Love how humble and hidden they are...many yrs ago we traveled in the Alentejo (Portugal) following a simple paper map of paleolithic sites. Was so refreshing to be virtually alone without any commercial fanfare..no kiosks selling stuff.
This sounds like another one of those "thin places", where the barrier between the earthly and the spiritual realms is, at least, semi-permeable. This does not apply to all remote places here in Ireland, there are an abundance of out of the way spots, on bogs, glensides, or hills, which do not evoke the calm and serenity of the "thin places", which are frequently in proximity to well sites or early ruined chapels. The idea of "thin places" fits well with the Irish belief held even in pre-Christian times, that there was another dimension, only occasionally glimpsed, throughout this remarkably beautiful island.
I think each of us carry our “thin places” with us wherever we go as Christians being temples of the Holy Spirit who is an inward flowing well of life. Jesus tells us to simply pray to the Father who is always there in secret. Contact with this sweet reality is not physical place dependent, at most we simply go aside to pray where we are as Jesus did.
I don't think that's true. Yes, the kingdom of God is within us in a very real sense, but it also undoubtedly true that some places 'feel' more holy than others, and in some way are. To suggest otherwise is to homogenise the world. I for one have felt these thin places very powerfully in certain places - and not in others - over the years.
Nov 19, 2023·edited Nov 19, 2023Liked by Paul Kingsnorth
I too have pondered this Paul, and I am very aware that we are bound to be speculative in our conjecture.
It seems to me these portals evoke awareness of the spiritual realm in the hearts of those capable of thís perception, this may create a process of cumulative causation by the actions of the many who return over time to venerate God and the spiritual realm at these sites. Prayer repeated over centuries in one site must surely hang on the very stones of the structures created to host this worship. Similarly actions of evil intent leave a ghastly imprint in certain locations, many talk of the desolate sadness which seems to beset the battlefield of Culloden in the Highlands of Scotland .
Conversely , when visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp in the 1980s, our young guide pointed out that though surrounded by forest, the site of the camp itself rarely sees any evidence of the bird life which abounds in the woods surrounding its perimeter fences. Coincidence, or lack of shelter / sustenance, or just too busy? Perhaps.
I must say once pointed out, this absence struck me as most peculiar.
I have sensed the opposite too, an aura of evil, not of good, that clings to some places. When we first moved to our town we had taken our children to a state park, with which our small state is plentifully supplied. The atmosphere felt threatening somehow, the light seemed dimmed, and we did not return. We later found out that it was not a place to let children out of one’s sight.
Interestingly, I have sensed these - both of them - in some of the least promising locations - prisons, where I have spent much time (professionally!). You expect the threatening auras, but I have been stunned to also experience a kind of energy of goodness, call it holy, and not just from obvious sources like chaplains, nurses, or idealistic volunteers, but also from some 'bad guys' themselves, who have taken the plunge into and beyond despair to find some kind of redemptive faith. They're not necessarily overtly religious, but have clearly found their way out of their immediate surroundings.
That resonates with me, but at the same time I remember the words of Wendell Berry “There are no sacred and unsacred places, only sacred and desecrated places.”
I live in a place dominated by industrial agriculture and oil and gas development but still great beauty persists in the margins, if you look. It’s a necessity for me to be believe there are thin places here or at least the potential for them.
I certainly have had my own experiences of hallowed and even quite unhallowed places, but I think them at best subsidiary to growing in the fundamentals of “the glorious riches of this mystery , which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” Father Roman Braga’s experience of growing to know God inwardly in windowless solitary confinement has been an inspiration to me. http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/frroman2.aspx Scroll down to read about it.
Let us ordinary folk all become thin places and springs of life for the Light of Christ to shine through in all places of this quite imperfect yet wondrous world.
If it’s helpful, keep an eye out for the importance placed on *place* and materiality generally in the earliest stories of the Old Testament.
Like where and why do the old pre-Christian saints, build alarms of stone?
What do they do with the bones of their great dead?
Why is Moses instructed to take off his sandals?
It’s all because this is the Lord’s creation.
Just as our lives have times of greater and lesser significance so too do places. It’s ordained to be so who created it all beautiful and good yes, but we learn from some places how we might grow to experience and regard all places, with spiritual development.
… development and the goal: to really acquire this great Spirit of Peace (whom I regularly exorcise from myself with my hard hearted lovelessness), in a dynamic permanence.
Then indeed even in hell when he descended there Jesus managed to bring with himself the uncreated light of the eternal kingdom.
But in my daily apostasy I’m not there yet. So, I thank god for refreshment in ‘thin places’
They're very common on churches right across Europe, beginning I think with Romanesque architecture, of which this is an early example. They would often be the heads of saints.
Beautiful and moving. The coins in the well were disconcerting to me in being a reminder that many look to God as needing to be bribed for His favors. God, as the wells remind us, is always there, whether we are or not, always a source of life, both earthly and eternally. And whatever we receive from it is always replenished for the next pilgrim or the next time we visit.
The coins may be a form of bribery for some. I like to think of it as (not unlike the Jewish tradition of leaving a stone at a grave) a small token for the next visitor to know that he or she is not alone in paying their respects (no pun intended). 🤣
Beautiful Paul. Thank you. When ever I see images of these ancient stone walls and buildings I feel somewhat sad. Like a homesickness of sorts or the missing of a loved one. I’ve never visited Ireland but I can feel the pull so strongly.
I feel to weep for this lost craft and slow dedicated way of life.
Thank you for sharing your pilgrimages to these wells with us.
I was thinking this tonight: a sort of loneliness for this place pictured here: for the hearth of a small society of humans who would take time to build in stone like this, dwell and gather in prayer time and again in this place, smoothing each others rough edges through forgiving contact and interconnection- become as living stones themselves.
"The times we live in have made pilgrimages individual enterprises, like so much else. But a few of us still make them, and when we find places like this, nestled in this old, deep peace, we perhaps remember why." These beautiful closing words warmed this pilgrim's heart.
Here's an article about an ancient British practice that sounds like the opposite of holy wells. Witch bottles held relics desecrated by witches, in order to absorb and contain the evil.
Really good, such a respectful and insightful description of these wells.
How beautiful. I love these people sized places of worship. Secret, hidden but yet, still visited. Did you leave a rag in the tree?
Love how humble and hidden they are...many yrs ago we traveled in the Alentejo (Portugal) following a simple paper map of paleolithic sites. Was so refreshing to be virtually alone without any commercial fanfare..no kiosks selling stuff.
This sounds like another one of those "thin places", where the barrier between the earthly and the spiritual realms is, at least, semi-permeable. This does not apply to all remote places here in Ireland, there are an abundance of out of the way spots, on bogs, glensides, or hills, which do not evoke the calm and serenity of the "thin places", which are frequently in proximity to well sites or early ruined chapels. The idea of "thin places" fits well with the Irish belief held even in pre-Christian times, that there was another dimension, only occasionally glimpsed, throughout this remarkably beautiful island.
Very nice, the expression 'thin places'....don't think I've ever heard that before.
I think each of us carry our “thin places” with us wherever we go as Christians being temples of the Holy Spirit who is an inward flowing well of life. Jesus tells us to simply pray to the Father who is always there in secret. Contact with this sweet reality is not physical place dependent, at most we simply go aside to pray where we are as Jesus did.
I don't think that's true. Yes, the kingdom of God is within us in a very real sense, but it also undoubtedly true that some places 'feel' more holy than others, and in some way are. To suggest otherwise is to homogenise the world. I for one have felt these thin places very powerfully in certain places - and not in others - over the years.
Do the places make the worship or does the worship make the places? I have often wondered that.
I think it's either. I think worship can make a place holy and a place can already be holy, inspiring more worship.
I too have pondered this Paul, and I am very aware that we are bound to be speculative in our conjecture.
It seems to me these portals evoke awareness of the spiritual realm in the hearts of those capable of thís perception, this may create a process of cumulative causation by the actions of the many who return over time to venerate God and the spiritual realm at these sites. Prayer repeated over centuries in one site must surely hang on the very stones of the structures created to host this worship. Similarly actions of evil intent leave a ghastly imprint in certain locations, many talk of the desolate sadness which seems to beset the battlefield of Culloden in the Highlands of Scotland .
Conversely , when visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp in the 1980s, our young guide pointed out that though surrounded by forest, the site of the camp itself rarely sees any evidence of the bird life which abounds in the woods surrounding its perimeter fences. Coincidence, or lack of shelter / sustenance, or just too busy? Perhaps.
I must say once pointed out, this absence struck me as most peculiar.
I have sensed the opposite too, an aura of evil, not of good, that clings to some places. When we first moved to our town we had taken our children to a state park, with which our small state is plentifully supplied. The atmosphere felt threatening somehow, the light seemed dimmed, and we did not return. We later found out that it was not a place to let children out of one’s sight.
I agree. Thin places can let things in from the other side. There are a lot of different things on the other side ...
Interestingly, I have sensed these - both of them - in some of the least promising locations - prisons, where I have spent much time (professionally!). You expect the threatening auras, but I have been stunned to also experience a kind of energy of goodness, call it holy, and not just from obvious sources like chaplains, nurses, or idealistic volunteers, but also from some 'bad guys' themselves, who have taken the plunge into and beyond despair to find some kind of redemptive faith. They're not necessarily overtly religious, but have clearly found their way out of their immediate surroundings.
That resonates with me, but at the same time I remember the words of Wendell Berry “There are no sacred and unsacred places, only sacred and desecrated places.”
I live in a place dominated by industrial agriculture and oil and gas development but still great beauty persists in the margins, if you look. It’s a necessity for me to be believe there are thin places here or at least the potential for them.
I certainly have had my own experiences of hallowed and even quite unhallowed places, but I think them at best subsidiary to growing in the fundamentals of “the glorious riches of this mystery , which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” Father Roman Braga’s experience of growing to know God inwardly in windowless solitary confinement has been an inspiration to me. http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/frroman2.aspx Scroll down to read about it.
Let us ordinary folk all become thin places and springs of life for the Light of Christ to shine through in all places of this quite imperfect yet wondrous world.
If it’s helpful, keep an eye out for the importance placed on *place* and materiality generally in the earliest stories of the Old Testament.
Like where and why do the old pre-Christian saints, build alarms of stone?
What do they do with the bones of their great dead?
Why is Moses instructed to take off his sandals?
It’s all because this is the Lord’s creation.
Just as our lives have times of greater and lesser significance so too do places. It’s ordained to be so who created it all beautiful and good yes, but we learn from some places how we might grow to experience and regard all places, with spiritual development.
*build altars of stone.
Not alarming but informative. ;)
… development and the goal: to really acquire this great Spirit of Peace (whom I regularly exorcise from myself with my hard hearted lovelessness), in a dynamic permanence.
Then indeed even in hell when he descended there Jesus managed to bring with himself the uncreated light of the eternal kingdom.
But in my daily apostasy I’m not there yet. So, I thank god for refreshment in ‘thin places’
Love this, thank you.
This may be my favorite well so far. Are human heads like the one depicted a common sight on these ancient structures?
They're very common on churches right across Europe, beginning I think with Romanesque architecture, of which this is an early example. They would often be the heads of saints.
Beautiful and moving. The coins in the well were disconcerting to me in being a reminder that many look to God as needing to be bribed for His favors. God, as the wells remind us, is always there, whether we are or not, always a source of life, both earthly and eternally. And whatever we receive from it is always replenished for the next pilgrim or the next time we visit.
The coins may be a form of bribery for some. I like to think of it as (not unlike the Jewish tradition of leaving a stone at a grave) a small token for the next visitor to know that he or she is not alone in paying their respects (no pun intended). 🤣
Beautiful Paul. Thank you. When ever I see images of these ancient stone walls and buildings I feel somewhat sad. Like a homesickness of sorts or the missing of a loved one. I’ve never visited Ireland but I can feel the pull so strongly.
I feel to weep for this lost craft and slow dedicated way of life.
Thank you for sharing your pilgrimages to these wells with us.
I was thinking this tonight: a sort of loneliness for this place pictured here: for the hearth of a small society of humans who would take time to build in stone like this, dwell and gather in prayer time and again in this place, smoothing each others rough edges through forgiving contact and interconnection- become as living stones themselves.
Another beautiful spot. Rich with the whispers of ancient souls, yourself now counted among them.
A beautiful place, Paul. Thank you for taking me to it.
"The times we live in have made pilgrimages individual enterprises, like so much else. But a few of us still make them, and when we find places like this, nestled in this old, deep peace, we perhaps remember why." These beautiful closing words warmed this pilgrim's heart.
You might be interested to know that there are icons of the Annunciation where Mary is at a well when St. Gabriel appears.
Here's an article about an ancient British practice that sounds like the opposite of holy wells. Witch bottles held relics desecrated by witches, in order to absorb and contain the evil.
https://news.yahoo.com/eerie-witch-bottles-washing-along-125715625.html