Beltane 2007 (1)

CAN WE HEAL OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH WATER? ©
by Lady Raven Ariana
All known life is dependent on water for survival. It nourishes, quenches our thirsts, and makes up the majority of our bodies. Water also plays a dynamic role in the life force of the entire planet. Oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, marshlands, precipitation, and other weather phenomenon also need water to nourish and develop the planet. It has yet to be discovered if life is even possible without the presence of water.

Life is nurtured and born within the amniotic fluids that surround and sustain the life of an embryo. Once a creature is born it must continue its healthy relationship with water by drinking and eating creatures that are also made up of this fluid. Regardless of whether one feeds on leaves or the flesh of live prey, forms of life are composed, for the most part, of water. In addition to the food that must be ingested to survive, one must also drink.

Drinking water and other fluids allows the body to cleanse itself of toxins, regenerate life supporting cells, and allow our bloods to flow. Not getting enough water causes dehydration and eventual death. Toxic wastes build in our systems and begin the process of clogging and disrupting the healthy thriving of an organism.

Not all fluids are created equal. Pure uncontaminated water is the best form of fluid for many land creatures to consume in order to remain healthy. Yet, the Ocean is made up of water mixed with salt and other minerals. Can most land creatures drink this and survive?

The miracles of creation have allowed the adaptation of creatures to live in a variety of environments. Human beings are a mixture of salt and water. The amniotic fluids where babies grow also carry a proper saline and water mixture. I’m oversimplifying for this article because other minerals and elements are also needed for healthy survival. We haven’t even begun to mention those who live in an environment that is basically saline in nature.

Another fluid like material called Mercury is considered a deadly poison and neurotoxin. I don’t think any creature can live or reproduce in Mercury. Mercury is actually a metal. In the 1800’s beaver felt hats were in high fashion. Mercury was one of the ingredients used in their manufacture. Humans were ignorant of the deadly side of Mercury as a neurotoxin and many hat fashioners went crazy as a result of brain damage. Many people have heard the phrase, ‘Mad as a Hatter’ and connect this turn of phrase from Lewis Carroll’s famous book “Alice in Wonderland.” Lewis Carroll merely made a witty observation of the effect of Mercury on those who worked with it on a regular basis. In those times I’m not sure whether or not science had made the connection between Mercury and madness.

Human beings have rapidly expanded on our planet. The complexity and use of barely understood technology has seen an exponential increase as well, with about as much true understanding of the complex inter-relationships the Mercury maddened hatters once faced. We do not truly understand the complete effects of chemicals, poisons, artificial agents, and pollutants we are producing. It is also not caused by a few. Our human numbers, as this story is being typed, is currently 6,585,868,488 with numbers being added by the minute. This does not take into consideration any other plant, insect, or animal being. Even considering this enormous population, some of the industrial nations, such as France and Japan, are encouraging their populations to grow. They try this through monetary incentives, religion, and government propaganda directed at women (in the case of Japan) to do their patriotic duty and have more children.

Other difficulties include the historic use of waters as being giant sewer systems for human convenience. There have been things dumped in oceans and rivers like toxic sludge, daily used urban garbage, human excrement, out-dated arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, chemicals used to extract gold and other precious metals, war toys lost during war games, and just plain old unwanted garbage when someone has to clean out a deceased relative’s residence.

Next, when we consider the life giving properties of water, we should consider wetlands and aquifers. We are just beginning to understand the role of wetlands, swamps, and similar landscapes as filtering systems and buffers from offshore storms. Intact they also filter the waters so the creatures living downstream can thrive. They also provide valuable habitat for crucial water birds and other creatures. Man made concrete jetty’s, levies, and seawalls just do not provide the same benefits. People love to build on the beach. Eroding sands, storms, and plain irregular tides can quickly take away the beach or cliff these multi-million dollar houses are built on.

Aquifers are the dwindling sources of water that have accumulated underground for untold years. Aquifers are being compromised by pollution and over extraction and use. Pollution contaminates aquifers through the drilling of wells. They can also be compromised by leaky and out dated septic systems. Some of the scariest problems come from certain strip-mining practices that use the aquifer water, while claiming to clean it up to put it back. There’s even a scary pharmacological water contamination issue downstream from geriatric communities with their large drug consumption. These drugs go into the waste system, are not properly cleansed, and end up in the waterways where they get into the food chain and water supply.

Regulation and over-site are sadly lacking on many if not all of these problems. Many ranchers/farmers in the Western USA are finding this out the hard way. Many corporate owned mining ventures are required to return the strip-mined land to its previous condition. However, the original plants no longer thrive and the aquifer is so depleted that the ranchers’ and farmers’ wells run dry. Yet, these profit-making companies are rarely held accountable. I won’t even begin to elaborate about the horrors of blowing off the tops of mountains in the Appalachians to gain access to coal and what this does to the people and waters downstream.

Over population of desert climates is also taking a vast toll causing contention between farmers and those developers who what to build retirement communities in the South Western portion of the United States. Especially nice climates where retirees can enjoy swimming pools and year round golf. Everyone wants to have a personal happy home, especially when you are old and feel like you have worked hard for it. Many of these retirees have been encouraged to make sacrifices, scrimp and save, and generally deny many of their needs when they are young, want and feel entitled to privately golf, go swimming, and live in safe, gated communities if they happen to survive to retirement. They may even feel like taking an annual cruise on a ship that dumps their urine and excrement into the ocean.

How do we solve these conundrums when technology and human population are growing beyond the bounds of any sort of way to survive the ‘learning curve’ or any kind of sustainable living? When human beings are no longer bound by the constraints of where they live, the seasons, cycles, and ability to commune with creatures not considered “human,” what do we do? What are the answers to healing anything?

One of human beings’ greatest strengths is the ability to adapt and learn to use technology to gain a survival advantage. This current “advantage” seems now to be a mixed blessing, because we do not understand all the inter-connected truths of LIFE. We also do not understand the full ramifications of our actions or failure to act. The dominant culture seems to devalue relationships in every form.

Relationships are complex. They usually are expressed in a form not easily reducible to simple parts and pieces. In past times and even in the present modern Western scientific models science has tried to reduce everything to the smallest most mechanistic part. Holistic or models that see matters in a larger pattern of relationships, each effecting each other and the whole, were dismissed as ‘hokey’, non-scientific thinking. Our modern understandings are shifting. Old ways are trying to hold out and the birth pains of new ways of thinking and relating seem long, belabored and something humans and many other species on this planet may not survive.

Water will be around, even as we poison it and ourselves by our poor practices, decisions, and inability to have a healthy relationship with water and our Mother/Father Earth. We can hope and pray we have time to heal our relationships with water and the rest of the beings on our planet. Perhaps our current and developing technologies can give us a hand in true healing for all of the elements, fellow creatures, and basic relationships we so desperately need.