 | |||
| Melusine from Oracle of the Dragonfae by Lucy Cavendish |
Melusine is a naked creature with fiery red hair, she wears a flowery tiara, and a golden key around her neck, with the top of the key in a heart shape. She has two small, but lovely greeny gold dragon type wings coming from her back. Her arms look as if they are held open palms up in trust, as if to receive or display something good.... she is not ashamed to show herself as she truly is.
The heart shaped keyfob speaks to me of self love being the key at the centre of our beings. Unless we can love ourselves we cannot love others, and cannot expect them to love us for who we are. Let yourself be known, celebrate the self is what this card says to me.
On her crown one of the flowers is bent into a crescent shape, like the Moon goddess head dress worn by Diana, representing the Goddess within all of us. The dragon like wings show that when you are true to yourself you can fly.
The legend of Melusine is reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast... possibly my second favourite fairy tale. The daughter of a fae she was cursed by her father, when she trapped him inside a mountain for offending her mother. The curse made her half woman and her other haf was either a dragon, serpent or mermaid, according to which legend you read. The tale is well known in France where it was said that Melusine was married to Raymond, the count of Lusignan, but only on the condition that he never saw her in her bath. When Raymond broke the vow Melusine had to leave him and was condemned to the life of a specter, wandering to her doom, although some say she was locked in the dungeon of the counts castle.
In France her name is still mentioned, if someone gives a sudden scream it is called un cri de Melusine, alluding to her cry of distress when her husband saw her in her true form. Apparently cakes are still made with her image on for a May festival in that area of France, and there is a shrine named after her in Lusignan
I found some more images of Melusine, which are very like Aphrodite the Greek goddess. The first is
an anonymous engraving found in Histoire de la Magie by P. Christian - Furne
The gorgeous image below is by Anita Landree
 |
| Melusine by Anita Landree |
And perhaps the best known image of Melusine is this one:
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starbucks Logo |
According to Starbucks she is a Siren, a symbol of addiction, obsession and death, but apparently they have now freed her to be their flagship image. Indeed this is a Goddess whom millions worship daily at the high street altar. So from being a monster Melusine has become accepted, indeed worshipped for who she is, (ok...who Starbucks have decided she is!) And that to me is what this card is about.... be who you are, love who you are, love all of who you are, and you will unlock that beauty for others to love too.
