Meeting Mermaids

Meeting Mermaids

by Elyrria Swann, author of How to Become a Mermaid

During my childhood, I used to comb the shelves at Barnes and Noble looking for books about people who fell in love with fish or who met a mermaid queen in their lucid dreams. I found many books about the folklore and mythology of mermaids, and these were very enjoyable to read. However, they did not satiate my hunger for a practical mermaid guide. I was looking for an “Owner’s Manual for Mermaids” that would tell me how to exist on planet Earth as a mermaid and meet others like myself. But no such book had been written.

While I was growing up, I tried talking to a few people in my small social circle about how much I loved mermaids and how I felt like I was part of their realm. Sometimes a friend would talk about mermaid makeup or dressing up as a mermaid, but mostly I received strange looks and remarks about how weird I was.

Princess Ariel from Disney’s A Little Mermaid often came up in the conversations, but a large part of me could not buy into this version of mermaids. Fairy tales and mythology were wonderful to hear about, but the subject matter felt alien to the true nature of mermaids. There was always some part of me that intuitively understood that mermaids transcend the ideas of human fashion and literary traditions.

In spite of my conservative upbringing, I always believed in the existence of faeries, merpeople, unicorns, and other mythological beings. As I grew older, I never lost faith in the fact that these creatures exist in a world parallel to ours.

Eventually, I began meeting them.

Mermaids first came to me in visions while I relaxed in the bathtub during my early preteen years. I found that I felt most at home in water and would sometimes spend eight or more hours in the bathtub in my free time. I would often take a good novel with me to read, but it was usually left untouched as I started making contact with real mermaids from the astral mermaid realm who communicate using empathy and telepathy.

After I was able to see them and feel their presence, I asked them to give me teachers who could help me bring the gifts of the mermaid realm to the people here on Earth. My request was granted. I am here to serve as a channel of information for this beautiful realm and to continue to learn about how to master the water element inside myself.

The mermaid realm holds many treasures such as empathy, depth of feeling, healing abilities, ecological consciousness, an inner peace with the universe, and unconditional love. In my book I explain how to cultivate and bring to full consciousness the archetypal mermaid or merman that exists inside each of us. It begins with connecting to the spiritual water element within yourself. Here is a meditation from my book to help you do so.

Meditation to Integrate the Spiritual Water Element

Place a small cup of water near you or go sit next to a stream if one is available to you. You can also choose to sit in a bathtub, which is what I prefer when I do this activity. Sit in a peaceful area in a comfortable position with your palms facing each other. If you choose to sit with your legs crossed, you could maintain the same hand position or rest your hands on your legs with palms open toward the sky.

To set the tone for the meditation, begin to imagine the most uplifting emotion you possibly can. Many people choose the feeling of love because it is a universal experience.

You may want to imagine your lover’s embrace, the way you felt when you held your first puppy, the positive flow of good feelings when you taste your favorite food, or how amazing a hug from your mother feels. Picture yourself being fully understood, loved, cared for, and satisfied by this love you are visualizing.

Now, imagine this love as a small shimmering ball of light (or energy). This energy is emanating from your head and your heart. It is felt by your heart and processed in the brain as imagery. Envision this beautiful energy in your head and heart flowing to your shoulders, down your upper arm, and into your hands.

What does it feel like? Pay attention to every sensation, color, and feeling you experience. Do your arms light up a little bit when the energy passes through? Sometimes even if I do not see anything, I feel a deep sense of relaxation or a slight tingle in the body parts I send loving energy through. Whichever way you experience loving energy is perfect and beautiful.

The important thing is just to maintain the emotion you initially created by visualizing yourself in a loving scenario. Keep visualizing whatever it is that makes you feel this sensation. You can have your eyes open or closed—whatever helps you experience this energy more fully.

When the energy is shimmering within your hands, use your mind to push the energy out between your hands while keeping this feeling of love strong in your emotional body.

I usually open my eyes at this point to look at the energy between my hands. What you see is your unique signature vibration. My water energy usually looks like a soft, fluid ball of blue-tinted liquid. If the water is pink, diamond-shaped, or shapeless, you are still doing it right. You can even pick an oceanic creature or the image of a mermaid if you like.

This energy you have created is the energy of love. Now, look at the cup of water, the stream, or the bathtub water.

You can place your hands in the water or rest them on the surface, or you can visualize doing so. While keeping the incredible feeling you have conjured at the forefront of your emotional awareness, imagine this energy flowing from between your hands into the water.

If you do not see anything happening physically, use your mind’s eye to visualize this energy permeating the water around you as you become one with it. You can even imagine the energy like a bath salt that begins to dissolve in the watery matrix. When you feel that the energy has been blended thoroughly with the water around you, remove your hands and sit back.

Now perceive the water around you. How has it changed? Does it feel more loving or relaxing? Does it feel more “like you?” Does it seem more alive? You have just imprinted the water around you with your signature vibration of love and positive emotion. Now the water is able to respond to you by mirroring this feeling back to you as well as communicate with the water that composes your own physical body.

The meditation you have just learned is one of the valuable treasures that the mermaid realm offers to us. You will use this tool often in your psychic work with mermaid allies, healing work, and personal restoration. Inside my inner mermaid kingdom, I have a box made of pearls and shells where I keep psychic tools and meditations stored. You can visualize this meditation as a key, a shell, a body of water, a shimmering strand of energy, or an image of love.

However you want to visualize it is your choice and is part of your own secret, magical mermaid toolbox. Place this tool gently into your sacred space. It is accessible whenever you want to use it, and you can teach others about this powerful but simple gift from the mer-realm.