Spirits of Water and Wind
the big water bowl.............
The water tends to reflect the emotional terrain of the house in any given moment. The daily meditation to put water into the big stone bowl is part of the revelation which has been unfolding in the world journey....after two years keeping water in the bowl I accept that this is a strong addition to the sacred space where the fire is living.
On the night of the full moon rising over the rim of the old volcano, the rum cubano slightly chilled is one of the fortunes of my rebellion in style, here on Pantelleria. You can find information about Pantelleria elsewhere on the pages here.
Since I made and finished this stone bowl in the photos here I knew that each ceremony of the sacred fire is accompanied by the small ceremony of keeping water in the water bowl. Pantelleria has no fresh water, anywhere. Never did have it. Rain water. Every house and out-building is a water collector. Even today many people depend entirely on the rain water filling their cisterns in order to have water. Here in the modern times there is de-salting the sea water....and collective storage in tanks of rain water. In our house in the raining months of late winter and spring, the water goes into our cistern, so we need only buy water half the year.
So all this information made the water bowl a strong meditation. This spring, for the second year, five bird families raised their children to get water from this bowl. The honey bees have a disciplined program to use this water. Each day Silvia and I give attention to the water bowl. Sometimes we have to put new water in many times each day, and others only one time. Sometimes it is the wind which makes this choice for us, and sometimes it is the sun.
So, like the Sun and the Wind, the Fire and the Water work together in the total space of the sacred fire....in where it is, as well as around the space where it is.....
A good sacred space helps people who pass through it, and interact with it, even if nothing is said. Life in this area is more or less like life is for us on a day to day basis....the space of the sacred and the space of the life in this sicilian village......on this island of Pantelleria.
