We held another River Blessing on Sunday 22nd September during seriously heavy rain. We went to the Source of the Salisbury Avon which rises between the two churches of Alton Barnes, and Alton Priors. It rained, and rained and rained.
Fortunately the unused church at Alton Priors was open, and we held most of our Blessing inside the church.
Our members included our local MP, Brian Mathews, three Mayors, and two Wiltshire councillors. I was astonished when I worked out who was there. We never know quite who is going to attend each River Blessing.
Kate, our Shamanic Practitioner led the Ceremony. We each in turn talked about our personal experienced with water, and Rivers. We each in turn brought some water from our own personal river, or spring to pour a little into a communal flask.
It was International Rivers Day, so we sang a song from Peru, and another from Japan, which was written by Masuro Emoto, the great pioneer of research into water memory.
And then out into the rain again, where Kate, in the picture above, was carrying the wreath of flowers which she had made for the River Blessing.
The flask, containing some of the water of our favourite rivers, was given to the eldest member of our group. Annie Spencer.
We all walked along a very muddy path to the place where you could see the water bubbling up to form a pool which is the beginning of the Salisbury Avon.
There Annie poured our waters into the Source of the Salisbury Avon. Eventually our water would flow down the River Avon to Salisbury Cathedral.
Nobody who was there will ever forget what we shared in the pouring rain.