Water is one of the most common substances on our planet—covering approximately 70% of its surface area – and this precious liquid should not be taken for granted, as it is both the source and sustainer of all life.
Like water, our emotions, feelings and intuition are vital for our survival and are the primary senses we use to safely navigate life. The healing wisdom of water can help to enhance your intuition, bring more fluidity and flexibility into your daily life, and also to offer back healing energies to the polluted and damaged waterways of our world.
To sit beside a body of water is perhaps one of the most healing pastimes you can engage in. Not only does it bring an immediate feeling of relaxation and calm, but scientific research has now proven that people living in close proximity to water have a lower risk of obesity, premature death and are less likely to experience depression and other mental health issues.
Gazing at the ocean or a large body of water actually slows our brainwaves and can even induce a meditative state. The good news is you don’t have to travel to have access to the healing power of water. Visualizing a calming blue ocean has the same effect on the brain as visiting a coastline. All you have to do is close your eyes and imagine you are in a watery location and it will have the same positive impact on your health and wellbeing.
The mystery of water
Water is a sacred substance. Without it, there can be no life. It is one of the most abundant substances on our planet and yet it remains a source of puzzlement. Thanks to the beautiful work of Dr Masaru Emoto and, more recently, Veda Austin, we know that water is actually a living consciousness in its own right.
The water molecule—otherwise known as H2O—is perhaps the most studied chemical compound as there is nothing else in our material world that can take so many different forms and behave in so many various ways. From vapour to liquid to ice, water is unique in its capacity to shape-shift and adapt to temperatures and environments with beauty, grace and ease.
There is so much we do not understand about the mysterious substance that is water. Scientists are still scratching their heads as to where all this water on our planet came from, with many deducing that passing asteroids must be the culprit for depositing it here and others hypothesizing that water simply must have been here all along.
Many of the properties of water defy science. Hot water freezes much faster than cold water. When compared with similar molecules, such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, water should turn to gas at room temperature, but the sticky nature of water molecules allows them overcome the force of gravity and bonds them together in liquid form. Ice or frozen water can form into a variety of different crystalline structures.
Unlike most other liquids, water expands as it freezes, allowing it to float and insulating the water underneath, which has helped sustain life during the ice ages as lakes and rivers freeze from the surface down. Everywhere on the earth, where you can find water—even at its most acidic or boiling—there is life. Our solar system is also full of water. Planets such as Saturn, Mars, Pluto and Jupiter are known to have water on them and many comets hurtling through space are made of frozen water. There has even been a water cloud found around a black hole.
Water as a metaphor for our emotions
As a symbol for healing and alchemy, water represents the deepest recesses of our subconscious, where we glide from the realms of self into the place where our collective experiences merge, fold into and lap against each other. Here is the infinite playground of our deepest emotions—their lightness, their extremes.
Just like the sea, a pool or a raging river, our inner waters can feel calm or turbulent. But the beauty of water is that it is fully mouldable, able to be shaped, held and contained within a vessel. It also holds the ability to shape itself and can adjust its properties to whatever environment it finds itself in. It can be still as glassy pond, sweep as rain, sprinkle as mist, roll as a wave, crack as ice and explode as a geyser. So as a metaphor for change, shifting from one state of being to another, moving with the flow of life and manoeuvring around obstacles, it is perhaps our ultimate teacher.
Our bodies are made up on 60% water and our blood is made of 90% water, so you could say we are predominantly liquid beings. As such, we are constantly having a visceral experience of life. Yet we often underestimate the powerful impact our feelings have on us and many humans have grown accustomed to burying and suppressing the deeper, innate part of their sensory intelligence.
Water is a conductor of energy and carries information and energy around our bodies. Water aids in waste removal, the regulation of our core temperature, the improvement of cell function, it helps cushions our ligaments and joints, protects the spine and aids in the production of essential bodily fluids.
Water moves in cycles, rhythms and tides both around our bodies and around the planet. As previously mentioned, 70% of the surface of earth is covered by oceans and the seas make up 97% of all the surface water on our planet. Of what remains, around 2% accounts for the polar ice caps, leaving a very small less than 1% as the precious fresh water we require for drinking. Water hydrates, cleanses and renews, creating pathways of growth and encouraging new life to flourish wherever it goes. Water is essential to life. It was out of the very first primordial waters that all life on this planet first formed, so it is also the ultimate tool for healing, manifestation and seeing the highest potential of life.
As a metaphor for the human, water acts a powerful mirror, revealing to us our softness, our smoothness, our hardness, our power and our serenity. We cannot survive without water, so we must not take it for granted for to do so would be to take our very existence for granted.
Since such a vast percentage of our own bodies are made of water, working with water for healing and divination helps to remind us that we, too, can fluidly adapt to any situation we may find ourselves in.
The alchemical healing power of water
Alchemy is all about breaking down an original substance or material, clearing it of any impurities and getting to the true core of what it really is. In terms of spiritual alchemy for healing, the goal is to become our truest self by going through an inner journey to reveal the treasure within—the gold of the soul that is us at our most refined.
Water as an element that is aligned to emotion and intuition can help you to enhance your intuition and embrace your emotions, so you can become the alchemist of your own life. The following practices will take you on a gentle yet powerful alchemical journey to help bring more fluidity, flexibility and grace into your daily life.
10 Water Practices to Help Balance and Calm Your Emotions
1. Relaxing Sea Salt Bath
Throw two to three handfuls of Dead Sea salt crystals or Pink Himalayan salt crystals into a warm bath and soak away for a minimum of 20 mins. Close your eyes and transport yourself to a river, lake or the sea. The bath is a good place to meditate and create your own sanctuary. Leave the phone outside, light candles and incense and relax...
2. Cleansing Waterfall Visualisation
Imagine you are standing underneath a shower or waterfall of brilliant white light. As the light cascades around you, it washes away any negative energy or any energy that doesn’t belong to you. Imagine you are now offering all of the issues that you first called to mind to this pure white light, to be dissolved and transmuted back into pure love.
3. Protecting Energy Bubble
Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Center yourself in your heart.
As your breathe in, imagine you are drawing in brilliant sunlight, in the form of pure joy. As you breathe out, you are blowing a giant bubble of light outwards from your heart, which becomes so big it completely surrounds you.
Visualize your bubble with you safely inside it, beginning to float upwards, and allow your emotions to feel lighter and lighter as you lift off.
Imagine your bubble is filling you up with joy. When you feel happier, imagine it coming to rest once again.
Keep the bubble in place to seal your energy field and open your eyes.
4. Hydrating with Appreciation
It is recommended that we drink at least eight glasses (2 litres) of water per day for optimum health. Try this simple gratitude practice to transform hydration from feeling like a chore to a cheer.
Every time you pour yourself a glass of water, say a blessing over it and think of something in your life you are grateful for.
When you drink, set an intention to fill yourself up with positive feelings of gratitude. This helps to invite more goodness into your life, keeping your soul quenched as you keep your body hydrated.
5. Amplifying Positivity Drink
A variation on the above theme is to use your drinking water as an amplifier of positive emotions.
Pour a glass of drinking water, sit down and hold the glass in both hands. Close your eyes and visualize a pristine water droplet forming in your third eye at your brow.
Keeping your eyes closed, gaze into the droplet and focus on how you want to feel. Imagine your desired positive emotion, such as joy or happiness, as light or colour and see it filling the water droplet.
Breathe out into the glass and imagine you are sending the droplet from your mind into the water, where it amplifies the positive feeling and sends it as light or colour into the whole glass of water.
Open your eyes and drink the water, imagining you are filling yourself up with good emotions. See the light or colour of your desired feeling spreading through your whole body.
6. Calming Steam Breathing
This exercise is not only good for hydrating your skin and clearing out the sinuses, it will also help you to relax. You will need some boiling water, a heatproof bowl, a towel or tea towel and a chair and table to sit at.
• Place the bowl on the table and pour in 500ml (a pint) of boiled water.
• Pull up a chair and slowly lower your face over the bowl at a distance of 20-25 cm (8-10 in) depending on the level heat (be careful: steam can burn).
• Place the towel over your head and create a canopy over the bowl to stop any steam from escaping and slow down the evaporation process.
• Breathing slowly and deeply, inhale the steam. Imagine the steam traveling to any pockets of trapped anger or upset within you and gently dissolving them.
• Then slowly and deliberately breathe out. Imagine you are freeing yourself of all trapped emotions and returning to a state of balance and harmony.
• Breathe in this measured way for 10-15 mins or until you feel relaxed. Pour the remaining water down the sink, or give it to a plant or the garden.
7. Draining Away Your Pain
· Fill the sink, a glass or a container with water. Or you might want to use your bath water after you have finished bathing and exited the bath.
· Dip your right index finger (also known as your power finger) in the water and begin circling it around in a clockwise direction to release.
· Set the intention that any irritations, challenges, confrontations, upsets or conflicts are being released from you into the mini whirlpool you are creating.
· Say: “I release with peace” three times, directing all lower energy into the water. As the feelings whirl around in the glass, sink or bath, imagine all lower or unsettling energies are being broken up and transmuted back into love and peace.
· Say: “I now forgive and let you go” three times.
· Then pull the plug or pour the water down the drain and watch as all unresolved tensions—now transformed—spiral back into the Earth to bring peace, understanding, forgiveness, and miraculous joyful resolution.
8. Soothing Still Waters
Sit comfortably, close your eyes and drop into a place of stillness.
Imagine you are a looking at a lake. Take note of how choppy the waters are. Waves on the lake represent how unsettled your emotions are at present.
Set yourself the task of calming your inner waters by visualizing a perfectly calm and tranquil lake. If your mind wanders, bring yourself back to that image.
You may imagine dragonflies or other animals in the landscape around you. Just observe and ask yourself what they mean to you.
Spend as long as you need in this peaceful space, then open your eyes.
9. Freezing Your Intentions
For this exercise, you will need to have access to your kitchen freezer, an ice tray, a drinking glass or pot plant. Think of any positive intentions or wishes you may have. Fill an ice tray with water and whisper your wishes into it. Then put the ice tray in the freezer and freeze it.
When it has frozen, take the ice cubes containing your wishes out of the tray and place them in a glass to allow them to thaw. By the time the ice melts, trust that your wish has been received by the universe and tip the water into a pot plant or on your garden to ground it into your reality.
10. Blessing Room Spray
You will need: filtered or spring water and a clean spray bottle
Fill the atomizer or spray bottle up with purified or spring water and close the lid tightly.
Hold the bottle in your hands in front of your heart and imagine the bottle filling with up white light to represent peace.
Spray one or two pumps in each room of your home or around your office to cleanse away negative energies, create a sacred space and bring in peace.
Alexandra Wenman is an alchemist and channel, and the author of ‘Water Alchemy Oracle’, ‘Archangel Fire Oracle’ and ‘Archangel Alchemy Healing’ (all Findhorn Press /Inner Traditions). For more information about Alexandra and her work, visit alexandrawenman.com or watch ‘The Alexandra Wenman Show’ on https://www.youtube.com/c/alexandrawenman
Thank you for sharing, wonderful content.
Wonderful article about the healing power of Water. Thank you, @alchymistic!