If you have ever stared into the ocean and felt something ancient stir inside you, you have touched the energy of Atargatis. The myth of this original mermaid isn’t just about the sea. She reminds us how form rises from chaos, how emotion shapes matter, and how our shadows can give birth to something solid and real.
The Story of Atargatis
Atargatis was a goddess of the waters, of course, both the calm and the storm. Some say she fell in love with a mortal and, in her heartbreak, dove into the sea to hide her sorrow. Others say she descended from the stars, a celestial being who became one with the deep.
When she entered the ocean, her divine essence stirred the waters so powerfully that the sea itself began to lift. From those waves, land was born with the first solid ground rising up from the depths. Mountains became her bones, valleys her curves, and rivers her tears flowing endlessly back to her source.
Through her transformation, Atargatis showed that creation often begins in collapse, and that even when we fall apart, we can give rise to something new.
Wax and Water: The Elements of Creation
Using your Black Sacred Candle, you will pour melted wax into a bowl of cool water. The act of pouring the wax into the water is so much more than a simple divination act, it is our personal ritual of Atargatis’s myth.
- The wax is molten potential (like her divine energy before it took form).
- The water is the vast sea (like the subconscious, emotion, and mystery).
- And when the two meet, they create shapes like islands, various forms, with meaning emerging from the deep.
Take the time during the ritual to explore how your own emotional depths can give shape to your reality and the ways in which you can transform it.
The Ritual: Pouring Wax to Honor Atargatis
This ritual is a meditation on transformation. Atargatis teaches that creation and destruction are lovers, constantly shaping one another. When you pour wax into water, you are performing a small act of divine alchemy: turning emotion into form, mystery into matter, chaos into creation.
It’s an exquisitely magical way to honor your emotions while grounding them, making peace with the parts of yourself that feel too fluid or uncertain. Like Atargatis, you can rise from your own depths and bring something new into being.
For this ritual, here is what you will need:
- Your Black Sacred Candle (for protection as well as transformation, shadow work, and grounding the unseen).
- A bowl of water (representing the vast sea and Atargatis’s oceanic womb).
- A quiet, intentional space where you will be undisturbed.
Instructions:
- Set your space.
Dim the lights. You might play ocean sounds or light incense with a watery scent (like lotus, myrrh, or sea salt). Place your bowl of water before you and center yourself with slow, deep breaths. - Light your candle.
Watch the flame flicker and imagine your emotions — the fluid, unformed parts of your life — glowing within it. - Call to Atargatis.
Speak aloud or in your mind:
“Atargatis, Mother of Depth and Shore,
From your sea new worlds are born.
As I pour, let shape take form,
From shadow to creation, I am reborn.” - Pour the wax.
Slowly drip the melted wax into the bowl. Watch as it dances across the surface, cools, and hardens — just as the land rose from her waves. - Interpret the shapes.
When the wax cools, lift it gently. What do you see? An animal, a symbol, a landscape? Trust your intuition — these are messages from Atargatis and from your own depths. - Close the ritual.
Thank the goddess for her guidance. Pour the water into the earth or a plant, returning what was shaped to the land itsel
Our Darkest Depths
When we connect with Atargatis, we are connecting with the rhythm of tides within ourselves, that delicious and eternal cycle of rising, falling, and creating anew. May her myth remind us that even in our darkest depths, there is always something waiting to take form.
A Candle & A Key,
Kaycee
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