and welcome to the first great fire festival after the Winter Solstice.
I can’t believe that it was already a year ago that I wrote in detail about Imbolc/St Brigid’s day. It is a particular favourite of mine as it heralds the coming Spring, the return of the light and Imbolc is a day for blessing springs and wells. We spent the morning down at our local sacred well doing a little clearing and some anointing with the waters.
Many old wells that are healing or sacred wells have fallen into disrepair, or the stories and healing knowledge associated with them is becoming lost with each generation that passes, and as the wisdom and magic of Albion is slowly obliterated and withers under the desiccating and over-masculinising energy of our indifferent culture, we need to re-invigorate and bring new energy to these old, venerable sites and dig deep into learning the healing powers and rituals that accrue in these places of gathering.
Writing back in 1988 in the wonderful volume Secret Shrines, John Michell comments that:
‘200 holy wells are still known in Cornwall and the Scillies, and with them is preserved the ancient, sacred spirit of the west. They are the true wealth of this country. In their pure waters the old people found healing and inspiration.’
Traditionally wells and springs have been associated with particular deities, later specific saints, and also healing or curing specific ailments. The sacred well in Ashburton is dedicated to St. Gudula, the patron saint of the blind (see photos), and many old wells are called eyewells. This made me think of sight and the seer, and how at this time of year, we are emerging from our caves and beginning to blink our eyes open into the newly increasing daylight and think ahead, to plan, to scheme, to vision our next year. Our eyes need to become as clear as the sparkling spring water, lucid, shiny and full of life. Paul Broadhurst; the author of Secret Shrines talks about how these holy wells may link us back to the past, to distant memories –
‘the waters that flow through the veins and arteries of the planet were revered by our precursors as the Elixir of the Earth, responsible not only for life itself, but essential for the fertility and health of the people and the land which they inhabited…’
‘…Apart from their curative properties, the people of old regarded wells as gateways to the Otherworld, where the vital flow of Life-force could be used to penetrate the veils of matter to experience amore formative reality.’
So in many ways these ancient wells and springs act as a kind of aqueous lens through which we can see the past, present and future. In the Celtic tree calendar Imbolc is associated with the Rowan tree – the tree of Intuition, insight, increased psychic powers, visions and portents of the future. Working with Rowan at this time of year helps us to receive forewarnings and knowledge, and connects us to Brigid, maiden goddess of poetry and illumination. We can receive new inspirations, divinations and visions if we can trust our intuition and our psychic abilities and communications from the Otherworld. Springs and wells are the conduit for this channel. Listening to a talk last night about plant intelligence and being at the well today made me realise just how many gifts that Nature offers us, and just how we are truly blessed with so much abundance from Nature – water to drink and heal, and plants and fungi to feed and heal, and everything else that Nature shares with us so open-heartedly, we are so lucky, so loved, so cared for. What could we offer in return for this unconditional abundance?
sacred well imbolc forest bathing
