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Episode 129: Creepy Cryptids
509 Plays2 months ago
Welcome back Witches! In this episode, we're diving into the chilling tales of the Windigo, a ravenous spirit of the North, and the mysterious Mermaid, a creature of the sea with deadly allure. So get in loser, we're exploring the dark and dangerous world of these legendary cryptids!
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft, or email us at [email protected]. You can support our show through our links below.
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References:
- Smith, Kaitlin. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Windigo Stories. (2021) https://www.facinghistory.org/ideas-week/more-monsters-deeper-significance-wendigo-stories
- Anglis, Jaclyn. What is the Windigo? Meet the Cannibalistic Cryptid of Your Nightmares. (2024). https://allthatsinteresting.com/wendigo
- Braindwein, Sharon. Sleep Myths: The Wendigo. (2022). https://sleepopolis.com/education/sleep-myths-the-wendigo/
- McCauley, Elizabeth. The Mythology & Misrepresentation of the Windigo. (2016) https://backstoryradio.org/blog/the-mythology-and-misrepresentation-of-the-windigo/
- Jordan Clark. (2018). The Merfolk of Philippine Folklore. The Aswang Project. https://www.aswangproject.com/the-merfolk-of-philippine-folklore/
- Professor Geller. (2018). Mermaid. Mythology.Net. https://mythology.net/mythical-creatures/mermaid/
- Joanna Gillan (2021). Are Mermaid Myths inspired by a Rare Medical Condition? Ancient Origins. https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/mythical-mermaids-020986
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In Witches as we're doing witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in witches as we get weird with some cryptids.
Cleopatra and Ice Spice Drama
00:00:46
Speaker
I have been involved deep in the trenches with this fucking story time. This R and&B singer, her name is Cleopatra. I know you have no who clue who I'm talking about, but OK, so I don't know if I ever told you, but Mike's celebrity crush is Ice Spice.
00:01:04
Speaker
He loves her. And i ever since I saw her, I was like, there's something I don't like about her, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. like I just had this ah had this feeling that she was a shitty person, right? yeah And Mike's just like, oh, you're just jealous. And I'm like, no, I'm not. And he's just like, but it would be like a joke between us, like, oh, you're so jealous. like yeah Why you got to be a hater? like Ice spice is like hot. And I'm like, no, she's not.
00:01:32
Speaker
and like i'm just like there's something about her she has a really bad aura i don't know what it is but i don't like her there's a reason why i don't like her and i can't put my finger on it but i just don't like her never in my life have i been more vindicated than stumbling across cleopatra this R and&B singer who was friends with Ice Spice. And Ice Spice asked her to come on tour with her on her American tour and then treated her like absolute garbage and come to find out she is a terrible person and just like such a mean fucking bitch. And I'm just like, see, I was right. Isn't she the one? Was it during like the Super Bowl or something like?
00:02:14
Speaker
They had like, you know how they panned to the crowd or whatever when they're doing like the performance or whatever. And there was something, they tried to tie everything to the Super Bowl, I think like the Super Bowl performance to Satanism or like devil worship or something. And they like pander her and she was like holding her hands in some weird symbol and they were like, there it is, it's witchcraft.
00:02:35
Speaker
i think so yeah i don't remember 100 but like and there's don't get me wrong i think some of her songs are like pretty catchy like don't think i've lost any of them i just and she starts off every song i think one of her producers who i think she's also in a relationship with is named riot And every song she starts out with is, uh, what does she say? She's like, stop playing with them, Riot. And I can't stand that. You know how artists will like call it the produce or whatever? I literally cannot stand that. Did it! But Mike's just like, you're such a hater. And I'm just like, there's something about her I don't like. And I could never put a finger on it. But listening, like I'm seriously like in like part five of this series of Cleopatra literally calling out all of the bullshit on this tour.
00:03:26
Speaker
So I have been invested, invested.
Finding Joy in Animal Videos
00:03:30
Speaker
See, my recent rabbit hole is I don't know how this chick showed up on my, you know, like Facebook and all of that. It'll just like pop a random thing up that you don't follow and it's like suggested for you.
00:03:41
Speaker
There's this girl named her first name is Katie. I cannot remember what her last name is. Her account is like three names like first. I don't know if it's like first has two names or if it's like a first middle last type thing. Okay. She has this mini horse and mini donkey farm. Oh my god. And she popped up her line for you Paige.
00:04:04
Speaker
And now I follow her because she has this tiny, her one of her mini donkeys was pregnant and it gave birth and to this tiny precious little donkey and his name is Pico and he gets the zoomies and it's the cutest thing on the planet. So I like when I'm just like having a bad day or I'm really irritated, I'm just like, I'm gonna go watch a Pico video. yeah He's so cute. I'll have to send you ah like a video of his because he is the most precious tiny little thing. And then one of her mini horses also had a baby and his name is George and he's sassy. She had to put baby oil on his butt because he had a rash and he got mad and kept trying to kick her and rub it off his butt on the fence.
00:04:46
Speaker
I don't know why. Her videos are just so funny. They bring me joy. Oh my gosh. I love that. I love a good animal video. I also hold this one girl on TikTok and I can't remember her name, but she has a series called Stray's Anatomy. Oh my god. I love it already. It's a stray cat. It's a stray cat in her neighborhood that she feeds and like the drama with the stray cats and like there's a love triangle and like now there's kids involved in all my god so i love her and then i watch this dude this british dude and he's just like this british like you would never think that he could see seems so like.
00:05:27
Speaker
tough, you know what I mean? yeah He found a fucking rabbit. ah I don't even know when. like I don't know if it was a year ago, a couple years ago, whatever. He found a rabbit just randomly in the road and it was obviously somebody's pet rabbit that they've got rid of or whatever. He rescued this rabbit and he take it's his rabbit now and he like has a channel on TikTok where he takes care of his little fucking rabbit. It's It's so cute.
00:05:56
Speaker
like Ronnie Radke of like falling in reverse, right? Problematic. Yes, hilarious. Absolutely. He's turned into like a bird dad. Oh, birds and it's like videos of him and his bird and he'll be like, I love you and the bird will give him a kiss and he'll be like, I said I love you. Oh, that is so cute. I know. I'm like, look at Ronnie Radke and his bird era.
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah, I just there's something about a person who cares about animals. I just love it, right? ah I'm trying to find the Pico zoomy video to send you to watch after we're done recording or whenever you want to because it is the cutest fucking thing. I was like, look at him doing his little zoomy circles.
00:06:38
Speaker
So basically I'm going to be adding another animal to my wish list. I already told you, I was like, um, I now would like a mini donkey. And he was like, what does a mini donkey bring to the table? At least goats eat grass. And I was like, preciousness.
00:06:54
Speaker
yeah but like What more do you need? Cuteness, I don't know. Pleasure for me because I'm happy looking at this mini donkey. like one There's videos of her holding him in rock and him. I'm just like, how is this this cute? like How do you get a creature that is just this cute?
00:07:15
Speaker
Yeah, you know what they say, Anthony, happy wife, happy life. Okay. Right. Right. So go ahead and fulfill my wildest dreams. Thank you. Get me that donkey.
Shoutout to Subscribers and Newsletter
00:07:25
Speaker
Thanks. Yeah. So I mean, before we get started, though, I do think it's important.
00:07:31
Speaker
to shout out. We have a new Supercast subscriber. Yay. Thank you so much, Jordan, for subscribing to our podcast. We love you so much. um We hope you have the most fabulous day ever. And hopefully, if you haven't checked your emails yet last week, which the more recording this,
00:07:51
Speaker
a few weeks or a month before you get the actual episode released. But hopefully you have, by the time you were listening to this, you will have received your September newsletter. So check your mail, check your junk mail if it's not in your regular mail, and just know that sometimes our newsletters go to your junk mailbox. So um yeah. Which makes us sad. Yeah, which makes us sad. But that happens to us too. And I'm like, where the fuck is the newsletter? And it's in our junk mail. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:20
Speaker
But we're not talking about mini donkeys or newsletters today. No, we're not. What are we talking about?
Cryptids and Spooky Season Begins
00:08:28
Speaker
We're talking about some cryptids. We're getting weird. We are getting weird. And then also maybe a little um angry too.
00:08:39
Speaker
Maybe a little bit angry. Okay. I can't wait for that. This is also our last episode of September, which means next episode is going to start our spooky season. So I'm so excited for that. I love that we're ending September on a weird ish spooky ish episode anyways. And then like, it'll be a good segue into spooky season. I love it.
00:09:05
Speaker
ah So I guess I will kick us off.
Deep Dive into the Wendigo
00:09:09
Speaker
Um, I am talking about the Windigo, which I, okay, I'm an avid watcher slash re watcher of the TV show Supernatural. And the Windigo is featured in season one, episode two. It's a great episode, even though that was like their lowest budget season.
00:09:31
Speaker
So it's not the best, but I absolutely love it. um They do a lot of research for that one. There's actually a lot of stuff that I came across in my research that I was like, they actually researched this before they just put the Windigo in there. Dang, okay. I know. So the Windigo is known as the quote unquote cannibalistic cryptid of your nightmares.
00:09:56
Speaker
That sounds terrible. So it's um known by a lot of various spellings that are all pronounced the same, but there's just like just different ways that they spell it, I guess. Or it's known as the wetiko.
00:10:12
Speaker
which is Cree for cannibal or evil person or spirit who terrorizes other creatures by means of terrible evil acts like cannibalism. And these creatures are a cryptid that come from indigenous lore. And I'm going to talk a lot about this later because while the Wendigo is featured in a lot of pop culture media, it's very whitewashed, which is really irritating, but typical, right? Like we're used to that by now.
00:10:40
Speaker
then So the word Wendigo comes from the Algonquin word meaning evil spirit, and folklore surrounding the scripted has been passed down through generations. And because of its strong ties to many tribes, the Wendigo remains a popular topic among indigenous peoples and scholars. In 1860, a German explorer equated the word Wendigo with cannibal.
00:11:05
Speaker
And so in appearance, there's several variations of what they look like in media and in lore, even just like across different tribes. My favorite description that I found on the Wendigo's appearance came from an Ojibwe teacher and scholar named Basil Johnson.
00:11:23
Speaker
who shared that the Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones, with its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and it's its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets.
00:11:41
Speaker
The Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton, recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody. Its body was unclean and suffering from separations of the flesh, giving off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition of death and corruption.
00:12:00
Speaker
And according to the Googles, this description is one of the most trusted and the author is extremely knowledgeable on the Ojibwe tribe and their mythology lore and teachings. So that's already painting a pretty creepy picture. Wendigos are always described as being very large. They've been depicted to be around 15 feet tall.
00:12:22
Speaker
and they're said to roam. If you guys can hear that, my washer has decided to do a spend cycle for the 47th time since I've been down here today. So they're said to be about 15 feet tall and they're said to roam the forest. When members of a tribe went missing, they were believed to have been devoured by a wendigo.
00:12:40
Speaker
Most lore describes the window girl as having long limbs, long sharp claws and teeth, and their eyes are said to be a sunken glowing red. They're also said to have a long tongue apparently that they lick their victim's flesh with, and they're believed to be able to shapeshift into other animals or human forms.
00:12:59
Speaker
Other lore says that they are a humanoid monster with fangs, antlers, and glowing eyes, and it's always said to be a beast-like creature that thrives in the coldest parts of the world. So the eyes I feel like vary from description to description. Like some of them are like, oh, they're just these like sunken and red eyes. Some of them just say they're like, you know, like when you look out and you see an animal in a bush or something at night, and it's like that like fluorescent like shine. And then some of them describe their eyes as being like big like an owl's eyes. So either way, it's all kind of terrifying, right? If you're all by yourself and see any of this, I'd be like, it's time to go home. yeah So themes surrounding the Wendigo are the cold, famine, starvation, evilness, and greed. Wendigos are believed to be a powerful supernatural being born from the worst parts of human behavior and they're known to either devour their victims or possess their spirit and turn them evil.
00:14:02
Speaker
Some of the oldest lore states that the wendigo was once a lost hunter who endured a brutally cold winter. During this time, his intense hunger drove him to cannibalism, and the story goes that once the hunter ingested another human's flesh, he transformed into a crazed man-beast, roaming in the forest in search of more people to eat. Inversions of this lore can be seen cross-culturally, but it is especially prominent in the indigenous culture's lore surrounding the wendigo.
00:14:30
Speaker
One common piece surrounding all lore involving the Wendigo is that anyone who encounters one is at risk of being devoured or becoming a Wendigo themselves. So there's been sightings of Wendigos like throughout history because this is one of the oldest pieces of the Algonquin people's lore. And so most of the sightings are secondhand accounts or their stories that have been passed down through generations. And those part of the Algonquin tribes came from North America, specifically living along the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes region. So majority of sightings reported come from those areas.
00:15:10
Speaker
The most famous Windigo sighting story came in the early 1900s when a Cree chief named Jack Fiddler, which what a name for like an indigenous like chief. Right. On Jack Fiddler, it made me laugh. He claimed to have killed 14 Windigos in his lifetime and at the age of 87,
00:15:30
Speaker
Fiddler pled guilty to the crime of murdering a woman. He defended himself by saying that the woman was on the verge of transforming into a wendigo and that she was being possessed by the evil spirit. He claimed she had to be killed before she murdered other members of the tribe. And so is he a wendigo hunter? Is he a serial killer? Like who really knows? But Fiddler was sentenced to life in prison and he was granted a pardon, but he died in jail before receiving the news that he had been pardoned.
00:16:00
Speaker
Part of it was to be like darn, but then also it's like, but I don't know. I don't know. It's like, okay, if Wendigos are a thing, and he's like, no, I was really killing these bitches to protect everyone. And you're like, good on you, dude.
00:16:17
Speaker
these things are like 15 feet tall. yeah But also he could have just been a serial killer. and never and I wasn't there, so I don't know. yeah um Another involved a member of the Cree tribe and his name was Swift Runner. And this incident takes place over the winter of 1828 to 1829.
00:16:37
Speaker
where Swift and his family were starving, as was most of the tribe. Swift's eldest son was the first in the family to die of starvation, and it said that this is where Swift succumbed to Wendigo psychosis, which is apparently a thing. So, like, it's used a lot in instances of starvation cannibalism, where it's like, I can die or I can eat this human. They call it Wendigo psychosis.
00:17:03
Speaker
because of this. So I found that to be really interesting. But instead of traveling the 25 miles to Hudson's Bay Company post, where they had emergency food supplies available, he decided he was just going to kill the remaining members of his family and consume them. And eventually he confessed and he was executed by the authorities at Fort Saskatchewan for his crimes in 1879. So yeah, his son dies, he eats them. And he's like, fuck it, I'm just gonna eat everyone else too.
00:17:31
Speaker
no Yeah, yeah. Gross. Right. And so, like I said earlier, the, like, lore around the Wendigo can be seen cross-culturally. And, you know, while we see it across many different cultures today, I think it's really, really important to reiterate that this lore has been adopted from its original Native American folklore, and specifically from the Algonquins Peking tribes, like the Ojibwe, the Sulto, and the Cree.
00:17:58
Speaker
So, in indigenous lore, the details of these stories really depend on like what tribe it's coming from, what person is telling the story, but typically, wendigos are known to have an insatiable greed along with a desire for human flesh. Some of the lore from this culture claims that the wendigo is more like Bigfoot, while others compare it to a werewolf.
00:18:18
Speaker
And wendigos are believed to be brought into existence through a specific set of circumstances that are unique to different tribal groupings. In most traditions, wendigos are human in origin, and they become monsters through a process that results either from an act of starvation-induced cannibalism or from possession by a spirit.
00:18:39
Speaker
It's believed that in the transition from human to Wendigo, the person will exhibit increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greed, all particularly connected to the need for the consumption of human flesh.
00:18:52
Speaker
Other lore claims that wendigos are vengeful spirits that punish those who break the laws of nature. And in this version, like of the lore, it claims that a human becomes a wendigo when they're possessed by a prowling spirit in their weakest moments. And these are specifically like anytime someone is giving into greed, gluttony, and excess.
00:19:12
Speaker
In one story I came across, the wendigo was described as having a heart made of ice and that it was so hungry for flesh that it would chew its own lips off in desperation, which kind of comes into like what we were talking about with appearance of a wendigo having like tattered bloody lips.
00:19:28
Speaker
And then yet another version says that that the person that becomes the Wendigo, essentially, when they're possessed, like they stay alive and they stay like hidden, frozen and hidden somewhere. And the only way to kill the Wendigo would be to find and kill the human. And there are very few stories that say like the human can be rescued. They all like almost always end up in death for the human.
00:19:54
Speaker
And in other versions of this, they state that the possessed human's personality like continues to reside within the Wendigo, specifically where its heart should be. So like whether you become the Wendigo, your personality stays in your heart, or it possesses your body, but it takes your personality and creates this monster. But either way, like it doesn't end well for you.
00:20:17
Speaker
terrible ah right another version states that the first wendigo was actually a warrior this is so sad he was a warrior who made a deal with a devil in order to save his tribe he gave up his soul being transformed into a wendigo but Once peace was achieved, there was no need for like such a fearsome creature to protect the tribe, so the warrior Wendigo was banished from his own tribe and forced to live as an outcast. So this man makes a deal, gives up his soul, becomes a Wendigo to protect his tribe, and then they're like, well, we don't need you anymore. Get out. Awful. That is awful.
00:20:54
Speaker
and they And then lastly, some lore and legends claim that if one dreams of a wendigo, then their body might become vulnerable to possession by the wendigo spirit, bringing them desire for human flesh. And so if they act on that and once like cannibalism is complete, the body then begins its own grotesque transformation into a wendigo.
00:21:16
Speaker
Many tribes used these stories to reinforce the need for communal values like moderation and cooperation to help keep their tribal communities healthy and happy. In our modern day, many tribes associate greed with the excess of capitalism and colonialism where previous lore and legend shared it in terms of like the wilderness or like a bear in winter. So And again, something that I want to note as I transition into like American, Canadian, and simply just like pop culture is that these versions typically simplify indigenous beliefs, and they often strip them of their cultural context in the process. But like, sadly, that's no surprise, because that's what we do, I guess.
00:21:58
Speaker
So when we come into like American and Canadian lore, non-Indigenous America and Canada often depict the Wendigo as a giant, and it's often described more like a werewolf, a vampire, a yeti, or some combination of the three. Much of the American and Canadian lore is tied to the story I told about the hunter forced into cannibalism, and it simply ends as the hunter-turned-Wendigo is now destined to roam the frozen forest of Canada and Minnesota in search for people to eat but never being satisfied.
00:22:27
Speaker
When we look at pop culture, like pop culture typically misrepresents the Wendigo and any like cultural lore tied to it. So, Wendigos and pop culture have a running theme of being monsters that emerge randomly or in a violent response to colonialism, making it almost come across as an act of retaliation.
00:22:46
Speaker
by indigenous peoples against white America, which is gross. And though other media simply forgoes any of this and just uses a monster as a monster, some examples of Wendigos in media include the TV series Supernatural, like I was talking about, Pet Sematary by Stephen King. You can hear my dogs, I'm sorry. My husband's gone right now, so Nyx is acting a fool, as she does.
00:23:10
Speaker
As she does. As she does. Pet Cemetery by Stephen King. Windigos are like the big bad that hunt in the cemetery. And they're an evil force that like the dad who's like one of the main characters keeps sensing. In the TV series Hannibal, this is a force that drives Hannibal fueled by his rage for revenge. So someone killed one of his loved ones, essentially. And he goes in this like revenge mode. And this force grows stronger. And the story leads to the belief that the Windigo takes over when he's killing.
00:23:40
Speaker
and There's a movie um called Antlers by scott ah Scott Cooper and Guillermo del Toro and it features an indigenous character that basically provides this like brief exposition before the main story actually starts and the main story is centered around a white community dealing with a monster. My Little Pony apparently features a Windigo in some of its cartoons. I did not know that. I had no idea. I know, I was like, that's hilarious. Marvel has a character that is a Windigo and the Windigo appears in like The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and Alpha Flight. And there is a graphic novel entitled Curse of the Windigo by Matthew, I think it's Miss Off.
00:24:21
Speaker
Maybe? I don't know. I could be pronouncing that wrong. But I did look it up and it looked really interesting because I do love a good graphic novel. And then one major theme that pop culture seemed to remove from the lore surrounding the Wendigo is the Algonquin speaking tribe's themes of hope.
00:24:38
Speaker
in their lore and stories. So some stories have been passed down through generations that are said to offer hope to a person who might escape the Wendigo against all odds. And another misrepresentation is that the Wendigo is so powerful that it would like decimate everything in its path where again like often people were able to escape and overcome the Wendigo and its traps. And Wendigo sightings are still reported especially in areas around Northern Ontario, near the cave of the Wendigo, around Kenora, and in the prairies of northern Minnesota and Canada. Wow. But that is the Wendigo. Interesting. So big thing take away, listeners, if you have a dream about a Wendigo, do not, not give in to the temptation to eat the flush, okay? Don't eat. Don't do it. A human. so Don't eat them. Because otherwise you're going to turn into a 15 foot
00:25:37
Speaker
creepy, cryptid, you're going to eat your own lips and you're never going to be satisfied. Yeah. You're never going to be able to wear a lip balm again. Because you won't have lips. Yep. And your heart might be ice. It could be a human personality. We're still not sure there. Nope. Yeah. jurycyclling on that The biggest thing to really like take in from this one too is like if cryptids are your thing and you're super interested in researching them. Maybe if you research the Wendigo, look at research that stems from the Algonquin tribes and not um the white peoples of a America, because kind just so totally these stories took away all of the things that made them what they were in
00:26:25
Speaker
like the indigenous peoples floor. And some of it even turned it against the indigenous people, making it seem like these creatures were created to eat white people. So not true. But also did they deserve it? Probably. Probably. you know what Yeah. Moving on to a little bit lighter of a topic. yeah I went real dark.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah. A lighter cryptid, if you will.
Mermaid Mythology Across Cultures
00:26:52
Speaker
I'm going to talk about mermaids. Precious. Yes. Although there's creepy lore around mermaids too. There is. And honestly, there's, it so this, let me just preface this. There is a lot of information out there about mermaids. I am not including everything. Okay. what? Yeah, not including it. This would probably be like 20 pages along the notes if I did.
00:27:16
Speaker
But just kind of getting into the background, we've all probably seen The Little Mermaid. And if you haven't, shame on you because that movie slaps. It does. It's so good. It is so good. But to give a background.
00:27:29
Speaker
mermaids are a mythological creature to some and very real to others. There's a lot of cultures who swear up and down, mermaids are fucking real, okay? Look, we don't know 90% of what's in the ocean. Exactly. I feel like we know more about space than we do the ocean. We do. They could be very real. I think that's like facts. Yeah, they could be real.
00:27:49
Speaker
So mermaids are believed to be half maiden and half fish or sometimes half sea serpent and they're said to be mysterious and enchanting and can even be destructive throughout history.
00:28:02
Speaker
and different cultures have their own myths associated with mermaids. Some stories will indicate that mermaids have been helpful to sailors who encounter rough storms while on the sea, and others claim that mermaids have helped to cure illnesses. But while there are a lot of stories depicting mermaids helping humans, there are just as many stories of mermaids as terrifying humans.
00:28:24
Speaker
There are some stories who say that mermaids are often said to drag humans down to the depths of the ocean and kill them in the process. um Some myths and legends indicate that mermaids don't intend to kill humans when they drag them into the ocean because they don't realize that humans can't breathe underwater, which, you know, I mean, can you blame them? They're like, are they really being harmful? Yeah. What? Like, OK. Didn't know that.
00:28:52
Speaker
I thought that was pretty cute. Mermaids have also been linked with the mythological siren and sirens are classified as a type of mermaid and I'll get into that later but sirens would lure sir sailors to their death with their singing. There are many questions surrounding the myth of the mermaid and what their symbolism means and There are of course many different theories surrounding this. The first being that the myth of the mermaid is that it's based on a misinterpretation of a medical disorder called sirenomalia.
00:29:25
Speaker
Sirenomalia is also known as mermaid syndrome, and it's a fatal most times. like There have been some cases in like the now where it hasn't been like super fatal. For the most part in all throughout history, it was a fatal congenital malfunction that is characterized by the fusion of the lower limbs.
00:29:47
Speaker
This congenital defect results in what looks like a single limb, which kind of resembles a fishtail. In some situations, it more so resembles a fishtail than in others. But I can see how like our ancestors would have looked like that, looked at that and been like, fucking mermaid. You know what I mean? Or like, you know, you give birth to something like a baby with a few limbs and they're like, you fucked a fish.
00:30:13
Speaker
ah right yeah ah where There is no other yeah burner, burner and the mermaid. Yeah, mermaid. They're all fucked up. Yeah. So I can see yeah where historically, yeah, that could have been confused with the mermaid.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Another historical, like I guess, theory that is connected with mermaids just in general and and why we believe in mermaids is that you know maybe the mermaid myths are a way for humans to look at the ocean and not feel it as such a threatening place, which, okay, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna just go back up here.
00:30:51
Speaker
That'd be one thing if all mermaids were like, oh yeah, love and light. And you know we're going to help you. But there are just as many stories as there are of like mermaids helping. There are so many more stories of mermaids being like, you know what? I'm going to fucking kill you and eat you. So really, i don't go I don't buy that one. So I will say, I mean, there's ah I'll get into that later. Let's just let's just dive into the history, OK? We're going to dive into the story. So I did not realize. but you can trace like the history and the mythology of mermaids back to ancient Assyria. And the first mermaid is a goddess known as a targetess. And I could be saying this wrong. I couldn't find I found a couple of different pronunciations, but it looks like it's pronounced a targetess. So I'm going to call her a targetess. Okay.
00:31:46
Speaker
works for She was the first historically reported mermaid from the years of 4,000 to 3,000 years ago in ancient Assyria and she was known as the fertility goddess and the chief goddess in northern Assyria.
00:32:01
Speaker
She was closely connected to the sky and the sea with her sacred animals being both doves and fish. So you can see kind of that you know tie between the land and the ocean. Because she was the chief goddess of the Assyrian people she was responsible for the Assyrians well-being and she was deeply connected to the people.
00:32:20
Speaker
The story goes that a targetess fell in love with a mortal shepherd, but because this dude was a human and she didn't realize that he would not survive the quote unquote divine love making in the ocean, she accidentally killed him.
00:32:37
Speaker
Oh no. Which really sucks. But, I mean, you know, there is this over lining here. She ended up getting pregnant with a daughter, but she didn't raise a daughter because she felt she had so much immense grief and sadness over losing her human lover. She ended up you know giving birth to her daughter and leaving her on the shore for someone else to raise. And she cast herself into the sea. She was so devastated and ashamed for killing her human lover that she tried to transform herself into a fish. But the powers of the sea refused to take away all of her beauty and her magnificence because she was supposedly like the most beautiful goddess like ever.
00:33:19
Speaker
And so they only allowed her legs to be transformed into a fishtail, leading her to become the first mermaid. So her top half was this beautiful goddess and her bottom half was a fish. What a sad way to become a mermaid though. I know. It's so sad. But also props to her for realizing like I am not in a space to adequately care for a child. So I'm just going to let everybody else take care of her. But you guys can raise her. I gotta go.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah, I have to go. but so The story, though, was adopted in and different cultures throughout time, and a targetess has been tied to goddesses such as Rhea, Sibili, and Aphrodite, which is the FYI there. But you know as I said, she was the first historically documented, I mean, obviously it's lore because of course, but like written down and ah you know something that is talked about, that's the first, like the oldest account of a mermaid, right? But mermaids are talked about in many different cultures throughout the world. There are many similarities and differences in mermaid stories and creatures who are similarly linked to mermaids throughout the world. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm only going to cover a few here. But if you're interested, there is a ton more information in our show notes because there are mermaids linked to like British folklore and the Isle of Man, Ireland, all throughout Asia and many other places that I'm not going to cover in this episode for the sake of time.
00:34:46
Speaker
so So the first one though that I am going to cover is the, is Nereids. And in ancient Greece, Nereids are said to be some of the most beautiful creatures in existence. They were depicted as having tails and legs. And this depended on where, whether they were seen on land or in water. In ancient Greek mythology, they were tied to Poseidon and they were often seen depicted carrying his trident.
00:35:13
Speaker
They were also, for the most part, friendly creatures who would help sailors in need. And we see this in the lore where the Nereids helped the Argonauts in the search for the Golden Fleece. So if you're familiar with that mythology, I mean, that's what that's tied to. you And if you're not, you can look it up because I didn't include it, obviously, in the notes.
00:35:33
Speaker
but One of the most famous Nereids in Greek mythology was Thedas, who had a child by Zeus, who was named Achilles. so And we've all heard of Achilles.
00:35:43
Speaker
so Additionally, from Greek mythology, we have the sirens. and The sirens are sometimes linked to mermaids and sometimes referenced as a type of mermaid. so Of course, you know obviously, I'm going to cover them briefly. Sirens are one of the most common types of mermaids recognized in modern day. They're portrayed as beautiful women from the waist up with wings and a bird's body for their bottom half, or more so likely depicted as a woman from the waist up and a fish from the waist down. They're historically known for singing beautiful songs to lure ships into dangerous crossings or even just like rocks or like
00:36:24
Speaker
other man-made things that would like fuck up a a ship. you know But the end result always being that the ship would crash so that the Sirens could feed off the bodies of the human sailors on board. And as you can imagine, Sirens did not have the same reputation as the Nereids did. And they were known as omens of bad luck, death, and destruction. And then also, I'm going to reference this selkie.
00:36:51
Speaker
And this comes from Icelandic mythology. And while they're linked with and classified as mermaids, selkies have a different transformation process. And they were known to have the gift of Therianthropy, which means that they could transform into a human at will. And they would do this by transforming from a seal into a human when they wanted to be on land.
00:37:14
Speaker
And when I say they would transform, I mean they would like literally shed the skin of the seal. So the skin would like remain. Yeah. Which pretty fucking gross. beas me But you know what? I don't know. Like I would rather be a selkie than any of the other ones. so Yeah.
00:37:31
Speaker
There are also many stories in Icelandic mythology where human men would be able to marry a selkie woman by stealing their seal skin when they would shut it. So would like when it would come ashore, yeah, they would steal their skin, hold it hostage. I know, right? Fucked up.
00:37:52
Speaker
And the lore states that the Selkis were able to form families and care for humans just like mortal women. So like you know they could reproduce and all the things. But over time, they would eventually find their fucking seal skin. And they would go back to the ocean homes because like the ocean would still be calling to them. They would have this calling for the ocean, but they couldn't like go to the ocean because they would fucking die because they were still in their human forms. Yeah. What's the other one that's similar to this, but it's horses?
00:38:22
Speaker
Kelpies? It could be Kelpies. When you said selkies at first, I was like, oh, horse mermaids. yeah And then I was like, oh, wait, no. No, seal mermaids. Yeah, seal mermaids. I think a Kelpie is a horse one, like yeah like water horses or something maybe. I think you're right. I think so. It sounds right. ah We're going to go with it. Yeah, we're going to go with it. So next is from Scottish mythology. And this follows the story of Melosene. And this is a bit different from some of the other legends of mermaids that I've discussed so far. Essentially, so Melosene is the name of a girl. And so it's not like, you know,
00:39:00
Speaker
Melisene is the name of like a a subcategory of mermaid if you will but she is often linked to and thought of as a mermaid because of a curse that her mother put on her which is just beyond me why she would do that. So Melisene's mother, her name was Priscine,
00:39:20
Speaker
And she was a beautiful fae that married King Elenias of Scotland. And when he saw her in the woods one day, like he just had to marry her. And he asked her to marry her because he was like so overcome with her beauty. And it was like, you know I'm going to be the best husband, whatever, whatever. She's just like, yeah, I'll go ahead and marry you. So for years, they were married and they had three children together. But of course, because he's a fucking man, he messed up. And like He broke his oath to her mother and the mother was like, you know what, peace out. like I'm not dealing with this bullshit. So he she took her kids and left. And when Melisine was 15 years old, she asked her mom, like hey, why haven't I been raised with dad? like What happened there? And her mother told her you know essentially that like he broke his oath to her. So I'm assuming he like cheated on her. I didn't go into detail about like what exactly he did. But it had to be something like,
00:40:16
Speaker
cheating because it said like specifically he broke his oath. And Melisine took it really difficult, and she like was very angry about it, and she wanted to avenge her mother. And her mother, in turn, before she could like act out and like plan her revenge, she got angry and changed Melisine into a fish with two tails because she didn't want her to disrespect her father, the king. Like, bitch.
00:40:44
Speaker
You loved him. Like, what do you mean? Not like that, but she's like, I'm so mad for you, mom. And she's like, oh, yeah, fucking cursed bitch. Yeah, cursed. And it was like, and she wasn't like that 24 seven, though, she was only yeah that on Saturdays. So it's like, on Saturdays only, just on Saturdays. And it's like the fuck. So and another version. So in some versions, she was changed into a fish with two tails and others she was turned into a serpent. So but and it was only from like waist down. So like the top half would be like,
00:41:17
Speaker
her normal beautiful self, the bottom half could be a serpent or like a fish with two tails. So whatever. Like she ended up living with it even though, you know, that's kind of fucked up. Like, come on, mom. yeah Why would you fucking do that? But eventually, Melisene fell in love and got married, but she had one condition with her husband and that was that he not look upon her on Saturdays.
00:41:39
Speaker
And for years her husband kept that promise, but one Saturday he couldn't help himself and he spied on her. And of course she was like not in a human form. She was either half snake or half, you know, fucking fish with two tails, whichever story you want to go with. And of course she was pissed because why wouldn't she be pissed? Like she told you specifically, don't spy on me on Saturdays. Like- Yeah, leave me alone. Give me my Saturdays. I need some me time.
00:42:07
Speaker
ah literally. So she eventually forgave him. But one time during an argument, he called her as a serpent. I know, right? What a rude man. And she ended up disappearing and never returned home, which honestly, can you blame her? Like she told you. Go live your best life. That's below the belt. yeah Okay.
00:42:30
Speaker
really So rude. And the last mythological mermaid category I'm going to talk about are the sirena. And this is also known as katau, which means one like us in West Visayan, and yugoi, which is hook in Tagalog, and siyukoi, which is also in Tagalog, but there was no like English translation as to what it was. um But if you haven't figured out what to talk about yet, this is the Filipino mermaid. And there's so much lore, so much lore tied to the Philippines and mermaids. So much so that like I had to pare down much of these notes because I could have talked the entire episode on just the Filipino mermaid. So they're portrayed as a voluptuous maiden from the waist up with a light complexion and long wavy hair. And
00:43:22
Speaker
the mermaid is often seen sunning herself on rocks at sea and will entice fishermen to go near them. And so Philippine merfolk and um so just the mermaids and the mermen are found not just in sea waters like in many Western and especially European lore, but in Philippine culture, they are found in rivers, lakes, waterfalls, basins of water, bays, gulfs, and seas. So basically anywhere where like water collects,
00:43:51
Speaker
could be a mermaid there. So they're often said to be wailing in distress as a method to attract prey and during the rainy season throughout history farmers would have to cross over from like their outlying fields at the end of the day to like where they live and If you know anything about the rainy season in Asia, it rains a lot and areas will be like totally flooded with water. But like and because it would have to cross over from like their outlying fields to where like they live or where their village was, they were so afraid. not like like They were afraid to fall in the water, not because of drowning, but because they were afraid that a mermaid would take them. And this is still something that like like my mother-in-law, she's from the Philippines, she
00:44:36
Speaker
believe like 100% if you ask her about mermaids they are real like they believe that is a real thing it is it is a real thing it's going to take and according to the lore the basin of the botacon falls which is close to manila is inhabited by a mermaid even though that area is used to generate electricity so like i don't know how like that would work I mean, I just feel like you would know if there was one there, considering you're using that basin of water to like actually generate electricity boat on. They're like, we do know it's there. Yeah, we've we've not been able to catch it on pictures, but we know it's there. Oh, we know it's there. It's the spirit of a mermaid. Right, yeah, it is. And she's shy, so she's quiet.
00:45:21
Speaker
um The Pampanga River is also said to have mermaids in the river who will prey upon swimmers as well as other rivers in the country like the Cagayan River north of Luzon and the Magindana River which is in the south of the country. In Filipino culture, merfolk are said to have beautiful underwater homes filled with gold and gemstones. And in the lore, they say that the merfolk do not kill the children that they capture. They in turn raise them in their underwater homes, and they don't die like the children that they capture. They don't die when they're down there. But like they raise them and feed them and take care of them. And then when they're old enough to marry, the merfolk will marry them and like procreate.
00:46:03
Speaker
and so Okay. Interesting. um I was also reading that the lore in the Philippines is that the merfolk capture what they're fond of eating. So like if you're in the Philippines and you're especially near a body of water, you shouldn't say that you like eating fish or meat.
00:46:21
Speaker
because like you know they're half fish, half like human. And so like you're at risk of a mermaid eating you if you were to say, like oh, I love eating fish or I love eating like just meat in general. And you shouldn't say that you like eating vegetables with curly tips I guess maybe like broccoli or like like celery or carrots because merfolk are portrayed as having curly hair. And so anything that would look like curls, you shouldn't say also out loud that you like to eat. So so just don't say that you like to eat. but Yeah, just just don't. and And don't go near water just in case. Just in case. You don't want to get kidnapped.
00:47:02
Speaker
No, and we don't want to do that. So I mean, like I said, there's more related to mermaids that I could have talked about. But I wasn't going to get into like any of the like, oh, yeah, we captured a mermaid and actually was a fucking fish sewed on to some other weird creature that is, you know, some science experiment. But if you are interested in learning a little bit about mermaids, we do have plenty of sources as well as for the wind to go as well.
00:47:32
Speaker
Yeah. And don't read about the wind to go at night because we don't want you dreaming about them, okay? No. We don't eat human flesh. flesh. Wind goes for the morning, mermaids at night, okay? Yeah, don't be greedy. We don't make the rules.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:47:58
Speaker
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00:48:20
Speaker
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