contributed by Caresse Bennett — Sacred Motherhood Blueprint
Water has a quality. It is a fluidity, a flexibility, and a flow which nurtures, hydrates, and caresses us, both inside and out. It is the memory of the waters of the womb in which we formed ourselves. As our bodies grew, floating, tumbling, and dancing in the amniotic fluid, which is salty like the sea, and we gradually felt the touch of the womb walls, we moved from water to matter, and from an awareness of water to an awareness of matter and of mother. The words matter and mother both originate from the Latin word mater. Our growth into matter, into material form, connects us with the matter of our mothers’ bodies which cradles our bodies after we emerge from the womb and with the earth that we eventually walk.
Yet we never really leave the water. As babies, we drink it first as colostrum, then milk, and then in other forms. As women, we produce the milk from our own bodies that nourishes our little ones, and, if we choose, we may birth our children in water, allowing them to emerge into an environment that is most reminiscent of the one in which they formed. Whether we birth them in the ocean, a spring, or a deep birthing tub, our psyches are deeply comforted being surrounded and supported by the same element in which both we and our babies took form.
Water cleanses, energizes, and inspires. Humans adore living not just near water but near obviously moving water. The life force energy, or chi, of moving water, stimulates our own life force energy, increasing it, and the higher saturation of water molecules in the air near moving water moisturizes our eyes, our skin, our nasal passages, and our hair, soothing them all and encouraging us to breathe more deeply, bring more oxygen into our systems. When we visit the ocean, the salt tang we taste and smell in the air is similar to the taste and smell of the amniotic fluid in which we grew and is, therefore, deeply relaxing to the human nervous system. We experience a subconscious memory of that “time before time” when we were in the womb, whole within ourselves, with no sense of separation from the waters in which we floated. The watery darkness was all. The womb waters were our universe. This is one reason that many people choose to live as close as they can to the ocean, even in areas where doing so is costly and holds the danger of hurricanes or other storms as well as flooding. For many people, the joyous pull toward the ocean, toward the salt-flavored womb-waters of Mother Earth, is simply too strong to resist.
Water is change. Water changes itself constantly, both inside and outside us. We can use water to help us learn about change and to change our state of being. During the nineteenth century in the United States “taking the waters,” which often consisted of immersing the body in cold or hot springs (especially mineral-laden springs), was a common-place activity, both to enhance health and to restore it. “Taking the waters” (sometimes called hydrotherapy) is still a mainstream and reimbursed medical treatment in much of Europe today, and there are other choices we can make with water. Sometimes these water choices are intuitive ones, and following them can help us to strengthen our intuition and trust it. At one point in my adult life, I visited a natural swimming hole that had a stream flowing into it from the land above. As I walked toward the waterfall, I suddenly knew that I must stand beneath that waterfall. I had no swimsuit with me that day, so I put aside my mobile phone, shoes, and other items that I was carrying before stepping into the waterfall. I stood on a boulder beneath the waterfall, which was bracingly cold, in my jeans and tee shirt, letting the water flow downward onto the crown of my head and thence over my body for about five minutes. There were other people in the area, swimming, and I knew I might appear ridiculous or silly to them, but I did it, anyway. I wondered why I felt such a strong knowing that I should do so. About a year and a half later, I happened to be reading about the founder of modern aikido (a Japanese martial art that primarily redirects the energy of the attacker rather than depending on blows) and found a description in the account of the fact that one of the techniques he learned to build up his ki (the Japanese word for chi) was to stand for a period of time under an icy-cold waterfall. Aha, I thought. Perhaps my soul knew something I did not, as I knew that I had never before read or heard of the practice.
Water informs. As we observe the patterns and flow of water (as well as feeling them), we are subtly encouraged to notice the patterns and flow of ourselves—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We are encouraged to notice the patterns and flow of our own consciousness—of its motivations, joys, fascinations, creativity, longings, knowings, and sometimes even fears. We can observe the arising of these things, as well as of their patterns and flow. We can tune in deeply to what is true for us. Whether you call it intuition, soul knowledge, or messages from your angels or God/Goddess, this inner information you receive and perceive can help you to make your own choices in life from the deeper source of your life and love of life, allowing you to step away with full conscious awareness from externally learned conditioned thinking and choices that do not serve you to truly design your own life and what it looks like. Although the path you choose may look meandering to others, when you choose your actions with awareness of the nurturing wisdom learned from water, you will know that the path you walk (or swim) is your own.
Caresse Bennett is a massage therapist, Usui reiki master, and writer who walks the path of the Divine Mother. She honors the ways of the Divine Feminine. Caresse studied to be a massage doula with Rima Star, one of the first women in the modern U.S. to give birth in water in the 1980s. Rima teaches the wisdom of birthing both our babies and our greater selves in water, much of which she learned from the water births of her own children and her interactions with wild dolphins. Caresse's website is www.divinemotherwisdom.weebly.com