They are like Fairy beings that live in and around water, in any form.
Some are Oceanic, others are from lakes and rivers, some love waterfalls, and still others live around bogs and wetlands.
It is said that they are not of wispy nature, but have flesh, can reproduce and have feelings, so they are not technically "spirit"...but more like an immortal being that lives in a different dimension.
Undines LOVE music and are also reported to have beautiful voices of their own.
Some folklore says that if a female Undine falls in love with a human male and marries him, and has his child, then the Undine will gain mortality and start to age.
Evidently, this happened with one beautiful Undine. Her husband promised to love her with every breath he took. However, after she bore him a child, she gained mortality and she started to age. So the story goes it was at this point that he started to lose interest in her.
One day, she heard him snoring in the barn. She went to see him, and found him sleeping in the arms of another maiden after lovemaking. She woke him up and cursed him saying, "I have kept my promise to you, and loved you totally. You promised to be faithful and love me with every waking breath! Now as long as you are awake, you shall live." Of course, as soon as he fell asleep... he DIED.
There is a real medical condition called "Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrom (CCHS).
It is evidently a severe form of sleep apnea which causes the person to lose control of their innate automatic breathing, and if untreated, the person will DIE.
Interestingly enough, this condition has historically been called, "Undine's Curse."
Really, really. Look it up.
It is said that Undines love music, can take a human form if wanted, but that humans have a hard time seeing them, for the most part.
I have seen one though. Was it a blessing? Was it a curse?
We live on a wetland and right on a creek. One day, way back in 1999 or so, my mate, Harry, was duplicating our "Kismet" cd and making some cassettes (yes, cassettes, at the time :) in our kitchen.
In order to do this, he was "high speed dubbing" the music.
Picture if you will, music playing at a dizzying 60 miles an hour. Whirring music, revved up, high pitched chipmunk voices, guitar music that sounded more like a music box on high speed. I think what happened was that it lured with its sound, an Undine into the kitchen from the backyard.
Actually, I am sure of it. At the time, we had a back screen door that didn't always shut tight. Sometimes it stayed open a crack. I think an Undine slipped in very easily from the creek.
I walked into the kitchen and I saw some wee creature that was RED, sitting, with legs crossed and swinging, relaxed on the counter on top of the cassette player. The music player was spewing forth this wild high pitched music. It was just sitting there listening to it, very happily.
Then it saw me, and the look on its face was that it was shocked! It flew to the table and then straight out the back door, the way it came in, as fast as a hummingbird!
I don't know why, but the words "Red Undine" were emblazoned in my mind at that very moment.
I had never even heard that term before. So I went and looked it up. I knew what it was immediately.
I know what I saw.
It looked like a beautiful winged fairy, only it was RED. And FAST. And yet, seemingly, it was pissed that it had to leave the music it was drawn to! I felt bad that I had surprised it so and yet was flattered that it had chosen to listen to the sound of my voice on the tape!
I know you must think I'm totally whacked, delusional....but I swear it's true.
After that, we had a rash of "happenings" in my home that were highly mischievous in nature....and some were slightly malicious in intent. Mostly the things were: missing keys, missing bank passbooks, checks that were uncashed, important documents. All came up missing at different times, under different circumstances.
At one point, I swear I could almost hear the laughter of some wicked little sprite, and I shook my fist in the air and said, "Ok! You win! I've had enough! Stop being so mean! Bring back my stuff. This is NOT funny for me! I won't like you anymore if you don't stop this mischief at once!"
The next day, we had to move out a piece of furniture to get at a plugstrip behind the heavy desk. By the look of the dust bunnies back there, it hadn't been moved in quite awhile.
Guess what we found?
Yup. ALL the checks, every missing bank passbook and all keys and doodads ALL TOGETHER hidden in a place that we couldn't get at, stacked neatly together. We would NEVER have thought to look there.
It was the Undine, I'm sure she was mad at me for seeing her and surprising her that one day. She got even.
But I was grateful that at least she let me find our stuff. I then went into the attic, nailed my grandfather's cavalry iron horseshoes up over our front and back doors immediately. Fairies and sprites do NOT like iron.
The next day, as I was sitting on my porch having coffee, I noticed that my little garden fairy statue on the steps, HAD NO HANDS. Where were they? You would think that if they fell off, not being glued properly or something, that the resin sculptured hands would be laying at the base of the statue, right?
NOPE. Nowhere to be found. Anywhere.
And then I understood.
The horseshoes went up the day before. The fairy statue's missing parts had literally now said "Hands Off" to our house. I thanked them and left some cake and milk in my garden for them. I love fairies, as I appreciate snakes and bats and spiders... but NOT IN THE HOUSE.
I very much was flattered that the Undine loved my music! It did sound very ethereal with the harmonies and the music going so fast, when I thought about it later. I could see why a being of faster heart rate and speed and movement would like to hear it like that.
And I am very grateful because....well, it could've been a lot worse.
I can sleep at night, without dying, after my magickal run in with an Undine. :)
If you want to read more about Undines, surf here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undine_%28alchemy%29
http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta25.htm
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