WHEN THE WELL RUNS DRY

Literally, metaphorically or emotionally speaking

Picture: Checking the water level in our well!

This morning we woke up to no water. My husband and I looked at each other and said: Oh no, it has happened now, our well has run dry!

Our Forest House is not completely off-grid. We have electricity (and a router for the internet). Water is provided by our own well, meaning that we drink rain water filtered through the forest floor, rocks and layers of sediment. Our water looks a little brownish, for people used to chlorinated tap water.

Students at my Forest School often ask: “Can’t we all stay on site or camp on your land?” My answer is no, because our well cannot shoulder the burden of providing water on demand for all of you! We believe that our well is at least one century old (the building that is my Forest School dates from about 1720, it doubles up as a bit of a museum!) In the summertime, when our entire family is here (five people) we worry about the well running dry. We ration showers and long baths.

Students want time in a pristine and untouched remote place - “Where The Wild Things Are” and where daily life is a never-ending safari - but they also expect all mod cons: unlimited water, internet and electricity for their electronic devices. I often point out that those two things do (and should) not go hand in hand! Human presence affects any land and leaves a footprint, requires recovery time. For that reason my students stay at local B&Bs and hostels, equipped to host guests and groups (and I can focus on teaching instead).

For me having our own well (after decades of living in big cities) is a gift and revelation of mythical dimensions. Water is not “on tap” any more (though it still comes out of a tap!) I welcome rain and express gratitude for every drop of water. As a Dutch woman I am extremely aware of the Germanic Frau Holle’s connection to wells (where she collects the souls of babies about to be born) and of Norse deities Frigg and Saga living in “watery places” (Frigg’s hall is Fensalir or Hall of the Marshlands, and Saga lives at Sökkvabekkr (sunken or hidden creek) where she and Odin enjoy a drink as cool waves babble all around them.

Summer 2018 was positively tropical in Scandinavia (and summer 2024 is not running far behind). We had very limited rainfall and frequent visits from Norse god Thor (thunder and lightning). That summer 7,000 fires tragically destroyed well over 22,000 hectares of Swedish forests. Forest fires even raged in Arctic Sweden (above the polar circle!)

White reindeer in arctic Sweden

I was alone here for much of that summer, without a car. I watched small airplanes fly over the treetops (scanning for fires). My emergency plan, if a forest fire broke out, was to run to our lake and swim out as far out as I could. (Our lake is really a fjord, it is connected to the Baltic Sea by a small canal).

There are three famous wells in the Northern Tradition: Urðarbrunnr (the well of Norn Urðr) , Mímisbrunnr (the Well of Mimir) and Hvergelmir (boiling spring). I use them all in my spiritual work and introduce my Seiðr students to working with them.

The fact that my very existence here depends on a well, sometimes makes me feel a bit like a mythical persona. I take one step closer to Holle, Frigg and Saga. I understand them better and of course I hope they grant me a little of their super powers!

We often use the expression “a well running dry” when people run on empty tank, when they are depleted and have nothing left to give. Students who attend my courses often speak of “replenishing their well”. This morning, while investigating and trouble-shooting, our neighbour (a retired sheep farmer) shared a powerful wisdom teaching:

“Our wells do not only fill up when it rains. The process of water seeping and filtering down is always going on, even on dry sunny days. Of course rain makes an essential contribution to this process!”

Arctic Sweden

What does that mean on the spiritual level? Perhaps that replenishing is a natural process, that is always happening, even when we are not aware of it or actively focus on it. We can aid (or accelerate) this process by taking time out, shielding ourselves from expectations and demands. The same thing goes for healing: our body is always healing small cuts, bruises or addressing internal imbalances. We don’t consciously do this!

On the mystery level, our inner well is connected to other wells (like communicating vessels in physics), I have learned from decades of spiritual work. When we take time to replenish ourselves, we may just top up the inner well of others too? When we take time to dream (as a priority), we often appear in the dreams of other people as well. (As a teacher I hear all the time about “a Dutch polar bear” showing up in the dreams of my students!)

Modern society does not encourage us to reclaim our multi-dimensionality.

I sometimes compare Urdr’s Well to Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious. I perceive the collective unconscious as a watery place (resembling the primordial ocean) where all thought forms and life forms remain accessible to those alive today. It is like a timeless well all beings dip into (or arise from). It contains the wisdom, knowledge, myths and symbols of our ancestors and deeply informs our spiritual or religious life.

It also contains the archetypes: timeless patterns, characters and narrative patterns. We all experience dark nights of the soul and make “night sea journeys”. We all live the hero myth (or feel we should!) On our night sea journey we encounter a cast of characters familiar to all of us: the mother, the father, the hero, the witch, the King and the Queen, wise animals, the monster and the trickster, the cosmic mountain and the tree of life etc.

In Jung’s own words:

This is particularly true of religious ideas, but the central concepts of science, philosophy, and ethics are no exception to this rule. In their present form, they are variants of archetypal ideas created by consciously applying and adapting these ideas to reality. For it is the function of consciousness, not only to recognize and assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses but to translate into visible reality the world within us.

-C.G Jung

When my personal well runs low, I retreat into profound solitude where the Forest Meets The Sea. I go on a news fast and instead curate a “healthy diet” for myself: poetry, a rich tapestry of uplifting stories, cello music and conversations with a few good friends I trust with my life and sanity. I play close attention to dreams and allow art to make itself (sometimes I literally pour black ink over white paper and see what or whom emerges from the inky deep!) I howl with wolves and play my cello in the Forest. I dance with fly agaric mushrooms under the full moon. I play my swan bone flute on uninhabited islands in the Baltic Sea.

I thrive when my personal well is in unhindered communication with Urðr’s Well. When serendipity and synchronicity rule. When I am rooted in (and sipping from) a place of timeless knowing. When I go on adventures peeling “cosmic onions”, always unravelling more wisdom teachings. There is a deep well of ancestral knowing within myself. In a recent post on social media I referred to this work as “working with my mythical self” and serendipity refers to “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident”.

This morning we drove to the nearest farm and filled containers with “emergency water” (with their permission, of course!) We also opened up our well and had a good look. We then discovered that the problem was caused by the pump (in our “Troll House”) that transports the water up to our house. We managed to fix the pump. Miraculously toilets flushed and water exploded out of our taps….

So… how do you replenish your well? Please tell me in the comments!

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out one essay a week, due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about sacred art, Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Imelda, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda has presented her work on both The Shift Network and Sounds True. She appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda is currently working on a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) and on more books in the Green Bear Series. Imelda runs an on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings, where all classes she teaches remain available as recordings, which can be watched any time.

Website:                           

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel:             youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Online School:                  https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/

Facebook:                            https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram:                          https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/