Water Weights For Pool Exercises
The White Spring, however, has a certain chaos surrounding it; and the human involvement often seems harsh, in my opinion. This may, of course, be totally appropriate a perfect balance.
Many people have a simple relationship with Chalice Well. They just love it and are grateful for its peace. They quench their thirst and enjoy the atmosphere of the flowing water and the garden’s nature spirits. My relationship with the well is more complex. The whole landscape of Glastonbury is filled with symbolism and meaning. For many of its citizens, it’s like living inside a pack of tarot cards, each aspect of its landscape filled with metaphor and significance. What then is the role of Chalice Well? How intriguing that it flows with blood between the polarities of Chalice Hill and the Tor. Is this the blood of Christ from the hidden grail? From the Goddess?
The water comes from a deep, powerful, consistent source. Sometimes I imagine this to be the heart of a great dragon miles below in the earth. But why does the creature release some of its blood here? What’s the connection? It’s interesting to sit in the garden and contemplate the origins of the flow, deep in the earth. Water is alive not just in its molecular and subatomic structure, but also in the forms it takes. Rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, wells, and springs are all beings in their own right.
Who is this being who surfaces at Chalice Well? Of course, this type of question is well asked of any body of water, but first the enquirer must pause and form a relationship with the water.
Water Weights For Pool Exercises Photo Gallery
I often wonder what Blood Spring looked like before any human being had begun to organize it. Its geology isn’t rocky or hard. I imagine there was mud and bubbling. It would have spread into the surrounding grassland, and then perhaps channeled away in several directions uncontrolled, free, and natural.
To the human eye, concerned with a civilized aesthetic sensibility, the messiness of mud and an endless oozing and spreading may seem unattractive compared to the form of a well-tended garden. But it’s good for people to play with mud and experience the primal sensations of life. There’s no tended garden in a mother’s womb, but the environment is luscious and perfect. So sometimes a primal part of me feels a haunted loss when I encounter the neatness and containment of the well and its gardens. But I also recognize the practical need for easier access to the water. I understand why Blood Spring transformed into Chalice Well; and in general, I appreciate the beauty of gardens created by humanity in rapport with nature.
There is, however, another issue for me. It has to do with spirits. I wonder, when the Blood Spring waters were first contained and channeled, whether people offered prayers and ceremonies to ask permission of the spirits of the water and of the land. I wonder whether the great creature who’s the whole form and being of this powerful source was ever courted. At every successive stage of the well’s construction down the centuries, did the builders have the sensitivity and courtesy to continue these ceremonies and communications of permission and gratitude?
When I first encountered Chalice Well many years ago, ceremonies weren’t happening; and the first Warden of the Well, whom I knew, wasn’t a happy man. The atmosphere of the gardens was strained. Over recent decades, however, the culture of the custodianship has transformed into one that’s attuned to and respectful of the nature spirits, the earth energies, and the life of the water itself. Instinctively and lovingly, ceremonies and communications are happening today; and the governing community of the well is generally, I gather, harmonious. There has been a healing here of the relationship between humans and the spirits of this water. To me, the spirits of this water seem happy now. There’s still perhaps some healing needed in the bigger picture and in the relationship with White Spring, but I feel confident that this will come, too.
All this is a lesson, one that’s echoing through this entire blog: We need to reawaken our care for and relationship with nature and the elements. Without us, the elements flow, explode, emerge, cycle, recycle, die, and are reborn. This is the dance of life. With water, it’s all so visible and touchablethe movement, the play, and the power. We love water, but meaningful love is always love in action.
