Love Your River: A Spiritual Pilgrimage Along the Stour

River Stour, Canterbury

In this past year, our rivers have found themselves at the centre of distressing headlines, with stories of pollution and sewage choking the life out of these vital arteries of our ecosystem. The urgency to address these issues has grown exponentially as biodiversity suffers the consequences of human negligence.

Among these rivers lies the River Stour in Kent, a waterway entwined with my personal journey, and the focal point of a pilgrimage that sought to honour its essence while taking meaningful action to preserve its vitality.

In my childhood, the River Stour was a playground for carefree swims. As an adult, it was a place of meditation and reflection, and flowed past the end of my road in two of my past homes in Ashford and Canterbury. It was this deep-rooted connection that called me to embark on a pilgrimage, inspired by the principles of Lorien Cadier’s "Back to Source" initiative, that she shared with Sacred Earth Activism.

Taking to the water, Ashford

The "Back to Source" project embodies a profound mission – to honour our rivers through ceremony and hands-on action, healing our relationship to our rivers while also healing them directly, with efforts like cleaning litter. This holistic approach to environmental advocacy encompasses both the spiritual and practical aspects of river restoration. As part of this endeavor, we also had the privilege of hosting Paul Powlesland, a UK barrister and founder of Lawyers for Nature, advocating for the rights of rivers, believing that by granting rivers personhood rights in law, we can truly safeguard our waterways.

July of 2023 marked the launch of the "Love your River" campaign by Right to Roam. This initiative beckoned individuals to step forward and become stewards of their local rivers, addressing access issues, pollution concerns, and rediscovering the intrinsic connection between humanity and waterways. Embracing this call, I embarked on a journey back to the source of the River Stour, initiating a cycle of ceremony and sacred action that would unveil the river's stories and struggles.

The source of the Stour, Lenham

The heart of this pilgrimage lay in its dual intention – to honour the river through ceremony and to take concrete steps towards its care. This manifested as a blend of river clean-up action, documentation of the river's condition at various points, and an exploration of access challenges, taken by foot and by kayak, over a number of days.

The River Stour, sourced from three pools in Lenham, Kent. At its origins, I gathered water in a couple of bottles, acknowledging with prayer and ceremony the life-giving purity that flows from the depths of the Earth.

The initial stretch of the river, a shallow trickle over stones, unfurls through fields until it reaches Ashford. Here, I transitioned from foot to kayak, continuing my journey along its meandering course. With each paddle stroke, I engaged in a humble task – picking up litter, an offering of care to a river beleaguered by human waste. At numerous stages along the route, I also encountered the unsettling stench of sewage outflows, a harsh reminder of the pollution challenges our waterways face.

Throughout my pilgrimage, I found myself at various points along the river's journey, each one calling for a moment of connection and remembrance. At these junctures, water from the source was returned to the river, a ritual accompanied by a prayer. It was a simple yet profound act – a plea for the river to recall its essence, a plea for us to rekindle the reverence it once commanded.

Signs that Beavers have moved in

However, not every encounter was marked by serenity. In some stretches, the river's beauty was obscured by an overwhelming amount of litter, too vast for one person to tackle. Here, beavers had also returned to the waters, nature's engineers seeking to restore balance to their habitat. Yet, the sad irony lay in the heaps of pollution that suffocated their efforts, a testament to the challenges our rivers face.

But we have trashed their home

Modern enclosures.

As I continued downstream, the landscape shifted, not just in its beauty but in the access it offered. Some areas were restricted by landowners, barring access to a vital natural resource, with warnings to “poachers” and “trespassers”. The river had been claimed and concealed, hidden from view, a stark reminder of the disconnect we must heal. Moving forward, I encountered areas of breathtaking beauty, yet even these places were often bound by access challenges.

Past Canterbury, the river grew wider, accommodating boats and canoes. Yet, this accessibility came at a cost – pollution clouded the waters, a poignant testament to the threats rivers face even as they embrace urbanity. The reality of sewage outflows and their detrimental impact was palpable, the river struggling to sustain life amidst human expansion.

Ultimately, my pilgrimage culminated at Pegwell Bay, where the River Stour meets the English Channel. When I reached this final part of the river, I received the following reading from a fellow sacred activist, entitled “Blessing for a River at its Source” by Mindi Meltz

”Dear River, may you fulfill all your promises.⁠

May you quench the thirst of deer and coyotes, people and beetles. May you raise forests upon your banks, feed swamps where beavers cocoon you. May you flow undirected, undammed. May you deepen with trout, with otters, with snails and with salmon, with kingfisher dreams and water-strider footprints. May you nurse fat tadpoles in your pockets, and may you renew every land.⁠

May lovers and poets rejoice alongside you. May the weary bathe in you and rise up refreshed. May your sound be each person's story. May you be comfort, may you be faith. May you wash away the sorrow of cities while remaining ever pure. May you be a gathering place, may you be worshipped, and may your worshippers care for your body and pick you clean of what does not belong to you. May their children find and lose treasures in your crumpling eddies, splash in your shallows and daydream in your depths, find salamanders beneath your stones and then release them gently right back where they found them. ⁠

May the love of you make us holy. May you be peace. May you give the gifts you long to give, and may those gifts be honored. May you beheld sacred, everywhere you go. ⁠

And because you are a river, may you flow onward and outward and downward, without ever pausing to say, "These things are not possible."⁠

Because you are a river, and you have no fear of falling. Because you are that thread unbreakable, the chain of water between sky and sea. Because you can only go down, toward that only center, and nothing, ultimately, can ever stop you.⁠

Dear River, just go and go, and be our freedom. Dear River, be our forgiveness, Dear River, Be.⁠”

This cycle of ceremony had come to a close, and just as tends to be, had come full circle with a return to honouring the source of it all. All the prayer waters that had been offered along the pilgrame flowed out to with the vast expanse of the sea. It was a profound moment of unity, a connection between the river's journey and the infinite expanse of ocean, a reminder that our rivers are not isolated entities, but a part of a larger whole.

In the wake of this journey, I am left with a blend of emotions – a deep sense of connection, a heightened awareness of the challenges rivers face, and a commitment to sharing my discoveries with conservation and advocacy groups. This pilgrimage was a tribute to the River Stour, a pathway to connection, and a call to action. It illuminated the beauty, struggles, and urgent need for protection that rivers represent. Through ceremony, awareness, and advocacy, may we collectively stand as stewards of these lifelines, bridging the gap between humanity and the rivers that sustain us.

From source

To sea