The Asteroid Melusina in Astrology & Alchemy

The Asteroid Melusina 

One unassuming afternoon October 25, 2018, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art I walked upon a striking Siren. The mythic allure of this statue stopped me on my path and seemed to speak to me directly. Her calls were loud as she initiated me into the magic of the mystery of her being. After this encounter, enchanted by her image, I snapped a photo of her, posted it on my Instagram page with a caption that read “Struck by a loud siren”. I printed 333 copies of her photo and began working with her on creative projects. One of those creations stood on my bedside table in my first NYC apartment. 

Fast forward to 2019, I had an astrology reading with Demetra George where she revealed to me that the asteroid Melusina was conjoined to the ascendant in my birth chart. She asked, “Do you have any connection with mermaids?”  I was stunned by the poignancy and deep resonance of this simple question. As she shared the myth of the two-tailed mermaid Melusina, I walked to my room and gazed upon the art of Melusina standing tall on my bedside table who had already found me and inspired my creative process. I confirmed that I have a compelling connection with mermaids, specifically Melusina. Her imagery has surrounded me throughout my life in many dimensions of reality. I recognized that I had only scratched the surface of the deeper meaning of her presence in my life. 

Who is Melusina?

Melusina is a mermaid figure from medieval European folklore. Her iconography is of a female body from the waist up and two tails from the waist down. She possesses an enhancing and youthful beauty characterized by blonde hair and crystal-clear blue eyes. She finds ease in worldly pleasures and lives as a Christian noble with status and wealth. 

 At least once a week each Saturday, Melusina vanishes into the water of her locality and makes an elusive transformation into a mermaid. She is often called a nymph, siren, fairy, and witch. In her serpent form, she conjures supernatural powers that may contribute to her material abundance on the earthly plane. However, her supernatural, serpentine form comes from a curse placed on her by her immortal mother, Pryssine.

Origins of Melusina

Melusina’s mermaid origins begin with a curse placed on her by her mother, Pryssine. Pryssine, an immortal fairy, crossed paths with King Elbas, a mortal man who fell in love with her at first sight. Pryssine marries Elbas under the strict condition that he give her privacy while she gives birth. Months later, Pryssine became pregnant with triplets.

As the birth process began, Pryssine forewarned Elbas to stay away until she granted him permission to see their children. During her labor, Elbas felt a deep sense of concern he could not hear screams of pain from her birthing place. Unbeknownst to him, fairy births differ from human births because they are painless experiences of joyous initiation into the world. Elbas, overcome with anxious excitement, barged into Pryssine’s birthing tent. Upon entering the forbidden birthing tent, he witnessed Pryssine facilitating a sacred transmission of magical powers, an essential right of passage to the lineage of fairies. 

Pryssine was devastated that he broke his promise to her, and she felt she had no choice but to flea to Avalon, the lost island of the fairies. In Avalon, she knew Elbas could never find her or her daughters, and it was there where Pryssine raised her three girls Meusine, Melior, and Palatine. Each day, Pryssine would bring her girls on top of a mountain to overlook the kingdom of Alba that would have been their home before their exile. 

One day Melusina became curious about why they left Alba in the first place. For the first time, Pryssine recalled the painful story of her father’s broken promise. This tale of betrayal enraged Melusine. She initiated a plan with her sisters to seek revenge on her father for hurting her mother. With Melusina taking the lead, the sisters used their magical powers to collect Elbas’ riches and lock him away in a mountain, condemning him to death.

Pryssine, enraged by her daughters’ cruelty, condemned this harsh punishment of her husband Elbas. In retaliation, Pryssine punished each daughter for their role in this tragedy. Melusine, who instigated this plot, received the worst punishment. She was banished from her home in Avalon and given a curse that made her transform into a monstrous two-tailed serpent from the waist down every Saturday. 

This punishment did not only impact Melusina, but any man who she chose to marry. The curse required a pact with her future husband to never lay eyes on her on Saturdays. If a man were to obey this promise, the marriage would find peace and contentment. However, if the promise was violated, the marriage would dissolve and she would remain in her serpent in perpetuity.

Melusina & Raymond 

“My name is Melusine and I can bestow certain wondrous gifts upon the man who will agree to love me”
- Gifts of the Fairy Melusine,  Barak Bassman 

The relationship between Melusina and her chosen husband Reuven is complicated. The setting of their romance takes place in the European crusades when Melusina found Reuven, a Jew, dead on the steps of a cathedral. His wife and child did not survive the violence, and he surely believed he died a martyr and would wake up in the afterlife. Melusina found him lifeless, and used her magical powers to revive him in exchange sought his unconditional love and privacy on Saturdays. In this act of resurrection, which both saved and trapped Reuven, Melusine said: “It is of the greatest importance that I be loved by a mortal man with an immortal soul. I could never trust a man whom I had not forged with my own hands.”  (Bassman)

Melusina transformed Reuven, the jewish merchant, into Raymond, the Christian noble. They were married right away. In their vows, the condition that she be left alone on Saturdays without question was emphasized and reaffirmed.  She built them a castle with her will and magic and bestowed many gifts upon him including two blonde, beautiful sons.  Raymond loved her dearly with blind love and passion.  

However, as time went on, Raymond struggled to release his old identity as a middle class Jewish merchant and struggled with his new Christian wealthy noble status. There was no room in their relationship for his old self, which left him feeling increasingly isolated and unseen. He felt that since Melusina saved him, he was indebted to her and owed her all of his love,  but no matter how much he tried to assimilate into his new life, Raymond felt a tug at his soul. Something was not right. He began to question the conditions and confines of his current reality, which put the love he had for Melusina into question. 

One day, Raymond reached a breaking point. He was lost and desperate for answers, so he went to a secret meeting in the forest at sunset to seek counsel from a wise Jewish mystic. The wise man told Raymond that Melsuina was an evil demon, carrying a dark supernatural force that he must remove himself from. 

Raymond agrees to separate himself from Melusina physically, emotionally and spirituality. Melusina breaks down in agonizing anxiety as Raymond withholds his love from her. The impact on her is serious: she loses her youthful beauty, and he becomes even more repulsed by her seeing her as a witch. She persistently pushes for his acceptance, putting him in a position to continue rejecting her. The trust and communication between them erodes as the desperate power dynamic shifts. 

Raymond is maddened by Melusina’s secret Saturday trysts with his new demonized vision of her. He is suspicious about her motives and nature. His uncertainty about her is core to her elusive and mysterious nature; To be a woman alone in the natural world generates accusations of witchcraft feeding into the subconscious fear of powerful women. He is tortured by his negative projections of her, and his only power is to defend himself from her.

Tortured by his doubt, Raymond breaks his promise to Melusina in a tragic confrontation. He enters her underground, watery realm one Saturday to see for himself who is hiding in the darkness. She intuits he’s there before she sees him and demands him to reveal himself in his treachery. She scolds him while writhing in pain and reveals herself as a serpentess in a devastating and vulnerable exchange. She must return to the water and is fated to maintain her serpent form for eternity.

Melusine & Alchemy
My dear friend traveled to Tycho Brahe’s astronomical observatory and alchemy laboratory and texted me a photo of Melusina, who protected the well at the center of his compound called Uraniaburg. Her message led me on a quest to understand the alchemical roots of Melusina’s legacy. Melusine’s alchemical connection predates Brahe and was enthusiastically explored by Paracelsus, a famous 16th century alchemist, astrologer, and early medical practitioner.

Melusina at Uraniaborg

Photo by Nadia Anderson

Paracelsus describes Melosinae, which he also calls Undines, as elemental water spirits that take human form as their primary embodiment, followed by an animal form with the tail of a snake or fish. 

Melusines are water dependent, like humans are dependent on air to breathe. Even though man and Melusines operate in different worlds, Melusine needs a man. According to Paracelsus, Melusines have souls but lack spiritual principles that lead to salvation. Marriage with men initiates their spiritual foundation giving her access to an immortal soul.  The initiation of the relationship between Melusine and man is always initiated by her, but the longevity of the relationship is dependent on the faithfulness and loyalty of the man.

Even though Melusine takes human form, she is not entirely of this world and holds a consciousness that according to Paracelcus is, “not dependent on our sphere of existence, but they have a firmament of their own. They have their own particular conditions, places of dwelling, localities, stars and planets.” (Hartmann, 91) In essence, she is of another universe in this very universe. Her consciousness extends far beyond our world into an unknown place, into the realm of the mysteries. 

Carl Jung recalls from his studies of Paracelsus that “the birthplace of Melusina is the womb of the mysteries, obviously what we today would call the unconscious.” (ARAS) In the womb, all humans resemble fish with tails and gils surrounded by amniotic fluid. It is in the aquatic space of the womb where human consciousness is developed, a process that is as mysterious as it is miraculous.

Melusina’s consciousness may come to us from a place before the womb, the incubator of life. This place may resemble paradise, as she is often described as being in a paradisal state. As Paracelcus shares, her consciousness comes from somewhere else is the cosmos, a place where heavenly ideals may thrive. Her arrival to the terrestrial realm bridges unconscious aspects of ourselves to a celestial consciousness that predates our arrival to earth.

Mythic Themes & Imprints
Melusina’s story is an invitation to a watery, magical realm, one where unseen truths reside alongside the nuanced complexity of the body and soul of the human experience. 

First and foremost, she is misunderstood; She is a supernatural figure bound to the confines of the natural world. Her need and deep desire to be loved by a man and seek spiritual salvation makes her existence a lonely, vapid one. She yearns for perfection, harmony, and peace outside of herself, because her internal landscape is one of tumultuous duplicity.  

The mythic imprints from Melusina are nuanced and varied. Here are a few insights her story can expose her deep resonance in a given nativity:

• Feeling Unworthy or Cursed: Cursed by a feeling of unworthiness or rejection. What makes Melusina unique is what also isolates her and is the core cause of her suffering.

• Rage, Punishment, Impulsiveness & Family Generational Wounds:  The role of rage and irrevocable punishments in the wake of processing activated emotions. Melusina first punished her father to defend her mother’s honor. Then, Melisina’s mother punished Melusina for the harm she caused her father. There are cross-generational wounds and betrayals: through her mother she is connected to immortality, but also banishment. Through her father she is connected to humanity, but not accepted. 

• Duality of Being, Paradox of Origins: There is a dual nature to Melusina who is half human and half fairy. She exists in the place of duality and paradox - never quite fitting into one world or another: is she an angel or demon? blessing or curse? natural or supernatural? safe or unsafe?

• Anxious Attachment Patterns in Romanic Love: a tenacious need for romantic love to be met paired with a profound fear that the love you seek will never be fulfilled.

• Conditional vs Unconditional Love: the experience of being loved only if or when a condition is met or projecting that pattern onto a partner.

• Secrecy & Privacy: Hiding a part of oneself from the world, especially those parts of self that are rejected. Melusina requires a significant amount of privacy to feel at ease in her own skin.

• Material Reality vs Emotional Truth:  A deep desire to ease material suffering of the human condition with desire to bypass the psychic wounds that ail the soul while navigating the false idea that material comforts will lead the soul to rest. There is an over reliance on engaging with reality in a superficial way.

• Paradox of Needing a Man & Control Over Men: Desire to both need a man and have power and control over men followed by belief or experience that men cannot and will not keep their promises and therefore cannot be trusted.

• Martyrdom & Redemption: Who has the right to save another? Is being saved also a curse?  How does the power dynamic shift when one saves another? How does one's identity perish in the wake of redemption or being reborn?

• Ideals of Paradise: According to Paracelsus, Melusina connects to her own stars, planets and cosmic intelligence. She is a being of paradox in paradise where opposing forces like good and bad, right and wrong, heaven and hell may not exist in such heightened duality. Her high ideals of union demonstrate challenges with integrating into this reality structure of contarasts. She desires returning to a place of paradise where beings live in unity with the world.

Connections to Melusina: Imagery and Myth

As a native with the Asteroid Melusina on my ascendant, I have found her imagery throughout my life in many obvious and subtle ways. To start with the obvious, I grew up on the beach in Florida, and my family’s backyard is the ocean. There are literally hundreds of visuals and statues of Mermaids in my family home.

In addition, for many years, my father has done business with Starbucks, whose logo is the two-tailed Melusina.

I recently discovered that my family’s tie to serpents, snakes, and mermaids predates their immigration to America on my mother’s side. My maternal grandfather’s family immigrated from Pruzhany, Poland/Belarus/USSR, and I was awestruck to see that this town’s coat of arms was an emblem of a snake devouring a person or a person emerging from a snake.

I became aware of how much this imagery deeply resonated with me because of my interest in Kundalini Yoga, a practice that taps into Kundalini energy from the spine that is depicted as a serpent. In fact, over the past 6 years, I celebrate my birthday by hosting a virtual Kundalini yoga party.

More research about the town of Pruzhany revealed that today the town has entwined mermaids in the city center.  This serpent and water nymph imagery predates me and has been imprinted on my ancestors for many generations.

A way that I live out the myth today is that I am a member of a float tank spa in Brooklyn, NY. Once a month I go to Vessel Floats by myself to experience sensory deprivation in a float tank chamber to emerge renewed. This outlet serves an opportunity to align myself with the myth.

To commune with Melusina is to be initiated into her mysteries. Her magic still reveals itself to me.

If you are interested in learning about the important asteroids in your birth chart, I offer a reading called Altar of the Asteroids and would love to work with you to awaken the mythic asteroid imprints relevant in your life.

Works Cited

Bassman, Barak A. The Gifts of the Fairy Melusine. Telemachus Press, 2018. 

“Melusina.” Aras: The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism , aras.org/concordance/content/melusina. Accessed 18 Aug. 2024. 

Hartmann, Franz. The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim: Known by the Name of Paracelsus : And the Substance of His Teachings Concerning Cosmology, Anthropology, Pneumatology, Magic and Sorcery, Medicine, Alchemy and Astrology, Philosophy and Theosophy. 2nd ed., vol. 3, Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1896.