Magazine for December 2010
Sacrifice to a Water god
What do the Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens, the pool in the tropical hothouse in Jephson Gardens, the weir at the Saxon Mill, Warwick, the fountains in Trafalgar Square, and the weir at the Mill and Engine House, Warwick Castle all have in common?
All have coins thrown in them. 20p, 50p and £1 coins; pennies and 2p and 5p and 10p pieces… Humankind is obsessed with money – sacrificing relationships for it, acquiring it, spending it, throwing our lives away for it – but deep in the human psyche, folk religion demands that we offer up at least a nominal amount of what we most value to the water god in the hope that this will transform our lives. In the case of the Elfin Oak, no water is present – yet still coins are thrown into the hollow of the tree, as if people still need to pay tribute to the world of Faerie.
Anthropologists at the University of California tell us that virtually any pool made accessible to the public qualifies as a wishing well… offering money to water is an old tradition that can be dated back to Roman-British or Celtic mythology… since then it has evolved from a religious ritual into a fun, yet superstitious cultural practice… which can be most effectively explained by relationships with the supernatural.
Water too is a vital symbol in the Bible. God moved across the face of the waters. A river runs through the Holy City. Jesus spoke of himself as bringing water of life. The Holy Spirit will well up in us like a fountain of living water. And the only earthly wealth we need throw in is the treasure of our own hearts.
Sheila Robinson
Sheila’s new novel Mystical Circles was recently published
in paperback under her pen-name S.C. Skillman
www.scskillman.co.uk