46] I would not know until my early 20s that the downward pointing triangle is the alchemical glyph for water. And of course, as I learned more things, I understood [00:07:00] what was happening at that moment. I was in a body of water. I was, I came in at the very top where the water was flowing from the earth, which now we know that through my research and, practice and understanding and quest for knowledge, I have found that there's a wide body of lore and knowledge and understanding that the entrances or the exits to where the water flows from the earth, where the water exiting the subterranean realms and coming into The physical realms is an entrance into into the other world.

[00:07:37] It's a portal. And we see that this is actually what much of my first book was about, but I got sidetracked. Um, so there I am in this body of water, at the mouth to the underworld, and I ask for help and a being. Answers. And then immediately I hit my foot on that [00:08:00] rock.

[00:08:00] It's as if they marked me in that moment. There was a blood exchange. I absolutely was bleeding. I pulled myself to the edge of the water and I continued to be dramatic and cry. Now I have stupid puncture wound on the top of my foot and the day just didn't get better. Time goes on at that point, time just continues and nearly a decade goes by and I graduate high school and I get out of there as fast as possible by the time I'm in Arizona at this point.

[00:08:34] So I'm actually

[00:08:35] from my water sources while I'm in high school. They say that high school can be the roughest time of people's lives. It was horrible. Especially being so disconnected from water because there I was in the middle of the Arizona desert.

[00:08:48] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah.

[00:08:49] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: So I dive into things like tarot cards. I start learning different things.

[00:08:58] I, I got [00:09:00] recruited into a sorority. It's a whole story around that, but I was working at Michael's and what they described me as the cute little hippie girl. This sorority apparently needed to stack their numbers. Otherwise they were going to lose their housing.

[00:09:13] And so they were recruiting anybody. And at the time I had just lost my roommate and I really needed a place to live. And so I'm working at Michael's and they come through my checkout and they literally recruit me to join their sorority. And I'm like, Are you saying I can live with you? And they're like, yeah.

[00:09:30] So I was like, all right, cool. So I joined the sorority. I am not a sorority girl at all. They're like, you have to do all these things. And I was like, no, I'm not going to participate. I didn't last two semesters. Like I'm not a sorority girl but they put me through a ritual initiation, which. Like the sorority girls, they don't know it, but they're, they are definitely like practicing some ceremonial magic with some of the stuff that they do, [00:10:00] triggered the spirit initiation for me.

[00:10:02] And I left college after those two semesters and went out into the wide world and got myself into some trouble. story short, I end up. Meeting my partner, moving to North Carolina on the coast where I have my son. My son is a water baby. He's a Scorpio and he was born on the coast.

[00:10:24] I was living on the coast and not long after that I get whisked off to Japan. And this is when it begins. This is when it gets juicy. So I start first off. I'm really going to date myself here with age, but there was a mail order catalog that came to me and in the back of the mail order catalog was like a two inch by two inch or one inch by one inch.

[00:10:48] It was the tiniest black and white Advertisement I've ever seen. And it literally said witchcraft books and then had a [00:11:00] URL and this is early to early two thousands, maybe like really early two thousands. And I was like, what do you mean? Witchcraft books, like what that exists. So I immediately

[00:11:15] to the website and I ordered a stack and they came and I started reading through this, these books.

[00:11:21] And I was like, oh my gosh, this is me. These books are literally describing me. I now have an answer for, who I am. Like, this makes so much sense. And I sought out a coven. And in those days, Witchbox was still around. Witchbox used to be the Witch's Voice, and before social media, that was our platform.

[00:11:41] That's how we connected with people. There was a coven in Japan, it was an American coven, it met on the military base and it was like just up the road from me and I was just flabbergasted that even existed. So I sought them out and I joined and as soon as [00:12:00] I joined I found out that they had an adopt a beach and so we would go to this adopt a beach and we would spend time cleaning and oh it was dirty.

[00:12:10] But the thing

[00:12:12] this beach is it just like the coven wasn't we weren't assigned a random beach, the person to get the adopted beach connected with our group knew that we were sacred nature worshipers. And so they found a beach that wasn't being tended, that had a shrine to the sea goddess. And that is how our coven got that beach is our adopted beach.

[00:12:36] So when you go to the beach. You have to walk past these ancestral grave sites down a little hill and over and through and then you get to a little cove and then you have to walk to the other side of the cove like way on the other side and when you get there you find a cliff face in front of you.

[00:12:55] To the left is a shrine to a sea goddess. Now, [00:13:00] In your mind, you're probably thinking like something really exciting and like beautiful, but the fact of the matter is this is coastal. It is on the beach, so you can't put things on there because they're just going to get swept out to sea.

[00:13:13] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah.

[00:13:14] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Cinder blocks, like just cinder blocks stacked up in this shrine space, but we would leave offerings. And then to the right of that shrine was an archway, a tunnel, a cave, that we would have to go

[00:13:26] through in order to get to the actual beach. And so basically like going through the tunnel, like going through this tunnel to the other world, it, it meant, Mix some of these wonder tales and like how to enter into the other world.

[00:13:44] So we had a lot of we spent a lot of time there cleaning all sorts of stuff. And This was where I started making contact with water spirits again,

[00:13:54] I had that first contact, but this was,

[00:13:57] I have read some books. Now I [00:14:00] understand things a little bit different. I'm also out, I'm removed of, out of that fundamental Christian upbringing and I'm starting to, out the truth of nature and the truth of my life and who I am and what exists.

[00:14:13] I started making contact with a goddess or a water spirit that basically was a sea goddess or a Or born of the sea. It was a spirit that was born of the sea. Later, I would find out that this was most likely Morgan Le Fay, whose name does mean seaborne.

[00:14:33] So fast forward to try and make this really long story shorter.

[00:14:36] I ended up leaving Japan after several years and I ended up back in North Carolina, living on the coast. I'm living there, and I am on a Yahoo group a Yahoo, do you remember those? The Yahoo they were like, you would send an email to this email address and it would like send it to everyone,

[00:14:54] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: yes. Absolutely.

[00:14:55] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Yes, so I was on one of those, and I was just introducing [00:15:00] myself, I was new, I just moved there, and I said something like, Oh, I would love to do, formal training to be a witch or priestess, but, nothing like that exists. Ha. And someone wrote back, and was like, Actually? It does. And you can go this route, you could go this route, or I also am offering these classes.

[00:15:21] And I ended up studying with her and her husband, and I did my year in a day, and it was, at this time, it was WICA. we're talking early 2000s when Wicca, there was no distinction between Wicca and traditional witchcraft or Wicca and witchcraft. If you were Wiccan, you were a witch. If you were a witch, you were a Wiccan.

[00:15:44] Now we've spent 15 years now dissecting all of this and really being like, no, I'm a witch, but I'm not Wiccan or no, I'm Wiccan. And I'm not this, so at that time, that's what it was like really grouped under. So I did my [00:16:00] year in a day and my teachers were very watery, a quadruple Scorpio

[00:16:05] and another Cancerian.

[00:16:07] And. This was all in a coastal town. I started hosting moon circles on the beach. I started formally studying with my teachers and I got my year in a day finished, and I was initiated as a witch and a priestess. And it wasn't too long after that my teachers said to me, she said, you know that you're abalone, right?

[00:16:31] And I said to her, yes. abalone in

[00:16:36] She said it and it just resonated with me like my whole body vibrated and She explained what it was and then as good teachers do she said I can't teach you this. This is not my path, but here's somebody who can. And so she sent me off to my next level of studies with someone else who was running Maura Freeman [00:17:00] from the Avalon Mystery School.

[00:17:01] She'd been running the Avalon Mystery School for years. And I started working with her and because of her, I ended up coming to Glastonbury Avalon, which is actually where I'm living right now, but I didn't know that I would ever be here. I go to, I come to Glastonbury because I want to go to on the sacred pilgrimage and visit the sites and the big draw was the Chalice which is what is world famous.

[00:17:23] Everyone knows about this. So I go and I have my moment and then I also knew that there was another spring.

[00:17:30] Because I'd been taught this, I just didn't understand what it was. And I knew where it was, and I start walking, and I head up this road, House Lane, and I walk, there's this little building, like, tucked into the side of a hill, and the door is open, and I walk in, and it changed.

[00:17:49] My life, because what I walked into was an old Victorian wellhouse that had been turned into a water temple.

[00:17:58] No electricity, [00:18:00] so it's all candlelit. So imagine a hundred candles lighting the inside of this wellhouse. This wellhouse goes deep into the side of the hill. And so it's like this.

[00:18:11] There's these immersion pools, there's altars. I had never been in a pagan temple before, let alone like a pagan water temple. We had shrines to, there were shrines to goddesses and shrines to the solar king and the fairy king of Avalon. And it just, I was blown away. I went and I

[00:18:32] one of the shrines and, I started meditating and I basically said, I've done the thing, like I've studied on my own.

[00:18:42] I then have

[00:18:43] formal studying. Like I now am fully fledged. Like I feel like I've checked the boxes. I've got my like stamp of approval that says, yes, you're a witch. Yes, you're a priestess. But now what do I do? What do I do with any of that? [00:19:00] And heard an audible answer. And it was. Teach water magic, go teach water magic.

[00:19:12] And I left being like, yeah, that's great. No. And it just nagged me and nagged me. And finally I taught, I was, I went to Arizona again and I taught at the Arizona goddess conference, I taught a class on water magic and. That turned into more classes, workshops, hosting public rituals, hosting pagan pride day, doing water rituals for pagan pride day, hosting rituals for two, 300 people in in the area.

[00:19:47] And

[00:19:48] just like, this is of course, way before social media was a thing. We didn't

[00:19:53] all this stuff online like we do now. But there are a few pictures back from those days, which I'm thankful for. [00:20:00] And The next thing you know, I'm teaching at things like Pantheicon and I've got a nine month water magic course that I release and I start teach, I do what the water spirits, what the, what that message was in the temple.

[00:20:17] And. That is, at that point, I was like fully working, like a fully working water priestess but I wasn't framing it exactly in that way all the way back in like 2012, 2013. I didn't, honestly, people weren't ready for it. I would say things like I'm a water witch or I'm a water priestess. And then it would get crucified online because those things don't exist.

[00:20:42] Just be like everyone else. So that set me out set me on this path of like wanting to prove that it was legitimate, not something that I just made up. Like it is. in the history books. It is in mythology. It's here. And so the nine month water magic [00:21:00] course really bore the next thing, which was my first book, which was water, witchcraft, magic, and lore from the Celtic tradition.

[00:21:10] And that book, I really wanted to, I did so much heavy research because I really wanted to prove that there was a spiritual, that the water path was a legitimate spiritual path. It blew my mind that we had, like, all these books on candle magic, which is fire. We have thousands of books on things like crystal magic, and herbs, and herbal magic, which is all earth stuff.

[00:21:37] We even have entire books on how to create your own incense and birds, and like magic with birds, and things like this. But there was nothing, except for, I think, one book by Sandra Keens that I could find, Sea Magic that was about Water. And so I set out to prove my point that this was a legitimate water path and that there were probably other people out there that [00:22:00] wanted to walk a spiritual path of water.

[00:22:02] And so Water, Witchcraft, Magic, and Lore from the Celtic tradition dropped. And then about the time that it published, which Like writing a book and publishing a book, like it's a process. It can take anywhere from, I started writing the book. Honestly, there's content in Water Witchcraft that I started writing in 2013, but it was not officially published until 2019, I believe.

[00:22:32] And I signed my contract for it way back in 2017. So it takes a bit So it's now getting published and I go on another sacred pilgrimage this time with the Sisterhood of Avalon and I go back to the White Spring and I go back to that same space where I was meditating and I was like, okay I did it.

[00:22:53] I did it. I taught the water magic and then I kept teaching the water magic and then I started doing the rituals and then I Did this [00:23:00] course and now there's a book that is helping people to learn water magic. Like I've done it. What's next? And the message was like, write, finish writing, write, finish writing.

[00:23:13] Cause yeah, it was already started the way of the water priestess. I'll say that there was my first book, I was a brand new author, I had no idea what I was doing. And I was contracted for 50, 000 words and I submitted 97, 000. And they, my publishers kicked it back to me and were like, no. You can't do that to us.

[00:23:39] So cut half the book basically. And they made me cut half the book. So when I say go back to this pilgrimage and I get the message of right or finish writing the way of the water priestess, I took all of the priestess content that was in water witchcraft out and it was just sitting there. And so that is when I got the message 2019 is when that pilgrimage was [00:24:00] that I needed to.

[00:24:01] Like finish it. Like now's the time, send it to your publisher, do it. And then that finally came out in 2021. And from there, water priestess training has come out because at that point there was people that were like, we want to be water priestesses too. How do I walk a path of, a sacred path of water?

[00:24:22] And. Then we all, I also started working on the Water Priestess Confluence. So anyways, that is a really long answer and I've missed probably really important points, but in a nutshell, a really big nutshell, a 30 minute nutshell there's the answer to how I became.

[00:24:43] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: I love it. And if you think of what you left out, you can always bring it up later. Please. That was a wonderful. Journey very interesting. Love that you brought up which like which Fox and stuff because I remember that back in the day. Like the forum websites other than [00:25:00] read it.

[00:25:00] There was way more everybody. That's how we communicated. All you've all your fringe niche groups of life. That's how we all talked was on these forum websites.

[00:25:12] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Oh yeah. And then they don't even exist anymore. There was a couple that I was on. That just, yeah, that ceased to exist anymore.

[00:25:21] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: yeah, there was one. Can't remember the name of it, but it was for tarot and it had, best thing about it was this particular and somebody's screaming into the void right now. They know exactly what I'm talking about. It was like the background of the website was purple. It was all purple. And the best thing about it was they had nine, like you could literally type in any tarot deck and they would have nine sample cards that you could see what the cards look like before you wanted to buy it. Which was my favorite part of it.

[00:25:55] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: I know what you're talking about. Oh my gosh. Ter ugh.[00:26:00]

[00:26:00] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: It's tarot and the word is with an a, I think I forget the name of the website.

[00:26:05] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: know what you're talking about. Cause I do remember and it wasn't like a, like a. Like a deep purple. It was almost like a fuchsia y purple.

[00:26:13] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yes.

[00:26:14] will.

[00:26:15] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: I used that all the time because I was always like, Ooh what tarot card is this? Or when I was looking for different, like, watery tarot decks, I remember going through it and being like, there's got to be mermaid tarot decks,

[00:26:28] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yes. Yes. I have the mermaid terror deck that I really love, by the way. There was a and there was also like a section on that website that if you were new, which at the time I was, you could post like you were looking for people to practice on or you're looking anybody who wanted like a free could contact you because you would help you would it would help you learn So I used to love that website.

[00:26:55] Anyway talking about forum websites. Love that and that's [00:27:00] How you started connecting with all these traditions and then also you are and I don't know too much about water magic to be honest, but you are one of the you're the first time I had heard of like a water priestess or anything like that.

[00:27:17] So I thought it was fascinating when I like, found out about you and you have written these books. I was like, that is really cool. Like, that's not something you hear about a lot. I know, and I know a lot of people do magic. When it comes to the sea, and I know a lot of about, so I know a lot about mermaids and a lot about sea goddesses, but I didn't know there was a lot of people who do like sea magic, basically, so that's very neat.

[00:27:42] Other than the only people I know who are people in the Ifa tradition who follow like Yamaya or Oshun, who's the goddess of the rivers, they're the only people I know who do it. In the Western world, I didn't. So that's really cool. I just think that's really awesome.

[00:27:56] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Yeah we, unfortunately, the Western world got [00:28:00] colonized so far back that so much of it was lost and choice was Christianity. or die. And and so much of it was lost, but that is why I wrote both Water Witchcraft and The Way of the Water Priestess is to really be like, look, it's here in archaeology.

[00:28:25] It is here in folk practices. It is here in our mythology. Even my latest book, which is Celtic Goddess Grimloire. When I started writing Celtic Goddess Grimoire, I wrote, I decided to take that project on because As I was doing my research on the goddesses, I was like, Oh, that, that goddess is named after a river.

[00:28:46] Oh, that goddess was worshiped by her people at that river. Oh, this well that's connected to this goddess. Oh, like every single goddess in my last book, with the exception of Andraste [00:29:00] is somehow connected with water. And the only reason that I can't prove Andraste is connected to water is because we have one.

[00:29:11] Basically like one description of her and that is through the Romans eyes as they're speaking about Boudicca, Queen Boudicca of the Iceni. She basically invoked Andraste before she slaughtered all of those nasty Romans.

[00:29:28] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Got it?

[00:29:29] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: And but that's the only information that we have on Andraste, so there's just literally nothing for me to dig into to find out whether or not she's connected to water, but all of them, like within the Celtic practices, back in 2016, I was actually teaching a class that was called cult of the sacred wells of the sacred and holy wells, cult of the sacred spring and holy wells.

[00:29:52] That's what it was called. Because within the, especially within the Celtic practices, it was all around water. Even [00:30:00] to the point that like bogs are full of offerings, lakes are full of offerings. Like the Celts were literally going to the water's edge and throwing in gold, swords, chariots, as gifts to the water spirits.

[00:30:17] So somebody had to go in and be like, it's here. It exists.

[00:30:22] And I knew that without that proof, without actually having documented proof, no one would believe me. So I documented it. Now we have a worldwide community of water priestesses, and that does absolutely include the priestesses of Yemaya and Umbanda and Kimtomble and all of the voodoo houses, because they all are also serving deities like Oshun and Yemaya are.

[00:30:50] water spirits, water goddesses and that's what I love so much about the water priestess confluence is A place where there is an [00:31:00] equal meeting of rivers. And so at the Water Priestess Confluence, it's not about my path. It's not about what I want. It's about holding space for water women of all ages.

[00:31:12] all types and we have everything from working with dolphins and Christ consciousness to a little Dorsey coming and talking about, spiritual baths and the Orishas. It spans the whole section of water. Like if it's water and women, That is what the Confluence is about.

[00:31:32] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: That is absolutely beautiful. I love that. That's fantastic. it's so interesting and we'll talk a little bit more about it later. But, , water is life, right? What's one of the first facts everybody learns about the human body? Oh, you're made 70 percent water. You're born in water. , it's such a universal thing.

[00:31:53] And then for you in particular, you're talking about, Your path, and right now you're in Glastonbury, [00:32:00] and Celtic traditions, they're islands. Like, Ireland is an island, the whole, United Kingdom is an island, it's, they're islands. Of course, the fact that people are like, there's no such thing as this water situation.

[00:32:11] Of course there's a water situation, they're surrounded by water. Like, what do you mean?

[00:32:15] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Not, and not only are we surrounded by water, but in Ireland alone, it was, at one point, there was like 3, 000 holy wells. And that's just

[00:32:26] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah.

[00:32:29] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: England and Wales and Scotland, they're technically all different countries. In England, there's a holy well like every couple of miles.

[00:32:37] Okay maybe I'm being, maybe I'm over exaggerating, but

[00:32:41] are thousands of holy wells here as well, and some of them have dried up and some of them are lost. But yeah, it, there's so many. It's like, just so much water.

[00:32:52] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Just water. I love it. Now that we've had this beautiful conversation about water, we're going to do our dish of the week, I was like since we're [00:33:00] talking about water, we have to do something that something, we're going to do a fishy dish. Okay. So hold on. Let me get those link up. Hold music. Okay. Okay, so it's this dish, this week's dish of the week is creamy sun dried tomato salmon and orzo. What? Oh, no. Hold on.

[00:33:31] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Sounds silly.

[00:33:33] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: yeah, it sounds delicious if I can get the recipe because it's like, this is for members only. Hold on, I'm gonna find it. Let's see. not, I'll find, we'll talk about a different dish. Can't use that. Hold music again. Salmon and orzo recipe. Alrighty, [00:34:00] so going to talk about our salmon and orzo recipe. So this is lemon orzo and salmon. So what you're going to need for this, you're going to need some salmon fillets. Filets is how I say it. I'm sorry. Filets, whatever you like. About four to six ounces each. You're going to have some spices, some paprika, garlic powder, smoke, paprika, chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Some canned coconut milk would be good. Low sodium vegetable broth, lemon juice and dash, shallots, garlic, shredded kale and peas, olive oil, and some butter. You could use some vegan butter, dairy butter, whichever one you like. So you're going to start by seasoning that salmon up with some paprika, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and salt and pepper. Then you're going to sear them on each side for 3 to 4 minutes. You're going to then take the salmon from the pan and soak up any excess water with a paper towel. And after a couple minutes, [00:35:00] you're going to add the broth, coconut milk, and you're going to let that, and the orzo, let that cook for 10 to 12 minutes. in that lemon juice. then you're going to garnish with some fresh parsley and extra lemon juice to and get it ready for serving. there's different tips and modifications on here too, if you'd like to do that. But that'll be the show notes. We have a nice little salmon dish for you.

[00:35:23] Salmon's good. Full of them healthy fats. And yeah, we love that. Okay. That's our Dish of the Week. And we're gonna go to our next section. Hold on one second. Okay. So today's tea time, we're gonna learn something. we normally do. And since Anwen talked about Avalon quite a bit, I thought we were gonna talk about Avalon too. A little bit about [00:36:00] Avalon, but not so much just about Avalon. We're gonna talk about the Lady of the Lake. Now, if anybody There was a miniseries, and I looked this up because I couldn't remember, year this came out. There's a miniseries, it came out in 1998 on NBC called Merlin.

[00:36:21] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Oh my God! This is my favorite! I'm so glad you brought it up!

[00:36:27] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Like, ha!

[00:36:29] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: I have it on DVD, I have it purchased on Amazon, I watch it. It is like my comfort food. Like movie with Morgan LeFay Helen Bonham Carter is Morgan LeFay, and oh my gosh, and and I follow Isabella Rossellini on Instagram because she's amazing and she was the Lady of the Lake.

[00:36:50] Sorry, I totally interrupted you. I should pause and let you finish.

[00:36:54] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: no, you can interrupt me anytime. That's the whole point of the show is interruption. So please me [00:37:00] anytime you think of something. It's fine. Yeah. So this is the first time I am not, I'm telling on myself right now. I'm not so advanced when it comes to Arthurian, like legends and stuff like that.

[00:37:14] I don't know too much about King Arthur. I never saw the sword in the stone when I was a kid. The animated one Disney has. I know the story kinda like the basics of the story, but I'm not too up on the legend until I was like, how old was I in 1998? It doesn't matter. I'm not going to tell him myself. But I remember watching that on TV. I'd be like, this is so good because also was a kid, like you. I was a kid obsessed with. I just thought it was, I knew it was real. Nobody was telling me how it was real, but I knew. So I was like, this is a true story. I was like, it doesn't matter what they say here.

[00:37:52] This happened. And this was my, this is my biggest of like Arthur and everything was through that show. I [00:38:00] loved that show. It was so good.

[00:38:02] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: It is so good. It was, yeah, if, and if you're a big fan of Helen Bottom Carter, and you haven't seen it, you should. She's amazing. And she's so young! When you watch it now, and you watch, like, you see her now, and then you like, go back and you watch it, you're like, oh my god, you're a baby.

[00:38:18] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Exactly, and she's very Helen Bonham Carter in it, she's, she is who she is in that, and she's doing great, she's like really good. One thing, and this, we're not gonna talk about the Lady of the Lake, but one thing that I have to talk about Arthur, and the legend of Arthur, and all this good stuff. One thing that annoys me a little bit, and it's nobody's fault because this is the story, but there's like three Morgans in the story. So sometimes when you're listening or you read legends about King Arthur, you're going to notice that there's the three Morgans. So there's Morgan le Fay, then there's Morgan his sister, and there's another Morgan who [00:39:00] also does magic sometimes. But then like, is always around Arthur. So it gets confusing with all the Morgans, but they're different.

[00:39:09] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: And then, and then there's more ghosts, who's probably one of the Morgans that you're thinking of also like woven into it. And yeah, there's also like multiple Lake Lady stories. We'll get to that.

[00:39:21] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yes, exactly. Yes, that's the other problem. When I was doing some research for this episode, like, they'll be like, this story involves the lady of the lake, but it may not be the same lady of the lake. It may be a different one, but we don't know for sure. I'm like, okay, there's too many ladies on these lakes. It's stressful.

[00:39:41] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: I actually, I have an answer for that. Like why, by the way? Okay. So there is a class of water spirits and this is how I view it. Take it. And if you don't like little bits of it, reframe it. But I consider them to be like a class of water spirit, the [00:40:00] same way that like a mermaid.

[00:40:03] Is a class of water spirits, right? So like mermaid stories throughout the world and they have like tails. Sometimes they can shape shift. Um,

[00:40:14] Like that is their defining factor is that they have a tail and then there's like selkies, right? Which are there's multiple stories about selkies and their defining factor is that they are seals that can

[00:40:27] shift into.

[00:40:28] Human women or human like women. And then the same thing with like water horses or Kelpies, there are multiple stories about water horses. Some of them are benevolent and some of them are quite sinister. But the defining thing about that is that they're male and that they are. Can shapeshift from human to horse, or there's some sort of magical horse connected with water.

[00:40:55] So when it comes to the lake ladies, we all [00:41:00] think of, oh, the lady of the lake. We go directly to King Arthur and the story of getting the escaloper from the lake, throwing the escaloper back into the lake. But what folks don't really realize is that this is actually, this, these stories that we are so familiar with are actually written like 500 years after the original Lake Lady story.

[00:41:26] The original Lake Lady story comes from the ancient books of Wales or what we call, what is now comprised or called the Mabinogi, which is several of these older Welsh texts that are. Comprised into this one volume called the Mabinogi. And in that we get a story called the Lake Lady. And that story has nothing to do with King Arthur and nothing to do with swords and has to do with a maiden that comes, that lives in the sub aquatic realm of the lake that [00:42:00] comes out and marries a shepherd, a goat, her Yes, a shepherd, a goat herder, a sheep herder and basically she strikes a bargain with him saying like, look, you're going to be prosperous.

[00:42:12] We'll have children, all these things, except you may not strike me three times. Spoiler, he does. And he ends up going back into the lake. So this is the original story of this lake lady. And then in folktales, there's other stories of these. Women that are, that live in lakes. Ooh, that original story. I forgot to tell you that when she comes out of the lake and marries the shepherd with her,

[00:42:41] out of the lake comes a huge dowry of cows.

[00:42:45] And when she goes back into the lake, all of the cows follow. And then these other stories that we find in folklore of these other lake ladies, they often are connected with sacred cows. [00:43:00] This cow comes out of the lake and lives with a farmer and feeds the village for four generations. This type of thing.

[00:43:07] But these particular beings these lake ladies, they're described in these Welsh texts, or they're called Gwagith Annwn. And they're often referred to as Gwagith Annwn. And don't even try and spell it because it's not spelled how you think.

[00:43:22] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: I'm sure.

[00:43:23] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: That th sound is a double d.

[00:43:26] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: That's like Welsh or Celtic is never spelled the way you would think if you are an English speaker. Yes.

[00:43:31] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: it's very difficult. But they're, so they're called Gwagath and Nun. But this translates into English as the brides of the underworld or the wives of the other world. And so there, there's a little known, although they're gaining popularity Subclass of water spirits that are the wives of the underworld.

[00:43:54] They are women that are water spirits that dwell [00:44:00] in or below lakes in the sub aquatic realms underneath the lakes. And they don't have fish tails. They don't necessarily shape shift. Although. Perhaps they can. But they fall into this category of these Gwagath and Nuun. So when we do get to the romances and we start looking at the stories of King Arthur and we see the Lake Lady, pull the sword out of the lake and give it to King Arthur, we call her the Lady of the Lake.

[00:44:33] But she is only one of them. And it's my belief that the Arthurian Lake Ladies fall or belong to this sub class of water spirits called the Gwagathanun. So that is why there are so many Lake Ladies.

[00:44:51] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Got it. Thank you for that, because that was very confusing to me. But like you said, one thing I do know [00:45:00] is that a lot of these stories, and they explain it, again, I am not anybody's Arthurian historian. They explain these stories in different groups, and they're written at different times. And then different people then interpret it, so it gets very confusing as to when, what, how, like, there's not really a definite There's not really a good timeline for some of these things, especially because the stories were in it at different times. We guess on the timelines, but having all these different lake ladies is confusing, but what you're saying makes a ton of sense. makes a ton of sense okay. So we're going with that. So I'm just going to give you guys a couple examples of these lake ladies and then we'll go into our other, our last section, the story time. So, there's, not going to go into which Vulgate, there's these things called Vulgates which are like the different, Groups of stories about different Arthurian legends. I could, we, I'm gonna try to find one of these days an Arthurian [00:46:00] historian to go over this with us, because this is very confusing. But just know that there's different groups of stories. So in the Lancelot group, or the Lancelot, Grail, Vulgate, Prose Cycle. In this story, the Lady of the Lake, she resides in the lake the otherworldly enchanted realm, which is in, which has an illusion of a lake on top of it.

[00:46:22] So people can't get there because they think it's a lake. she then raises Lancelot, who was remember Arthur's friend Lancelot, from infancy because she stole him from his mother. So some people think it was also like a changeling situation. That she like replaced a baby with Lancelot. It's a whole thing. She also ends up raising these two cousins from a sorceress. She raises them too with Lancelot. She helps Lancelot a lot during the beginning of his life to become a famous knight [00:47:00] and she also actively encourages Lancelot to be sleeping with Guinevere and Guinevere was Arthur's wife.

[00:47:08] So there was a whole thing there. The other thing about Arthurian legends I will get to actually the part about Merlin. This is side note, not about the lay of the lake, and you can tell me how you feel about this, Anwen. Merlin, when I watched that show, I loved Merlin, right? Because it was about Merlin. is not that great. Like I've heard a couple stories about Merlin. He is not like A character where you're 100 percent like, yeah, go Merlin. Cause like he does some shady shit, like very fucking shady, like, like very messed up stuff. And you're like, wait a minute. Like I heard one story and I can't remember the whole thing now, but I will try to post a link to it.

[00:47:51] There's a podcast. I really love tales and mythology. These two podcasts Merlin, like ends up ki like almost killing a baby. Or [00:48:00] he does like for the good of the, it's a whole thing. So Merlin is this double-edged sword. Like he does stuff for the good of the kingdom and to like help Arthur, but he also does shit for himself because he wants to stay the most powerful.

[00:48:13] But I don't know how you feel about Merlin Wyn.

[00:48:16] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Okay. I'm going to muddy the waters a little bit here and let you know that there's probably multiple Merlins. There's,

[00:48:27] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: That's the other problem.

[00:48:29] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: There's Merlin, the, like what we see in the Vulcates, romances, all this kind of stuff. And then there's Merlin, the wild man, which is probably like the original Merlin is like literally a wild creature. crazy guy that's like probably going through some sort of like psychosis like running around Like not clean in the forest.

[00:48:57] There's that Merlin and [00:49:00] then Oh my gosh, and then there's also Some connection to Taliesin, and a lot of times people believe that story, like Taliesin, may have a connection to Merlin, maybe Merlin is Taliesin I've heard some interesting debates where I just was like don't care enough about Merlin to really pay that much attention.

[00:49:21] Like, I'm way more interested in the like, Lake Ladies and such. But yeah, Merlin is also another complicated character. And again, we have multiple stories about him. And they contradict and they overlap and it, yeah and I've never loved him.

[00:49:42] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Me. Yes.

[00:49:44] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Movie. I was just going to say that miniseries from the late nineties, like, I love that.

[00:49:51] But yeah, I've never, I know that there are, I know that some people really have a draw to Merlin but I don't so [00:50:00] there's, Yeah. So there's two like Merlin, like there's Merlin, the wild one. And then like more like Merlin, the prophet that we know a little bit more from like our theory and things.

[00:50:09] And it hilarious thing about living in Glastonbury is like Merlin archetype is like, so alive.

[00:50:18] We have, I, I can't even tell you, you can walk through Glastonbury and, like, you will see Merlin everywhere. And I'm not just talking, little statues and shops. You had mentioned a while ago at the beginning about The Sword in the Stone and the cartoon.

[00:50:35] And that, there's that crazy Merlin in the blue outfit and he has his own hat. I'm Not kidding you, there's a guy in town that dresses up exactly like that. He sits outside of the Abbey and he gives rune readings for donation, like on the side of the road, like in that full outfit. And then I have a [00:51:00] friend, a dear friend that I work with at the White Spring that looks, he does not dress like that, but looks like he could be if you like reached into the cartoon and you pulled out that Merlin from the cartoon and like dropped him into everyday life in like regular clothes,

[00:51:18] that would be my friend and

[00:51:21] And I can't even tell you the rest of the Merlins that we have here. It. It there's a lot. It is Merlin is alive here in Glastonbury.

[00:51:30] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah. Merlin is like, if he was alive today, Merlin would be like a red pill guy. He'd be like the kind of guy who is yeah, I get ladies and I do what I want and I'm super powerful. And you're like, I just don't, yeah, after I, Sam Neil as Merlin in the special that we're talking about is awesome. But Merlin, when you read his, like this different stories about Merlin or Merlin's they all are kind of, [00:52:00] suck.

[00:52:00] In a way, like he's cool. Sometimes he's always doing stuff and then blaming. Again, like I said, I'm nobody's historian. What I have read or heard is like he's always doing stuff and being like, I'm doing this for Arthur, the good of the kingdom. But everyone's like, actually, you're just doing this for yourself.

[00:52:16] And the other problem with it is the other issue I have is like Morgan Le Fay. does stuff that's not so savory, but she's super open about it. So I don't mind. Like she's like, yeah, this is what we're going to do because we got to kill somebody. It's fine. Cause she's like being honest about it.

[00:52:32] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: right.

[00:52:33] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah. She's not like, I'm trying to be super honorable. She's like, no, this was fucked up. So I'm going to kill this guy. And you're like, okay. At least she's being honest. Like Merlin's like, no. I'm doing this for the good of the kingdom. No, you're not. Stop. Shut up. Morula Faye is at least honest and she is who she is.

[00:52:48] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: The whole story around King Arthur's conception is basically, like, essay.

[00:52:57] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yeah. It's cheaty.

[00:52:58] It's

[00:52:59] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: yeah.

[00:52:59] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: fucked [00:53:00] up.

[00:53:00] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: He transformed, he shapeshifts this other guy. So basically like Egrayne is King Arthur's mother. And she's married to this other Duke guy and

[00:53:13] Uther sees her and is like, Ooh, I really want that.

[00:53:15] And Merlin is like, you can't have that because she's married. And then basically he comes up with this plan where he's like, all right, I still want that. So just shapeshift me into her husband and I'll trick her. Like that is not okay. I

[00:53:32] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: It's fucked up. Yeah. See, this is the beginning. Like, this is one of the many things Merlin does that's like, shady as shit. He's like, yeah, but he needed to have Arthur. That's not the point. That's shady. That's not cool. We can't do that. So now everybody, we've talked enough about Merlin.

[00:53:49] Let's get back to what we were

[00:53:52] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: was just going to say, let's end like on a teeny tiny good note for Merlin just to like, give him just a little bit of like, maybe one version of you isn't terrible. [00:54:00] The other is, but like maybe one isn't. And that is that he is credited with creating Stonehenge. It said that he levitated the stones from the quarry in Wales to actually like their location.

[00:54:13] I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know. You're

[00:54:17] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Like, that's what I'm saying. He has like a shady past. There are good things he did. He's not only bad. I'm just bringing up the bad stuff. But like, he did do some stuff that was like, yes, he did do it. We were cool. But anyway, so actually, we're not going to finish talking about him because now I'm going to talk about him and the lady in the lake.

[00:54:34] So the situation was, He was, like, there's, again, there's different stories depending on the Vulgate cycle that you talk about but in the, sorry, or the different prose that you talk about the section where they're talking about Lancelot, in that section, they say that Merlin like, disappeared for a while, and the reason was because he fell in love. With the lady of the lake and she knew that but she [00:55:00] wasn't into him. So She was like, okay, yeah, maybe I'll love you and stuff But you have to show me how to do all your magic and he's like, okay bet like so he did But then she was like actually thank you for showing on me all your magic.

[00:55:14] Now, you're gonna sleep forever She didn't kill him. She just made him sleep forever. In some stories, she did kill him. But in some stories, she made him sleep forever in a tree. And that's that. Because she just didn't want to

[00:55:30] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: like, I'm just going to trap you in a tree.

[00:55:34] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: she's like, Thank you for your magical skills. You can all, you can leave me alone now.

[00:55:39] But in every single story, because there's other ones, in different prose. She is annoyed by Merlin. By all accounts, he is annoying her. She never likes him. But he's so into her, and she just wants to learn from him so she can know how to do the magic. And then after the magic, after she learns, [00:56:00] she just wants him gone.

[00:56:01] So either he kills her, puts her in a, puts him in a tree, and Puts him in an underwater cave and again, he's not dead, he's just down there. Or she puts him in a tower. So either way, she's like, you need to get this man away from me, he's so annoying. So a lot of stories then say that after she gets rid of Merlin, she's the one who becomes the magical in Arthur's life. That's when she gives him Excalibur. Now there's maybe two Excaliburs. There's the one he got out of the, so the stone, and then there's a different Excalibur that she gives him lighter. is the sword that proves that Arthur's supposed to be the king of all of England. So it just depends on when this is happening. And then at the end of Arthur's life, Arthur basically almost dies one time and she takes him to Avalon to heal. But then also when Arthurs dies, she takes him there to [00:57:00] be buried. In Avalon, which is this beautiful island, where she chills with probably her other cool, awesome friends. Lake, Lady, Fairy, Friends. And we love her. This was a very short and thank you Anwen for more of your influence on this story because I was very confused so I really appreciate you filling in some gaps for us. And also, oh, I love this part. So this is on the Wikipedia page, just real quick. Again, this is about Merlin merlin falls in love with her and will not leave her alone. And she says she gives no indication that she will ever love him back. Eventually she cannot free herself from him otherwise and decides to trap him under a rock and make sure he cannot escape. She is tired of his sexual advances and afraid of his power as a devil's son.

[00:57:45] So she does not have much of a choice but to ultimately get rid of him. Once again, She's dumb with Merlin. She can't stamp him. It's hilarious. Every time I read it, it was like, She hates Merlin. He's a [00:58:00] pain in her ass. Merlin to the Lady of the Lake, or this particular Nimue. Nimue? Am I saying that right? Nimue. I'm sorry. It leads to this version of Nimue is that guy who like pops up, or that guy or that girl or whomever, pops up every couple of months and still trying to talk to you. And you have made it very clear, very politely many times that you're not into this person, but every couple of months like a DM from them on Instagram, Hey, what's up?

[00:58:31] How are you doing? not again. That was Merlin to Nimoy. And because she's a magic woman, she's like, you know what? I'm just going to either trap him in a rock or kill him. Cause I'm tired of this shit. Oh, that makes me laugh. Okay. So that's some of our fun facts about the lady of the lake or the multiple ladies of the lake. And now we'll go to [00:59:00] our last part of this show where we talk about story time. Because again, We're talking to Anne Wynn and we're talking to somebody who's living currently in the UK. I decided to talk a little bit about some unusual stories of mermaids in the UK. Now, quick note on mermaids, because I love mermaid lore. One of there was this book when I was a kid, In the library. I think it was called mermaid tales from around the world. Something very easy like that. It had this beautiful mermaid on the front with this long ass tail very long. I used to borrow that book at least every other week.

[00:59:35] Like I'd have to return it and I'd return it for a day. And then I'd go back and check if it was there. I

[00:59:43] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: reached your limit for checking out this book this year. You're like, fine. You can have it back for a day.

[00:59:51] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: I would return it literally for two days. And then like when my class would go to the library. I think we had, like, when I was a kid, I think I was in maybe [01:00:00] or second grade when I would read this book. I think it was first grade. I would go, like, every week we'd have library time. So I'd return it and then it'd be, like, a week without me having this book in my possession. And I'd stress about it. Like, so that's when I'd get back to the library. I was like, do you guys still have it? And even the librarian was like, damn girl you've taken out this book so many times. You haven't memorized it yet. I'm like, I have memorized it. I just look at the pictures. the thing I loved about the book was he had mermaids.

[01:00:33] Again, it was called mermaid tales from around the world. And it literally was mermaid tales from around the world. There's not a part of the world where you will not find a mermaid. Everyone,

[01:00:42] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Facts.

[01:00:43] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: look far and wide, you can't find one ethnic group, really. Even ethnic groups that live inland, like, they're not by sea. Think of, like, Central Asia. of some of the Slavic countries. mermaids![01:01:00]

[01:01:00] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Freshwater, freshwater mermaids are absolutely a thing. There's lakes that have mermaids, rivers that have mermaids, springs that have mermaids.

[01:01:09] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yes. Everybody's got a mermaid. And, one, okay, this is also off top, not off topic 'cause it's about a mermaid. If any, what is the name of this show? Oh, I can't remember. There's a show on Netflix. It's called Love Something and Robots.

[01:01:29] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Oh my gosh, I don't know where this is, but let me look it up.

[01:01:33] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: It's very cool. It's called Love Something in Roblox and each they're like short episodes or maybe like 15 minutes each. Each episode is a different type of animation and a completely different story and it's very cool. And There's one, I think it's in the third season. Is it Love, Sex, and Robots? I forget what it is, but it's very cool. There's one season I think it's the third season, where there's a story called [01:02:00] Jabreo, I believe. It's Jabaro or Jabreo. And in this story, it's really, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ruin anything. So in this story, there's like these conquistadors and they are on An island i'm not sure which island it is.

[01:02:17] I think I was reading like the synopsis I think it's puerto rico, but they're on this island. They're with their horses And they see there's this lake lady, she pops her head out, and she's covered in jewels, like she's absolutely gorgeous covered in rubies and emeralds and gold, and she screams, and it makes, and she's doing this dance, and she starts screaming, it makes all of these soldiers into the lake and dance and try to get to her and they all drown except for one Jabrayo the guy cuz he's deaf So he's the only one who doesn't go crazy and during the time everybody's running to Lake I think he went to pee or something.[01:03:00]

[01:03:00] So he comes back and he's like The fuck? Where is everyone? Basically, the story goes on, he ends up not like falling in love, but like, almost like making out with the lady of the lake, and then like, he takes all her jewels, and like, the story goes on from there, but it's really interesting, and that was in Puerto Rico.

[01:03:18] I don't know why I went on that rant, but everyone watch that if you have Netflix. Anyway, me continue. Sorry!

[01:03:24] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: It's all good. I was, my dogs were just coming inside, making a lot of noise. So it was perfect timing.

[01:03:29] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Okay, good. I'm glad it was a good time for my rant. Okay I'm you know I love a Wikipedia page, so I'm just going to read this little synopsis real quick on the Wikipedia, and then we're going to talk about these very short little stories.. In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with a head and upper body of a female human, normally normally, more typically, I should say mermaids appear in the folklore of cultures worldwide. Like we just said, mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, drownings, and in some [01:04:00] folk tales and traditions, they can be benevolent or They can give blessings or they can, and they can also fall in love with humans. The male equivalent of a mermaid is a merman. they are also in some folklore stories. And they're less common than mermaids usually. But. Most people assume that all these mermaids are living together and they're considered, they're also called merpeople or merfolk. And, la da Christopher Columbus said he saw some, who cares, Christopher Columbus, you're an asshole.

[01:04:32] And, Yeah, I don't think nobody cares about your opinion because you suck. Obviously, people always say, ah, mermaids don't exist, but people to this day, especially sailors, merchants, sailors, people who work on the sea, navy personnel, A lot of them say that they've seen mermaids. It's a thing. It's a thing. So there's [01:05:00] three lesser known stories I have from Britain about mermaids. So our first occurs on November 10th, 1737, and there's a fishing ground called Topsom Bar, and here a group of eight fishermen had been trawling all morning, and then they hauled up their nets, and they saw a creature with a human And this, but this creature had two legs. So we don't know the situation.

[01:05:29] We don't know if it's like splash, like when, in splash, everyone sees flash, right? Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks. where when she was on land she had two legs, but when she got wet she had a tail. I don't know if it's that situation. Maybe.

[01:05:44] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: There's a medieval story from like the 1300s from France that is weirdly connected to Arthurian stuff. But it's a story about Melusine and Melusine has the ability to shapeshift from human form with two legs [01:06:00] to a mermaid form.

[01:06:01] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Okay.

[01:06:02] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: So it's totally a thing that can happen.

[01:06:05] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: cool. That's probably where they got Splash from.

[01:06:07] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Probably. I didn't think about that, but yeah, you're probably right. Oh,

[01:06:11] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: yeah. I love Splash. Also, at the end of Splash, this is a movie from like the 1980s, so I'm not ruining anything. If you haven't seen it, that's your fault. In the end of Splash Splash, I'm sorry When she takes Tom Cruise down to she's gonna take him to the Water Kingdom, I hope she like, bestowed some magic, cuz you realize he's gonna drown, right?

[01:06:28] Like, what?

[01:06:28] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Oh, okay. There's another story. About a Cornish mermaid, the mermaid of Zinor or St. Sonora. And this actually also happens where he's singing in church and she's like this mermaid. And she is swimming near and she hears him and is wow, like really falls in love with him. So she seeks him out, they meet and she's like, Oh, Hey, like, I love you.

[01:06:52] Like come into my watery, like, come into the water with me. And then he does and he disappears. And so then [01:07:00] she gets like this really bad reputation for a while. Everybody thinks that she's murdered him. And then, like a hundred years goes by or something like that. And there's a sea captain that's like fishing and everything.

[01:07:11] And the, he sees her, like he sees this mermaid and he starts like basically telling her that she's evil for murdering him. Like we've heard the tales of what you've done, this kind of thing and she's hold the phone and Dives back down under the water and goes and gets him and their children and is like, He's right here.

[01:07:31] Not only does he have like long life, but he can breathe underwater now because I'm magic So that is definitely a thing that happens with these stories

[01:07:40] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Love it. Love it. Everyone's fine. Tom Hanks is down there having a great time. Everyone is okay. This one, okay this lady at Topsman Bar, all eight witnesses were interviewed and they all said that the creature leapt out of the net and ran away. So I don't know [01:08:00] where she went. But they said that she left. Obviously people did not believe it, but eight of them had the same stories and they also said they to, they caught up with the with the mermaid at one point, and she was laying there ground groin sorry, groaning like a human and kind of rolling around. And then they said that the feet were webbed like a duck. But even though they had like a regular face like a human being and their tail was like salmon and it was around four feet long I don't know how they said she had legs and she had a tail I don't know when the tail went back. We don't know yet again It may have been like splash somebody poured some water on it happened. So they said that in this case the creature did not fit the classic, mermaid because they thought in this case, they thought that mermaids were more like silkies with the seal skin. So they were like, we don't know about this. And it's 1737. So most of the stories in this part of the world [01:09:00] in the UK were more about silkies. So they were like, that's a weird description, but it's fine. We're not really gonna believe you. But a people said they saw it. So that's that one. there's this other dude called Mr. Topin. Mr. Topin has had a few run ins with this damn mermaid and he's getting tired of it. This is in near Exeter. and he said, so he and his crew were just chilling and then they heard music and appeared to be coming from this creature and they realized that the creature had a tail and they were like, Why is that creature singing? And then they were like, oh shit, is that a siren? That's cool. But they were also nervous. They said that the creature had two arms and it used to great, used it to great agility, which terminated in four webbed fingers on each hand. They also said they had a long oval seal like face but it was more agreeable, I guess saying that they were prettier than they think a seal is and had hair in a crown on its upper [01:10:00] On its head and upper back. And they say it would appear to be about five and a half feet. Seemed to be playing and hanging out and swimming rapidly. And then all of a sudden when it saw them looking at looking at her, she ran away. She went away. They tried to lure the mermaid by throwing some boiled fish into the water, but the mermaid's too smart.

[01:10:21] She's like, I don't want that nasty boiled fish. I live with fish. They're my friends. I don't eat them. Then 11 years later in 1823, again in the same place there was another bunch of mermaid sightings. Mr. Topin was like, I told you guys that there are no mermaids over there. So that's that about Mr.

[01:10:38] Topin. Okay. And our last story is the mermaid of Blackpool. So in the north end of England, in the Peak District, we find actually two mermaid legends in the same area. So the first is said to occupy the mermaid's pool, which is situated just below Kinder Scout in the high [01:11:00] peaks. a salty lake, which is odd for it to be salty having it because it's so far inland, they wouldn't imagine it was salty, but it is. So people were like, that's why there's a mermaid in it because it's full of salt and we don't even know why so obviously it's magic. Yeah, sure. I believe that. They also said that this mermaid's pool has healing powers and for those who are brave enough, they can go bathe in it. And if they did on midnight on Easter, the mermaid would come and offer them internal life. It's very specific, but okay. And that's only though if she looked upon you fondly. If she didn't, she would just drag you down and you'd die. The second thing about this mermaid tail is on the southwestern tip of Stratfordshire Peak District, which is a small, almost circular, natural lake about 50 yards, so it's not that big, [01:12:00] situated 6 miles northwest of Leek. say that it's bottomless, but they don't know for sure, but they're saying nobody knows where the bottom is. I don't know. One legend states that the mermaid came there hundreds of years ago, brought by a sailor from the nearby town of Thorncliffe. There's a story that goes that in 1679, there was a woman peddler who was dumped in the pool by a local serial killer attempting to separate from the fact from fiction. They say that basically that lady then became a mermaid and she dragged men down seeking revenge. Also in that same pool, apparently, there was a local man who was rejected by a woman that he was trying to get with, and he was so upset with this woman that he accused her of being a witch.

[01:12:45] So they ma he managed to tell everybody, he's like, oh she's a witch, she's a witch, she's a witch, we should drown her. So they took her to the Black Myrrh pool and drowned her, and the young woman in the while she was drowning, she cursed . [01:13:00] days later was found floating his body was found floating in the pool. Covered and his face was covered in claw marks, believing that it was either the woman or a mermaid who had avenged the woman by killing Joshua. And now they still believe to this day that there's like an evil angry mermaid at the bottom of the pond and, or it's that lady who came back as a mermaid who just kills people because she's pissed that she got murdered.

[01:13:26] That may have been a story, I don't know. those are some lesser known mermaid stories from around the UK.

[01:13:34] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: Thank you for sharing those. I had heard two of them, but one of them I had not. So thank you for sharing that with me.

[01:13:43] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: Yay, I'm glad that I did. So brings us to the end of our show. And when it has been a pleasure having you on having you talk all about the water. I [01:14:00] learned so much from you today. I really appreciate it. And I think everybody learned from you. You have so much good information. And obviously, if you want to learn more of the good stuff that Anwen has to teach you, she has all these books that I'll have links to in the show notes. You can go check them out. But other than your books and that, is there anywhere specific people can find you on the internet if they're looking for you, Anwen? Okay,

[01:14:24] squadcaster-8j2i_1_04-13-2024_170600: and I'm most active over on Instagram. You can find me at Anlin Avalon. So A N W Y N Avalon. And also I run the water priestess arts page, which is just focused on the confluence and water priestessing. Both of those are on Instagram. My second platforms are Facebook. You can find me similarly by just searching water priestess or Anwen Avalon.

[01:14:51] And then I do have a YouTube channel, but I haven't updated it in a long time. But it does have old videos that talk about water and water magic and water priestessing and water [01:15:00] spirits and all sorts of different things. It's got really useful information if you want to get started as a water witch or a water priestess.

[01:15:08] And you can also find that just go to YouTube and search my name and it'll pop up.

[01:15:14] ashley-_1_04-13-2024_120600: everybody, all those links to all of Anwen's work will be in the show notes. If you want to check her out, you'll be able to find it very easily. And once again, I want to thank you, Anwen. I want to thank everybody for listening. This is Dine with the Divine. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, YouTube I think that's it.

[01:15:35] If you really enjoy the show I, please, I beseech you to please give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or even go on the website, DineWithTheDivine. com and give us a rating there. We have merch available if you're interested in that too. If you have any suggestions for episodes, comments, questions, critiques, please feel free to email me at dime with the Divine [01:16:00] pod@gmail.com. And if you wanna follow me, Ashley, I'm at Sankofa hs. That's S-A-N-K-O-F-A-H-S, and Sankofa Healing Sanctuary on Facebook. Thank you so much for being here, everybody, and I'll see you all next week. I hope you have an awesome week. Okay, bye-Bye.

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