Sometimes conversations are to be relished, and not meant to be written down; the feeling which lasts a lifetime can get bogged down in details, the impact of the spoken word relying on non-verbal communications and the vibe which permeates the relationship between speaker and listener(s).
But yes, I would have loved to be a fly on some of these wells.
On the other end of the water purity spectrum, Edward Abbey warns the desert hiker to avoid drinking water from a spring if there isn’t a fair amount of green slime on the surface…very clear water in a relatively stagnant pool means micro biology can’t live there, which isn’t good either…
if there's no cattle, or beaver, or humans living close by, it's probably OK for somebody who really needs some water...my habit would still have me using a ceramic filter there...
I've noticed in Paul's photos of these springs how many of them are sheltered or covered in some way. If spring water gets too much sun and there's a runoff food source for the algae, it could happen, but mostly these HAB events are happening in bigger bodies of water I think. We have to use our heads to filter the toxins and ceramics for the biologicals, but hopefully most of the remote spring water sources are still drinkable...
I (think) blue green algae is pretty easy to recognise once you know what to look for. I believe it tends to infiltrate the water rather than just the surface, so for instance a stick put in the toxic water would look somewhat like it had been dipped in paint, and has less visible fibres, where as regular algae can be held in a hand in individual clumps. (Don't trust me on that though before drinking! It's just from memory as our town had a dog die from blue green algae in the local lake)
'Healing tokens' are a basic part of life. Placebo works, even when we know it's placebo. Other social mammals and birds also use tokens.
We seem to have a built-iin receptor sense for an object offered with the intention to heal or soothe. It's unfortunate that the Church tries to reject such natural tendencies in order to strengthen its own alternative.
I believe in Acts talks about Peter and Paul touching rags or clothe and it then having healing power, even their shadow falling on someone could heal. Very interesting.
Indeed! Acts 19.11-12: "And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them." And then there is Jesus healing with mud in John 9. It seems as though material creation is able to bear God's presence. The Incarnation proves that. But we best be careful! Further in Acts 19 is a story about how some people tried to make magic out of Jesus' name!!
These are so interesting to see! And learn about new(to me) saints too.
I don't see this as too far removed from the use of relics which can be found in many Catholic churches, there is splinter of bone of St Anne in Quebec at the Cathedral there...
If I remember correctly a recent relic was traveling to be touched and seen by the members of a Catholic church in my area... maybe from the recent death of a nun in the midwest whose body after being exhumed was found uncorrupted? This was reported in the Catholic press but not by the MSM.
Which tends to ignore these stories or make fun of them..Which makes me think of the work of Ian Mcgilchrist 'The master and his Emissary'... left brained vs right brain functioning. The left is so concrete and logical and has no concept of the mystical. And we are culturally so left brained.
Maybe the problem is that we don't know who we are.
We think that we know who we are, when engaging in business as usual, but when unusual circumstances arise, sometimes we do and say things that are a total surprise... to us.
Maybe there are parts, and aspects of ourselves that we spend a lot of unconscious energy trying to blot out ?
Sub atomic particles that were once together continue to influence each other even when separated by space and time... Its unknown how this happens. I'm the daughter of a Catholic (world renowned within his field) quantum physicist.
I'm fascinated by this idea, though what I've read of it I've barely understood. I would eagerly read a Catholic physicist's take on it though. Can you persaude your dad to write a book?!
I could ask him. Not sure a book but maybe an article. He's recently been through an experience of what feels like a miraculous healing. A two year valley of losing the ability to walk and talk and then told he was dying of dementia by the Nhs (I didn't believe them), yet now he's astonishingly back to his morning jogging, enjoying red wine and and talking about science/God. In the depths of it I returned to church after 25 years, as it was the only place I felt held, and able to have company without conversation. I asked Jesus to heal him, promising/vowing to go back to church anyway (I've been going to multiple denominations) . And now he is back to his old self but without his old anxiety. Miracle or wrong diagnosis (or both) I don't fully know but it is making me cry with wonder and thanks writing this. I'll ask him about an article on quantum entanglement and healing places & objects/saints...
Can we really KNOW how/why healing comes about ? Doctors... do not heal us. Jesus says that our faith heals us, doesn't he ? Jesus didn't even say that HE did the healing. I think that that was wise. This may sound like splitting hairs, but I don't think so. If Jesus didn't make any claims on healing, our doctors certainly shouldn't.
We are animals who like explanations, and there is some good in explanations. When I am in contact with a doctor, a dentist, I like hearing explanations before the people start touching me. But there are limits to what the explanations can explain, after all.
The Church(es) are mistrustful of magic, but sometimes I think for good reason, not just because it is associated with the irrational, perceived to be synonymous with evil. Much of institutional mistrust of magic involves the perception that trying to divine the future is dangerous, and ill advised. Maybe we should collectively start thinking about this more, given how addicted we have become to prediction ?
how limited the western church..... thank you dear paul for the depth of your postings. though succinct.... depth, breadth and beauty. alas, my tent grows larger.
It would be lovely to know the stories behind each piece of rag, each object, the prayers that accompany them and the answers (if received). Great read, thank you Paul.
Superb piece. I'll suggest again that you consider a book on holy wells, pocket sized, based on these columns and with maps, etc. I'd love to do a holy well journey through Ireland some day.....
I'm really enjoying these posts! Thank you so much for your travels and your thoughts. I doubt I will get to Ireland in this lifetime, but I have a connection to St. Brigit since she is my patroness. Saints of Ireland, pray for us!
This idea of 'like' healing 'like' - medicine at a distance - is prominent in premodern medical philosophies (Hippocratic and Galenic medicine, and later Paracelsianism), but wasn't necessarily seen by practitioners as "sympathetic magic" - more like natural history or natural philosophy. Medicinal herbs by their shape or appearance could influence where and how a practitioner might apply them; in another instance, treat the wound by applying medicine to the object which caused the wound. I wonder if the later traditions, like Paracelsianism, were influenced by a classical or Christian worldview. Probably both.
That St Ita had it pretty much spot on, I'd suggest 😉
Paul, how many times have you met local people at one of these wells? What, if anything, have they said about their visits?
Not too often, especially at these remote wells. They are very rarely visited. But I've had a few conversations here and there.
Sometimes conversations are to be relished, and not meant to be written down; the feeling which lasts a lifetime can get bogged down in details, the impact of the spoken word relying on non-verbal communications and the vibe which permeates the relationship between speaker and listener(s).
But yes, I would have loved to be a fly on some of these wells.
You get a point for that last sentence.
On the other end of the water purity spectrum, Edward Abbey warns the desert hiker to avoid drinking water from a spring if there isn’t a fair amount of green slime on the surface…very clear water in a relatively stagnant pool means micro biology can’t live there, which isn’t good either…
Interesting. Maybe it's good drinking after all.
if there's no cattle, or beaver, or humans living close by, it's probably OK for somebody who really needs some water...my habit would still have me using a ceramic filter there...
Just make sure its not the toxic blue green algae... Duckweek and regular algae are fine (I think).
I've noticed in Paul's photos of these springs how many of them are sheltered or covered in some way. If spring water gets too much sun and there's a runoff food source for the algae, it could happen, but mostly these HAB events are happening in bigger bodies of water I think. We have to use our heads to filter the toxins and ceramics for the biologicals, but hopefully most of the remote spring water sources are still drinkable...
I (think) blue green algae is pretty easy to recognise once you know what to look for. I believe it tends to infiltrate the water rather than just the surface, so for instance a stick put in the toxic water would look somewhat like it had been dipped in paint, and has less visible fibres, where as regular algae can be held in a hand in individual clumps. (Don't trust me on that though before drinking! It's just from memory as our town had a dog die from blue green algae in the local lake)
'Healing tokens' are a basic part of life. Placebo works, even when we know it's placebo. Other social mammals and birds also use tokens.
We seem to have a built-iin receptor sense for an object offered with the intention to heal or soothe. It's unfortunate that the Church tries to reject such natural tendencies in order to strengthen its own alternative.
I believe in Acts talks about Peter and Paul touching rags or clothe and it then having healing power, even their shadow falling on someone could heal. Very interesting.
Indeed! Acts 19.11-12: "And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them." And then there is Jesus healing with mud in John 9. It seems as though material creation is able to bear God's presence. The Incarnation proves that. But we best be careful! Further in Acts 19 is a story about how some people tried to make magic out of Jesus' name!!
These are so interesting to see! And learn about new(to me) saints too.
I don't see this as too far removed from the use of relics which can be found in many Catholic churches, there is splinter of bone of St Anne in Quebec at the Cathedral there...
If I remember correctly a recent relic was traveling to be touched and seen by the members of a Catholic church in my area... maybe from the recent death of a nun in the midwest whose body after being exhumed was found uncorrupted? This was reported in the Catholic press but not by the MSM.
Which tends to ignore these stories or make fun of them..Which makes me think of the work of Ian Mcgilchrist 'The master and his Emissary'... left brained vs right brain functioning. The left is so concrete and logical and has no concept of the mystical. And we are culturally so left brained.
Maybe the problem is that we don't know who we are.
We think that we know who we are, when engaging in business as usual, but when unusual circumstances arise, sometimes we do and say things that are a total surprise... to us.
Maybe there are parts, and aspects of ourselves that we spend a lot of unconscious energy trying to blot out ?
Sub atomic particles that were once together continue to influence each other even when separated by space and time... Its unknown how this happens. I'm the daughter of a Catholic (world renowned within his field) quantum physicist.
Sir Roger Penrose calls it Quantum Entanglement. Einstein called it Spooky Action at a Distance. It could explain so much…
I'm fascinated by this idea, though what I've read of it I've barely understood. I would eagerly read a Catholic physicist's take on it though. Can you persaude your dad to write a book?!
I could ask him. Not sure a book but maybe an article. He's recently been through an experience of what feels like a miraculous healing. A two year valley of losing the ability to walk and talk and then told he was dying of dementia by the Nhs (I didn't believe them), yet now he's astonishingly back to his morning jogging, enjoying red wine and and talking about science/God. In the depths of it I returned to church after 25 years, as it was the only place I felt held, and able to have company without conversation. I asked Jesus to heal him, promising/vowing to go back to church anyway (I've been going to multiple denominations) . And now he is back to his old self but without his old anxiety. Miracle or wrong diagnosis (or both) I don't fully know but it is making me cry with wonder and thanks writing this. I'll ask him about an article on quantum entanglement and healing places & objects/saints...
Wonderful! Please let me know if he does write it.
I will do Paul 😊
Amen
Can we really KNOW how/why healing comes about ? Doctors... do not heal us. Jesus says that our faith heals us, doesn't he ? Jesus didn't even say that HE did the healing. I think that that was wise. This may sound like splitting hairs, but I don't think so. If Jesus didn't make any claims on healing, our doctors certainly shouldn't.
We are animals who like explanations, and there is some good in explanations. When I am in contact with a doctor, a dentist, I like hearing explanations before the people start touching me. But there are limits to what the explanations can explain, after all.
The Church(es) are mistrustful of magic, but sometimes I think for good reason, not just because it is associated with the irrational, perceived to be synonymous with evil. Much of institutional mistrust of magic involves the perception that trying to divine the future is dangerous, and ill advised. Maybe we should collectively start thinking about this more, given how addicted we have become to prediction ?
how limited the western church..... thank you dear paul for the depth of your postings. though succinct.... depth, breadth and beauty. alas, my tent grows larger.
It would be lovely to know the stories behind each piece of rag, each object, the prayers that accompany them and the answers (if received). Great read, thank you Paul.
Superb piece. I'll suggest again that you consider a book on holy wells, pocket sized, based on these columns and with maps, etc. I'd love to do a holy well journey through Ireland some day.....
Paul. Any idea for the purpose of that pipe emerging from the water to the right?
I imagine water is being extracted from the spring, possibly for farm use.
i do do enjoy the journey you are sharing
I'm really enjoying these posts! Thank you so much for your travels and your thoughts. I doubt I will get to Ireland in this lifetime, but I have a connection to St. Brigit since she is my patroness. Saints of Ireland, pray for us!
This idea of 'like' healing 'like' - medicine at a distance - is prominent in premodern medical philosophies (Hippocratic and Galenic medicine, and later Paracelsianism), but wasn't necessarily seen by practitioners as "sympathetic magic" - more like natural history or natural philosophy. Medicinal herbs by their shape or appearance could influence where and how a practitioner might apply them; in another instance, treat the wound by applying medicine to the object which caused the wound. I wonder if the later traditions, like Paracelsianism, were influenced by a classical or Christian worldview. Probably both.