The Hidden Mermaid: Mary Magdalene, and the Forgotten “Mary” Lineage
When we think of mermaids, most picture fairy tales, Disney princesses, and ocean myths. But the mermaid is not just a mythical fish-woman, she is a priestess of the ancient “Mer-Line”, a lineage reaching back to the Motherline of the Neanderthal womb shamans. In the oldest traditions, mermaids were revered as divine feminine figures: water bearers, keepers of the chalice, and guardians of the sacred waters of earth and womb.
This sacred stream flowed into the left-hand path of mystical Christianity, where the Grail Maidens, the mermaid priestesses, became the “Mary” line of Magdalene (Mary and Magdalene were titles) carrying the rites, wisdom, and mysteries of the Divine Feminine into the early Christian era.
From Goddess Waters to the Jesus Fish
The ichthys, or “Jesus fish,” is one of the earliest Christian symbols, but it is far older than Christianity itself. In the ancient Near East, the fish was already sacred in goddess cultures.
One of the most influential of these was Atargatis, the Syrian mermaid-goddess. She presided over water, fertility, and purification, worshiped in temples whose pools held living fish regarded as divine.
Atargatis’ myth tells of a goddess overwhelmed by grief who threw herself into the waters to die, only to be reborn as a mermaid. This archetypal journey of death, transformation, and renewal would later echo in the Christian rites of baptism and resurrection.
Even Jesus’ miracle of multiplying loaves and fishes recalls her tradition, in which fish were both earthly food and spiritual sustenance. It is no coincidence that early Christianity took root in regions where Atargatis’ worship was strong, absorbing and reinterpreting her aquatic symbolism.
The Disappearance and Hidden Survival of the Mermaids
Over centuries, the mermaid priestesses of the womb-water mysteries were gradually replaced by male water priests, followers of Enki and his merman descendants, who wore the sacred fish headdress, the pope still wears the Miter today. Calling themselves Lords of the Fish and Fisher Kings, they continued baptismal rites but often stripped them of their feminine origins.
Yet the memory of the mermaids never vanished entirely. Prophets and prophetesses foretold that the mermaids and Grail Maidens would one day return, restoring a barren spiritual landscape to wholeness. This renewal, they said, would come through the honouring, empowerment, and liberation of the feminine, bringing the masculine and feminine back into balance.
Yeshua, John the Baptist, and the Mermen of the Magdalene Lineage
In mystical Christianity, both Yeshua and John the Baptist are remembered as heirs of this ancient mer-man tradition.
John the Baptist, master of baptism, was a river initiator in the old water priesthood, some esoteric streams describe him as a merman, keeper of the feminine mysteries, guiding seekers through the waters of transformation.
Yeshua, the “Fisher of Men,” carried the same aquatic symbolism. The ichthys, rooted in the vesica piscis, symbol of the womb, yoni, linked him directly to the mer-priestess tradition. Surrounded by women who were initiates of this lineage, he embodied its masculine counterpart.
Both men practiced baptism as a ritual of death and rebirth, mirroring the mermaid’s own transformative descent into and return from the waters.
Mermaids, Dragons, and the “Mary” Priestesshood
The words Mary, Mari, Mar, and Mer, in ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Semitic, and Indo-European tongues, mean “mother,” “beloved,” “sea,” or “feminine light.” These were not mere names but priestess titles.
The Mer-Marys were water priestesses, guardians of sacred springs and womb-like seas, often initiates of the water dragon mysteries, ancient rites linked to serpent wisdom and the creative life-force coiled in the deep. In Sumer, the primordial goddess Nammu was the Water Dragon Mother, her temples built above the Abzu, the Womb of Creation, guarded by serpent beings.
In mystical Christian memory, Mary Magdalene inherits this dragon-mermaid lineage, keeper of the Grail Mysteries, mistress of anointing and baptism, and living bridge between spirit and matter.
The Anthropos: Union of Opposites
The Anthropos, Greek for “human being” is an archetype representing wholeness: the union of masculine and feminine, conscious and unconscious, spirit and matter.
This is exactly what the Gospel of Mary teaches: that our task is to become fully human and fully divine. Mermaids embody this teaching in their very form, half of the earth, half of the sea, living bridges between two realms.
Lilith and Mermaids
While Lilith has no direct link to mermaids in traditional Jewish texts, later folklore and modern esoteric traditions have often woven the two together through shared symbolism. In Jewish mysticism, Lilith is a night-dwelling spirit or the first woman created alongside Adam, associated with storms, seduction, and fierce independence.
Mermaids and sirens echo these traits, embodying dangerous beauty, sexual autonomy, and the power to challenge or lure men, making them archetypal sisters in the realm of the “wild feminine.” Medieval European art and occult writings sometimes used mermaids as visual stand-ins for Lilith, and in Mesopotamian myth, an influence on Jewish lore, figures like the sea goddess Tiamat embody a watery chaos that modern occultists sometimes connect to Lilith’s primordial nature.
Historically, Lilith’s lower body was sometimes depicted with bird legs or a serpent’s tail, but never with a fish tail in ancient sources; this imagery emerged later, as medieval, Renaissance, and modern artists fused her serpentine danger with mermaid iconography to heighten her association with seduction and the liminal world between land and sea. Contemporary witchcraft and neo-paganism deepen this link, occasionally casting Lilith as a patron of sea witches or retelling her exile from Eden as a journey across the sea, merging her with the siren’s domain.
The Deeper Meaning of “Mermaid”
The word mermaid can be traced through ancient languages:
Mer speaks of love, devotion, and the sea.
Maid in its older sense means a woman dedicated in service, initiated or aligned in purity of purpose.
A mermaid, then, is a devoted woman of the waters, one whose life is in service to the ocean of love and creation itself. This is the archetype Mary Magdalene embodies, a woman wholly attuned to the living waters, the womb of life, and the tides of spirit flowing through all things.
A Living Encounter with the Water Serpent Dragon
These mysteries still live in the land. On my retreats in France, we visit a baptismal pool, a crystalline spring hidden among the hills, long honoured as sacred. Local lore and author Ani Williams shared its waters are guarded by a water serpent dragon, a protective and transformative presence. On the rock beside the pool, a carving of a dragon, still watches over the waters.
The Mermaid as Alchemical Symbol
Mermaids dwell between land and sea, uniting two realms. They symbolize the fusion of spirit and matter, conscious and unconscious, masculine and feminine. In Renaissance alchemy, they embodied spiritual rebirth and the sacred marriage of opposites.
The vesica piscis, a fish-shaped form from two overlapping circles—was both the ichthys of Christ and the yoni of the Goddess, the womb-door through which spirit enters form. Gothic cathedrals, Templar seals, and mystical diagrams preserve this geometry.
Medieval cathedrals sometimes carved double-tailed mermaids, their spread tails symbolic of fertility, creation, and the gateway between worlds.
The Merovingian Bloodline and Melusine
Melusine, the double-tailed mermaid of medieval legend, is one of the clearest echoes of the hidden Mer-Line. In European folklore, she was said to be a radiant woman who transformed from the waist down into a serpent or fish every Saturday when she bathed. This ritual bathing mirrored the sacred water rites of purification and initiation carried by the Grail Maidens and Magdalene herself. When her mortal husband broke the taboo and spied on her during this rite, her serpent-dragon form was revealed, and she was condemned to sorrow and exile, an allegory for how patriarchal fear sought to suppress the mysteries of the feminine. The Merovingian kings of France even claimed descent from Melusine, binding their bloodline to her watery sovereignty.
In her twin tails, she embodies the union of mermaid and dragon, womb water priestess and serpent guardian, fertility and sovereignty. Though demonized and hidden, her image remains carved into medieval cathedrals, remembered in the legends of French castles, and even revived in the modern Starbucks siren. Like Magdalene, Melusine is both revered and feared: a guardian of the Grail mysteries, a sovereign of the waters, and a reminder that the sacred feminine lineage can never be erased, only concealed until its time to rise again.
From Starbucks to Stained Glass
The Starbucks siren, with her twin tails, is a modern echo of Melusine. In medieval Christian art, mermaids appear beside Mary Magdalene, holding mirrors (Sophia’s wisdom) or books (gnosis).
The Little Mermaid and Magdalene’s Flame
In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Ariel’s treasure cavern holds a Baroque painting, Mary Magdalene with the Smoking Flame, in which she contemplates the eternal light of truth. Like Magdalene, Ariel is a bride of the waters who loses her voice in the quest to unite two worlds.
The Return of the Mermaid-Dragon Lineage
From Atargatis to Nammu, from Magdalene to Melusine, from Christ and John the Baptist as mermen to Lilith’s shadowy siren form, the Mer-Line flows unbroken.
We are in the Age of Aquarius, the return of the water bearers. The mermaid priestess rises from the depths, dragon at her side, restoring the waters of life to a thirsty world. Her message is clear: the womb is sacred, the waters are holy and encoded with the frequency of the mysteries, and the voice of the feminine will not be silenced again.
Join Me in France for the Rose Retreat
This September and next May 2026, I’m returning to the sacred landscapes of Southern France for the Rose Retreat, and you are invited to walk this path with me.
Together, we will:
-Visit ancient baptismal pools still resonant with the Magdalene lineage
-Learn and experience the sacred rites of baptism as they were practiced in the mysteries
-Commune with the living waters guarded by the spirit of the serpent-dragon
-Walk upon sacred lands encoded with the frequencies of the Divine Feminine and the Grail mysteries
-Deepen into your own connection with the Mer-Line, the Magdalene, and the waters of creation
These journeys are more than pilgrimages, they are living personal initiations into the heart of the mysteries.
Current Dates:
September 2025 – Limited spaces available
NEW DATES: May 2026 – Now open for early reservation
If your soul stirs at the sound of these waters calling, come. The springs and dragons are waiting. And the Rose lineage is ready to welcome you home.
References: Magdalene Mysteries, The Left Hand Path of the Christ, Seren Bertrand and Azra Bertrand
Guardians of the Dragon Path, Ani Williams