Stories have great power encoded within them. I do believe that specific stories that you personally resonate with have a message in them that is very much special to you. It is why we love certain characters, and dislike others - and why we gravitate to certain subplots. I have always loved magical creatures. My inner child tells me every day that magical beings only require belief to activate them. Those magical beings include human beings. And as I write my science fiction fantasy series “The Dragon Warriors”; I have been working on crafting my own magical mythos.
In my latest podcast presentation drop, I talk all about the Great Lakes - and more than that, the stories and mythologies behind the Great Lakes - and the potential dragons that live within them.
The Great Lakes (French: Grands Lacs), also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the east-central interior of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. The five lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
Lake Ontario, specifically, is located right in my backyard. Unfortunately - the poor freshwater lake is also quite polluted. The thing about freshwater lakes, is that unlike saltwater - you could drink from them. Hence, they are waters that provide life. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total area and the second-largest by total volume; they contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water by volume.
They are truly an ecological wonder.
From a goddess mythological perspective, freshwater bodies are oftentimes personified as goddesses.
TETHYS was the Titan goddess of the primal font of fresh water which nourishes the earth. She was the wife of Okeanos (Oceanus), the earth-encircling, fresh-water stream, and the mother of the Potamoi (Rivers), the Okeanides (Oceanids) (nymphs of springs, streams and fountains), and the Nephelai (Clouds). Tethys, daughter of Gaia (Earth), fed her children's springs with the waters of Okeanos drawn through subterranean acquifers. Her name was derived from the Greek word têthê meaning "nurse" or "grandmother".
In Eastern mythology, water bodies are also associated with dragons. It is likely because dragon can be considered as personifications of power; and the forces of nature within our shared universe. In the anime Spirited Away, we had a boy who was also a dragon (but also a benevolent magical creature.)
But how does this all apply to us in our regular life?
Our words and how we communicate is all very much couched within language and how we create meaning. One cannot assume that every other magical being we meet will automatically understand everything that we are saying - there is a level of decoding that must happen - an inner standing of personal mythos.
I hope you enjoy this latest presentation on the stories of the Great Lakes; dragons and myths of the freshwaters! Join me again on Wednesdays for Warrior Goddess Wednesdays where I look at world mythology and draw connections between those stories.
The Great Lakes Dragons : Stories & Mythologies Behind the Freshwaters