Our culture’s (I live in the United States) concept of sacredness, or holiness, centers on the idea of sacred things being set apart for religious purposes. The existence of sacred things, in a culture dominated by xtian thinking, implies the existence of profane things, mundane things. And, while this may not have been the intention of religious tradiitons through the ages, the duality between sacred and not sacred lends itself to disrespecting, to undervaluing, those things that are not labeled sacred. And so there is holy water, in a church, a famous holy well, a storied spring. But other waters, not being sacred, can be treated as commodities to be bought and sold and treated however we humans wish. And we’ve seen how that plays out, all over the nation, in polluted waters and threatened populations of aquatic creatures and the animals who depend on them for food.

In my own contemporary polytheist religion, all beings are holy: but holiness for me is not about being separate, only for use in ceremonies or on particular holy days. For me, and many of the polytheists I know, holiness is about relationships. What is sacred is not set apart, but is beloved: we exist in reciprocal relationship to what is holy, giving and receiving for mutual benefit and to express love. As with all relationships, some will be more intimate than others. The more intimate relationships will involve more gifting, more sharing. But all beings deserve, at the very least, my basic respect.

How would it be if we were able to recognize the holiness of all waters, if we worked to be in harmonious relationship with all waters?

A little side note: I don’t want to pile on a bunch of guilt and shame here. We’ll probably never know all we need to know in order to coexist perfectly with every being we encounter. I don’t want us to obsess over every drop of water that passes through our lives. Life is hard, and we each have different ways of functioning: I don’t suggest self-deprivation or self flagellation as eco-friendly virtues.

But looking at the big picture, how might we move through our lives differently if we recognized the sacred bonds between ourselves and all waters? Thoughts that come to mind for me immediately are things like:

We might come to feel a deeper sense of gratitude for accesss to water. And understand that everyone – human or not – deserves access to healthy water.

We might be more mindful of how much water we consume. Not to deprive ourselves, but to consume water with awareness, and to try not to waste it.

It could change our relationship with care tasks in so many ways. For example, we might begin to see water not as a commodity, but as a friend and helper in maintaining our health and our homes. We might begin to see caring for our bodies and homes as acts of love, and as gifts to ourselves and the beings we care for – from our families, to our pets, to the items who give us comfort and make our lives easier. Washing our dishes might still be an unpleasant chore, but it might also be a cleansing and blessing of the vessels who deliver nourishment to our bodies. There’s nothing demeaning in the tasks that make life liveable: they are essential tasks, and part of the dance of relationship with everyone around us.

This week, I have just one question for you to ponder at length:

How would your day to day life change if you focused on the sacredness of water, and on being in right relationship with water? 

Photo by yours truly.

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