4 - The Wisdom Of Water
4/1 - The Innocent Energy
Water is the source of all life. Nothing would be happening on this planet of ours without it, very practically speaking. In all forms of magic and religion, water is of prime importance as one of the key elements from which all else is constructed.
I personally have a special fondness for water. It is one of the first introductions in energy work I use for the concept of “the innocent energy” – many healers try to heal with love, for example, which is a very powerful and dangerous form of energy both to handle, as well as to receive. There are many systems in a person which respond badly to the application of love; think of the equivalent of a vampire bursting into flames under the noonday sun.
Water is not like that; it is structurally very different. Here is a quote which explains this perhaps better than any amount of theoretical discussion might.
The speaker in this case is an executioner and a torturer, and he says:
“I have no idea where I am but wherever I am, I am alone here and this is a relief as intense as the cold rain that bathes me steadily on, never caring if it fell on me, or on a stone beyond, or on a blade of grass, or on a smouldering wet fire that, if you stirred it somewhat, would contain bones, and teeth.”
Water is an example of a natural energy. Unlike anything even remotely connected to human values and endeavours, water is entirely innocent. It is innocent when it brings joy, life and fertility to landscapes, and just as innocent when it rises up and washes away an entire civilisation.
It doesn’t care whether it falls on a torturer or on their victims, or on a blade of grass and therein lies the power of the innocent energy of water. Whatever your connection with water, it is life and therefore it comes as no surprise that sanctuaries are famous for their imaginative water features.
Something you might also like to consider is that each manifestation on the general theme of water has very different and highly specific energies, vibes or feelings attached to them. Just allow yourself to imagine the very real difference in your internal experience between swimming in a swimming pool, a lake, a river, or an ocean. For this reason, it might be an idea to have more than just one kind of water present.
Here are just a few examples for you to consider.
4/2 – The High Energy Of Waterfalls
Is there anything more energising, refreshing and clearing than standing beneath a real waterfall in the sparkling sunlight? I have one that I use to rinse away all kinds of negativity, right down to the cellular level. In my opinion, every sanctuary should have one.
4/3 - Still Ponds and Lakes
Lovely for meditating, still, deep ponds and pools, perhaps reflecting the moon in a clear velvet sky, in a variety of shapes and sizes are certainly a nice thing to have around. You can of course have these inside structures as well as in the outside, and one lady described hers as a "spirit pool".
4/4 -The Healing Pool
One of the very favourite and most useful features in my own sanctuary is a healing pool, filled in my case with a kind of bubbly carbonated, mineral enriched, deep turquoise warm water. The edges are shallow for "ease of sliding in" and the centre is deep enough to float suspended or immerse completely.
Both for myself as well as any injured parts, visitors or anything/anybody that requires deepest relaxation and healing, I have found this to be invaluable and I would urge you to install a healing pool to your own desires and specifications as one of your first priorities.
4/5 - Oceans
As the sanctuary expands into a world, seashores and their accompanying oceans tend to turn up - or rather, reveal themselves. These are full of life, power and energy of a very special kind and their water experiences are totally unlike those of the fresh water features. Oceans will of course provide a meeting realm with all manner of sea creatures. These days it sounds a bit naff, but I have swam with my internal dolphins and it was great fun. Oceans also really rather pre-suppose islands and further realms beyond their reach; and sea going vessels and the like also belong to this realm.
4/6 - Rivers, Brooks and Streams
From an exciting rushing river to gently little countryside streams, flowing water is wonderful to look at and to swim in if you feel so inclined.
Huge, powerful creatures such as the Amazon, the Nile or the Danube are amazing to behold and have enormous repercussions on the surrounding countryside; these represent the most advanced and evolved state of "river-ness", whatever that may be.
Underground rivers are particularly exciting. Gliding on their still blackness to goodness knows what you might find is a powerful experience; and creatures and features you encounter there are amongst the most unusual and magical you find anywhere in a sanctuary.
4/7 - Wells & Springs
I reckon that wells and springs are on the "must have" list of water features somewhere quite near the top. The mythology around these natural fountains is legion; and the mythological creatures who are said to dwell there are amazing. Also, wells and springs bring a lusciousness and a fruitfulness to the area around
them that makes it easy to spot them from miles away - hence the habit of the people of old to build shrines and temples there.
This is also a water that begs to be drunk - thus, once again, very different from any other water you might already possess. Down the ages, people have travelled vast distances to drink from a certain well to cure all manner of ills and diseases.
Of course, you can have more than one well, including a wishing well, if this hadn't occurred to you before; at any rate, whether you're after prosperity, health or creativity, wells can be extremely helpful in providing you with just the tonic you need.
4/8 - Estuaries
I've always been particularly fascinated by estuaries - the place where a river slowly becomes one with the sea. Estuaries have their very own ecology and are considered to be a landscape in their own right. In this context, I would suggest that with the mingling of fresh and salt water, they are also waterscapes in their own right.
4/9 - Lakes and Lochs
I knew someone who had a huge African lake as one of their main features, absolutely teeming with the most exotic of wild life (but, I trust, minus mosquitoes!).
Still mountain lakes, or park like civilised lakes with little romantic islands can be fun as well.
Lochs are perhaps the most magical in the "large body of fresh water" department, and of course, you know what lives in a loch!
Magic of a different kind can be experienced by lakes formed in meteor craters and old volcanoes. In fact, a couple of people who had a troublesome volcano ended up turning it into such a lake with many practically beneficial effects for them and their loved ones.
4/10 - Artificial Bodies Of Water
Swimming pools, Jacuzzi’s, sunken baths, fish ponds, and especially set ups with decorative fountains can be used to cheer up any kind of sanctuary lay out. The Chinese hold gold fish to be a symbol of wealth, so stock up your aquarium!
Canals and aqueducts are fascinating too and can be created to ferry water to a previously parched region.
Dammed rivers (god! doesn't that sound like "damned rivers"!) are something that doesn't feel good to me personally, but you never know - for you such a thing might be just the job to generate energy, create a recreational lake and stop lower lying land from being continuously flooded.
4/11 - Water From The Sky
I love the rain. I've always felt it purifies, cleans the air, and everything looks so much greener and brighter after a heavy rainfall, it's as though the entire world has been through the car wash.
So in my sanctuary, rain is very welcome and I've in fact used it to rejuvenate, clear and energise parts of the landscape that needed it. Others have used rain to create new bodies of water, put out fires, cut pathways into mountain ranges, still volcanoes and turn deserts into flowering meadows.
Snow too can have it's uses. It can preserve and, in it's rightful place (such as on mountain tops and the like) or rightful time (I like a white Christmas in my sanctuary) can create the most breathtakingly beautiful landscapes you've ever seen. It isn't ever much of a problem because it can be easily melted by bringing in the sun.
Hail, on the other hand, is one of those natural phenomena’s that I haven't yet found a great deal of practical use for. Because of it's tendency to flatten and smash things, it goes against my idea that you should be kind to everything in the sanctuary and find a way to transmute and develop, rather than to fight, injure or destroy. But, as all things in nature have a place, no doubt there will come a time when I figure that one out and hail can then be welcomed home and integrated too.
To conclude this section on water, I would just point out that in a way, all these different manifestations are linked and part of a larger system. The well becomes the brook, the brook the river, the river the river giant, the river giant the estuary, the estuary the ocean, the ocean the clouds, the clouds the rain, the rain the subterranean rivers and finally, the well. I would therefore suggest that eventually, all your water features will find their connections and become a completely integrated, fluid whole.
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