Water fascinates me and I spend a lot of time thinking about it, so I hope I can convey a little of why I feel this way. I begin with this idea: no matter how fascinating you find life or how much you already love water, you probably would be far more enchanted with it if you knew just a little more about it. If you knew how water moves by spinning, you might start to sense the importance of spin in everything, at every level. You might even start spinning your way through life instead of trying to follow straight lines to expected destinations.
In my last article ?Vortex Hunt? I explained a few things such as how water is attracted to itself, and thus does not fly off into space despite being composed of oxygen and hydrogen. I spoke of layering in water and of how water has an internal structure that is created by its own movement. 
I?d like to steer you this time toward a video I call ?Water Snakes,? not because it has real snakes but to point out how water can move almost simultaneously in both horizontal and vertical vortices. Water combines flexibility and strength, and in this video you can see its subtlety. If you relax and watch it drift by, perhaps putting it on a loop, you may adopt a little bit of water?s adaptability for yourself. Absorbing, dissolving, flowing around obstacles?all these things, and much more water can model for you.
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Comments: 47
If only we could learn all that.
I am on my way to the new video and some more learning.
Minnie--I believe we all can learn that, but it happens one person at a time. Whenever I have taken someone to see water and watch fluid motion, they catch on almost instantly and then they are hooked on the fascinating movement. I believe you'll be passing that sensitivity on yourself because you'd be a great water teacher.
I need to find my most relaxed moment
and come back to it, though.
My consciousness necessarily
presents many obstacles to the flow.
Sad but true, John. Consciousness is so often a dam on the river of life. Hope you find that quiet eddy soon.
- Rumi, Mathnavi, Book 1 ,3691
That's no fun. I'll tell you what it means to me, if you tell me what it means to you !
"Although life may seem pleasant, like eating sugar, in reality, everything except love of the Creator is agony for the spirit.
What is agony of spirit? To advance towards death and not grasp the Water of Life.
People have their gaze fixed on the earth and death: they have a hundred doubts concerning the Water of Life.
Strive that the hundred doubts become ninety : go towards God in the night of this world, for if you sleep , the night will fly away from you.
In the dark night seek that shining Day: follow the darkness-consuming reason.
In the evil-coloured night there is much good: the Water of Life is the mate of darkness."
- Rumi, Mathnavi, Book 1 verses 3686-3691
My immediate mind-flow was to access the memory of watching the wateriness of a snake one time, as it contracted and expanded its zillions of ribs to flow itself through narrow spaces and pull itself to new levels.
Clarke--not time to digest that yet, but intrigued. You didn't leave your interpretation yet!
Raven Spirit--knowing that you too love water encourages me to work on this life project.
John--so glad to see you back! I started to be intrigued by spinning in kids years ago, sensing they knew something we had forgotten--what was that program you used to teach kids spinning? Turns out that spinning is the best way to maintain the central nervous system's sense of balance, a critical matter as we grow older. I now suspect that spinning really affects the water inside us, structures the water in our cells and generally recharges us. Don't you know some deep things about Sufi culture that might tie into this? I don't know about Poe's "principle of the maelstrom," sorry to say.
Sam--with your passion for new technology, stay tuned. My water interests are going to intersect yours big time.
Tom--I'm so thrilled that you feel this is infectious. I have better videos to come which combine sound and sight to continue that feeling, and you really inspire me to get them out there. I'm trying to do this slowly and carefully because I've tried for a long time to talk about this in the world without ever generating interest, and I don't want this to be bottled up in me again.
Carol--thanks for taking time from your busy Gather travels to read this.
Carolion--you should know that what you told me awhile back about being afraid of not getting my message out into the world has resonated deeply with me, and so, this is my message. I am empowered again by your words.
Ed--I'm happy that you brought your scientific viewpoint, which is terribly important. I would just say that it bothers me that we have stopped so far short of a truly scientific understanding of water just because we have explained some of its most obvious physical properties. What we fail to recognize is the nature of its liquid structure, which is every bit as important as its structure in other, more visible forms. That doesn't make our currrent knowledge any less important, and I need to be reminded of that, especially because I don't know enough about it.
William--thank you for those kind words. This knowledge goes over extremely well with kids and I've let myself be stopped for years by not having the immediate access to water for teaching that I've wanted. I've done a little in the classroom, usually with success, but one really needs the flowing medium.
You likely know the traditional Persian symbolism of the the Water of Life? There are no "words" for the sacred aspect of the universal energy, for which different traditions use other terms . The essence of Man, the Angel of Man, the Son of the Son in some Western poetry.
No, I had no knowledge of it at all, but it makes everything jump at me with a new sense of meaning. It first reminds me of Toltec teachings about learning beyond words, from silent knowledge that has to do with an awareness of energy moving, too vast to be described or even comprehended, only witnessed. Thanks for that clarification!
All teachings are based on working with the body. The Taoists learned thousands of years ago that we possess eight different energy bodies that spiral into the energies of the universe. Meditative sound, movement, ritual etc are different means for energy work or practice.
Wonderful article and photo. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my cousin many years ago. I was trying to deal with a problem, and said to him, well this is just a pebble in my stream - I will flow around it. And he replied that in time, my stream would either wash it away or wear it away. Water not only sustains us physically, but emotionally too. I loved your article. Thank you. I'm off to see the video!
Tina--thank you for your kind thoughts and the connection to your life. Obviously that juxtaposition of life and water made an impression on you!
Dannielle--that's a whole new current, as I don't know anything about Aikido. Is that a martial art?
I'm going back to the flow-spin flow-spin rhythm for a moment, thinking of the "water of life" which is the amrit, or sacred substance, carried in the Grail. The stuff which transforms itself into whatever the soul of the seeker needs, whether it be something the seeker "likes" and "wants," or something the seeker loathes and fears.....
Thinking about the Grailness of the Flow of our times........How we're on the edge of this incredible abyss, just like the Fool of the Tarot - with the potential to fall into chaos or leap into flight. Somehow the Water of Life which flows and spins in the form of our bodily bloodstreams and our planetary waters, is really important here.
Thinking about obstacles, and how both serpents and water flows transform themselves to get over, under, around, or through obstacles.
What is the Gift humanity needs from the Grail in order to overcome its false devotion to fear? The test of the Abyss approaches. If we stay devoted to fear, we fall into chaos. If we overcome the fear and devote ourselves to Love, we rise and soar to another level.
I am opening myself here to receive a sacred Risk from the universe. Come on, Grail. Give me what I need in order to assist the movement into Love.
(Noting here that without risk, life can be deadly boring. When one takes the step of asking the universe/God/Love etc for a Risk, then the risk-task one receives is always accompanied by divine protection. It's wise to follow the old wisdom which says "Don't tempt God." That's not about asking God for a risk. Rather, it's about letting ego lead the risk-taking. Stealing risks for the thrill, not of the risk, but of the theft.)
All traditions have the same alchemical knowledge and disciplines based on knowledge of energy vibrations - everything is "matter," it's a question of scale. Contemporary science can measure - it says - 4% of the "matter" of the universe. The rest is "inferred" from observing what it can measure. But human beings can experience the full range consciously with training and knowledge. We see, for example, neuroscientists studying patterns and processes occurring in the brain. They still are not able to measure the energies that fire the neurons which produce effects in the brain. Yet others know that any exercise, diet, psychological or spiritual practice has certain effects, positive or negative, on the energy and consciousness of a human being. All the major traditional teachings have transmitted this knowledge. Patanjali is a classic example of one "description" of this knowledge.
PS-
The 4% is an estimate made by many physicists, astronomers and other hard scientists . The nature of the rest has been theoretically described and classified in various ways. Look up the Wikipedia article "Dark matter" for an introduction.
I would suggest it's a physical demonstration of something beyond 4%, something far more detailed that we can see modeled for us of how the world is designed to spin. I'm not just talking about water; I'm leading up to something far more when I figure out how to say it, something that spills over into every word that comes out of our mouths. Once we cross the barrier of "water is just such and such simple chemical formula" and start observing it in the world, the magic of it is revealed to us in a way that goes straight to the heart of our fears about whether this is a place where intent matters, where we can steer the planet into the harmonious future we hope to see, where we again access the 96% of ourselves we have been blocked from. I've been thinking it was something like half of life we could not access, but I think Clarke has got it right. And so I grow tremendously in the time it takes to write this comment, thanks to the two of you. And thank you Carolion for featuring this article!
I never heard of reality blocking anyone.
Water is not " a simple chemical formula":
"The simple chemical formula of water
belies the subtleties behind its
weirdness. The key to many of water's
properties is not the chemical
bonds between the one oxygen atom and
two hydrogen atoms that make up
the molecule. It is the links between hydrogen
atoms in different molecules. These hydrogen
bonds are at least 10 times as weak as a
typical chemical bond, which means that while
they can bind molecules together, they also
break easily at room temperature....
'A single drop of water is ...a seething melee of
order and disorder, with structures constantly
forming and breaking up within it.
The result is a liquid with dozens of anomalous
bulk properties, from a boiling point more than
150 °C higher than that of comparable liquids
to a marked reluctance to being compressed.
All the bonds affecting water molecules are
ultimately caused by quantum effects, but hydrogen
bonds are the result of one of the strangest quantum
phenomena: so-called zero-point vibrations. A
consequence of Heisenberg's famous uncertainty
principle, these constant vibrations are a product
of the impossibility of pinning down
the total energy of a system with absolute
precision at any given moment in time.
Even if the universe itself froze over and its
temperature plunged to absolute zero, zero-point
vibrations would still be going strong, propelled
by energy from empty space.'...
In the case of water, these vibrations stretch
the bonds between hydrogen atoms and their host
oxygen atoms, enabling them to link up
with neighbouring molecules more easily.
The result is the highly cohesive liquid that
keeps our planet alive.
Felix Franks of the University of Cambridge
has a nice illustration of the vital role this quantum
effect plays. Just take some water and swap the hydrogen
for atoms of its heavier isotope deuterium. You end up
with a liquid that is chemically identical, yet poisonous
to all but the most primitive organisms. "The only
difference is in the zero-point energy," says Franks.
A growing number of researchers are now investigatingt
the consequences of this deep link between quantum effects
and life. Recent advances in theoretical methods,
experimental techniques and brute computing power
have allowed them to study how water interacts with
DNA, proteins and cells in unprecedented detail.
The results are often unexpected, and challenge
simplistic assumptions about how life works.
Certainly the fashionable view that the secret of
life can be summed up in a catalogue of genes and
the proteins they code for looks risibly simplistic.
It is becoming clear that they cannot carry out even
their most basic functions without direct help
from molecules of the colourless, odourless curiosity
that comes out of the tap. 'Without water, it is all
just chemistry, says Franks, but
add water and you get biology.'"
http://groups.google.co.il/group/soc.culture.romanian/browse_thread/thread/acb7abf72e8d2ece
and also
an invitation to submit some paintings to a show in Texas - on - WATER!
Spinning is something I have loved to do since childhood, and was always able to entice others to join me, even as an adult. The last time I did this, as heart guided me, was last month. Hey........I'm 57. If I can still do it, anyone can! ('We' won't tell anyone that I'm just a little more careful with my steps now. LOL) ---------- And I have always sought water out. I used to concern family and friends, because I've been known to walk out into the middle of a stream in winter-time, fully clothed, and lie down in it; always with my head toward the oncoming of the water. I would lie there for long periods of time, drifting in meditative state and feeling a Oneness with the water. And floating in deeper waters is very natural for me, and I can do this for very long periods of time with little to no movement. I've had people call out to me, worried that I'd drowned. ---- From a much less scientific and knowledgeable standpoint, I understand your fascination with water.
I did that, Tanya, and thank you for asking. I love what you said about spinning, and I've wanted to behave in water like you have, but never quite had the nerve. You may have spiritual connections to water that I have intellectually. Or rather, your spiritual connections may be deeper than mine, and that's a lead I want to follow. And yes, this has been a marvelous journey through these comments, one I expect to be reviewing for some time to come. When I come back to this after a break, I'm pretty sure I'll find new insights. Thank you!