(River Severn Spring Equinox Bore Gratitude Offering)
Looking ahead to World Rivers Day which falls on Autumn Equinox on Sunday 22nd September, this article is a reflection upon previous river blessings and water ceremonies.
Back in April 2023 we co-created a beautiful natural offering, a living prayer, expressing our love and gratitude to all waters of the world as we met by the Thames at The Big One.
Water carries us into existence, sustains us throughout, and connects us with the web of life. Waters flow through us and around us, we are water. Despacho/Haywariquy is an ancient form of living prayer where we meet the mythic and harmonise different energies.
And when we come together, offer our love and gratitude, and listen to what is needed of us in relation to water, we exchange energies in a beautiful and uplifting way.
We met on Friday 21st April 2023 at Embankment Gardens and together we made a beautiful offering imbued with our living energy, love, gratitude and prayers which we then took on the marches with us on Friday and Saturday.
On Saturday 22nd April (Earth Day) we brought our offering on the Biodiversity march and then in ceremony cast it onto the Thames who carried our prayers out to the waters of the world.
At end of Earth Day March with two angelic Earth Activists! Jen and Todd, photo by Andy
Casting our offering of gratitude and love, sorrow and renewal to Thames. Water is Life...for our children's children's children....
Here are some photos from previous river blessings
At the river Marden the local Calne community came together to celebrate their local river in a number of different ways including with a river blessing led by myself and the bishop of Ramsbury.
(River Marden blessing Spring Equinox 2023 with Bishop of Ramsbury, photo by Robert MacNaughton, councillor and ex-Mayor of Calne, with whom I lead River Blessings across the south-west)
(For the Shell 7 at Southwark Crown Court, an XR sacred action, photo by Jaine Rose)
Offering gratitude to the River Frome in Stroud at Imbolc with River Blessings
Water is our original ancestor, all of life flows from water. Water runs through our bodies as well as above, below and across planet earth. From micro to macro, and across all species, our health is mediated by our relationship with water and we humans are being called to mend our severed connection. Until very recently indeed our ancestors understood the healing powers of water and venerated springs and wells. And now is the time to re-member.
We can come together in ceremony across dimensions, across time and space, energetically, and at our nearest waters, and bring our offerings of gratitude, love, regret and peace to our life-giving waters. In this way we can start to repair our connections at a soul level and this complements the actions we take to clean up our rivers, be it through politics, local environmental groups, or through personal action.
Comments