La Sirene is the wife of Met Agwe. She owns a beautiful
palace beneath the seas and is a Lwa of wealth. She owns all the riches of the seas. All those pearls, sunken
treasure ships, coral, are just a few of the treasures she owns. LaSirene is sometimes referred to as Mambo LaSirene.
She can often be seen sitting on the edge of a large rock, in the sea, combing
her long beautiful black hair and looking at herself in the mirror. In fact, LaSirene is the ruler of vanity, as she
herself loves to look at herself. She is a very beautiful mermaid, a siren. She rules over the musical arts too.
LaSirene is very enchanting and can sometimes lure people into the depths of her waters.
The image that corressponds with LaSirene is La Diosa Del Mar. She is indeed,
often seen in the same light. She is queen of the seas and rules the power of it. She is a tireless Lwa,
just as the sea is restless, and is a wonderful "lwa travay" or work Lwa.
She rules the moon too. She is an elegant beautiful woman.
As her role of siren, she is a temptress. LaSirene has the ability to hypnotize people with her beauty. Many
say that she is thus deceptive. She rules over dreams and can often be seen there.
She can bestow great wealth and beauty upon her children and servants. But
be sure to serve her well, or she will take it all away. She drowns people as punishment too.
LaSirene is also known by another praise name, LaBalen. La Balen is the
whale. This name refers to the things that lie on the bottom of the sea. Someone possessed by La Sirene may indeed
imitate a whale, lying on the ground waving it's fins.
People possessed by La Sirene usually have a hard time walking. This being
of course because La Sirene is a mermaid and has a fin instead of legs. Hounsis often interlock their arms with that
of La Sirene and swing her around. They will also lead her around the peristyle like this.
LaSirene also finds it hard to breathe just air for long periods of time.
This is the reason behind why people will douse someone possessed by her with water. Sometimes, the Lwa will pick up
buckets and dump them over herself. Some peristyles have small pools for La Sirene and other lwa to swim in when they
make an appearance.
La Sirene is a Rada Lwa, but she does have a Petro aspect. The rhythms of
one of La Sirene's most popular song, if not the most popular, is Kongo. Again, the Kongo nation is usually honored
during the Petro rite, but this song is sung during the Rada rite during La Sirene's service.
La Sirene has also been known to take people under the water. In this underwater
realm, the person will learn spiritual secrets and magick. When the person returns from their visit, he or she will
invariably have lighter skin and longer, straighter hair. In this sense, they will somewhat change to take upon the
attributes (as far as the look) of La Sirene.
For the reason above, people who are possessed by her at the beach are not allowed
to enter the waters. This hold especially true for Houngans and Mambos who are not to have their heads ever fully submersed
underwater again. The fear is that an aquatic spirit, such as La Sirene, will possess them and swim away with them.
In the rare occassion that La Sirene gets in the water at the beach, the person possessed will be watched carefully and monitored,
initiates present will also try to entice the Lwa to come out.
You can serve La Sirene with many of the foods that are served Met Agwe.
She likes deserts, champagnes, gin, white rum, melon liqueur, melons, molassess, white cakes trimmed in blue. She also
carries a trumpet. Her colors being pale blue and white. You can give her the gift of a mirror and comb too.
