WOR 772 – Hydromancy
I’m Peter Neill, Founder of the World Ocean Observatory.
I am obsessed with words. They are, after all, our key tools for explanation, persuasion, and change. Here’s one that recently caught my fancy: HYDROMANCY, the art of divination through water. The tradition of such practice is long: from ancient Egypt to the Oracle at Delphi to Rome to Celtic rituals, to the beliefs and perspectives of indigenous peoples, to many shamanistic practices worldwide. It perseveres and exists in many forms: just last week, for example, I attended a performance of contemporary music and historical songs focused on water, presented by Wabanaki artists from northern New England joined by the world-renown cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. It was miraculous. In my own world, I have practiced and advocated for the power of “oceanic feeling,” derived from experience and solace of ocean and freshwater meditation, and so I am susceptible.
To learn more, I consulted Exploring the Depths: The Practioner’s Handbook, an online resource, published by Equinox Apothecary, providing information regarding the field of “witchcraft, mystical credo, spell-work, and witchy style,” located, in reality, in the small town of Springfield, in the Willamette Valley, in Oregon, USA.
Hydromancy, the site asserts, is “an ancient form of divination…that invites us to explore the depths of still water and its ability of reveal hidden truths. Through the observation of the fluid surface, whether in a serene lake, a sacred well, or a scrying bowl, practitioners seek to tap into the realms of the unseen and access symbolic insights.” There are various styles, all of which call for accessibility to “a quiet and undisturbed space” where one can pursue “a calm and focused mind”.
I was particularly interested in the scrying bowl, a container of water as if therein all the water of the world is in hand, into which one can gaze to discover on the water’s surface “symbols, patterns, images, and impressions” that emerge to be interpreted “using intuition, personal associations, and knowledge of symbolism to uncover the messages and insights embedded within.” Further, there is water in differentiated states: river water, spring water, ocean water, moon water, sun water, storm water, rain water – each with particular characteristics of purity and magical properties – of flow and time, of origin and renewal, of dimension and depth and the primal force of creation, of intuition, emotion, and feminine energy, of vitality, strength, and illumination, of raw power, release, and transformation, of growth, fertility, and nourishment – all archetypal elements that, recurring and studied, offer insight and counsel and access to clarity and the future.
There is, of course, the question of possession, the idea that once identified witchcraft can only be contradicted by exorcism, through ritual removal from consciousness, behavior, and psychological distress. Neuroses, as concentrated witchcraft, are evidence of the desiccation of values, structures, and behaviors that drain us of confidence, inter-personal relation, and successful integration with self, partners, families, and friends. Indeed, psychiatry is considered by some as a form of ritual healing, a means to bring healing water to the dark dryness of our lives, the failed sources of solace and sustenance on our journey in life. Consider possession as the absence of water: drought and fire on the land; pollution of the natural fluid in a biosphere of air, freshwater, and salt; dehydration and debilitation of the body; desiccation of politics, social values, and community; and, ultimately, the desecration of the soul.
Does not successful address of this begin with hydromantic discovery and focus? Must we recruit witches to understand, exorcists to free us from regress, ancient practices to liberate us from blind excess and unthinking consumption? Is there not a clear, more nurturing way to divine the future? I can say only that I have found that the isolation and meditative opportunity provided by water, by the resonance of that special oceanic feeling, have been most important tools for me, personally, in whatever place, by water, to seek calm, patience, insight, guidance, and an open heart. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from this magical interplay of dark and light is simplicity, humility, and realization of the foolishness of greed, mean judgment, the danger of false certainties, and the subversive fear of change. If the ocean, as global water, can teach us one thing for all, it is the beauteous effect, in us and for us, of healing, sustaining Nature and its wisdom, its certain equity, and its sublime embrace of all things.
We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
