at Burning Man 2006
In 2005, I started dreaming of desert pirates.
I thought this vision was heralding the arrival of my soulmate in the guise of a pirate – a very romantic fantasy for a little mermaid!
But I was perplexed by the strange notion of “pirates in the desert” until summer of 2006, when I was headed to 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 must be related to Burning Man!
However, realizing that I could not walk in my mermaid costume, I decided to leave it at home and wore my pirate costume to hopefully summon my soulmate…
Upon arrival, a gritty Pirate Ship (an art car) sailed past me. Even though there were over 40,000 revelers at this festival, I trusted that the Universe would help us meet again.
One magical evening, as I walked into the desert night, I ran into the 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 pirate costume that I’d worn. The universe doesn’t fail to astound!
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.
At that very moment, a blond woman walked over to us and the captain introduced me to his friend Darryl Hannah!
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 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. If a unicorn stepped on board at that moment, my head would have exploded…
Ultimately, the captain and I were to be friends and not partners in this lifetime despite a powerful connection of the heart.
Over the next year, I would encounter more 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.
Norwegian Pirate’s ship docked in Mexico (2007)
View of the ship from upper deck (2007)
A Pirate’s tomb on Isla Mujeres (2006)
at Burning Man 2010
Joylovepeace
As time wore on, I saw that the Pirate was a powerful archetype that was part of my inner journey 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 teachings I’ve been developing over the years.
The mythical mermaid in the water realm was a symbol of the Unmanifested and the Subconscious while the mortal pirate in the ship above represented the Manifested World and the Conscious.
Both characters contain 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)
See Related Topic: Dreams of A Little Mermaid
