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Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano Filipe around the year 1445, spent the majority of his life living and working in Florence. He was very well known and celebrated during his lifetime and found favour with the wealthy Italian elite.

Information about his early life is scarce, but it is thought that he spend much of his childhood living in a fairly poor neighbourhood, where he struggled with the rigours of academic life and tended to be hyperactive and hard to contain within a classroom. It is said that the name Botticelli, which means 'little barrel' or 'little wine cask', was given to him by one of his brothers during these early years.

Having left school, Botticelli was given the opportunity to retrain as an artist, and it is known that in 1450 he studied with Fra Filippo Lippi, a painter who he appears to have apprenticed under and who taught him his characteristic clarity of lines.

Lippi was well connected in the city and he introduced Botticelli to many wealthy patrons, including Amerigo Vespucci, the man whom the Americas were named after. Crucially, Lippi also introduced Botticelli to the the Medici family, who became life-long patrons and supporters of his work. Botticelli flourished in his new career, and by 1470 he had his own workshop. In 1472 he joined the Compagnia San Luca, a fraternity of Florentine painters.

Following the death of his mentor and friend, Botticelli, now a well respected artist in his own right, decided to take on his own apprentice, Filippino Lippi, the son of his master. The two men worked together for many years.

Amid his increasing fame and reputation, in 1481, Botticelli was summoned to Rome by the Pope, Sixtus IV and asked to contribute to the paintings within the Sistine Chapel. During his time in Rome he also completed many papal portraits. These are his only known works outside of Florence.

During the 1480s, Botticelli also contributed to the fresco cycle for Lorenzo the Magnificen. In 1485, now extremely well regarded and esteemed in the Italian art world, Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus. The original commissioner for the work is now unknown, but the piece was eventually displayed in the villa Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici at Castello in 1499.

In the later years of Botticelli's career, he was heavily influenced by the teachings of a charismatic Dominican friar who began to have influence in the city of Florence. Girolamo Savonarola Ferrara was known to burn works of art and books that he felt did not do justice to religious teachings. Some of Botticelli's earlier works are thought to be amongst those that he destroyed. As a consequence of Savonarola's influence, Botticelli's later works became deeply religious.

The 1490s marked a time of turbulence and difficulty for Botticelli and for Florence. The Medici family were expelled from the city and the onset of plague and fighting across the city led to Botticelli and his work falling out of favour. It is said that in these later years, Botticelli's characteristic sharp wit and good humour began to fade, leading him to spend increasing amounts of time alone. He died in his hometown of Florence in 1510.

After his death, much of his work faded into relative obscurity, until a renewed interest in Florentine art led to a rediscovery and renewed interest in his paintings.

'The Birth of Venus' is perhaps his most recognisable work. Within the painting, Venus, goddess of beauty and love, is depicted arriving to the island of Cyprus, carried on an enlarged scallop shell. Venus was said to be 'born of the sea spray'. In Botticelli's rendering, she balances delicately in all of her female beauty, reminiscent of a pearl shining inside it's shell. Freshness, spring and femininity are woven into almost every detail of the painting, with delicate spring flowers blowing on the winds and floral patters adorning the cloak and dress of the young woman who awaits Venus' arrival, ready to cover her modesty. As she stands naked and freshly born, Venus covers her nakedness with her long, free flowing hair.

The shell at the center of the image is an essential part of the painting's composition. Seashells and sea creatures have held deep symbolic meaning in art and literature throughout human history.

Seashells are often associated with love and fertility. In some cases, the seashell can be seen as symbolic of female genitalia. Medieval Christian traditions associate seashells with pilgrims.

In some new age traditions, seashells are used to symbolize the unconscious and are associated with emotions. Thanks to their connection to the sea and water, they are also evocative of peace and tranquility.

Scallop shells appear in many Renaissance paintings, including Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation, where a scallop shell appears on a small alter to the right of the Virgin Mary as the angel Gabriel tells her that she is bear the child of God. In Christianity, the scallop shell in particular represents salvation. In Hindu tradition, scallop shells are a symbol of the goddess Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu who was said to be 'born of the churning ocean', offering a parallel to Venus herself.

The size of this particular scallop shell which becomes Venus' vessel of transport to the shore, is exaggerated. This type of exaggeration is also found in many classical depictions of Venus arriving to land. In this painting, Venus stands naked, head tilted and hair flowing at the very center of the painting. Perched delicately and upright on her shell, balancing precariously as the winds blow her to the shore.

The painting speaks of the power of fertility and female sensuality. Venus, arriving fresh from the oceans, is at once pure and sensuous. Her demeanor, her nakedness and her direct stare out of the canvas provide her with a stature that is at once gentle and alluring and magical, just like the delicate shell on which she balances and seems almost to form part of. Venus' scallop shell is an extension of her raw femininity, delicate, but standing large and creating the central focus of the image. Just like Botticelli's beloved Florence, Venus and her scallop shell demonstrate an embodiment of beauty and grace that defies expectations by managing to maintain a sense of great power and majesty.

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ArtDependence | Symbolism of the Sea Shell in Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus'

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Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano Filipe around the year 1445, spent the majority of his life living and working in Florence. He was very well known and celebrated during his lifetime and found favour with the wealthy Italian elite.

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It all starts with a relaxing walk on the beach. You put your feet on the warm sand, and as you stroll down by the shore, a white shape catches your attention. You bend down and collect it, and the next thing you find yourself collecting seashells.

Well, let me tell you a secret, you're not alone. The practice of collecting shell s is popular around the world. While some collect them because of their various shapes and colors, others feel attracted to their beauty.

People also collect them because of their rich symbolism and meaning. We guess that if you landed on this post, you're probably one of those.

For thousands of years, people associate seashells with love and fertility. Some also believe they represent the safe journey between the physical and spiritual world. But the truth is, there are different meanings attached to these old sea creatures' "homes".

In this post, we'll answer some common questions about seashell symbolism: What is the seashell's spiritual meaning? What does the seashell represent?

What do Seashells represent?

Some people believe a shell's hard texture makes one's mind stronger. That is why seashells stand for a resilient and determined mindset. It also represents protection against evil spirits.

Similarly, others believe shells are a bridge between the physical and the supernatural realm. This belief comes from Shell's close relationship with water and water spirits.

Whether you have a shell in your home or see it in your dreams, it will signify different things. Spiritualists, for example, claim that dreaming about shells represents spiritual connection. Their presence in your home, however, means something entirely different.

Protection of your home: having it in your house is a potent shielding power that keeps evil and negativity at bay.

Defiant to pressure: seashells are strong and defiant against the mightiness of the ocean. Therefore, possessing a seashell symbolizes a strong mindset that resists pressure.
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Spirituality: dreaming that you hold a seashell indicates your spirit is trying to communicate with the universe.

Immortality: shells are symbolic of eternal life. They also symbolizes a component of man that endures even after death.

The seashell's spiritual meaning

When it comes to the religious meaning of seashells, it varies a lot depending on the religion and spiritual practices. From Christianity to Buddhism, the symbolism differs.

In Christianity, scallop shells are symbolic dating back to ancient times, as they represent protection of pilgrimages. The scallop shell is also associated with the apostle James. Legend tells of his mission to Spain and burial at Compostella, now one of the great centers of Christian pilgrimage.

According to the Bible, St. James asked for food and water using a scallop shell while traveling around the globe, meaning even the most impoverished people could fill his shell.

Eventually, shells became the symbol of pilgrimage as devotees started wearing them on their gear. The seashell, particularly the scallop, is also connected to Christian baptism and one's rebirth.

The conch is the world's oldest musical instrument, referenced across different religions. Ancient Indian literature references the conch as a sacred symbol seen on the hands of most gods and goddesses.

In Islam, the conch shell is a symbol of the voice of the divine realm. On the other hand, the conch symbolizes freedom from ignorance and victory over suffering in Buddhism. Additionally, the conch shell represents a successful voyage in Chinese Buddhism.

Shells can also serve as a conduit for spiritual concepts to enter the human mind. Depending on the person, or the situation, shells might be a lucky charm.

Seashell's romantic meaning

Throughout history, people link shells to fertility and sexuality. The origin of that connection are illustrations of the goddess Venus, showing her standing in a scallop shell. Additionally, this connects the seashell to water and feelings of fondness, representing intense love.

Some people believe shells represent good communication and listening abilities. Because of its communication powers, often seeing seashells can indicate new love development. It could be finding new love or changing your relationship status - communication is the key to a successful relationship.

The meaning behind broken shells

Some spiritual communities believe that broken seashells are a symbol of impending melancholy brought on by crumbling foundations, damaged homes, and unfulfilled dreams.

A cracked shell is also a visual reminder of how wounded we feel when we lose something. It serves as an illustration of something that was once whole and is now irreparably broken.
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But if two people have two equally sized pieces of a shattered shell, it represents continued love for one another. Among couples or dear friends, splitting a shell in halves and wearing each half is a popular ritual. To know that the other half is with your love makes you feel complete.

The Shore Line

Here are the key lessons you can take from seashells: Life is a short but beautiful journey, and eternity depends on the legacy we leave behind. Shells also remind us to be strong and resilient; the right mindset means we can control all aspects of our lives.

So next time you find a seashell, take it into your hand and let it remind you of the strength and power within you!

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Seashell Symbolism and Meanings - Ocean Jewelry Store

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It all starts with a relaxing walk on the beach. You put your feet on the warm sand, and as you stroll down by the shore, a white shape catches your attention. You bend down and collect it, and the next thing you find yourself collecting seashells.

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A little while back, the internet was abuzz with the inspirational story of Mary Anning, a pioneering 19 th-century paleontologist from Lyme Regis in England. Some of my favorite blogs and magazines got in on the act: Atlas Obscura, QI ( Quite Interesting), Dangerous Women, Cracked, and Forbes, to name just a few, published versions of the Mary Anning story. Anning was a woman from a working-class family; her father, a cabinetmaker, was mentioned by Jane Austen in 1804. Despite her lack of formal education, Anning was involved in the discovery of several categories of ancient animals, including the ichthyosaur, the plesiosaur, and the pterosaur. She also figured out that some of the rocks she was finding and breaking open were fossilized feces, becoming one of the discoverers of the coprolite! Because she was a woman, and working class, and a religious minority to boot, she was not always recognized for her achievements, and many of her discoveries were published by Anglican male scientists. [1]

Normally, I'd love the way this story spread. It has everything: pioneer women scientists, Regency and Victorian England, beachcombing, fossils...it's like Pride and Prejudice at the beach, with feminism, dinosaurs, and poop jokes. What's not to like?

To be honest, there was one problem: the hook on which most of these blogs hung their story was the assertion that Mary Anning was the inspiration for the tongue twister "she sells seashells on the seashore." Most of them even included the tongue-twister connection in the title of the blog post. But none of them provided any evidence for their claim.

This struck me (and several of my folklorist friends from the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research) as a cousin to the story that "Ring Around the Rosie" is related to the plague. ( As I pointed out in a previous post, it's not.) Like the plague story, the tale of Mary Anning and the tongue twister claims that a fascinating but little known history lurks behind a folklore item that practically everyone knows. Like the plague story, it's a folk story about a piece of folklore, which is what folklorists sometimes call "metafolklore." It's also a folk story that purports to be a truthful account of events in the past...in other words, what we typically call a legend. As such, the tale may tell us more about ourselves than it does about history...and it's likely to tell us a lot.

The Story

Each of the blogs celebrating Mary Anning tells a version of the same basic story. QI puts forth the strongest version of the claim:

Victorian fossil hunter Mary Anning was the inspiration for the tongue twister 'She Sells Sea Shells.' It was originally a song, with words by Terry Sullivan and music by Harry Gifford, written in 1908, inspired by Mary Anning's life:

Though they make the claim forcefully, they provide the weakest evidence for a connection between Anning and the tongue twister: none at all, not even a link to another version of the claim.

Mental Floss hedges its claim a little, making the headline that she "may have" inspired the tongue twister, and stating that the connection is "widely believed":

In 1908, songwriter Terry Sullivan-who penned a number of catchy ballads for British music halls-wrote a song widely believed to be about Anning's life whose lyrics have since been recited by just about every English-speaking person on Earth:
'She sells seashells on the seashore,
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure,
For if she sells seashells on the seashore,
Then I'm sure she sells sea shore shells.'

Mental Floss' s blogger, Mark Mancini, does a good job of supporting many of his other points about Anning's life and work with links to primary source documents, academic articles, and even the Library of Congress's National Jukebox. But he gives no evidence that Terry Sullivan wrote his song about Mary Anning. Still, elsewhere he makes a more positive statement, clear of the hedging phrases "widely believed" and "may have":

Years after her death, her legacy would live on in the English language's most famous tongue twister: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Atlas Obscura takes a different approach. The headline seems to make a strong claim: "The Scrappy Female Paleontologist Whose Life Inspired a Tongue Twister." But the post itself, by Tao Tao Holmes, rather weakly asserts that "it's often said that she was the real-life inspiration behind the famous tongue twister." Holmes doesn't directly tell the story of Sullivan's song, but the article she links to in support of the claim does. It's an interview on NPR's All Things Considered with Tracy Chevalier, an author I happen to admire. Chevalier wrote the novel Remarkable Creatures about Mary Anning. The NPR piece includes this passage:

"She sells seashells by the seashore," recites Chevalier. The tongue twister, she believes, was created in 1908 as a tribute to Mary Anning, even though Anning sold mostly fossils.

Why does Chevalier believe this? Does the NPR host, Mary Louise Kelly, believe it too? The story doesn't say.

Cracked gives perhaps the funniest version of the story, in their inimitable and irreverent style:

As time went on, she became a little bit famous for selling old crap down at the market - some guy named Terry Sullivan even came up with the famous tongue twister "she sells seashells from the seashore" because of her (seriously, the rhyme is about Anning). But she wasn't one to get stuck selling silly seashells for the rest of her life. Anning was about to do something much bigger.

Despite occasional hedging by individual bloggers, then, it looks like the internet origin story for "she sells seashells on the seashore" (or "by" or "from" the seashore) is pretty clear and consistent: it was created in 1908 by Terry Sullivan, and was originally part of a song, which was "about," "inspired by," or "a tribute to" Mary Anning. [1]

I should point out that it's not only on blogs that you'll find the claim about Mary Anning inspiring Sullivan to write a tongue twister. Many books make the claim, including children's books, science books, history books, travel books, and even biographies of Anning.

Some book authors have been more careful, however. Thomas Goodhue, author of Fossil Hunter: The Life and Times of Mary Anning, wrote:

It is sometimes claimed she inspired Terry Sullivan's famous tongue twister of 1908: 'She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore ...' There is little evidence for this, however....

Goodhue is being polite: there is, as far as I can tell, no evidence for this, but the story lives on.

Claims and Evidence

As I said, the sites that tell the story of Mary Anning and Terry Sullivan's tongue twister give no evidence for their claim. At best, they link to other versions of the claim.

The distinction between claims and evidence is an important one. It may be "often said" (as Atlas Obscura put it) that Mary Anning inspired the tongue twister, but that isn't evidence that it's true. As Mental Floss's Mark Mancini knows all too well, it's often said that the moon is made of cheese, but our colleagues at NASA are not planning a huge fondue party. "Often said" really just means a lot of people make the claim, not that it's true, or supported by any evidence.

Remember, there were a large number of claims that Sinbad appeared in a movie called Shazaam, that a popular D.C. pizza restaurant was a front for child sex trafficking in 2016, that a babysitter baked and/or ate a baby, and that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by an impostor. But all these stories are false, despite the many claims. Hoaxes, legends, "fake news," and false memories can all lead to people making such claims, so despite a lot of people making any given claim, there still may not be any real evidence for it.

So, what would count as evidence that Terry Sullivan was influenced by Mary Anning? We might look for two principal kinds of evidence, direct and circumstantial. Direct evidence could include (for example) a letter or essay from Sullivan saying that he had been influenced by Anning's story, or the testimony of a witness who heard Sullivan say so. Circumstantial evidence might include the existence of other writings by Sullivan about Anning, which would establish that he knew and cared about her story, or a long residence by Sullivan in Lyme Regis, where people might have remembered her in his time. But none of the bloggers gives any such evidence.

Another way in which historians often divide their evidence is into primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. This is a different way of thinking about evidence, and also valuable to consider. A government record indicating that Terry Sullivan was born in Lyme Regis would be a primary source, and it would be direct evidence of the claim that he was born there. But it would still only be circumstantial evidence of his knowing anything about Mary Anning. Typically, to make a strong claim, we want to see a primary source that is also direct evidence, such as a letter from Sullivan stating that Mary Anning was his inspiration. In fact, when a secondary source makes the claim in a forceful way that Sullivan was inspired by Anning, like QI does, it actually assumes the existence of such a primary source, because the existence of such a source is the only way such a fact could be known. But no such primary source is ever produced or even described by any of the people making this particular claim.

When the people making a claim can't tell you what the evidence is (beyond the fact that other people also make the claim), it should raise your suspicions. It's one of the big "red flags" that tells you a story may not be supported by evidence. This is because direct primary-source evidence isn't complicated; if there were such evidence, all the blogs would have to say is (for example), "a letter Terry Sullivan wrote in 1908 shows that he was inspired by Mary Anning." The fact that they can't make such a simple statement suggests there may be no evidence behind the claim.

What about the oral tradition as evidence? As I pointed out, oral tradition carries all kinds of stories, true and untrue. Oral tradition can be evidence, but not all oral sources should be given equal weight. If an interviewee told an oral historian that he heard that Mary Anning was the inspiration for the song from his grandfather, who in turn specifically said he heard the story in 1908, we might accept this as circumstantial evidence. If the grandfather claimed to have heard the story from Terry Sullivan, it approaches direct evidence, but because it's at one remove, even then it wouldn't be considered conclusive. As it is, none of the bloggers gives this kind of testimony, just links to a network of contemporary people citing one another as sources.

On the other hand, there's plenty of counter-evidence that disproves the specific claims made by these bloggers. This is where more diligent historical sleuthing (or a call to their local folklore expert) could have helped them out.

For example, was the tongue twister that begins "she sells sea shells" "originally a song, with words by Terry Sullivan and music by Harry Gifford, written in 1908," as QI claimed? No, it wasn't. The phrase is a piece of folklore, which existed in many versions and variants before Sullivan got his hands on it. He transformed it into a song, but it was already a well known folk saying in 1908.

The first version I've been able to find of the phrase "she sells sea shells" comes from 1855, in the book Letters and Sounds: An Introduction to English Reading by Alexander Melville Bell (page 98), where it was published as an elocution exercise. In 1871, in the December 1 Christmas number of The Family Herald; a Domestic Magazine of Useful Information and Amusement ( page 848), it appears among other tongue-twisters under the heading "Alliterative Puzzles." This is the first version I've found where it's published for amusement rather than instruction. In both of these early cases, it is simply the four words "she sells sea shells."

This evidence immediately disproves QI 's claim, since that blog states that the four-word version of the tongue twister originated in Sullivan's song. But most of the other blogs just say that the longer version, "she sells seashells on the seashore" originated in the song and was inspired by Anning. To find out if that's possible, we need to look at the development of the tongue twister a little bit.

By the mid-1870s, versions of the phrase became common in elocution manuals, teaching manuals, newspapers, and magazines. By 1878, the tongue twister had another clause, sometimes expressed as a second complete sentence: "She sells sea shells. Shall he sell sea shells?" It was published this way in J.W. Shoemaker's Practical Elocution: For Use in Colleges and Schools and by Private Students. From there, many other early versions asking "shall [someone] sell sea shells" developed, some of which even began with someone other than "she," sometimes a proper name, and other times "he." None of these early references, however, specifies that she is at, on, or by the seashore. So did Terry Sullivan add that bit?

No, he didn't. The first version of the phrase that I've been able to find with that detail is "she sells seashells at the sea shore." It was published this way in the September 1898 issue of Werner's Magazine-10 years before Sullivan's song. In the early 20 th century this wording became quite common, appearing in books and newspapers many times between 1898 and 1908.

So, between 1855 and 1908, as folklore usually does, this tongue twister came to exist in many versions and variants. Here are just a few:

He sells sea shells. Shall she sell sea shells? Shall she sell sea shells because he sells sea shells? ( 1886)

If neither he sells seashells, nor she sells sea-shells, who shall sell seashells? Shall sea-shells be sold? ( 1888)

She sells sea shells saucily (1895; New Orleans Daily Picayune Monday, April 1; pg. 4)

She says she sells sea shells (1896; Atchison [Kansas] Daily Globe, Thursday, March 26, pg. 3)

She sells seashells at the sea shore. Shall Susan sell seashells? ( 1898)

She sells seashells, shunning society while the shells she sells ( 1902)

She sells seashells by the seashore. ( 1905; column 4)

Clearly, by the time Terry Sullivan came to use it in his song, "she sells seashells" was a widespread folklore item that existed in many variants over a period of over 50 years, and maybe considerably more. In many versions, it's a he that sells seashells, making it impossible for those versions to be referring to Mary Anning. [2]

What about QI's second claim, that the song was "inspired by Mary Anning's life," or Mental Floss' s claim that it might be "about Anning's life?" To an impartial observer, this claim doesn't stand up either. There's no trace of Mary Anning, Lyme Regis, or (alas) plesiosaurs in the song. The song was recorded in Britain by Wilkie Bard and in America by Billy Murray. Below you can hear Murray's version in the player, followed by the original lyrics:

I've just had a letter to say I'm engaged
To appear in the pantomime.
The part I've to play is the principal boy,
So I'm in for a beautiful time.
I'm dreaming of seashells when I am in bed,
I only wish she would sell matches instead!

As you can see, what the song is actually about is a music-hall performer who gets a good role and wants to sing a catchy sing-along so he can score a hit song. His songwriters instead supply an unpronounceable chorus, and hilarity ensues.

In other words, the main premise of the song is simply that the phrase "she sells sea shells on the seashore" is hard to say. There's not even a real female character in the song, let alone anyone recognizable as Mary Anning. This makes Tracy Chevalier's idea that it's a "tribute" to Anning particularly strange: if it's a tribute, why doesn't it describe Anning's accomplishments? What kind of tribute mentions only one insignificant detail about the person being celebrated, while telling a story about a completely different person?

Oh, and about that one detail: there are some inconvenient facts that proponents of Mary Anning's connection to the tongue twister rarely mention. First, Mary Anning did not sell seashells, she sold fossils. This fact is alluded to by NPR when it says that Tracy Chevalier believes the rhyme is about Anning "even though Anning sold mostly fossils." In fact, according to Anning expert Hugh Torrens [3], she sold only fossils, despite Tracy Chevalier claiming she "did indeed" sell seashells and Atlas Obscura repeating the claim. Since many of the fossils were fossilized shells, there is some wiggle room here, but generally we wouldn't say someone "sold plants" or "sold fish" if the plants and fish she sold were fossilized. Mary Anning also didn't sell anything "on the seashore." She sold fossils first from a table outside her cottage, and then from shops in Broad Street and Bridge Street, Lyme Regis. All the locations were near but not on the seashore.

These facts, while they don't make the claim about Terry Sullivan's inspiration impossible, certainly show that there's a very imperfect fit between the details of the song and those of Mary Anning's life. (In fact, the older variant of the rhyme, "BY the seashore," would have fit Anning's life a bit better.)

So, if he wasn't inspired by Mary Anning, why would Terry Sullivan write a song based on this kind of phrase? The answer is simple. On the English music-hall and American vaudeville circuits, songs based on folk sayings such as proverbs, nursery rhymes, and tongue twisters were a popular subgenre. In Library of Congress collections, for example, you can also find tongue twisting songs " The Tick Tack Tocking of the Clocking on her Stocking," " A Singer Sang a Song (and Here's the Song the Singer Sang)," " Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers," and my personal favorite, " Which Switch Is the Switch, Miss, for Ipswich?" [4]

Given all this, there's no reason to suppose that Terry Sullivan was inspired by Mary Anning. There's no evidence he knew about Anning, nothing in the song's verses resembles her life, and the "she" of the chorus has only a very slight resemblance to her. The evidence simply shows that Terry Sullivan used an already-popular tongue twister to create a humorous song, something that was common at the time.

The idea that Mary Anning is connected directly to the tongue twister appears to be a little older than the specific claim that she inspired Sullivan's song. The oldest such claim I can find cites as its source the 1977 book Henry De La Beche: Observations on an Observer by Paul J. McCartney, and Wikipedia cites the same book. Yet the book, which is obscure and hard to find (I had to buy a used copy online from a bookshop in Wales in order to read it), only says that she is "reputed to be the subject" of the tongue twister, and gives no source or evidence.

Again, though, there is some counter-evidence. First of all, as I already mentioned, she didn't exactly sell seashells, or do it on the seashore. Moreover, she lived her entire life in Lyme Regis, in the south of England. The first reference to the tongue twister comes from Alexander Melville Bell, the father of inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and still lived there in 1855. This means that, although it's certainly true that anyone might have heard of Mary Anning, there is no obvious connection between her and early appearances of the tongue twister.

More importantly, the claim that she was connected to the phrase didn't emerge until McCartney's 1977 book, at which time no one could articulate a source. To paraphrase my analysis of the "Ring Around the Rosie" story, before accepting the 1977 claim as any kind of evidence, scholars today would want to know: how did the first person who claimed a connection between Mary Anning and the tongue twister find out about that connection, and why can't we find whatever evidence he or she had? Until such evidence turns up, it seems likely that person just guessed.

So we come back to the same place: she is "said" or "reputed" or "thought" to be behind the tongue twister, but it turns out there's just no evidence.

Mary and the Modern World

This blog is called Folklife Today because we believe folklore and folklife are not just about the past; they are also, and most crucially, about the present. This is even true of many legends that we think are about the past. For instance, Ruth Finnegan explained how an African story she studied, supposedly an accurate historical account of the founding of the kingdom of Gonja in northern Ghana, instead reflected modern politics:

One version of this was recorded around 1900, a period at which Gonja was divided into seven administrative divisions. The story tells how the state was first founded by a certain Jakpa who came to the area in search of gold, conquered the local inhabitants and became king by right of conquest; his seven sons and their descendants became the seven divisional chiefs. About 1960 the "same" story was recorded again. By that date two of the old divisions had disappeared, leaving only five; and the tale speaks of only five sons, with no mention at all of the other two. A narrative like this is obviously influenced as much by present realities and power relationships as by historical considerations.

Finnegan's example shows us that folk stories which are in one sense about the past, are still, in other important ways, about the here and now. We tell such historical legends only because they have some relevance to us. That relevance is a big part of the stories' meaning, and (more crucially for us) often affects the "facts" they tell us as well. So it's important to ask what the story of Mary Anning and the tongue twister tells us about today's world. Why is this an appealing story to tell in the 21 st century, and which of today's realities does it reflect?

In looking into the story of "Ring Around the Rosie" and the plague, I found that it had special significance for medievalists, medical historians, and a few other kinds of storytellers. In the same way, we find the story of "She Sells Seashells" told especially often by certain kinds of writers. Paleontologists, historians of science, and advocates for the town of Lyme Regis are always looking for a new hook to get people interested in their particular corner of the world, so they like to tell this tale. They're relying on the inherent appeal of being able to say, "you already know something about my pet topic, you just don't KNOW you know about it."

Science teachers love the story for the same reason. The fact that students already know the tongue twister provides them a way to connect the story of a pioneering scientist to an aspect of their students' own culture. In a March, 2006, article in The American Biology Teacher, Renee M. Clary and James H. Wandersee reveal their strategy for using Mary Anning's story in the classroom. They provide a scripted "Interactive Historical Vignette (IHV)", whose script includes:

In the 1800s, most women were barred from actively participating in the scientific community because of their gender. However, there were a few women who did manage to contribute to the sciences in spite of the barriers that surrounded them. Has anyone heard of Mary Anning? (Check for student response.) You have probably been exposed to Mary Anning even if you do not remember her. Do you remember learning, "She sells sea shells by the seashore?" (Check for student response.) Well, that tongue twister refers to Mary Anning!

Another dynamic contributes to the popularity of the Mary Anning story: web publishers love stories that claim to reveal unknown facts about everyday things. It's a short step from the claim that you've been eating bananas wrong your whole life or that you see these objects every day but never knew their true purpose to the claim that you've been saying a tongue twister your whole life without knowing what it's really about, or even that " This Famous Tongue Twister is Actually About Dinosaurs."

As I've said before:

Folklorists know better than anyone the fascination with things that are older than they seem, and with " extraordinary origins of everyday things." Some founders of the discipline of folklore espoused the theory of survivals, which held that cultural materials such as nursery rhymes preserved information from the past that was otherwise forgotten. To adherents of this theory, a shard of pottery, a riddle, or a child's jingle could be the key that unlocked the mythology of the distant past, and the folklorist's task was to interpret or decode the cryptic messages within these fragments.

Although folklorists didn't give their articles titles like "Bet You Didn't Know This Crazy Old Folksong is Actually About Human Sacrifice," in other ways nineteenth-century folklore scholarship was not so different from the blogosphere.

I think the most important reason for the Mary Anning story's popularity is that it fills a current social need for the recognition of pioneering women scientists. In the current decade, women's historical contributions to science are being lifted out of obscurity and celebrated. Many books, government initiatives, archival projects, and even reference tools from the Library of Congress have been putting more emphasis on the role of women in creating, discovering, and transforming all areas of science and engineering. In pop culture, the film Hidden Figures highlights the contributions of African American women to the space program, while a film currently in production will tell the story of Marie Curie, and scripts are being shopped around Hollywood about Rosalind Franklin and others. A TV commercial imagines a world in which physicist Millie Dresselhaus is a celebrity. The feeling in the culture generally is that women scientists have not been given their due, and that it's our responsibility to remedy that.

Atlas Obscura highlights this in its title, calling Anning a "Scrappy Female Paleontologist." Dangerous Women, too, highlights her role as a woman of science, with the potential to change the world. Laura Casely, at Little Things, writes:

In the early 19th century, there weren't many options for scientifically minded women, especially poor ones.

But as women throughout history have always proved, if you have the will, you can do anything, even if society says you can't.

This current trend is one I wholeheartedly support, and it explains why there's a hunger for the Mary Anning story. One of the earliest woman pioneers of the modern scientific era, Anning is someone modern people can relate to more easily than, say, mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria (ca. 360-415) or even entomologist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). It's easy for today's women to put themselves in Anning's shoes as she faces the institutional sexism of nineteenth-century academia and the steamrolling and mansplaining she endured from individual colleagues. [5] But none of this fully explains why the story needed the extra hook of the tongue twister.

Mancini's article in Mental Floss provides a clue to the connection between her story as a reflection of modern needs and the presence of the folklore angle. He laments the fact that Mary Anning did not become more famous than she did, partly because male scientists exploited her findings:

[William] Conybeare stole the show with a well-received presentation on the nearly complete Plesiosaurus from Lyme Regis. That same year, he published a paper on the specimen featuring detailed original illustrations. Neither his presentation nor his paper mentioned Anning by name. Conybeare was just one of many scientists who furthered their own careers by writing papers about fossils that Anning had found. They rarely gave her credit, and to make matters worse, she couldn't publish her own findings in reputable journals because their editors didn't accept submissions from women.

Then, just before launching into the "she sells sea shells" story, Mancini tells us:

You might not be familiar with Anning's name, but you've certainly heard of her, even if you didn't realize it.

Mancini has rhetorically demonstrated an important part of the story's appeal. First, he's made us wish that Mary Anning had gotten more fame and recognition. Then, he's fulfilled that wish by telling us that we've all been singing her praises our whole lives, we just didn't know it.

Folklorists have long recognized that many legends deliver "poetic justice." [6] In such stories, the bad get punished and the good get rewarded, often in a way that is surprising or ironic. A man who wrongly assumes that his wife is cheating ruins a present she bought for him; the café that price-gouges for a recipe has a disgruntled customer publish it so people can get it for free; the good Samaritan gets a huge reward after unknowingly helping a celebrity. This is what folklorist Sandy Hobbs calls in psychological terms a "positive outcome," or "reinforcement": we want people to get what they deserve, so we enjoy stories in which that happens. It's a form of wish-fulfillment, and many legends deliver it.

The story of Mary Anning, while it's inspirational in many ways, doesn't have a really satisfying ending. After all, Anning died young and got insufficient recognition in her own time. Instead, the Anning story gets its happy ending in the here and now. As Mancini puts it:

Anning-long overlooked by her contemporaries-is finally getting her due. The self-taught paleontologist is now a revered figure in paleontology circles.

Which brings us back to "She Sells Seashells." We want Anning to be famous. Mancini tells us that she's "now a revered figure in paleontology circles," but that still isn't the same as being a household word. In other words, even in the present day, she hasn't exactly become a celebrity. I think this is one reason the legend adds the detail of the tongue twister, which does elevate her to the level of a household word. Thanks to "She Sells Seashells," it says, Mary Anning has actually had her well-deserved celebrity all along.

In the end, even though there's no evidence for it, the legend of Mary Anning inspiring "She Sells Seashells" is poetic justice in a very literal sense: a woman who deserves fame gets celebrated in a poem so famous we all know it. The legend is also metafolklore with a delightful twist. It tells us that we've been recognizing the accomplishments of an important and underappreciated woman ever since we were kids, every time we recited that magical little poem, "She sells seashells by the seashore."

Notes

1. Anning was a Congregationalist, a protestant sect which was counted among the original "nonconformist" groups when England adopted the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Nonconformists were barred from many rights and privileges, including attendance at major universities, ability to marry and be buried where they wished, and civil service careers at both the national and local levels. Many of these "civil disabilities" were repealed during her lifetime, but some remained on the books until after her death. Most of them remained in place until 1828, when she was 29 years old.

2. As is often the case with folklore, the variability of the phrase makes it difficult to search for it in databases. Both the words "seashells" and "seashore" are sometimes expressed as two words, creating four possible variants, while the possibility that they're "on," "at," or "by" the seashore increases this to twelve. Add all the other ways it varies, and you'll see that it's easy to miss variants of the phrase and instances of its occurrence. Needless to say, I probably didn't find all the variants of the phrase or its earliest appearance, but what I did find serves to disprove the notion that Terry Sullivan created the phrase.

3. Torrens's statement was made at a 1999 symposium and cited in Thomas Goodhue's biography Fossil Hunter: The Life and Times of Mary Anning.

4. One of the greatest performers to emerge from the vaudeville circuit and become a movie star, Danny Kaye, recorded an elaborate tongue-twister song, which refers to "she sells seashells" as follows: "Sheila is selling her shop at the seashore, for shops at the seashore are so sure to lose. Now she's not so sure of what she should be selling; should Sheila sell seashells or should she sell shoes?" His collection at the Library of Congress includes a manuscript of the original score. You can hear the song at YouTube.

5. At the risk of saying "not all men," I'll point out that her story also includes male friends who supported her, sung her praises, and helped her through financial rough spots, so it's not completely embarrassing to modern men!

6. Sandy Hobbs identified "poetic justice" as perhaps the most important theme of contemporary legends in "The Social Psychology of a 'Good' Story," published in 1987. The article is available online in this book-length pdf.

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She Sells Seashells and Mary Anning: Metafolklore with a Twist

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A little while back, the internet was abuzz with the inspirational story of Mary Anning, a pioneering 19th-century paleontologist from Lyme Regis in England.

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I. I wanted to do something. I wanted to do something big. -Sabato Rodia Sabato Rodia was a beachcomber. Barely five feet tall, with a face as creased as a used map and eyes perpetually squinted against the sun, he spent untold days prowling the beaches and estuaries of Southern California with an old cement sack slung over his shoulder.

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Seashells are a very special magickal material-a beautiful gift of Earth and Sea. Shells are found in the secret space between these two kingdoms, which is revealed only during the change of tides. They are treasures from an invisible world.

Whether plain brown or white, or cascading with a rainbow of colors, each shell brings a message to the person who is fortunate enough to find it. Read on to find out more about the magickal properties of seashells.
The amazing seashell
Normally, I'd just dive right into the correspondences of shells and their uses in spellwork. But instead, let's stop for a minute to consider how unique and amazing shells are as a material.

What are seashells? They are the hard, protective exoskeletons of marine mollusks. Soft-bodied invertebrates create their own shells from minerals in their bodies and the sea. Each creature makes a shell that will be its home for its entire life. For this reason, shells can be seen as symbols of independence, solitude, and self-reliance.

Not only are they essential for marine life, shells rival anything created by humans in their beauty, strength, and mathematical precision. (The outward curve of a Nautilus shell famously follows the Fibonacci sequence.) The shapes and patterns aren't random-they've been passed on through countless generations. It's hard to contemplate a shell without being in awe at the power of ancestral memory and Divine creativity.
Correspondences of Seashell
Every child knows that if you hold a shell up to your ear, you can hear the ocean. Naturally, shells are often used on the Pagan altar to represent the element of Water. Shells also correspond to Venus (the planet and the deity) and to the Moon, who gently tosses them ashore every tidal cycle.

For millennia, shells have been a symbol of feminine beauty. Their white-pink colors recall the blush of a fair complexion, and some shells resemble the female breasts or vulva. When Botticelli painted the Goddess of Love floating upon a seashell raft, he cemented an age-old correspondence into an indelible image.

Cups, mirrors, and combs are often made with shells (or shaped like them) in keeping with the Venusian aspect of shells. The use of shells in necklaces goes back to the Stone Age-though we have no way of knowing if these shell artifacts were used for male or female adornment.

But seashells aren't just about beauty. Shells are also linked to prosperity and abundance. They have long been an important religious symbol to coastal dwellers who take their nourishment from the sea. Shells have also been used as currency by many world cultures. There are probably trillions of shells in the ocean, but it still feels special and lucky to find a perfect shell resting in the sand.

Despite their family resemblance, different types of shells have different properties in magick. Generally speaking, shells symbolize mystery, divinity, love, and prosperity-but each type has its own nuances. See the list of shells at the end of this article for detailed correspondences.
Shells in magick
The natural cup shape of many shells makes them great for holding things! Shells make perfect little dishes for incense, sand, crystals, and herbs. Cleaned seashells can also hold food or drink for rituals.

Abalone shells are a very popular choice for Sage smudging. The shell is used either to catch the ash or to hold the burning herbs. (Some people believe that the latter use is improper-that it's disrespectful to place Fire in a Water vessel.) If you do burn herbs or incense in a shell, put a thin layer of sand in the bottom to help distribute the heat and avoid scorching the shell.

Shell is sometimes cut into thin slices and used to decorate pendants, bowls, or just about any flat or curved surface. A shell-covered box or mirror could be a lovely tool for a Water witch's altar. Small shells or shell tiles can be incorporated into the handle of a ritual wand or knife.

Of course, the most popular way to use shells is in their natural, unaltered form. Large shells can be placed on your altar or used to decorate indoors and outdoors. Smaller shells make beautiful jewelry. (Some even have natural holes for stringing!) You can add shells to magickal windchimes, mojo bags, or incorporate them into charms and amulets.
Finding your own shells
It's a fact: Shells that you scavenge for yourself are more pleasing than the fanciest boutique purchases. If you're lucky enough to live near a beach, find out what kind of shells are available from your local coasts. Or head out at the first low tide and see what you see!

If you do buy shells, please purchase from responsible sources. Small-ish and common shells are the best bet. The bigger and flashier the shell, the higher the odds it comes from an animal that is slow-growing or overhunted. Illegal exporting of rare shells is a big business that funds environmental pillaging, organized crime, and exploitation of labor. Don't be that guy!

Some types of sea life have been making seashells in more or less the same designs for millions of years. Seashell shapes are timeless and sacred. They were here before humans, and will probably outlast us. Here are some of the most common shell shapes and their magickal lore:
Abalone
The Abalone shell incorporates all the colors of the sea and sky. The inside of the shell is coated with nacre, the same substance in pearls and mother-of-pearl.

Abalone has been an important food source for tens of thousands of years. The shells represent the giving power of the Mother Ocean. The iridescent hue promotes feeling of abundance, peace, and compassion.

Abalone shells have an especially sacred meaning in Native American and Polynesian religion. Most people are familiar with Abalone as a vessel for Sage smudging, a Native American spiritual practice.

The vibrant color and natural luster of Abalone shell makes it ideal for jewelry and ornamental objects. Wearing an amulet of Abalone is said to impart a calming, spiritual vibration and to help the wearer work through emotional issues.
Scallop
The Scallop is perhaps the most familiar seashell shape. It has a sacred meaning in Christian Europe, dating back to the earliest pilgrims-many of whom would have been illiterate-who were guided to pilgrimage sites by the Scallop emblem. The Scallop is an emblem of Saint James the Apostle. It may be adopted as a badge by anyone who has undergone a spiritual quest. Scallop shapes may be discerned in countless Christian altars and cathedrals.

Art nerds will recognize the Scallop as the seat or carriage of many an ocean deity. Poseidon is depicted riding upon one, and Aphrodite floats to shore in a Scallop shell. The Scallop appears on Pagan altars as a symbol of the sea goddess and the element of Water. Use a Scallop shell as a chalice, offering bowl, or vessel for love magick. (The large and colorful variety found in magick shops is a warm-water species called Lion's Paw or Mexican Sea Scallop.)

The Scallop is distinguished from other shells by the multiple rays and ridges, converging on a single point near the base. To medieval Christians, this represented the varied paths of travelers on their way to a holy site. To earlier humans, the Scallop's rays may have resembled the Sun's beams converging on the horizon at sunrise or sunset. This makes the Scallop an especially fitting symbol of Venus, who is called the Morning Star or Evening Star.
Nautilus
The Nautilus is the nomad of the sea, traveling hundreds of miles on currents (and a raft of bubbles). The name means "sailor" in Greek. The Nautilus shell is an important symbol in sacred geometry and even mathematics-displaying a logarithmic spiral in its growth pattern.

Unlike some other shell creatures, the Nautilus does not shed or exchange its shell, but creates a large chamber for its body as it grows. The Nautilus shell is thus a symbol of growth and renewal. The outward spiral shape of the Nautilus suggests that it can keep growing indefinitely.

The Nautilus is one of the few sea creatures to have survived since the time of the dinosaurs. It is one of Nature's true masterpieces. Meditate on a Nautilus shell, or use it in your magick of spiritual growth and expansion.
Auger
The Auger shell is an elongated spiral, with an opening at the base and a point at the tip. In the language of shells, the Auger is both masculine and feminine, representing completeness. There are hundreds of varieties worldwide.

Auger shells come from a type of predatory sea snail, and the aggression of the animal is implied by its narrowly focused shape. Augers possess a venomous tooth that is the terror of marine worms. In magick, Augers are one of the only shells that may be properly attributed to Mars. Augers are popular for headdresses, magick wands, and protective charms.
Cowrie
The familiar Cowrie shell is yellow or white and egg-shaped, with two rows of teeth along a central gap. Cowrie shells have appeared as currency, decoration, and religious items in nearly every part of the world.

Owing to its shape, the Cowrie often represents the life-giving vulva. It is used in charms for wealth and fertility. Cowrie shells are strung onto necklaces or sewn into garments. Additionally, the shells may be used for divination. There are several distinct systems of Cowrie divination stemming from African and Afro-Carribean occult traditions.

Cowrie shells are admired for their fine natural polish. Their glossiness symbolizes refinement and luxury. The Italian word for Cowrie is porcellana ("little pig")-from which we derive the word porcelain.
Starfish
Not technically a seashell, Starfish are nonetheless available at many a beach seller's stall. The Starfish is a spiny sea creature whose dried body forms the shape of a star. They are symbols of heavenly power, renewal, and good luck.

Because of their resemblance to the heavenly stars, the Starfish has an affinity with various sky Gods and Goddesses. How amazing to uncover a star within the depths of the seas! (As that old thrice-great Egyptian guy says, "As above, so below.") As a (usually) five-pointed creature, Starfish are also linked to the Pentagram and the number 5, the number of Man. No wonder the Starfish speaks to the mystic's heart.

Biologists will tell you that Starfish are exquisitely sensitive animals. Its nervous system radiates from the center and extends through each limb, allowing it to explore the ocean floor with grace and ease. Starfish are symbols of instinct and intuition. As a totem or amulet, Starfish reminds a sensitive person to adapt and thrive within their surroundings.

Starfish possess the superpower of being able to regrow a missing limb. Use them in charms for strength and recovery from trauma.

I hope this article has inspired you to dig deep into your collection of seashells! Read more in the archive, or browse our top articles.

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Seashells are a very special magickal material-a beautiful gift of Earth and Sea. Shells are found in the secret space between these two kingdoms, which is revealed only during the change of tides. They are treasures from an invisible world.

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Welcome back to Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts under the Following Folktales label, and you can also follow the series on its own Facebook page!

Nauru is the last Micronesian country on the list. Bye bye, Tiny Islands. The series is taking a short Christmas break, and will resume in the first week of January!

Legends, traditions, and tales of Nauru
A transcript of a series of lectures delivered by Native Teachers
Timothy Detudamo
University of the South Pacific, 2008.

This book could have done with an introduction. It didn't say anything about how or when the tales were collected, or who the storytellers were. It did include a "Traditional culture of Nauru" chapter, wedged in-between Legends and Tales, which was definitely an interesting read, and helped understand some elements of the stories. The Glossary was almost comically useless; it had at least six words defined as "a type of weapon" or "a type of fish", with no further comments. The stories themselves, however, were much worth reading.

Highlights

I really loved the Nauruan creation myth, where the world was born from inside a clam shell, and giants lifted the top half of the shell to become the sky. The same myth also contained a sky-high tree; when one of the gods climbed it, some leafs and twigs came loose and fell into the ocean, creating the islands. The leafs that fell face up became fertile islands, while the ones that fell face down remained barren.
There was a very interesting idea of rebirth in the story of Itijo and Araiman. The wife was instructed to but her dead husband inside a giant shell; three days later she found a live baby in his place. Raising the baby, she got her husband back. After a few rounds, she decided it would be better to wait a few more days and get him back as an adult so that she wouldn't have to raise him - but when she opened the shell, the corpse was still there, and the rebirth magic was off the table...
One of my favorite tales was the story of Eakeno, in which a god fell in love with a pretty young woman who already had a husband. The god let down a fishing hook with gifts from the sky, and managed to catch her and steal her away. She was eventually rescued with the help of a crab and two canary birds.

Nauru also has its own version of "in the beginning, women didn't know how to give birth" (a motif that seems to exist all over Micronesia). This one was my favorite so far. It told the story of a voyager named Deragoe, who after all kinds of adventures landed on Nauru. He married a local girl, and managed to save her from a C-section (performed by two old women with shark teeth) and teach the Nauruans how to deliver babies. And cook food. He sounds like a useful guy.
Another common motif that I encountered once again was the trick of putting shells on one's eyelids to look in the dark as if you were awake. This trick is usually used by people to avoid being devoured in their sleep by monsters (in this case, a witch).
There was a myth very much like Pandora's Box: The first god left behind three baskets that people were not supposed to open. The first two contained food and jewelry - but when the first one was opened too, all kinds of troubles and diseases swarmed out into the world. There was also, once again, a legend about the birth of the coconut palm, which, once again, grew out of the grave of a buried man.

I especially loved the Nauruan take on the giant beanstalk, called Egigu's Tree. In this story, a girl named Egigu climbed up into the sky and encountered the old blind mother of all kinds of natural phenomena. In exchange for healing her blindness, the old woman hid her in a clam shell. Eventually, the girl met and married her youngest son, the Moon, and you can still see the Moon embracing her at night. You can see the story illustrated on Nauruan stamps (left).

Where to next?
Returning to Melanesia via the Solomon Islands.

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The many uses of seashells (Following folktales around the world 6. - Nauru)

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Welcome back to Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts under the Following Folktales label, and you can also follow the series on its own Facebook page!

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conch shell

Along the coastlines of the world, a great variety of shells can be found. Seashells are made by the animals that live inside them and all shells grow steadily outward. Shells are among the most remarkable designs found in nature. Examples are the chambered nautilus, the sundial shell, and the triton shell. Shells are usually perceived as feminine; a symbol of birth, good fortune, and resurrection. Bivalved mullusks represent the womb and fertility.

shell: life protector; in Tibetan Buddhism, symbolizes hearing; one of the eight emblems of good luck in Chinese Buddhism

conch shell: in Buddhism, symbolizes the voice of Buddha; deity summoner; emblem of Aphrodite, Saint Michael, Saint Sebald, and Triton; Vishnu's trumpet used to awaken followers from ignorance; Navajo Indian jewel of the sea

cowrie shell

c owrie shell: may be one of the first yonic symbols, its name derived from Kauri, a pre-Vedic Indian goddess; represents rebirth and the female Gate of Life; used throughout the Middle East, Egypt, the South Pacific, and the Mediterranean as a charm for healing, fertility, magical power, or good luck; Romans call the cowrie the matriculus, meaning little matrix or little womb; among the Greeks, the word kteis meant vulva, a cowrie shell, a scallop, or a comb (an attribute of mermaids and sirens); Gypsy women valued the cowrie, worn as an amulet, as a focus of their feminine powers

scallop shell

scallop shell: symbol of light; couch of sea deities; in Christianity, represents salvation; used to sprinkle baptismal waters, also worn by Christians to indicate completion of a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain, originally the shrine of the Goddess Bridgette, the Celtic version of Aphrodite; the scallop shell is associated with the goddess Venus "born of the sea" as she was carried to shore on a scallop shell; scallop shells are a symbol of the Hindu version of Aphrodite, the goddess Lakshmi "born from the churning of the ocean", consort of Vishnu and mother Kama, represented beauty and good fortune

fan coral

coral: the ocean's Tree of Life; throughout the Mediterranean, red coral necklaces for children were valued as magical; red coral also symbolizes life giving feminine blood; powdered red coral was used to increase fertility; coral was used as an apotropic (to avert evil) in rituals; in China, called shang-hu, emblem of longevity

pearl: pearl symbolism is closely associated with the shell and represents moonlight, purity, tears, wealth, the power of the waters, and wisdom; believed to be the result of lightning penetrating the oyster, and as such, regarded as the union of fire and water; Moslems use the pearl to symbolize paradise, believing the blessed lived in pearls; called tama, the third eye of Buddha and Siva, the symbol of spiritual enlightenment and transcendent wisdom; in the east, divine essence which controls the tides; the flaming pearl is the union of fire and water believed to be the pearl of perfection.

View sea themed miniatures for sale at my Etsy shop. link is in upper right hand corner of my blog, above the dragonfly photo or use this link: http://mythsymbolsandplay.typepad.com/

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conch shell Along the coastlines of the world, a great variety of shells can be found. Seashells are made by the animals that live inside them and all shells grow steadily outward. Shells are among the most remarkable designs found in nature. Examples are the chambered nautilus, the sundial shell,...

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Yemaya, The Middle Passage, and Cowrie Shells to Empower Your Voice / Seashells and Ocean Goddesses, Part 2

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Science shows that all human life began in Africa. So it’s no surprise that on the west coast of Nigeria we find the orisha Yemaya, Goddess of the Seven

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Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano Filipe around the year 1445, spent the majority of his life living and working in Florence. He was very well known and celebrated during his lifetime and found favour with the wealthy Italian elite.

Information about his early life is scarce, but it is thought that he spend much of his childhood living in a fairly poor neighbourhood, where he struggled with the rigours of academic life and tended to be hyperactive and hard to contain within a classroom. It is said that the name Botticelli, which means 'little barrel' or 'little wine cask', was given to him by one of his brothers during these early years.

Having left school, Botticelli was given the opportunity to retrain as an artist, and it is known that in 1450 he studied with Fra Filippo Lippi, a painter who he appears to have apprenticed under and who taught him his characteristic clarity of lines.

Lippi was well connected in the city and he introduced Botticelli to many wealthy patrons, including Amerigo Vespucci, the man whom the Americas were named after. Crucially, Lippi also introduced Botticelli to the the Medici family, who became life-long patrons and supporters of his work. Botticelli flourished in his new career, and by 1470 he had his own workshop. In 1472 he joined the Compagnia San Luca, a fraternity of Florentine painters.

Following the death of his mentor and friend, Botticelli, now a well respected artist in his own right, decided to take on his own apprentice, Filippino Lippi, the son of his master. The two men worked together for many years.

Amid his increasing fame and reputation, in 1481, Botticelli was summoned to Rome by the Pope, Sixtus IV and asked to contribute to the paintings within the Sistine Chapel. During his time in Rome he also completed many papal portraits. These are his only known works outside of Florence.

During the 1480s, Botticelli also contributed to the fresco cycle for Lorenzo the Magnificen. In 1485, now extremely well regarded and esteemed in the Italian art world, Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus. The original commissioner for the work is now unknown, but the piece was eventually displayed in the villa Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici at Castello in 1499.

In the later years of Botticelli's career, he was heavily influenced by the teachings of a charismatic Dominican friar who began to have influence in the city of Florence. Girolamo Savonarola Ferrara was known to burn works of art and books that he felt did not do justice to religious teachings. Some of Botticelli's earlier works are thought to be amongst those that he destroyed. As a consequence of Savonarola's influence, Botticelli's later works became deeply religious.

The 1490s marked a time of turbulence and difficulty for Botticelli and for Florence. The Medici family were expelled from the city and the onset of plague and fighting across the city led to Botticelli and his work falling out of favour. It is said that in these later years, Botticelli's characteristic sharp wit and good humour began to fade, leading him to spend increasing amounts of time alone. He died in his hometown of Florence in 1510.

After his death, much of his work faded into relative obscurity, until a renewed interest in Florentine art led to a rediscovery and renewed interest in his paintings.

'The Birth of Venus' is perhaps his most recognisable work. Within the painting, Venus, goddess of beauty and love, is depicted arriving to the island of Cyprus, carried on an enlarged scallop shell. Venus was said to be 'born of the sea spray'. In Botticelli's rendering, she balances delicately in all of her female beauty, reminiscent of a pearl shining inside it's shell. Freshness, spring and femininity are woven into almost every detail of the painting, with delicate spring flowers blowing on the winds and floral patters adorning the cloak and dress of the young woman who awaits Venus' arrival, ready to cover her modesty. As she stands naked and freshly born, Venus covers her nakedness with her long, free flowing hair.

The shell at the center of the image is an essential part of the painting's composition. Seashells and sea creatures have held deep symbolic meaning in art and literature throughout human history.

Seashells are often associated with love and fertility. In some cases, the seashell can be seen as symbolic of female genitalia. Medieval Christian traditions associate seashells with pilgrims.

In some new age traditions, seashells are used to symbolize the unconscious and are associated with emotions. Thanks to their connection to the sea and water, they are also evocative of peace and tranquility.

Scallop shells appear in many Renaissance paintings, including Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation, where a scallop shell appears on a small alter to the right of the Virgin Mary as the angel Gabriel tells her that she is bear the child of God. In Christianity, the scallop shell in particular represents salvation. In Hindu tradition, scallop shells are a symbol of the goddess Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu who was said to be 'born of the churning ocean', offering a parallel to Venus herself.

The size of this particular scallop shell which becomes Venus' vessel of transport to the shore, is exaggerated. This type of exaggeration is also found in many classical depictions of Venus arriving to land. In this painting, Venus stands naked, head tilted and hair flowing at the very center of the painting. Perched delicately and upright on her shell, balancing precariously as the winds blow her to the shore.

The painting speaks of the power of fertility and female sensuality. Venus, arriving fresh from the oceans, is at once pure and sensuous. Her demeanor, her nakedness and her direct stare out of the canvas provide her with a stature that is at once gentle and alluring and magical, just like the delicate shell on which she balances and seems almost to form part of. Venus' scallop shell is an extension of her raw femininity, delicate, but standing large and creating the central focus of the image. Just like Botticelli's beloved Florence, Venus and her scallop shell demonstrate an embodiment of beauty and grace that defies expectations by managing to maintain a sense of great power and majesty.

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ArtDependence | Symbolism of the Sea Shell in Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus'

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Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano Filipe around the year 1445, spent the majority of his life living and working in Florence. He was very well known and celebrated during his lifetime and found favour with the wealthy Italian elite.

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The seashell has long, deep symbolic roots. The first reference to a seashell can be found in the Egyptian Papyrus. In the Papyrus, the seashell image was used as a symbol for humankind.

The Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic traditions also each have some form of belief about seashells. Despite their different beliefs, they all have one thing in common: seashells represent the safe journey of the soul from this world.

Seashell Symbolism

1. The Soul Leaving Earth

Seashells make us think of what's left over once the soul has left the earth. The body remains in the shape of a shell, but the spirit begins its journey to unknown realms.
Thus, while the seashell symbolizes death and leaving behind your earthly body, it's a beautiful representation of this. It's not just a crude symbol of death, but a message of the passing of the soul.

However, note that some people also believe that a seashell represents reincarnation. This symbolic interpretation has the same origins (the passing of the soul). But, those who believe in reincarnation believe the soul returns in a new body.

2. The Journey of Life

A seashell is a great reminder of the wonderful journey through life. Shells left behind on a beach remind you of a life once lived.
The uniqueness of each seashell is a beautiful reminder of how each person is unique and that no two lives are the same. Each one of you is here because the heavens created you, and you have an opportunity to live an extraordinary life.
Seashells can be hundreds of years old. The shell that has washed up and ended up in your hands went on an amazing journey to get to you.
The uniquebess of the shell also reminds you that how you choose to live your life is up to you. The first step is realizing that all people are beautiful in their own way, just as how all shells have their own beauty.

And when you release that seashell, it will continue on its journey endlessly. It may end up in the hands of another person or deep in the depths of the ocean. It might be repurposed by a crab, or crushed into sand by the waves.

This endless journey of the seashell can remind us of how vast and endless this world really is. Beautiful objects like seashells will outlive us and continue on their journey. The fact the shell is in your hands right now is a remarkable coincindence. You are a part of that shell's eternal journey.
A seashell represents strength. The shell itself protected a creature and guided it on its journey in life.
4. Strength and Protection

The shell you find can be kept in your wallet or on your shelf as a reminder that you have protection from the earth and the ocean. It can give you confidence to proceed knowing you have inner strength.

Using totems like shells as reminders of your own strength can have great psychological benefits. Many people carry other objects as reminders to be strong, too, like shark teeth and inscripted coins.
Shells are regularly used as decorations to bring our minds to a calm ocean mindset.
5. Relaxation

People place seashells in bowls in their bathrooms to create a sense of relaxation and comfort. You may also find shells on the walls of oceanside restaurants. Here, the shell decoration is a subtle signal that you should find relaxation in that space.

Similarly, 'cool surfer dudes' will wear seashells as necklaces as identity markers that they're the relaxed surfer guy and not the sort of person who would wear a corporate suit!
A broken seashell can signify sadness and loss. The shell has served its purpose and is now discarded.
What does a Broken Seashell Symbolize?

1. Sadness and Loss
However, if two people have two equal halves of a broken shell, it is a symbol of your love for one another despite your separation.
The broken shell highlights how, when we lose something, we feel broken inside. It is a visual representation of the destruction of something that was once whole and is now irreparable.

2. Love Through Separation

Many lovers or close friends choose to break a shell apart and wear one half each. They can wear their half as a necklace, knowing the other half that makes the shell whole is with someone else who (when you're together) makes you feel whole.

The seashell is also listed in our article on symbols of eternal love.

What Does The Seashell Symbolize In Christianity?

The seashell is the symbol of baptism in Christianity. In early Christian writings, the seashell symbolizes God's coming to Earth to redeem it from corruption.

Many Christian symbols are derived from Old Testament stories and Christian mythology. The seashell is often used as a Christian symbol because of its connection to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
In Polynesian culture, the shell is a representation of peace and wisdom. This is a time to understand the depth of peace and what it takes to achieve peace.
Baptismal fonts are frequently seashell-shaped or ornamented in the shape of one. Priests often use a seashell-shaped dish to pour water over catachumens' heads during baptism.

Seashells In Polynesian Culture

Seashells are found in abundance in Polynesian culture. The Polynesian people have a deep connection to nature and the ocean. This deep connection has led to a very interesting culture. Many of their spiritual beliefs center around the sea and its various creatures like a seashell.

An Overview of Seashell Symbolism

1. The Soul Leaving Earth

Seashells make us think of what's left over once the soul has left the earth. The body remains in the shape of a shell, but the spirit begins its journey to unknown realms.

2. The Journey of Life

A seashell is a great reminder of the wonderful journey through life. Shells left behind on a beach remind you of a life once lived.

3. Eternity

Seashells can be hundreds of years old. The fact the shell is in your hands right now is a remarkable coincidence. You are a part of that shell's eternal journey.

4. Strength and Protection

A seashell represents strength. The shell itself protected a creature and guided it on its journey in life.

5. Relaxation

Shells are regularly used as decorations to bring our minds to a calm ocean mindset.

Related Articles

Conclusion

From ancient times the seashell has become a symbol of life. If you look at the various seashells, you can see the different forms of life that have come and gone.

A seashell is a small, fragile, and wonderful representation of life. It can be a great reminder of what an individual has become and what he or she is yet to become.

What better symbol can you possibly find to express your inner desires to attract your true love? Find a beach, ashore, and a river where you can dwell on the beauty of this tiny, fragile symbol and watch the waves crash into it.

There must have been something unique about the early seashells that set them apart from all other creatures on Earth. This is the reason why a lot of people choose to keep a seashell around them.

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Seashell Symbolism & Meaning (Life, Eternity, Relaxation)

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The seashell has long, deep symbolic roots. The first reference to a seashell can be found in the Egyptian Papyrus. In the Papyrus, the seashell image was used as a symbol for humankind. The Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic traditions also each have some form of belief about seashells.

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Seashells evoke days at the beach and the beauty of nature. In other cultures and times, people used shells as both currencies, and as decoration. Look at the Italian grottoes festooned with seashells that gave us the word 'grotesque'.

They're also useful in other ways. Neptune's son, Triton, used a conch shell as a trumpet. In Lord of the Flies, the conch shell comes to represent civilisation and democracy. Ralph uses it to call meetings, and when it breaks, it heralds the boys' descent into disorder and chaos.

But shells are also the remains of living creatures. This gives them a liminal quality, which can affect the folklore that we find around them.

My collection of shells © Icy Sedgwick

Let's dive into all things seashell and pearl! Hit 'play' to hear the podcast episode of this post, or keep reading.

The Scallop Shell and St James

If you walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, you'll notice scallop shells on the markers. In the past, priests gave pilgrims scallop shells when they arrived in Santiago de Compostela to prove they'd completed the walk.

Shells represent St James, patron saint of fishermen. There are a few theories why this might be. In one legend, merchants in the Middle Ages began selling shells as souvenirs to pilgrims (Wanda n.d.).

Another legend has St James curing a knight's throat disease by laying a scallop on his neck. This was one of the 23 miracles St James performed. People started hanging scallops above their beds or near where animals drank (Wanda n.d.).

In another legend, a storm sank the ship carrying St James' remains. His body washed up on the beach, apparently unmarked and covered in scallop shells (Wanda n.d.).

Scallop shells are also associated with the goddess Venus. Botticelli's famous painting 'The Birth of Venus' sees her born from the sea standing in an open shell. It's not, strictly speaking, her birth since she came from the sea fully grown. This is her arrival on land.

Is 'She sells sea shells' really about Mary Anning?

Nursery rhymes seem rife with peculiar origins stories. Look at the persistent claim that 'Ring around the Rosie' is about the plague (spoiler: it's not). The 'She sells sea shells' rhyme is likewise saddled with an origin myth.

In this one, people repeat the claim that the myth is really about Mary Anning. For those not in the know, Anning was an English 19th-century palaeontologist. Because of her working-class background and status as a woman, many of her achievements were claimed by male scientists (Winick 2017).

But she actually helped to discover categories of dinosaurs, including the pterosaur and plesiosaur (Winick 2017).

Posthumous painting of Mary Anning by B. J. Donne from 1847, based on the 1842 portrait, showing her pointing at an ammonite, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

And many websites have also made the claim that Anning's work inspired the tongue twister. As Stephen Winick points out, we should be suspicious when no one provides any evidence to support their claim.

Various sources, including QI and Mental Floss, claimed the tongue twister was originally a song, written in 1908 by Terry Sullivan and Harry Gifford.

Is it true?

But there's no evidence that Sullivan wrote the lyrics about Anning's life. Many of the articles say things like "it's believed that" or "many say that" when making the link to Anning.

Stephen Winick notes that no primary evidence supports the claim (2017). That's obviously not to say that no primary evidence exists. It just says no one has found any yet. That said, to make the claim without the primary evidence makes you wonder where the idea came from.

And, to add insult to injury, Terry Sullivan didn't invent the tongue twister in 1908. It was already a folk saying by 1908, and he simply turned it into a song. Winick found the phrase 'she sells sea shells' in an 1855 elocution manual. By 1871, it was described as a tongue twister. The longer version, including 'by the seashore', dates to 1898 (Winick 2017).

Mary Anning's contribution to science is worth a lot more than a tongue twister that isn't even about her.

Superstitions about Shells

The folklore of shells wouldn't be complete without superstitions!

Drinking out of a shell meant you'd soon fall in love (Daniels 2003 [1903] I: 414).

Who wouldn't love this yellow shell? © Icy Sedgwick

Opening shell clams meant you'd have conflict in the family. If you were opening oysters and found some of them wouldn't open, it meant money was coming your way, but you wouldn't inherit it. You should only eat oysters when there was an 'R' in the month. To do otherwise meant you had financial problems. Opening shell oysters meant you'd hear about a death (Daniels 2003 [1903] I: 448).

If shellfish have a lot of sand in their shells, it means a storm is coming (Daniels 2003 [1903] II: 691).

If a large seashell roars, it means the sea is rough. Keeping seashells in front of the door will bring luck into the house. But it's bad luck to keep them in the house (Daniels 2003 [1903] II: 1067).

Can you really hear the ocean inside a shell?

I think most people have heard the folk myth that you can hear the ocean if you hold a shell to your ear. While it's a nice idea, it's just not true.

It's also not caused by the sound of blood in your ear. If it was, the sound would change based on how much exertion you'd done. As the sound doesn't change based on physical activity levels, it's not simply roaring blood.

The most likely explanation is that it's ambient noise around you. The seashell captures it and it resonates, which explains why different shells produce unique sounds. Even cupping your hand over your ear creates a similar 'ocean' sound (HowStuffWorks.com 2001).

Demonstrating what I mean!

You can have hours of fun trying that in your next three-hour meeting that could have been an email.

The Shellycoat

We also can't overlook the strange Shellycoat. This spirit appears in the folklore of Scotland and northern England. It favours streams and rivers. The name comes from the coat made of shells that it wears.

Sir Walter Scott puts the shellycoat in the 'bogle' category and considers it a water spirit (1839: 47). In one of its pranks, the shellycoat throws its voice, masquerading as a person lost in a river. The shellycoat only reveals the 'jest' when two people who tried to follow the voice to offer aid finally give up the chase. It seems the shellycoat enjoys hearty laughter when it successfully tricks someone.

Scott even considers the shellycoat "may, perhaps, be identified with the goblin of the northern English, which [...] had the name of " (1839: 47).

Other folklore suggests that the shellycoat can remove his shell-covered coat. Doing so rendered the shellycoat harmless, although no human could pick the coat up (The Faery Folklorist 2016). While the tales vary, the shellycoat's rattling coat of shells remains fairly consistent.

Pearls

We can't talk about shells without mentioning pearls. They form inside oysters when an irritant gets trapped in the shell. This is more likely a morsel of food than sand. The oyster coats the pearl with aragonite and conchiolin, the same materials it uses to make its shell.

Despite these mundane beginnings, pearls have become the material for the 30th wedding anniversary. They're associated with wealth and luxury. As a result, they're also part of various superstitions!

To dream of pearls, meant hard times, worry, or treason (Daniels 2003 [1903] I: 235).

These pearl superstitions all come from the same volume (Daniels 2003 [1903] II: 740).

Put your pearls in a box with ash to stop them from turning yellow.

Pearls should turn white in clear weather. They are supposed to turn dull in cloudy weather.

If you wear a pearl necklace, it should attract love. In one superstition, pearls can ward off fire and bring success to business.

Rubies surrounded by pearls will bring wealth and honour to the weather. Wearing a scarf pin including a black pearl will cause friends to tell you their innermost thoughts. Black pearls, in general, bring good luck.

A cross of pearl can ward off evil spirits.

Don't sing before you put on your pearls, or you'll end up crying (Daniels 2003 [1903] II: 741).

Finding a pearl button was a sign that good luck was on the way (Daniels 2003 [1903] III: 1280).

Pearly Kings and Queens

In London, you may encounter 'pearly kings and queens'. This grew out of a custom made popular by costermongers. The leading families among the trade sewed mother-of-pearl buttons to black velveteen suits.

Now, the buttons are sewn onto the suits in decorative styles. Each borough still has a Pearly King and Queen, which is the eldest couple in that borough's most respected family (Simpson 2003: 275).

What do we make of the folklore of shells?

Shells are an interesting material because they are ultimately the skeleton of the animal that lives inside, created by those creatures. But they're what the creature leaves behind. So I can see why they would be considered bad luck for using within the home.

When you look at pearls, the fact that they're a food that the oyster has then turned into something we deem valuable, shows what weird things humans put value on.

A shell I turned into a pendant © Icy Sedgwick

The relative lack of folklore about seashells is also interesting. When you look at the materials we looked at last month, there was loads of folklore about them. But there was less about seashells.

Now they are popular in other cultures and traditions, and Lilith Dorsey has an article on the meaning and use of cowrie shells. I've very much been focusing more on Europe because it's what I know.

In terms of European folklore, it's more down to the association with the saints and deities like Venus. Those links with the shells come through the link with the sea. The shell represents the ocean, even when that person or figure is far away from the water.

The shelleycoat being covered in shells while living in often freshwater areas speaks to the otherworldly nature of the shelleycoat.

Do you know any superstitions about shells or pearls? Let me know!

References

Daniels, Cora Linn (2003 [1903]), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, Volume I, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

Daniels, Cora Linn (2003 [1903]), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, Volume II, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

Daniels, Cora Linn (2003 [1903]), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, Volume III, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

The Faery Folklorist (2016), 'The Shellycoat', The Faery Folklorist, https://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-shellycoat.html.

HowStuffWorks.com (2001), 'Why Can You Hear the Ocean When Holding a Seashell to Your Ear?', HowStuffWorks.com, https://science.howstuffworks.com/question556.htm.

Jordan, Terry G. (1980), "'The Roses so Red and the Lilies so Fair': Southern Folk Cemeteries in Texas", The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 83:3, pp. 227-58.

Scott, Sir Walter (1839), Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, London: Thomas Tegg.

Simpson, Jacqueline and Steve Roud (2003), A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wanda (no date), 'The Scallop Shell And Other Symbols of The Camino', Follow the Camino, https://followthecamino.com/en/blog/the-scallop-shell-and-other-symbols-of-the-camino/.

Winick, Stephen (2017), 'She Sells Seashells and Mary Anning: Metafolklore with a Twist', Folklife Today, https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/07/she-sells-seashells-and-mary-anning-metafolklore-with-a-twist/.

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The Folklore of Shells and Pearls: Scallops, Rhymes and Saints

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Seashells evoke days at the beach and the beauty of nature. In other cultures and times, people used shells as both currencies, and as decoration. Look at the Italian grottoes festooned with seashells that gave us the word 'grotesque'. They're also useful in other ways. Neptune's son, Triton, used a conch shell as a trumpet.

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photography × chambered nautilus shell weston pepper portrait weston nautilus art two shells artists bell pepper

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Title: Allium ostrowskianum, Knoblauchpflanze  Creator: Karl Blossfeldt 1928

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Plant with long, thin stem with tulip shaped petals and multiple tear-drop shaped leaves blooming out of opening.

URL: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/allium-ostrowskianum-knoblauchpflanze-karl-blossfeldt/pAGxlmkw4d2Gig
Accessed: 19/10/2022

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Plant with long, thin stem with tulip shaped petals and multiple tear-drop shaped leaves blooming out of opening.

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Allium ostrowskianum, Knoblauchpflanze - Karl Blossfeldt - Google Arts & Culture

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