by Mayor Robert MacNaughton
Our rivers are terribly polluted. The big corporations are making money out of it and the government are not stopping the water companies from pouring their sewage into our rivers. What can we, the ordinary people, do about it?
I know rivers to be living beings and I also believe that they have sentience. We humans have sentience, although our sentience is different, I believe that humans and the living waters of our planet can communicate together. A lot of scientific work has been done and is being done on this exchange between humans and living waters. It is a time of crisis for the living waters, the rivers of our planet.
Whilst we can do little to influence the government and even less to stop the corporations in the pursuit of profit and pollution we can talk to rivers. We can say we are sorry for the abuse that they have suffered and we can say we will help them as they have to learn to renew themselves. To rid themselves of the poisons which are poured into them on a daily basis.
Photo: Taken on 21st September at Didmarton the source of the River Avon, three Mayors, Wiltshire Councillors and participants from Calne, Malmesbury, Bath, Stroud and Weston-super-Mare.
To do this, a group of us have started holding river blessings. Our first one was in Calne in March on the River Avon. The second was at the source of the River Avon near Didmarton in Gloucestershire, our third blessing was in Glastonbury held on the River Brue and our fourth will be held in Bath on December 21st. this year.
Photo: Kate Dineen - Shamanic Practioner prepares flowers to be placed in an offering to the river at the source
As the Mayor of Calne, I invited other mayors to join us at the blessing of the source of the River Avon and I also invited mayors from Somerset to join us at the blessing we held in Glastonbury. There were three mayors and other councillors at each of the blessings.
Photo: Taken 1st November in Glastonbury with Mayors, local dignitaries and friends from afar
At each event we are asked to bring water from our local river to mix with other people’s waters from their own local rivers. Taking it in turns, we each discuss what we feel about the rivers in our areas and about how the waters are being so polluted. Offerings are made and the bowl of water, made up of the waters from all our different areas, is poured into the river we are blessing.
Photo: Mayor of Bath - Dine Romero, Vice Chair of BANES - Cllr Karen Walker and Water Maiden - Tara
We feel our River Blessings are an important antidote to the continuing pouring of poisons into our rivers. Over time we hope to build up such a traction that we will see that we are making a difference. Hopefully other groups will start up around the country to do similar things to help our rivers.
