Water is your Ancestor

Water.

Water has seen every Ancestor’s face and everyone here today.

Water has cleaned, cleansed, and nourished each body on this earth.

Water supports our art, our infrastructure, our hobbies, and our beliefs.

Water has carried wishes, heard stories, and held the dead.

Water moves all over this earth, from the rivers and streams to the storms carried across the globe.

The lakes across the world know your name. The wells deep below know your family history. The Water in your cup knows your purpose.

How can you better connect with this ancestor of ours? What stories and ancestral wisdom can you learn from Water?

Sometimes you have those moments when you come across new knowledge or are reminded of something at just the right time and it feels like it cracks your world wide open. When I first learned of the water healing ceremonies and practices of my people, I remember feeling that; like something finally clicked into place. Some of it I’ve heard passed down from knowledge keepers and some of it I’ve had to research on my own, but the impact it had was profound. Many times I’ve wished and prayed for healing for the waters of this world and I’ve asked it to gift me the same. When you do both by connecting through an entire ceremonial ritual, it really supercharges the connection and bond you have with Water itself.

The practices of my ancestry vary and so a couple weeks ago I set out to create a ceremony where I combined elements of the two practices I turn to so that I could deepen the bridge between my Ancestors, myself, and water. Water has since visited me in my dreams every night and it made me consider my everyday relationship with Water more deeply. Sure I drink it, I shower, and I water my plants. I dance in the rain and I praise the clouds for their hard work. I help clean up trash and leave energetic offerings whenever I have the chance to be near bodies of water. I’ve signed petitions asking for cleaner water, for removing dams, and sent emails to government officials stating my concerns about water. But is this enough? Should I advocate more? Is my energetic exchange equal? Have I said “thank you” often to water for all it does for me, my family, and this planet?

Water is intelligent, it holds memory and energy. One of my favorite accounts on Instagram is @vedaaustin_water does fascinating experiments where she’ll set a petri dish of water on an image, dip something in it, say something to it, set it on her nightstand, etc. and flash freeze it to see what image it creates. I highly recommend you check out the account but almost every single time, the image in the water matches whatever it was she charged it with. Indigenous peoples across the world have worshiped and worked with water for centuries. Wells all over the world are renowned for their healing and other properties. People are in awe every time they see a waterfall, visit the beach, or find a glacier fed creek. Humans everywhere flock to water to play together. Some of the most biodiverse life occurs in water, and it’s a well-known theory that the origin of life itself likely started in water.

I hope that sharing a peek into what I’ve been up to inspires you to consider the ways you engage with water and to look to your own ancestry for clues on how to deepen your connection with it. You can also ask water itself, it does hold the memory of every ancestor we’ve ever had afterall. I wouldn’t be the water bearing Aquarius if I didn’t also encourage you to find a petition to sign, email a government official, leave some out for the insects and animals, donate to water cleaning efforts, buy water for Indigenous Peoples who don’t have access to it, clean a creek whether it’s alone or with a group of friends– there are so many things we can do to make sure we’re giving back to water and thanking it fully. It’s essential to life everywhere and it’ll always keep doing the same for us too.

Ways you can engage and spiritually connect with water more often:

• Use water in your art and speak with it (like when using water to sculpt clay or painting with watercolors/gouache.)

• Sit by different bodies of water because they each feel and speak a little differently (like a pond one day, a stream another day, etc.)

• Play positive music or high frequency sounds (especially sound bowls) for water. Do that with the water you drink too!

• Wish healing and blessings for water first before asking it for something.

• Meditate on water or with water tools (like a bowl of water, a shell, a picture of the ocean, etc.) and ask it to share its wisdom.

• Try out an ancestral water ceremony or co-create one with your Ancestors and water.

• Have a fish tank? Try energetically feeling the status of the water before and after a water change.

• Journal & chat with water while you wait for your shower to warm up or your bath to fill up.

• Occasionally instead of asking your guides for help with flow in life, ask water instead!

I was inspired to write this post because I learned that the US is one of the top users of water per person. And in a world with many people threatened to run out, constant droughts, sea levels rising, and more, it’s nice to know that others connect with water on this level too. Keep trying to make change, keep using your water smartly, and keep treating it like the good old family member you love seeing every day.