The Water Lure

It goes without saying that life needs water, and so it’s only natural that bodies of water would become mystical places. The underground waters of Central America became portals to the Underworld. Ancient Celts threw swords into lakes and bogs as offerings to the spirits that lived within (also see: King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake). Even my mother, the least superstitious person I know, keeps the vial of water from the Ganges River she received as a child, “just in case” (though she never says in case of what).

For every story of healing springs and regenerative founts, there are just as many tales of deadly temptresses crashing ships on rocks and beguiling mists that lead travellers astray. 

Where Greek and Roman mythology had female nymphs and sirens, Germanic and Norse folklore talked about male nixies who appeared as nude fiddle players luring victims into streams. The kelpie water horses haunted Gaelic shores, dragging down anyone who touched them as their bodies fused with the horse. The Paiute Tribe in Nevada have stories of water spirits that howl like crying babies and drown anyone coming too close to the water’s edge. Only the most powerful shamans can tame and coax them into guiding them through the spirit world. 

There’s the adage that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do the bottom of the ocean. We know the graveyards that sit beneath the waves, though they are not always marked with shipwrecks or debris fields. An uncountable number of Africans were buried at sea, far from any familiar shores – there was no beast that dragged them under the waves, only human greed and apathy.

Van Vlack, K.; Arnold, R.; Bell, A. Shamans, Portals, and Water Babies: Southern Paiute Mirrored Landscapes in Southern Nevada. Arts 2025, 14, 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14030056