One can tell much about an ecosystem by looking at the water. Water holds information about the health of the local lifesystems. As spiritual steward of your ecosystem, getting to know and learning to listen to your local waters are an important part of the work.
Getting to know your home water sources is cultivating a deep relationship with the wellspring of life where you reside. Make yourself familiar with your local watershed. This is the water source for your immediate environment. If you do not know it, this can be easily located by putting the name of your town and the word “watershed” into a search engine.
Different bodies of water have unique energetic properties.
River
A river is flow– movement –throughway, powerline– a sort of energetic highway. Rivers are the “veins” of the earth. The bottoms of rivers are important too. The movement of the soil by the rivers and what that creates is crucial to the life that lives there, both physically and energetically. Allowing rivers to have their natural flow and movement is essential. Rivers are related to sustenance and earth fertility. Go to rivers when you or an issue needs flow or movement.
Streams are smaller, more localized rivers—movement and flow on the smaller scale.
Ocean is womb, first and foremost, and the most cosmic of all waters. Oceans are much more formidable than rivers. The birther of all, the ocean is the vast powerful Mother. Shells are the concretized form of the movement of energetic and actual water. Shells hold the memory of the water, therefore they can serve as a remote shrine for all water. When you need help or healing on the large scale, go to ocean.
Lakes, ponds and other smaller “contained” bodies of water
Contained bodies of water differ greatly from the above three. Their “containment” makes them unique cauldrons for healing. Go to contained bodies of water when you need to cultivate inner stillness.
Thermal/hot springs
Places for healing and worship of deep earth. Hot springs are places where we can be released from toxins both physical and emotional that require processing of our inner waters through the heat of the inner earth. Go to hot springs for deep cleansing and renewal.
There are more for sure. Discover and locate what is in your local place. Then, begin to know and understand the different personalities of your local waterways by going to them and quietly listening.
~Theresa C. Dintino
