This is the Lady of the Lake.
The Lady of the Lake is not meant to be me.
It’s the Lady of the Lake of Arthurian legends – one who holds a sword above the water.
It’s the kinship I feel with all spirits who dwell in the water: such as undines, mermaids, mo’o, kelpies, selkies, sea nymphs and oceanids.
It’s not just “female” spirits either. It’s Kanaloa, the Hawaiian deity of the Sea. It’s Neptune and Njord.
It’s Captain Nemo, disgusted with humanity, a hermit in a submarine.
And it’s also the kinship I feel with the life of the sea: fish, plankton, seaweeds, marine mammals, and the particles of dead animals that feed them.
It’s the Cups suit of the Tarot deck. It’s “holy water” and my daily shower. It’s the water molecules in the air I breathe. It’s my water sign, Scorpio.
To me the Lady of the Lake is secrets, the unconscious, the magic of fluidity and being a universal solvent.
It’s the water that trickles through caves and collaborates with minerals to create the cave art we know as stalagmites and stalactites.
Above all, it’s magic.
A Life Lived Near Water
I have always lived close to water, except for one miserable year. As a child I was close to the ocean, beaches, and tide pools of La Jolla and Coronado and the Ala Wai Canal of Waikiki. Later, I was close to the ocean and San Francisco Bay. I lived in Hawai’i within a mile of the Puna coastline. I lived in Lake County, CA for four years, within sight and walking distance of its poor, wounded (polluted) waters. And now I live within a few blocks of the Willamette River in Oregon. I also like rain.
Lady Of The Lake 