When African slaves came to the Caribbean islands,
They brought their African sea goddesses with them,
And one of them was La Sirene.
She is part of the voodoo tradition in Haiti and New Orleans.
La Sirene is a magical and mysterious mermaid,
And she possesses both dark and light.
Goddess of transitions.
She can appear either having a brown skin or a light skin,
Or a fair hair or black hair.
Sometimes she is portrayed to have a light brown skin and with green eyes and black hair.
So this mermaid goddess appears in different looks and in different ethnicities.
A legend says that if you see La Sirene,
You are about to receive a profound and sudden insight,
One that might even change your life.
Like mermaids everywhere,
La Sirene carries a mirror and a comb,
But her mirror is a portal between the conscious and the unconscious.
She encourages us to look within so we can see ourselves more clearly.
Like many other mermaids,
She can also grab humans and take them to her underwater home,
Which is a luxurious palace with all kinds of treasures from the sunken ships.
But unlike most mermaids,
La Sirene prefers to capture a woman.
Sometimes she drowns them,
But there are times when she returns to those who she has kidnapped and these women who have returned,
They have learned from La Sirene how to heal and how to see the future.
In Haitian mythology,
La Sirene actually appears as a triple goddess.
In the mythology,
She had two sisters called Danto and Freda.
Together the three represent three faces of the feminine,
Mother,
Lover and a goddess.
La Sirene's sister,
Danto,
Symbolizes the mother,
The cool,
Calm female who is responsible and in control.
The sister Freda signifies the lover,
She is sexy,
Passionate and temperamental.
And La Sirene is the goddess,
The mystical,
Spiritual aspect of a woman.
The Haitians,
They celebrate La Sirene in various ways and they make rituals for her that she will bring them luck and abundance and especially love for their lives.
A lot of times the voodoo followers,
They fill these tiny boats and set them afloat and they are filled with jewelry,
Mirrors,
Flowers,
Wine,
Perfume and combs and all these pretty feminine things and they are sacrificial gifts for La Sirene.
And some believe that the spirit of La Sirene can enter into a woman's body and bring them prosperity and good luck,
Especially in the area of their love lives.
In Haiti they also hold parades for La Sirene.
Men carry a beautiful woman who is dressed up in a mermaid tail across the town and she's covered with all these jewelry and pearls.
