Journeys: Thoughts from a Druid Path
Journeys through the world around us, from a Druidic perspective.
As It Flows: An Understanding
I cannot even begin to say how much time I have spent with my stream. I first developed my interest in the stream through a desire to keep it clean. A clean stream is surely a healthy stream for all things that live in it or that are dependent upon it. It was so close to where I lived; I couldn’t get into my car without looking at it, without looking in its general direction.
This stream crossed through the property and was fairly hidden for most of its trek. I had no idea where it began and no idea where it went, but I was curious. I would walk over to the stream almost every day. The sound it made was so very soothing to my ears and by sitting and watching the water flow, I realized that not only did I like hearing its sound, but, seemingly, after a while, I began needing to hear it.
At first, my interest was solely to keep this beautiful, melodic stream clean. There were some things in the water and I wanted the water to be as free of debris as possible. Every time I walked over to the stream, if there was anything in it, such as paper or garbage or cans and bottles, I would remove them. There were insects in the stream and frogs and other animals that lived nearby, but I was always troubled that I saw no fish in the stream. I assumed / conjectured that something up stream was probably getting into the water and either killing the fish or making it a very unpleasant place to live.
Along with my daily visits and occasional cleanings, I wanted to know more about the course of this waterway. Where did it come from? Where did it go? I discovered that the source of this waterway was in the Huron River Metro Park and that it meandered through fields and industrial areas on its way to my part of the world and then made its way eventually to the Huron River (probably where it began in the first place) and then headed out to Lake Erie, the large fresh-water Great Lake that provides a port for the city where I now live.
I became fascinated with the coming and going of the stream. In hot weather, it would be reduced to a mere trickle at times; during torrents and especially sustained rains, it would become a very rapid stream and often jump its banks and flood the roads and parking lots in my area. I led me to believe that this entire area was once a flood plain and that the stream’s memory of the land was much longer than any one person’s and it would probably seek the banks of its own stream long after I was gone. It knew where it had to go.
At some point in my practical workings with my stream, I began to think that perhaps this water way was one of the Nature Spirits and that the relationship that I had begun to develop with it was really more than just a casual thing, but, perhaps more of a holy and important series of events. I had at this point been a long-term member of Shining Lakes Grove and they had a very special relationship with the Huron River, which they called “Ana”. Since this stream was an off-shoot of the Huron River, I felt that it too was part of that holy entity named “Ana”.
I spent some time developing a relationship with my creek, my Silver Creek, my local waterway. I meditated next to it, I gave it offerings, I watched it, I had many experiences and insights which would suggest that a) this stream was sentient in the way that streams are or may be, and b) its name was Ara, like the constellation Ara, the Altar. I find it humorous that the name I called my stream was so very similar to the name that Shining Lakes had discovered to be the name of the Huron River. “Ana”, meet “Ara”; “Ara”, meet “Ana”. I found that this similarity not only made sense, but that in fact it was meant to be.
Once I discovered that this stream was alive, was something holy, was sentient, I then understood that not only was keeping the stream clean an important undertaking, but that it was part of my working with the Nature Spirits, with THIS Nature Spirit and that it required devotion and understanding. Ara is not just water running through a ditch contained by two dirt banks, it is something alive and beautiful which has been here all along and which is beautiful and holy because it is much more than just water. Keeping garbage out of the water was important, but so was keeping anything that restricted its flow out as well. This stream was free and needed to remain free.
I had a difficult time understanding exactly what it was about this stream that meant so much to me. Perhaps it was its need to be acknowledged and understood, perhaps it was my need to keep it clean, and perhaps it was both of our need to understand one another and to benefit from our mutual exchanges. I felt that if my spirit could separate from my body that it could flow down that stream, like a spirit moving down the Watercourse Way, down the path of least resistance. I came to understand, over the course of that year, that each and every stream is much like mine in that it is so much more, but I also came to understand that there is only one Ara, and that is a thing of great beauty. This stream is separate and distinct from any other. It is one of the many Nature Spirits but it is a distinct one. I always felt that there was something that I was missing. It took another stream, another Nature Spirit for me to understand that this is the case.
I recently returned from Brazil and during a part of the ritual I attended for Beltaine, the congregants were asked to go off and connect with their totems, their Nature Spirits. I had never really identified a particular totem for myself, although I felt that I surely must have at least one. I wandered off to near a quickly running little stream and closed my eyes. Then, suddenly, I heard it – the sound of running water – a different voice than my Ara but a stream voice nonetheless and then I understood once and for all, thousands of kilometers from home, that not only was my Ara a Nature Spirit, but that running water, not just a particular running water, but the running water as found in streams was one of my totems. I understood as I acknowledged this totem and it flowed through me.
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