at International Talk Like
A Pirate Day event, September 2006
In summer of 2005, I started dreaming of
desert
pirates and wondered if that was an omen that my
mermaid fantasy would also mean the arrival of my soulmate in the guise of a pirate? It was
certainly über romantic but I wasn't sure why I'd
imagined the notion of "pirates in the desert"...
until the summer of 2006 when I was preparing for my
first Burning Man festival.
As I packed my costumes for this week-long carnival
of art in Nevada, I realized that the dusty pirate
of my fantasy might be found in this
very festival set in the desert! However, realizing
that I would be unable to walk in my mermaid
costume, I decided to leave it at home and hoped
that my pirate gear would somehow summon this
soulmate...
Upon arrival, I watched a gritty Pirate Ship (an art
car) sail past me. Delighted, I set intentions to
encounter them more directly. Even though
there were over 40,000 revelers at this festival, I
trusted that the Universe would surprise me.
One magical evening, as I walked into the
desert night, I ran into the
creator and captain of the gritty Pirate Ship.
Surprisingly, he
said that he'd wanted to meet me on the dance
floor on a previous night and described the costume
that I'd worn. The universe doesn't
fail to astound!
My romance meter went off the chart as he invited
me to step onto his Pirate Ship and I secretly
wished that I had brought my mermaid costume to
complete the romantic fantasy.
It was at that
very moment that a blond woman walked over to us and
the captain introduced me to his friend
Darryl Hannah! Turns
out that she was involved with environmental activism
and
they were exploring some bio fuel projects together. As the 3
of us sat together on the deck of the Pirate Ship, I
felt a wave of sweet surrealism overwhelm me.
Here was one of my childhood icons taking part in my
mermaid-pirate fantasy come to life!Even though i didn't have my mermaid outfit for
this moment, the Mermaid from Splash was
there.Now, had a unicorn stepped on board at
that moment, my head would have exploded...
at Burning
Man 2006
Ultimately, I spent time visiting my pirate friend
in the USA but our relationship was not meant to be
romantic even though we explored that idea. We
were like long-lost brother and sister from another
lifetime so our connection was beautiful even if it
wasn't about romance. Over the next year, I
would encounter a string of pirate characters:
including an eccentric Norwegian pirate who built
his own life-sized Pirate ship and a Mexican pirate who
planned to buy a Spanish Galleon and who named his
company after an infamous pirate. Alas,
despite exciting first impressions, none would
become the Pirate of my romantic dreams.
The Norwegian Pirate's ship docked in Mexico (2007)
View of the ship from upper deck (2007)
A Pirate's tomb on Isla Mujeres (2006)
As time wore on, I accepted that the Pirate was
clearly a powerful archetype that was part of my
personal aesthetic but not an actual person that I
would be with.
For me, the pirate and mermaid
are a romantic duality that not only represent
masculine and feminine energies (yin/yang) but also
symbolize the Sacred and Profane duality
that is central to the Epic Alchemy teachings
I've been developing over the years.
Also, I like seeing the mythical mermaid in the
water realm as a symbol of the Unmanifested and
the Subconscious while the mortal pirate in the ship
above represents the Manifested World and the Conscious.
Finally, both characters contain
contrasting elements of Light and Dark. The
ethereal beauty of the mermaid is a striking
contrast to her deadly siren's song which was known
to attract sailors to their untimely death.
The plundering dark side of the pirate contrasts the
more celebrated elements of Adventure and Freedom
that make this
archetype so popular. Together, the pirate and the mermaid
contribute an inspiring aesthetic and spiritual
symbolism that will keep tickling my fancy for years
to come... Arrrr!!
xox little woo
(may 7, 2011)
p.s. if you also have a mermaid-pirate
fetish, please contact me about possible
participation in an upcoming mermaid-pirate
project!
woo@littlewoo.org
