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While earth was likewise revered, water seems to have been understood as the source of
earth. In one sense, water comes out of earth and returns to it. In another sense, "earth
floats on water." To live on an island is to experience the preeminence of water, while to
live near great rivers - like the Seine, the Danube and the Shannon - as the Celts did, is to
experience the power of water; especially when it rises over banks and floods the land.
Water can define our horizons. It can revive or drown us. It percolates up out of the Earth
from mysterious, unseen realms.
For the Celts, water was a primeval source of everything living; it was mysterious and as
such it was the fount of many magical-mystical phenomena. Throughout Celtic myth &
legend, worlds - both human & supernal - rise out of water and later return to them. The
world erupts from water (as when the Boann causes the birth of the River Boyne in
Ireland). The world also returns to water, as when the city Ys is swallowed by the sea.
Faery Mistresses and heroes often come from water - from the ocean, from rivers and
haunted springs - and then return to them, once their 'task' in our world is finished. Water
gods (e.g., the Irish Manannán mac Lir) and river-goddesses (e.g., Danu in Europe) often
seem more prominent in Celtic myths than earth-goddesses. All of the mythical 'peoples'
to settle Ireland are portrayed as having come across the sea rather than from the sky or
out of the earth itself. The earliest magic of the Tuatha Dé Danann (People of the
Goddess Danu)1 is linked to the waves of the sea. They could not only command water
to do their bidding, but later lived down under the waves in enchanted castles and towns.
Because of its centrality in Celtic consciousness, water has long played a key role in
Celtic mysticism and spirituality. Springs, lakes and wells, rivers and the ocean are
important touchstones in the Celtic quest for Wisdom. Sojourning at springs & wells,
awaiting encounters with spirits and divinities, is a discipline to which the Celts were
prone. Going to sea is a pervasive Celtic motif, in both Pagan & Christian mysticism.
Getting in a boat and traveling down-river, seeking nemetons of revelation on small isles
in the midst of the flow, is another discipline typical of Celtic peoples.
Springs & wells are perhaps the most intense, localized places at which to get in touch
with the mysticism of water. Thus, in the rest of this article, we will focus on a natural,
symbolic and mythical understanding of these watery sources and what can be done at
them - as well as what can 'happen' at them - as a key to understanding the spiritual
fascination the Celts had with water and its sources.
WHAT IS A SPRING? IN NATURALISTIC TERMS, it is a place where the water table
breaks forth from underground, resulting in a pool, stream or marshy area. It is one
station in the 'circulatory system' of the Earth. Rain or snow falling from the sky
moistens the earth. The water then seeps down into the earth, forming underground
reservoirs that, when they reach a certain depth, break out through crevices or from
between layers in the bedrock. Limestone ground makes for the best springs, sandstone
and shale springs being next in importance.
The temperature of a spring depends on the heat-retaining nature of the rock within
which it is stored underground as well as how close it is to the surface.
Springs that arise from deep in the earth are often cold year-round, while springs that
flow out of water tables closer the surface may change temperature with the seasons and
even freeze up in the winter.
Many springs contain mineral concentrations specific to the area in which they are found.
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