Elemental Devotion: Honoring Sacred Waters

In reverence to Mount Shasta fog, springs, waterfalls and lakes.

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Sacred Waters

There is something ancient in the way water calls us home.
To the womb.
To the inner well.
To the flow.
To the source of all things.

I recently returned from another trip to Mt. Shasta. A magical place I’m drawn to again and again. Last year, I wrote a post entitled, Sacred Waters, reflecting on my connection to this elemental force. Each visit opens new portals, new places to explore... new ways to listen.

Water is a sacred element, as presence, spirit, and initiation. Honored all over the world in various cultures, traditions and throughout time:

• India’s Ganges River, a place of worship, pilgrimage, rite and ceremony.

• Britian’s wells of Brigid, where healing springs forth from the belly of the earth.

• Finland’s saunas and lakes, a purification with heat and cold.

• Holy waters across the world, baptisms where immersion is a ritual of rebirth.

• Our bodies blood, tears and sweat, our forms literally carry this liquid of life.

• Divine Feminine, a life-giving energy of nurturance, intuition and connection.

Water is the great dissolver. It softens what has become rigid. Shaping stone through the gentlest persistence.
It can shape shift, into ice, liquid and gas.
It’s a medium of connection, memory, and resonance
It blesses, christens and sanctifies.
It cleanses and refreshens.

Water is liminal. Teaching us how to yield, to trust the current, to float in the in-between, to be held in the vastness.

And yet, in a world that hurries and forgets, we have commodified, dammed and polluted this sacredness. We have treated water as a resource, not a relative.

Yet, the waters still speak, to those who will listen.
In dreams.
In ritual.
In the wild places.
Even in our own cells,
where primordial tides echo the pulse of the moon.

To honor the sacred waters is to remember we are not separate from life.
It’s bowing before the mystery that flows within and all around.
Inviting us to walk this earth as though
every stream is a thread of the divine,
every rain a blessing,
every sip a sacrament.

As Fog and Mist

When I took this photo, I was standing mid-point on a bridge, watching a gentle mist drift over Lake Siskiyou. Mt. Shasta hovering in the distance, in its own clouded veil.

Ironically and somewhat jarringly, a large man started walking across the bridge at the same time. He was carrying a big speaker on his shoulder, blaring his music on full volume. The song repeating one obscenity after another.

I admit I was rather annoyed.

Yet the fog kept calling me back to this liminal space. Beautifully inviting me to rest between serenity and intrusion, between the sacred and the profane.

To recognize that the sacred NO doesn’t always need to spoken for the sacred YES to fill the space.

To let this thunderous sound fade…
into the quiet…
and stillness of the fog.

Fog is the softest threshold.
A gentle veil between seen and unseen.
Arriving not as thunder, but in soft whispers.
Tendrils of mist, brushing skin like a breath.

The fog teaches me how to be with what is undefined.
For in the fog, edges blur, things are not what they seem…

We are so used to clarity, to knowing, to path and plan.
Yet fog invites a different wisdom.
Where magic in a quiet obscurity,
becomes a holy disorientation.
Where the mystery takes hold
and the mind is called upon to let go of its grip.
Where the soul can now
feel the rhythm beneath all things.

As Head Waters

This photo was taken at a magical sacred spring in Mt. Shasta City Park, known as the headwaters of the Sacramento River. While other tributaries contribute to this river’s vast journey, it’s here many recognize as the river’s beginning.

Originally called Big Springs, it has long been revered by the Wintun, Maidu, and Okwanuchu peoples. This pure liquid seems to seep out of the rocks themselves. Born from snowmelt and rain that fall upon the high peaks and slopes of Mt. Shasta. Traveling through underground lava tubes before emerging here, clear, cold and alive.

Springs are known as a source of structured water, believed to have a distinct molecular arrangement. Often described as a hexagonal or crystalline form that’s more natural and nourishing to the body.

I filled my flasks with this water, thankful to have this to drink on my hikes. This water felt more accessible to my body, rejuvenating and energizing.

And I’m grateful that the City of Mt. Shasta has helped preserve this sacred site. There is no fee to enter nor a cost to fill your containers. Just an honoring and quiet invitation.

To drink from these pristine waters
is to receive something alive.
Something older than memory alone,
More enduring than rock and stone.

Here, water is our relative, a blessing.
Cleansing not only the body, but the spirit.
And in its offering, it reminds us:

What is most essential cannot be owned.
What is most sacred comes freely.
The earth gives from her own heart,
always willingly and generously.
Nudging us to take only what is needed.
For by honoring this reciprocity, you will find
these pristine waters deliciously purify and renew.

As Waterfalls

This photo was taken at the base of Burney Falls. Last year, my husband and I visited these falls, unfortunately, we could only view it from above because the trail to the bottom was closed for major reconstruction. We left filled up but also with a longing to return, to truly see, feel, and be closer with these waters.

This year, we finally did.
And all I can say is… WOW.

As we hiked down, the heat of the day gave way to cool air and mist from the falling waters. It was a decent, but not into the underworld, rather an immersion, a surrender to the currents of life.

The thunderous sound from the cascading waters were like a mantra. A roaring chant that drowned out whatever noise was in my mind. I was drawn inward to a shared silence and vibrating stillness.

What incredible raw beauty…
A threshold where the river stopped flowing and began falling.
A liminal place where the veil between the worlds had thinned.
A realm of both power and grace.
A holy site where the presence of life, spirit, and the sacred was thick in the air.

Along the trail we came across this bench, etched with these words… seems to sum it up:

There is something undeniably sacred about a waterfall.
It doesn’t simply move… it surrenders.
With each cascade, water offers itself to gravity, to flow, to change.
It leaps from heights without hesitation, trusting the fall.

Because resistance is unnecessary.
Because water remembers.
Because flow heals.
Because falling is sacred, too.

There is a wild beauty in yielding.
Opening to trust, releasing into flow.
A spiritual grace in letting life move through us.
Unstoppable.
Alive.
Free.

As Lakes

After our hike at Burney Falls, we sat by the shore of Lake Britton and ate our lunch. If you love trout, this lake is full of them! I watched several gliding beneath the shaded edges, resting in the cool shadows of overhanging trees.

Lakes are placid mirrors in our world. Unlike rivers that rush or waterfalls that thunder, lakes hold. They gather. They receive.

To stand beside a lake is to be invited into presence. Into reflection… That day, the surface mirrored the sky, the drifting clouds and the curves of the trees. As I shifted my gaze beneath the shimmer, I saw sunken branches, rocks and fish.

There is something timeless… lakes are cradles of life, mystery, and magic. Lakes teach us the power of holding space. Of letting stillness speak.

There is a kind of deep listening in a lake.
A spacious silence.
A sanctuary of stillness where the sacred doesn’t shout… it whispers.

In the quiet, you begin to hear.
In the calm, you begin to see.
In the depths, you begin to feel what has long been forgotten.

Sometimes the holiest act is to simply be.
To gather what comes.
To reflect what is.
To keep the mystery deep and undisturbed,
in the quiet below.

May you be blessed by the many waters that flow your way.
And may they rejuvenate, cleanse and heal you.

I offer both tarot readings and personalized one-on-one sessions. Both designed to support and nurture your inner explorations, helping you gain deeper insight into the movements of your life. If you're interested, feel free to reach out to me via direct message or email. Love and Blessings to you!

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