Nymph Amalfi was not the wife of Hercules. She was the lead oracular Priestess of the Water of the entire region of the famed Amalfi Coast, Italy. To this day grandpa sailors exchange stories of how they saw with their very own eyes the transformation of the Janare from ear-splitting sirens to jaw dropping maidens. The Janare are the Amalfi Coast mermaids who call the sailors to them, becoming with their magnetic force only to shapeshift into monstrous creatures. So the myths go. And they go strong.
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THE AMALFI NYMPH WAS TAKEN OVER BY CONQUEROR HERCULES
Interesting, that the Amalfi Coast holds two parallel myths of sirens/mermaids. The Janare are the local stories that are still shared on the beach by old men holding some grappa and the Sirens legends are even older. The Sirens in this area were within Odysseus’ stories. The Amalfi Coast was named after Nymph Amalfi. According to Italian historians she was married to Hercules. And then she mysteriously died. The marriage of a conquering god of many local female deities is the colonial way of taking over the local myths as a way of taking and absorbing their religious and political power. Better explained by Murray Margaret in God of the Witches.
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NYMPH AS REIGNING SPIRITUAL LEADER
Nymph Amalfi was never married to Hercules. She was a local deity far older than the relatively recent times of the Hercules conquering era. At her time, about 4,000 years ago most of Europe and North Africa had a large presence of matristic cultures which often had a water- centric female deity. A Creatrix of land, water and air. As explained well by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.
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NYMPHS WERE HUMAN SPIRITUAL LEADERS AND ALSO OTHER-WORDLY
The Nymphs were human water-priestesses as recorded by the Greeks. Similarly, the Fairies were in fact often ancient medicine women absorbed into the catch-all word ‘fairy’ by the non-believers of their magical ways. As suggested in the Celtic Fairy Faith encyclopedia book compiled by W. Y. Evans Wenz. These mythological words are the last shreds of evidence which collapse multiple threads of beliefs. There are etheric nymphs and there were human-nymphs but all have been intertwined into ever shrinking, compacted legends. And the clues get harder and harder to find and decipher.
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THE WATER PRIESTESSES REMEMBER
But the clues are nevertheless still there and some of us who were there still remember and we are magnetically drawn to these sacred places, locations, stories, names and symbols. We still remember. We still are. The Water Priestesses.
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WE ARE WEAVING OUR EVER EXPANDING NETWORK
Join me in spirit as I will be hiking for a few days along the Amalfi Coast. I will say hello and pay homage to the Nymph Amalfi, to her sirens and to the dragons still hiding in the many caves. When a place still holds so much legend, and the name is still there, then lots of power is still living, and moving, waiting to be touched, loved, honored and brought back to a new life.
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CREATING WAVES OF CHANGE-WATER PRIESTESSES ARE RESURFACING!
I will be along the Costa Amalfitana with the hidden history buffs group Arco di Diana on September 16 & 17. If you have any intuition, visions, dreams, insights or connections to the water nymphs, Amalfi, the sirens, Mermaids or dragons here feel free to contact me and share. Thank you!
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ART SOURCE: digital collage by Alessandra Gilioli
PHOTO by Alexander Jawfox via Unsplash
DEA MADRE sessions and free good stuff https://alessandragilioli.com/