And a wellspring invitation!
On water elementals and their messages, wellsprings, what makes water sacred or holy and an invitation to waken the wellsprings within through a watery substack adventure. ..
When you drink the water, remember the spring. Chinese proverb.
Last year I found myself unwittingly on an adventure into the realm of water, sacred springs, holy wells and all that these engender within. Traversing landscape mostly in the UK, I reverently collected tiny vials of sacred spring water and brought them home, where a second layer of water adventuring began – which I’ll return to, along with an invitation to journey with the wellsprings via substack.
Yet my first aim with this article is to share a couple of the more basic and wildly beautiful elemental teachings I have received from the Water elementals, the undines over the years.
Elementals
For that, it’s important to understand a little about elementals themselves. Elementals are in a sense, the spirit of the element rather than the substance itself (in this case, water). Everything in the world of form contains all of the elements. Water has its air qualities, its earthy qualities (giving it form) and its fire aspects. So to get a feel for an elemental, you want to get a feel for its qualities, rather than caught up in only its physical expression. The manifestation of an elemental is a way in, rather than the destination.
The best way to really get to know these qualities is through direct experience and communion with the elemental beings themselves. (For an introductory level course on this, visit here or join the Flower Codes Training where we layer more deeply into working cocreatively with the elementals).
Learning from the water elementals, I can only describe as rich, transformative, and ever deepening… much like water itself.
While I’ll only touch on a couple, here is a brief overview of some of the qualities of water… This is by no means exhaustive, there is soooooo much more….
Wisdom, flow, adaptability, source, reflection, abundance, connection, shapeshifting, renewal, union, transformation, merging….
Connection, abundance
At the most general level, water has the capacity to connect. It is a medium of connection. At a cellular level, things join and cross via it. Through it, we are able to tap in to anything – be it wisdom, memories, stories as well as source. With this in mind, it’s easy to feel how abundance is another watery theme – all is available when we are in connection and much of its mythic symbolism (think cauldron, cup, grail, vessel) hints at this. From connection and flow, we can draw on whatever we need – something I learned from a herb that teaches all about the flow of life, give and take and the need for constant surrender – all very water themes.
Water as source or connection to source.
In Chinese medicine, the water element covers source energy, the primal essence.
We gestate in a bag of water in the vessel of the womb, and from this watery beginning we are born. Water is the element of the collective unconscious from which we can “tap” in to anything. (I love how often we use water related words in our everyday language without often realising it. Notice how often you use the word well in a day.)
Shapeshifting
One of the beautiful teachings I received from the undines was about shapeshifting. Shapeshifting is the watery ability to flexibly change, flow and become the shape of whatever is surrounding and containing. The water elementals are in this constant flux, a constant state of receptivity.
“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Bruce Lee.
But the undines also can teach us how to embody the art of shapeshifting. By going deep enough into the watery realm, we can connect with the myriad within just one drop. Should we want to shapeshift into a rabbit, we dive into the collective waters to find the archetype (or memory, blueprint) of rabbit. Then with the imagination we can become the rabbit. Creative imagination is key and is another watery quality.
Imprints
Water takes on the imprints of whatever is around or within it. On its own, water is reflective, a blank slate, and yet it is never blank as the all is held within every drop.
The essence of water is seen in the imprints it carries.
Deep wellspring water is heavy with the original or more ancient imprints of the earth, literally dripping with this wisdom.
This however, gets pushed inward as billions of overlays of imprints pile on top of it – imprints of the land it moves through, the energies surrounding, the memories, events, places, animals, humans, plants etc. that come into contact with it. As humans consisting of 70% water, we are no different.
Ancient wisdom, modern research
Over the years, different people have studied water. Homeopathy which has been successfully used in healing for 250 years has known and made use of this imprinting nature. By drawing out the spirit of a substance in dilutions so small that none of the original substance can be found within it, the human body, soul and spirit can be healed. When Emoto began sharing his experiments showing that water holds memory, homeopaths around the world celebrated that someone was explaining the modality in the modern world! Sandra Ingerman too, in Medicine for the Earth has shared research of how humans can literally purify polluted water through an inner transmutation process – not by changing the water itself, but by shifting the molecules in our own being.
As within, so without.
When we shift within, this imprints on the surrounding water. There’s a ripple effect. Everything is connected.
Research work with water continues through various people. Whether popular like Emoto or as invisible as a quiet blessing to the water you drink, every drop affects the collective oceanic body of wisdom.
What makes water sacred or holy?
Posing this question to the undines or water sprites some years ago, the answer, as is so often the case surprised me:
The spirit of the well infuses the water with its magic. Each well or spring has its sacred spirit and/or guardians that infuse the waters. But there is more to it than that. When humans visit and interact in a reverent and sacred way with the spirit of the waters of a place, that is what makes it holy and sacred. This sacred interaction between human and water spirit builds the potency of the water. Each honouring adds to the blessings that the water carries. When humans regularly honour and bless the spirit of a well or spring over time, the waters can become highly charged. It is infused in the waters, a little like well-worn neural imprints. What makes a well sacred and blessed with healing powers and gifts, is a healthy co-creation between humans and the water spirits. Wells and springs honoured for centuries can be incredibly powerful as the relationship has been developed.
Waking the Wellsprings and an invitation to explore…
On returning from my travels, I felt inspired by the many sacred springs I’d visited, and called in a weekly circle in which we would tune into each of the waters to learn from them. Working with a different wellspring water each week, we imbibed the waters blindly (not knowing anything about the spring) and observed what arose in our bodies along with the images and stories that evolved. After a reveal and a little information about each spring, we would then dive deeper to connect with the spirit or guardian of the particular springwater we were working with to learn more.
What ever so gently evolved was not simply insight about the qualities, imprints, consciousness and nature that each water contained, but an awakening within each person to a layer of ancient wisdom that lay somehow forgotten. Deep wellspring waters arise from within the earth so are less burdened with the masses of daily imprints that our busy world vibrates into them. As such they subtly yet profoundly led us to our own inner source and ancient memories.
As this circle was in person and there was interest for an online version, over the coming months, I am going to share some of the unique qualities of several Celtic wellspring waters for paid subscribers.
If you’re living on Celtic land, this is for you.
If you’re living on colonised land but come from Celtic ancestry, this is for you even more! One of the best ways we can interact with colonised lands and indigenous peoples in a healthier way is to be deeply rooted in our own ancestral culture. Once we know where we have come from, our interaction with different places and people comes from a place of fullness and rootedness rather than emptiness and grasping. Whatever we radiate impacts the land and waters we live upon.
We will start with two very well known wellsprings:
1. The White Spring under Glastonbury Tor
2.The Red Spring of Chalice Well Gardens, Glastonbury.
Here’s what some of the participants had to say…
“…each of the well springs has been so different. The waters have worked on a really deep level within me – healing on a deep cellular level. It has literally felt like the structures of my own waters has been changing as I have taken the drops from the different springs, I can somehow feel/see/sense the healing happening within, it’s been so fascinating. I have had a new awareness of my senses, a heightening of them. Some old patterning as well as ancestral patterning has been coming up to release and I feel that the waters have helped me to be receptive to the changes that I need to make and have brought in the clarity to see what I haven’t been able to see so far. There’s definitely been some great “Aha moments”. The waters have reconnected me with my own waters and my own capacity to heal, nurture, and mother myself and have shown me where I haven’t been doing that in my life. During the course it became clear to me the steps to take on my journey back to health. Feeling very grateful to these magical waters and to you, Heidi, for bringing these offerings to us.” GH.
“Waking the wellsprings illuminated and reflected back to me my souls unique imprint. working with the wellsprings saw an epic transformation in me. My heart has opened and the balance between the polarity of masculine and feminine within me harmonised. My body and nervous system has calmed and regulated. I’ve been actively exploring ways to find my inner well, my centre within and this work landed within me during this waking.
…working with the waters of my ancestors set up epic shifts within me and I was able to move through patterns that have been blocked for me and in my ancestry for a long time. I feel I am showing up as a more healed ancestor to the land I live on and have a greater capacity to listen to my First Nations guardian of this beautiful land and keep learning.” JN.
Alongside these writings, If you’d like to journey by physically taking the waters of the nine wells, you can order the first four water essences before May 10 (shop is closing then as I’ll be on the road). For all 4 (30ml bottles) $50 +15 postage. Or single bottles are $15+pp.
I hope you’ll join this water adventure! We’ll start May 5 (Samhain in the south) so make sure to be subscribed or upgrade your subscription. Each article will be available for just one month, until the next is published.
Subscribe here: https://mythicliving.substack.com
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Bruce Lee.
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