I call forth the Womb Priestesses of the Well, the Merry Maidens, the Mistresses of Moisture, the Me

I write here to remind myself of what I already know. I quote here what I wish I had the time and energy to have written myself. I recite here in honor of Azra and Seren Bertrand who had the courage to write such a brilliant book:

WOMB AWAKENING

Initiatory Wisdom from the Creatrix of All Life

page 128

"LADIES OF THE LAKE:

Ancient Womb Priestesses

Throughout the world there is a hidden tradition of 'ladies of the lake'. In the modern world, these holy women have been demoted to a mythical realm of make believe, when once they were living womb priestesses of the holy waters.

The womb priestess who lived and practiced in the Sacred Feminine moon colleges were later known a merry maidens, Magdalenes, ladies of the lake, and sirens. The priestess name Morgan meant "born of the sea"- referring to the mystical primordial womb ocean. In the Basse Bretagne, there is a mermaid called "Mary Morgan"-a long lost reference to a sacred Magdalene priestess. In European indigenous witch-shamanism, a merry maiden was the high priestess. Joan of Arc was known as the Merry Maiden of Orleans, the coven's high priestess, who first experienced her visionary communion as a "seer"after visiting an ancient fairy tree.

The mystery of the lady of the lake is encoded in the hidden meanings of wells, lakes, and sacred bodies of water, which were energetically mirrored in the body of the sacred priestess.

The word lake itself has a rich linguistic history, steeped in the dark waters of primal feminine earth mythos. Symbolically, lakes were once regarded as magical window, mirrors, or portals through which a person could pass directly into the Womb of Gaia and the fairy realms. The Celtic word for lake is loch, and this is the same word in german that means "hole"- the lake is a porthole or doorway to primordial feminine consciousness and to the center of the Earth. The subterranean pools and flows of water were the domain of the deepest currents of the feminine Gaian consciousness- her waters of life and eternal springs of nourishment were imbued with the rich, mysterious, life-giving powers of her fertile darkness.

Loch/Lake is an ancient archetypal word and was associated not just with water and holes, but also with a deep red color- the color of blood. This is seen in the Sanskrit word laksha, the Persian lak, Hindi Lakh, and Latin lacca- all meaning a deep red color, dye, or resin. To the womb cultures, the word lake signified not just a body of water or porthole, but also the blood of the Mother Earth that flowed through the "veins" of her underground aquifers, rivers, and cavernous seas. This concept of the water as the blood of the Mother Earth is also seen in the Tibetan myths of the creator mother Srinmo, whose blood is pooled in the earth, and in the Mayan association with water as the blood of the god/goddess.

In Celtic tradition it was known that the Grail quest is undertaken in order to "free the waters' and allow the lustral waters of the feminine spirit to flow and heal the land again.

Ladies of the lake and mermaids represented the flowing primordial feminine essence.

Ladies of the lake abound throughout all traditions, not only Celtic Grail lore. The oldest goddess of India, Saraswati, known as Mother of God, is named as "she who flows"- the Great River, she is a queen of the mermaids and a lady of the lake. She is also a swan priestess, and the swan is her sacred animal familiar. In Indian lore the sacred swan is named hamsa- which represents the highest octave of feminine enlightenment and the primordial merging into the Love.

Isis is also depicted with shamanic swan wings and is known as a lady of the seas, a mermaid queen. Like Isis and Ishtar, the Iranian goddess Anahita was also known as a lady of the lake, mistress of moisture, and the birther of creation, representing the parthenogenic power of the Great Womb. She was later subjugated to the incoming Ahura Mazda, the patriarchal "God of Light'...."

and this streams on and on of the the feminine and the waters and the priestesses that served at these holy bodies of water....and what? what? dear people have we done to the waters? I am begging you, Water Protectors, I am begging you to transform the waters within...the emotions...the storms...the hatred...the dammed up sexuality...the poisonous thoughts...I am begging you to commune more with the holy fluid of She.