🌊 Melusine: The Enchanted Snake-Wife, Fairy Queen, and Ancient Feminine Power
🌊 Melusine: The Enchanted Snake-Wife, Fairy Queen, and Ancient Feminine Power
If you’ve ever had the eerie feeling that a story was whispering your name, that a tale was older than words and more honest than myth, chances are, you were brushing up against the legend of Melusine.
No, she wasn’t a Disney mermaid. She wasn’t a sanitized siren or a passive water sprite waiting to be rescued. Melusine was a fairy queen, a cursed serpent-woman, a mother, a goddess in exile, a heartbreak turned holy.
And let me tell you—she still moves. In rivers. In bloodlines. In magic.
The Legend, with All Its Bite
Depending on who’s telling it, Melusine was a water spirit, a noble-born fairy, or the very embodiment of liminal power. The royal houses of Luxembourg, Rohan, and Sassenaye all claimed descent from her. A flex, honestly.
In one French tale, her mother Pressina was a fairy who married King Elinas of Albania, under the condition that he not witness her childbirth. Of course, he did. Of course, everything went to hell.
The three daughters, including Melusine, were whisked away to the mysterious Lost Island (as one does). Later, Melusine trapped her father in a mountain (as you do when you’re raised by fey and your dad breaks sacred vows). Her mother was furious, cursed her to become a serpent from the waist down every Saturday, and off Melusine went into legend—a girl with power too sharp to hold in one place.
Queen, Lover, Curse-Bearer
She wandered until she reached the Fountain of Thirst in Poitou. There, Count Raymond saw her bathing with her sisters and instantly fell in love. She agreed to marry him, under one condition: he must never see her on Saturdays.
Reader, he agreed. Then, of course, he blew it.
One fateful Saturday, curiosity won. He saw her in her true form—not just a woman, but a serpentine marvel, blue, white, and terrifying in her glory. But he loved her still, and for a while, they carried on. Even their freaky kids (we’re talking full-on cryptid features) couldn’t break the spell.
Until tragedy struck.
One of their sons, Geoffrey with the Great Tooth, committed an unspeakable act. In a fit of monstrous rage, Geoffrey burned his own brother and over 100 monks alive while they sought sanctuary in an abbey. The horror of it broke something deep in Raymond.
When Melusine rushed to comfort her husband, he turned on her—not just in grief, but in betrayal—and cried out:
“Go, thou foul snake, contaminator of my race!”
That was it.
The vow was broken. The curse surged forward like floodwater. Melusine vanished. She would return only as a ghost, a wail, a shimmer above Lusignan Castle when one of her descendants was about to die.
In the Luxembourg version, she married Count Siegfried, founded a nation, and when he broke the vow, she dove into the River Alzette, never to be seen again—except, of course, when she’s needed.
The Witchy Heart of the Tale
This isn’t just folklore. This is instruction.
Melusine is the boundary walker. The curse-bearer. The holy other. She is what happens when feminine power says, "You may not own all of me."
Every witch I know has a little Melusine in her.
She is about choosing love and sovereignty. About knowing what you’re worth even when the world calls you monstrous. She is water and fury and healing and exile. She is what we become when we are no longer willing to be only palatable.
And if you want to work with her? She’ll listen. But she’ll make you work, too.
🌱 A Spell for Melusine: River Magic to Know What Truly Serves You
This spell honors Melusine—her pain, her exile, her knowing—and helps you call in what you truly need, by letting the river and the fairy queen carry off everything else.
You’ll need:
Small charms representing your goals (home, love, sex, power, travel, money, etc.)
Butcher’s string or cotton cord (1 piece per charm, 10 feet each)
A sturdy stick
A swift river
What to do:
Tie each charm to a length of string.
Tie all strings to one end of the stick.
Go to the riverbank. Light a candle if you like. Call to Melusine. Tell her your story.
Throw the charms into the river while holding onto the stick. Don’t let go.
Secure the stick on the bank so the charms float out in the current, pulled taut, straining toward the unknown.
Sit. Watch. Pray. Cry if you need to. Speak your deepest want aloud.
Visit the stick daily. Touch it. Focus. Cut one string.
Repeat until only one string remains.
Reel it in. That is the charm—the goal—Melusine chose for you.
Give thanks. Leave her an offering. Let go of what you thought you needed.
This is the one. This is what serves you now.
And when you need her again? Visit the river. She’ll be there.
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