Traditions and Beliefs about Water ~ A Selected World Survey
by Mairéid Sullivan

Magnificently depicted in traditional art forms, every culture on earth relates a legend of a deluge or great flood, along with beliefs that life came from water.

The Roman philosopher Seneca declared that, “Where a spring rises or a water flows there ought we to build altars and offer sacrifices.”

In Aboriginal myth, the Wandjina Rain Spirit of the Wunambul, Wororra and Ngarinyin language people is the controller of the "Seasons", the bringer of rain, the waters of "life". She is the Woongurr – the powerful and wise leader who commands respect for the great powers of water.

According to the Hindu holy books, all inhabitants of the earth emerged from the primordial sea. Ganges, (Latin word for Devanagar), which means “sacred river”, has a long history of reverence in India and is often called the “holy Ganga”. The source of the Ganges lies in the Himalayas, the mountains of the Gods, and descends to the plains of India as if from Heaven. The Ganges is dedicated to the Goddess Shiva. It is believed her healing powers are in the essence of the river. Up to twenty million pilgrims go there every year in the hope that by bathing in the waters they will increase their fertility, recover from illness, and be forgiven their sins.

In (Genesis 1:1-6) God creates a firmament in the midst of the waters to divide the waters. The spirit of God is described as stirring above the waters. The Koran states: We have created every living thing from water.

And, the water of the River Jordan is sacred because John the Baptist baptised Jesus Christ there in the traditional ceremony representing the reunion of the spirit with God through immersion in water.

While sacred in their own right, sacred springs also draw attention to the sacredness of water itself, reminding us that water is a symbol of grace.

The Babylonian moon goddess, Ishtar, was associated with sacred springs, and her temples were often situated in natural spring grottos.

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St. John, in the New Testament (5:2), describes the colonnaded pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where disabled people lay in wait for the healing spirit to stir the waters.

The ancient Greeks erected artificial basins and enshrined icons of deities near sacred springs.

The Celts saw wells and springs as doorways between the earth and the realm of the spirit. Holy Wells or Lady’s Wells abound across Ireland, where people still make pilgrimages. Many rivers are named after ancient goddesses, such as the Shannon River, after Sinann, and the Boyne, after Boann, an Irish water goddess, and wife of Nechtan, an Irish god of the water. One of Boann’s myths concerns the water of a sacred well (Sidhe Nechtan) that contained the source of knowledge.

For thousands of years the famous spring waters at Bath, in England, have had 250,000 gallons of mineral water pouring forth each day from the ground, at 120 degree Fahrenheit / 46.5 degrees Celsius. The Celts established a shrine at the site dedicated to Sulis, followed by the Romans who renamed the town Aquae Sulis, and built a temple to Sulis Minerva. In recent times, as many as 16,000 Iron Age coins have been discovered within the springs.

In Glastonbury, England, there is the Chalice Well. 25,000 gallons of mineral water emerge at the surface every day, filling subterranean water storage chambers. It’s not surprising that these mineral rich waters are legendary for their healing powers. According to archaeological studies people have been using the spring since 3000 years BC.

Across Europe there are many such healing springs. A huge excavation in France, in 1963, at the Gallo-Roman Fontes Sequanae sanctuary at the source of the Seine, named after the goddess Sequana, found 200 wooden figures, carved from oak, representing parts of the human body (heads, limbs, trunks; with internal organs carved in relief on wooden plaques). These are interpreted to represent the range of illnesses the goddess of the sacred spring was believed capable of curing.

The Lakota Native American creation legend bears a great resemblance to the Judeao-Christian story of Noah’s Ark. “Singing, the Creating Power shaped the mud in his hands and spread it on the water, where it was just big enough for himself and the crow. He then shook two long eagle wing feathers over the mud until earth spread wide and varied, overcoming the waters. Feeling sadness for the dry land, the Creating Power cried tears that became oceans, streams, and lakes. He named the new land Turtle Continent in honour of the turtle who provided the mud from which it was formed.”

The “New World” of America represented the Fountain of Youth for Europeans. Spanish conquistador Don Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in America on Columbus’ second voyage in 1493. Leon and his fellows, not Columbus, completed Spain's claim to the New World. Ponce de Léon set out across the Atlantic Ocean on his second voyage in 1513 on an expedition to find the Fountain of Youth in Florida. It was not incredible to men of that day - when the very existence of a New World was hardly believable to those who had not seen it with their own eyes - that those who had touched these shores should believe in greater magic in this strange realm. And certainly there is no legend more appropriate to the beginning of America than that this new land should offer men a vision of the Fountain of Youth.
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