Well, well, well

In a very drawn out attempt at completing a triad of blog posts with three of my favourite symbols - the Cave (March), the Cauldron (May) and now, the Well - I realize I have written the last three posts from very different locations. And now, in this Cancer season, the focus finally comes closer to home.

Today, I want to write about wells. Not the place (though I finally visited Wells, BC for a wonderful arts festival I've known about for years), but the (usually) human-made structure that has been a means of providing fresh water to families and communities for thousands of years. And, also, the symbolic place that can be inner or outer - a place of nourishment, a container to measure how plentiful your most essential resources are, and often a location for community gathering, grieving, wishmaking and healing. Rather importantly, wells, as sources and containers of water, are also symbols of the feminine, as Sharon Blackie explores in this wonderful article - it also has some gorgeous pictures of wells in the UK 💙)

sublime evening to nourish the soul, near Revelstoke, BC

Another of my favourite writers, Toko-Pa Turner, embracing Celtic mythology and culture as well, writes in her book Belonging:

"In Celtic Mythology, the holy well is considered the source of all life. Certainly because it is the concealed origin from which water springs, but also because it is a gateway between the worlds; seen and unseen.

Originally regarded as the domain of the Earth Mother, holy wells were places to which one would make a pilgrimage to offer gratitude for the riches of village life, petition the well priestesses and fairies for healing, and if you slept near one, you might even receive dreams foretelling the future.

It was understood that if one of these wells would fall into disrepair, the village was at risk of losing not only their literal life-source, but their connection to the Otherworld.

Each of us faces a time when the holy well within needs tending. When we're no longer able to bestow blessings on others because we've overgiven, or when something precious has been taken from us, or life's demands are too great on our fragile system. But when the moisture goes out of our lives, and we're no longer able to see beauty or converse with magic, we must ask ourselves how we can replenish our well-ness.

Too often, we fall into the misguided belief that the outer world is our source of vitality. We wait for its cues, its permissions its notifications. We forget to honour, petition and receive from the well within. Unconsciously we're terrified to turn away from the world, because we think we're putting our 'heads in the sand,' or that we'll lose everything if we don't keep the pace."

Toko-Pa Turner

(click the link for the rest of this brilliant excerpt from her book, Belonging)

For this season of heat, road closures, busyness and boredom (both?! lol) - whatever the challenges may be - I wonder: where is your source of water? What nourishes you? Where is a community gathering space that you feel welcome in - or if this is lacking - can you create one?

With a subtle nod to an exciting new project I'll be (soft) launching soon - what are the sources of water (think relief, coolness, satisfaction, floatation, play, even survival) that work in your life and how can you tend to them, both practically and metaphorically?

Interesting, as well (ha, there it is again) that although they have two separate etymological origins, the words to describe 'source of water' and a state of bodily or emotional pleasure/satisfaction are, centuries later, the same. The early root of the adjective, well, comes from the Proto-Germanic word for "to wish." We can feel well, and I don't think it's a coincidence that traditionally, as Toko-Pa writes, the village well was also a measure of the health of a community. (Gah, how I love etymology!) We need to take care of the inner and the outer for balance and well-ness 😉

Thank you as always for reading along- and I'd love to hear any stories you know (family, folk, or myth) about wells and all their symbolic associations. Well of stories....now there's a catchy, evocative phrase...🥰

therapeutic art burning - I think fire can be as nourishing as water 🔥

deep breaths, sun, water and Earth ✨

fittingly for this planned blog post, I finally made it to Wells, BC for the long-running and vibrat ArtsWells festival. Here is one of the many wonderful performers, ellescriv, at the cutest little church-turned-performance space.

throwback to late March in London, filling my well with the company of these two wonderful old friends

ritual and ceremony are so nourishing - these prayer bundles were a soothing and cathartic exercise (thank you Laura for the idea and for holding space)

of course creativity can be deeply well-replenishing; this pic is from a May Art + Horses workshops I co-facilitated in Cooper Creek, BC