Making Sacred Water
Lakes, rivers, streams, tributaries, creeks, waterfalls, leaks, bogs, rivulets, estuary, arroyo, rapids, seepage, whirlpool, eddy, drip, tide, channel, fjord, canal, inlet, brook. Water is motion. Water is life itself. Water is shape-shifter – snow, ice, steam, humidity. Three-quarters of our planet is water; the vast majority of our corpus is water, indeed we may be more tadpole than frog.
For the scientist in us: Masaru Emoto the scientist and author of Hidden Messages in Water and The True Power of Water has shown how destructive thoughts have a negative impact on water. He developed a process using high-speed photography that shows how the crystal structure of water is deformed when exposed to hostile messages, and how those same droplets are “healed” when exposed to loving and compassionate thoughts.
For the soul in us: Grandma Agnes Baker -Pilgrim speaks the Siletz tribal wisdom that has always known water is a vital, sacred force that sources all. Even sitting by water heals. She says we as a people have forgotten to talk and thank the Waters, we have forgotten to be grateful. She reminds us we are all “water-babies.”
Both of these elders tell us it is the Story of Water that we have forgotten. We forget that we are water, we forget that all waters connect to all waters, we forget that we forget. Perhaps that one stings the most. In ceremony we tell the deeper stories. In the ceremony of water we say we have forgotten, we ask forgiveness, we show our gratitude. We tell the story of water.
This is not an act of consecration, but more a remembering: to speak the truer story in motion, song, and word. Over many days, over time. A story needs to be told over and over again. On the shrine:
1. Pour water into beautiful vases, say “Namaste” which means: the sacred in me sees the sacred in you. The water in me, the life force in me sees the life force that is you. I thou.
2. Speak to a small bowl of water, let it live on your shrine for a while; then go pour it at the base of a tree, or in the rain gutter outside you home. Let it carry the remembering.
3. Pray to a waterway you have concern for – a local river, the Gulf, the thawing glaciers. Send an apology, speak its story of Source, send it compassion.
Poet and place activist Kaia Sands poses this question as she leads our group on an interactive walk along the grounds of The Expo Center at the northern tip of Portland, Oregon. Before me I see 60 acres of asphalt and buildings stretching to the urban horizon; above me is the double arm of the
It is 8 pm in Ypres, Belgium. All traffic is stopped near the Menin Gate as six members of the voluntary fire brigade raise their bugles. The fourth man from the left whets his upper lip. Without a mortal’s cue, they begin to play “The Last Post.” It is that familiar haunting warble that signals the end of a soldier’s day after loyal duty. Other days, a piper joins and plays “Lament,” there is a wreath laying, and a moment of silence. As of April 9, 2010 this is the 28,082nd time the community performs this ceremony. And they are not done yet.
When I sit with my shrine I am tired: I give myself compassion

“Hiwa-Kai. Please save for the
If I were to build an Ancestor Shrine to forgive you, I would buy you a piece of carrot cake from Helen Bernhard’s Bakery on 16th Street. They are still so busy that customers stand in line with tapered tickets in hand. I’d have to wait in line. I’d have to wait for you again.
A cluttered shrine can be a signal that it is time to say “Thank you” and let go. Shrines do have lifetimes. Totems ripen into spiritual guides, and then they will begin to fade. It may be years (Kwan Yin and I go back over 10 years) or it may be moments and days. I once had a pair of Ruby Slippers (”She-Who-Launches”) on a shrine for only two weeks and then it was time to take them off. I realized I was firmly on my new path and quite organically the icon slippers “evaporated”. I replaced them with a stone stamped with
Saying Thank You. Object-icons that have lived in a shrine have given sacred service. They have been dependable spirit bridges transporting prayers and ushering in prana. Here are 5 ritual thank yous. Let your intuition guide you.