Last June, during the 5th lifenet gathering in Croatia, which took place in GeaViva on the Island of Brac, we had the opportunity to tune in to the energies at the village of Milna and its port. By means of clairvoyant seeing, a group of us saw the presence of water spirits and an ancient relationship that had been severed between them and the land. There was an erotic quality to these beings and their interaction with the land spirits had been of a sensual nature, something that had been repressed by the church and traditions of the place.
In the following photo we are seen standing across the bay from the village church and using the power of our imagination, following an exercise proposed by Marko Pogacnik to disconnect the imposed repression of the nature spirits.
In the Greek Myths we see a classification of water spirits depending on the body of water they inhabit. Eric Edwards in his collected works gives a thorough overview of water spirits in the Greek myths. The Nereids are the water nymphs of the sea and seashore. The Naiads of the freshwaters and the Oceanids of salt waters, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. 'The Nereides or Nereids are the fifty mermaid daughters of Nereus (The Old Man of the Sea) and Doris for which reason they are also known as Dorids or‘wet ones’. They were originally a college of moon-priestesses who officiated at magical rituals connected with fishing. They were thus animistic nymphs or priestesses of the sea who accompanied Poseidon as attendants. As female spirits of the waters they were awarded guardianship of the oceans by the gods and aided sailors in storms. As Mediterannean nymphs the Nereids were associated with the Aegean Sea where they lived in a deep silver cave with their father Nereus.' to read more of his extensive research go here.
It is not only in the Greek myths that we find such a wealth of water beings. In fact in most cultures we hear stories of nymphs, mermaids, fresh water and sea creatures. Cross culturally they are usually considered erotic. An interesting resource on the subject is the study about European understanding of the dreamtime by Dr. Adrian Anderson. In a section titled Water-spirits and human eroticism in the Dreaming of widely separated peoples he compares various folklore from around the world and draws common threads between them. In conclusion he says:
"...there exists within water, when experienced on the level of the Dreaming consciousness, transcendental individuated consciousness factors, and when water on this level is sensed by people, these factors gives rise to an erotic dynamic."
In Milna, we certainly felt the waters reaching the shore of the island had a memory of sensual relationship with the land spirits further up the mountain. We felt that there was a natural movement in this interaction that had been inhibited by human repression and projections and that by witnessing this and inviting the sensual interaction to return we were assisting a regeneration of creative energies to flow in the village.
