Blessings to the Waters on World Rivers Day

This weekend, I joined representatives of various faiths to honour the waters that flow through our city, the River Stour, on the Interfaith River Walk.

World Rivers Day is a celebration of the world’s waterways, highlighting the many values of rivers and strives to increase public awareness and encourages the improved stewardship of rivers around the world.

Honouring the Spirit of our Rivers

I am strongly aligned with the element of Water, and so the edge of the water, where the river breaks against the bank, has always been a place that I have gone to hold ceremony and give offerings, supported clean ups and campaigns for their protection.

Last year, with Sacred Earth Activism, we held a cycle of ceremony to honour our rivers and waterways, Back to Source. This cycle of ceremony and action highlighted that there was once a time when the rivers of this land were honoured and respected as Goddesses and were given our most prized gifts as offerings in gratitude for their continued blessings. Nowadays, while some still carry the names of ancient goddesses, our rivers and waterways are offered little more than shopping trolleys and raw sewage.

This work culminated into a day of sacred action, where group around the country held ceremonies for their local river, combined too with actions to clean up and remove litter and rubbish from the banks and bed.

Interfaith Vigil for the Waters

Shortly after this, I gave a talk to the local Interfaith group, Canterbury and District Interfaith Action (CANDIFA), on a panel discussing faith perspectives of being involved in social action, and spoke about the ceremonies that were held across the country for our rivers to mark World Rivers Day in 2021,

Following this, the Interfaith group began organising their own River Walk, to mark this year’s World Rivers Day, with representatives of different faiths sharing readings, prayers and blessings for the waters along our local river. 

Speakers representing Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Bahai, and Humanist communities spoke of the sacred important of water in their faiths, and I shared a Blessing to the Waters on behalf of pagan communities. 

Praise and gratitude to the sacred waters of the world, to the oceans, the mother of life, the womb of the plant life that freshens our air with oxygen, the brew that is stirred by sunlight and the moon's gravity into the great currents and tides that move across the earth, circulating the means of life, bringing warmth to the frozen Arctic and cool, fresh winds to the tropics. We give thanks for the blessed clouds and the rain that brings the gift of life to the land, that eases the thirst of roots, that grows the trees and sustains life even in the dry desert. We give thanks for the springs that bring life-giving water up from the ground, for the small streams and creeks, for the mighty rivers. We praise the beauty of water, the sparkle of the sunlight on a blue lake, the shimmer of moonlight on the ocean's waves, the white spray of the waterfall. We take delight in the sweet singing of the dancing stream and the roar of the river in the flood.

We ask help to know within ourselves all the powers of water: to wear down and to build up, to ebb and to flow, to nurture and to destroy, to merge and to separate. We know that water has great powers of healing and cleansing, and we also know that water is vulnerable to contamination and pollution. We ask help in our work as healers, in our efforts to ensure that the waters of the world run clean and run free, that all the earth's children have the water they need to sustain abundance of life. Blessed be the water.

Many present are also involved in local campaigns to help protect our local waterway, and also highlighted the threats that our river faces, from raw sewage, agricultural run-off and over-development, all harming the ecosystem and biodiversity of the river. It allowed for a discussion about what meaningful action we can take in the area to protect it.

Are you involved in holding ceremonies or rituals with your local river? I would be very interested to hear more and connect with you - please get in touch!

In Service to Nature

Part of the work of Spiritual Rewilding is about how we can be of service to nature, and our rivers, and interweave our spiritual path and practice to support the protection of our natural world. For many looking to deepen our spiritual connection with the land, it is impossible to ignore that it is being polluted and destroyed at great speed by our wider society, and want to help in some way to protect it. While we have been raised in a society that views nature as a commodity and object, it is very easy for this to slip into our spiritual practices, and perpetuate the same harm.

If you would like to explore how we can weave our spiritual practices into efforts to protect our environment, find out how in Wild Service, on the Spiritual Rewilding Online course. Visit the online course page for more information.