As Indigenous people in the United States have recently had to remind us, water is life. As pagan Wiccans, we refer to water as the blood of the Goddess. Water is sacred, beautiful, necessary and precious.
Water, wondrous water
I kneel before you, giver of life
I cannot live without you within me
You give me life, you give me life.
The song Wondrous Water by Jude Harrison
Jude’s hymn to water begins with this dedication. It’s a fairly complex song, and it represents the many faces of water in all her complexity. Water, like the Hindu goddess Kali, is a life-giver and a death-bringer.
Water, wondrous water
I kneel before you, taker of life
I cannot live with me within you
You give me death, you give me death
You take away my breath
On Crow Women’s second album, Crow Magic, we collected and created songs about the four elements: water, earth, fire and air. As we were preparing for that album, Jude wrote the music to his lyrics. I have a clear memory of Jude teaching me this song, on a lovely afternoon at the hot springs where the Crow Women were on retreat. We sat outside, above the springs and right near a fountain, where we could hear water’s song.
A composer’s inspiration
I walked with Jude on another lovely afternoon recently, to talk about the song, and water. We traipsed through the riparian area along the Animas River (close to my home in Durango, Colorado), and Jude told me of the song’s birth. Jude, then Judith before he transitioned, was at the Michigan Women’s Fest in 2010 at a songwriting workshop led by Pat Humphries of Emma’s Revolution. Judith wrote the lyrics at this workshop. He was inspired by the kinesthetic connection we have to water, and its interactive cycle with earth and sky.
He told me his favorite memories of interacting with water, standing chest deep in strong current, leaning forward and being held up by water. Leaning forward into the water…and blowing bubbles into it.
Water you are wondrous
I sing to you
Do you hear?
Do you reply?
Are you alive?
I’ve had flashing moments
Feeling water alive
Playing with me
Playing with me
Playing with me
Jude recalled a specific memory of “playing with water, and water playing with me” at Little Beach on Maui, kneeling on the beach with his back to the waves and being picked up and riding the waves in. He also remembered the feeling of Seattle rain as “little kisses.”
Nature is our teacher
As we wandered among cottonwood trees, bright with golden light of autumn, we felt our kinship with nature, and Jude told me about a book, To Dance With God, which teaches about connection with the Divine through our everyday actions. To Jude, the still, small voice of the Divine often comes through connecting with nature.
The song has grown to have a life of its own. It’s been used at workshops and water blessings, and at a community ceremony to heal the Animas River after a toxic spill. Jude is happy it has been useful in these ways.
Water: source of beginnings and endings
Kali, the “giver and taker” of life is honored in last verse.
Water, wondrous water
I kneel before you
Giver and taker of life
I cannot live within or without you
You give me life
And you bring death
Splashes to splashes, drop to drop
You give me life
You give me death
Water, wondrous water
Be here with me
Water’s mystical properties include transformation, on the cellular level, between liquid and gas. As we learn to transform ourselves, water is a great teacher. It can go with the flow, or carve a new canyon. Water does indeed sustain us and all life, and we honor the magickal and divine in all of us through water, the blood of the Goddess.
I love this song. Thank you for the backstory!