“Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
These words that Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well reflect the tradition found in the bible and in other sacred texts of expressing spiritual longing in terms of thirst. “Like as the deer yearns for the running streams so does my soul yearn for you my God, my soul thirsts for the living God,” says Psalm 42.
As well as being a metaphor for the spiritual life, water is vital to our physical life. Life on earth evolved in water and it is still absolutely necessary for every life form alive today. We all began life in the waters of the womb. Two thirds of our planet is water. Two thirds of our bodies are made up of water. Humans can survive no more than one week without water.
In the UK we rarely experience a shortage of water and it is easy to forget that water is so vital to life. Most of us here are privileged to have ready access to a mains supply of clean water. We probably take this for granted, but it is a relatively recent development. In 1936, when my grandparents moved into the farm where I grew up, their water supply came from a well in the field behind the house.
Sadly, 3 billion people across the world today still do not have access to safe water and soap for hand hygiene at home, a crisis that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted. Our rivers and oceans are continually polluted with noxious chemicals, oil spills and plastics. Due to climate change, population growth, and pollution, the World Health Organisation has estimated that by 2025 half of the world's population will be living in water-stressed areas.
The United Nations has called for global investment in sustainable water infrastructure systems to enable recovery and build resilience for possible future pandemics, and is working on a plan towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” As individuals, we can help towards this plan by supporting their partner charities, such as Water Aid. These statistics are sobering reminders that, on the whole, humanity does not act towards water as though it is sacred. It is time that we remembered that water is life, water is sacred.
The sacred nature of water is recognised by many spiritual traditions. The fact that life on earth began in water is reflected in our mythologies. In Genesis, the creation of the world begins with God dividing the waters. In the Norse creation myth, life begins when the two realms, Muspelheim, the realm of fire and Niflheim, the realm of ice, meet in the great void, Ginnungagap.
Water is one of the four sacred elements of the western mystery traditions – earth, air, fire and water. In Druid tradition the patron animal of water is the salmon of wisdom. Water is associated with the West, evening, maturity and our deepest emotions. It is through the water of tears that we express intense sorrow and joy.
Many of us have had cause to cry sacred tears in recent months. We have had to adapt to many changes and find the strength to keep going in the face of bereavement, loss, confusion, and separation. Water is a powerful metaphor for both change and persistence. It is the most mutable element, it can exist as liquid, solid and gas. As Lao Tzu said, “nothing is more soft and flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.” Water is persistent. It flows around blockages and eventually wears away objects in its way. Even mountains! Most of the landscape of northern Britain has been sculpted by glaciers. We owe the beauty of our hills and valleys to the persistence of water.
Our valleys are full of holy wells, often associated with healing through saints, and this harks back to earlier pre-Christian traditions linking wells to goddesses and local nature spirits. Natural water sources have been regarded as sacred for millennia.
Sacred water is often associated with healing, cleansing and blessing. In Druid rituals a sacred circle is cast and then blessed with fire and water. In Catholicism, holy water is important as a means for blessing people. Most forms of Christianity use water in baptism as a symbol of spiritual rebirth. In Hinduism, Indian rivers are thought of as goddesses and bathing in the Ganges is spiritually cleansing.
Many holy wells in Ireland are dedicated to St Brigid. Both goddess and saint are patrons of healing. Many people visiting the wells leave offerings known as clooties – pieces of cloth dipped in the water of the well and hung in a nearby tree – in the hope of receiving a blessing or healing from the spirit of the well. The origin of this custom is likely to be an act of sympathetic magic – as the cloth disintegrates, the person's ailment is said to fade. The ancient tradition of blessing with water connects past and future in symbolic action. John O'Donohue writes, “When we bless, we are enabled somehow to go beyond our present frontiers and reach into the source. A blessing awakens future wholeness.”
Rivers and wells are often used as symbols of divine wisdom. In Norse mythology, the Well of Wisdom is guarded by the giant Mimir, who demands the sacrifice of an eye from Odin, the eldest of the gods, in exchange for a drink from the well. Odin gouged out his eye and dropped it into the well. In drinking from the well of wisdom, he exchange his outer vision for inner vision – he could now see how all things are interconnected.
In his book, One River Many Wells, Matthew Fox says, "There is one underground river - but there are many wells into the river: an African well, a Taoist well, a Buddhist well, a Jewish well, a Muslim well, a Goddess well, a Christian well, an Aboriginal well. Many wells but one river. To go down a well is to practise a tradition, but we would make a grave mistake (an idolatrous one) if we confused the well itself with the flowing waters of the underground river. Many wells, one river."
We know that the underground river, the Source, is One and the Same for us all, but we all have our different ways of drawing on that Source. We each have our own well, our own individual spiritual life. Perhaps you, like me, have had to dig deep into that spiritual life well over recent months. As Brid in Cathal O Searcaigh's poem, The Well, says, “Look for your own well, pet, for there's a hard time coming. There will have to be a going back to sources.”
As the first lockdown dragged on I began to feel that my inner spiritual resources were running dry. I began to feel a thirst for deeper connection to the living water of the Source. I discovered the importance of self-care and self-compassion in being able to offer care and compassion to others.
A big part of this self-care is making time for my own spiritual practices, if you like the buckets that draw nourishing and sustaining living water up through the well from the underground river. For me, for example, there's a yoga bucket, a trail running bucket, a devotional singing bucket, a walking in the woods bucket, a body prayer bucket. Some of these are done alone, some in the company of others, mostly online of course, in present circumstances. I have been pleasantly surprised by the depth of energetic connection with others I have experienced in gathering together online. We may not be gathering together in exactly the way we would prefer, but we are making the best of the resources we have. May we all feel the divine spirit, the Source of all things, flowing freely through us, within us and among us, whenever and however we gather together.
I invite you over the next week or so to consider how you are tending your own well. Are you making space for your spiritual life? What are your buckets that draw up the healing water of the Source? Are they water-tight or do they need repairing? Perhaps some of them are worn out and need replacing? Imbolc is traditionally the time for Spring-cleaning, so try to make time to do a spiritual spring-clean this week.
“Let us bless the humility of water, always willing to take the shape of whatever otherness holds it,
The buoyancy of water, stronger than the deadening, downward drag of gravity,
The innocence of water, flowing forth, without thought of what awaits it,
The refreshment of water, dissolving the crystals of thirst.
Water: voice of grief, cry of love, in the flowing tear.
Water: vehicle and idiom of all the inner voyaging that keeps us alive.
Blessed be water, our first mother.”
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