Excerpt: Home Enlightenment

Water as a Spiritual Element

Water is the central source of our beings. It is part of every cell and fiber in us; it is our very essence. Could water be the common denominator that weaves us all (earth, animal, human, and plant) together as one? Is it the ultimate connector? It's awesome and humbling that water carries so many entrained messages, especially when we consider that there has been the same water, and the same amount of water, on the earth for millions of years. What messages are we receiving from our ancestors when we drink? And it is overwhelming to think that in the past 60 years alone, the human hand has imprinted so much pollution on the water, bringing it out of healthy balance. It is our spiritual obligation to be water's caretaker and cause it no further harm.

Meditate with Water

This wonderful water meditation and bath was created with the generous, perceptive, and experienced help of William E. Marks, the author of The Holy Order of Water

Fill a bathtub with water of a temperature that feels right to you. Place a glass of clean drinking water nearby in case you get thirsty. You might want to light a beeswax or soya candle and turn off the lights. (I find turning off the bathroom lights to be an enhancement, possibly because any artificial light changes the energy of the room.)

Before stepping into the filled tub, ask Water to cleanse, heal, and purify the deepest pain inside of you, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional. Your active participation in asking for healing is very important. When I ask for a healing from Water, I sense welcoming and healing love enveloping me as I step into the tub; it almost feels as if the water reaches out to take care of me.

Once settled and soaking, breathe slowly and deeply. Ask for a message about your pain. Its source will usually be identified almost immediately, and more information may be provided about how to help enhance the healing, such as singing or reciting a mantra ("Om" works well). I've had some profound spiritual healing with this water meditation. For example, I've been given the insight about why some relationships affect me the way they do and how to heal the part of me that is vulnerable. Even if you don't sense a message during your bath, you will always sense and feel the healing results soon after and throughout the day. Just be a witness -- in a meditative way -- during the bath, so you can just "be" and receive. Let yourself feel free to go with the flow.

After about 20 minutes, thank the Waters that reside within you. Also, express thanks to the waters of the tub for the healing, and then step out of the tub. Saying "thank you" for water's healing upon entering and during the bath is helpful too, because the energy of gratitude is healing in its own right and will help elevate the vibration of the water in the tub and in your body.

As a variation, stir in 1/2 to 1 cup of Epsom salts combined with about 5 drops of your favorite natural essential oil essence (lavender and tangerine are both good choices). Stir in the Epsom salts as you fill the tub; add the oil essence after the tub is filled and just before you enter it. For your very first healing bath, try to experience it without any additions. For future baths, you may want to experiment with salts, oils, herbs, or flower petals in the bath and soft music or rock crystals nearby. As you learn what resonates best for you, you can customize your baths to take care of your emotional and health needs.

Marks notes that the water energy for your healing can always be found within your body, but sometimes the water needs a little help being charged and activated. Thinking about this one day, I asked the water of my body to provide a healing, following much of the same process as when having this bath. I went to the well within. While not as powerful as an actual bath, I was given a meaningful healing nonetheless.

Honoring Water

Satish Kumar, the editor of the English magazine Resurgence: An International Forum for Ecological and Spiritual Thinking, began a weekend conference about water by having us all stand at the shoreline of a lake. We cupped our hands into the lake and then lifted the water up to our brow level. We opened our hands and let the water slowly fall back to the lake. What a powerful experience this was! It was sunset, and the falling water droplets were like jewels in the light as they fell. The sound of the water landing in the lake was a mellow waterfall sound. I felt as if I had walked out of an Arthurian legend about Avalon, honoring the sacred in a way I profoundly remembered from some other long-ago time. The meditation helped us feel water deeply in our senses and imbued water's importance in our lives.

In Tarot, the traditional Suit of Cups is the suit of water. It is receptive, a vessel, and a symbol of the deep, primordial unconscious mind and womb. Water shows us the images, or imprint, of things. Emotions, feelings, and psychic knowledge are all represented by water in the Tarot tradition. Water flows and changes, and it carries away what it cleanses.

Baptism, holy water, and other ritual uses of water are a central component of religions and spiritual beliefs. Water is the great purifier. We wash away our sins, we cleanse our wounds, and our tears bring release. As Cait Johnson notes in Earth, Water, Fire, & Air, "The human spirit understands water as the Great Beginning." She goes on to note that a Hopi creation myth starts, "In the beginning, the earth was nothing but water," and in the Bible's book of Genesis, you'll find "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."

It is interesting to contemplate how central a role water has played in belief systems throughout the world, and it is a desolate thought to acknowledge how objectified it has become in modern society. A radical yet strangely down-to-earth and compelling (at least to me!) concept of water is now emerging.

Many Native American belief systems see the sun as the immediate creator. However, they believe that there is a greater power beyond the sun, a power "so big that it cannot be named." This power has no name because its greatness is beyond imagining. So, they choose to pray to the sun.

William E. Marks noted to me in an e-mail, "That which is so big that it cannot be named is the ineffable non-linear aspect of water. Our sun is basically a collection of energy waves, energy waves that have their source from the cosmic waters that created and permeate our universe. In fact, recent science tells us that a star like our sun cannot form or survive without water. Without water, our sun would overheat and expand into its basic elements."

Reprinted from: Home Enlightenment: Practical, Earth-Friendly Advice for Creating a Nurturing, Healthy, and Toxin-Free Home and Lifestyle by Annie B. Bond © 2005 Annie B. Bond. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.