Series: Myths and legends Part I
UNIVERSAL PURIFYING POWER
THE MYTH OF HOLY WATER
Water has been the most important cleansing agent since time immemorial. However, if you are thinking of personal hygiene or cleaning the house you are on the wrong track. We are talking about that inner "purification", triggered by spiritual contact with holy or sanctified water - a myth vibrant among all cultures and peoples. Why does everyone actually believe in the magical abilities of this primeval substance?
Searching for meaning in liquid
The streets of the Mexican border town of Tijuana are lined with countless souvenir shops that have little to do with the country's true culture. Between the fake watches, ornamental daggers and bright blankets you can also find small, transparent plastic bottles shaped like the Madonna, at the most 20 centimetres tall. The blue crown on her head serves as the screw top. Contents: holy water. Origin: dubious. Also debatable: the true Christian essence it is meant to emanate.
Nonetheless, tourists from all over the world buy the supposedly holy liquid, in Mexico perhaps only as an unusual souvenir, but in holy places such as Lourdes presumably in the Christian belief that it spiritually connects the buyer to God and frees him from sin. Yet what is the actual origin of this myth of water as the holiest of the holy elements? Why do people not worship fire, earth, or air instead, for that matter?
Holy roots
Putting aside the practical utility that water has in our daily lives, for millennia people have attached an importance to it that goes far beyond its purely material existence. Even ancient philosophers such as Aristotle believed that water was the building block of the cosmos and thus the root cause of all forms of existence. Religious interpretations also date back to the roots of humanity, to the dawn of existence: "In the beginning, there was water"; as the Book of Genesis would have it. And according to various creation myths from Asia to South America, the creation of man likewise only took place after the corresponding deity had transformed the floodwaters of a primeval ocean into land. Thus differences in culture and religious belief play no part in its documentation. The primeval element of "water" is not only the embodiment of everything that flows, or is capable of change and alive, but since the dawn of time, it has had a divine aura.
Apart from the many traditions that are tied up with the creation of our Earth from the waters of the ocean, there are legends in every country that describe holy water as a link between man and the gods: In Finland, for example, the steam from a glowing sauna oven (löyvly) builds a bridge between Heaven and Earth, while in Persia around 1000 BC water was sacrificed at burials as a symbolic ritual to prolong the 'life flow' of the deceased in the afterlife. Be it in Japan or New Zealand, entire populations believe in water's ability to connect the mortal with the supernatural. The associated gods and spirits often reside in hot springs, waterfalls and rivers.
The ritualized molecule
It is primarily strict rites and ceremonies that make ordinary water a fetish. Its holy power supposedly unfolds through a special process which is often stipulated in great detail.
Take the holy water of Christianity, for example, which the priest invests with magical properties by means of a ritual blessing - a liturgy. Afterwards, the water is regarded as holy and is thus called "aqua santa" in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Nonetheless, having a servant of God sanctify water is peculiar to the Christian religion. Many peoples foster a water cult in which very different magical customs and practices play a role. For example, in Japanese Zen gardens wave-like lines are drawn in the sand with rakes to quench our "thirst for enlightenment". And the many famous religious places of pilgrimage with their holy springs were originally haunted by pagan customs: Before the spread of Christianity, visitors tied cloths around surrounding trees in the hope that the waters would heal them. They saw the slow disintegration of the material as symbolic of the disappearance of their illness.
Dedicated to purification
Irrespective of whether an individual believes in divine, holy drinks or comfort objects, all water rites have one over-arching goal: man's inner purification. In this sense, the Christian baptism also marks more than just acceptance into a community, because the sprinkling with holy water also symbolizes the rebirth of the mind and soul. All over the world, ritual washing is part of daily life, when believers renew themselves in their own way: During the Thai New Year Songkran Festival, Buddhists sprinkle water on people and objects in the street. In Islam, before entering a mosque all believers perform a "ritual washing" of at least their hands, face, underarms and feet plus a quarter of the body, while Jews sometimes immerse themselves from head to toe in a purification pool (mikveh), above all when they have "dirtied" (tame) their bodies by touching a dead person. Millions of Indian Hindus make annual pilgrimages to the holy floodwaters of their Rivers Ganges and Narmada, to find in them divine enlightenment and salvation, but particularly to cleanse themselves of sin.
Power and glory for millennia
Why, in a world dominated by technology, do people today still cling on to their belief in holy water? Why do rites involving water that are already thousands of years old not simply die out? The answer lies in water's controlling power. For even in modern times, the angular molecule still reveals its "magical" properties to us, above all when we look at nature. What do we see other than immense power and strength when even the calmest of waters suddenly show their destructive side, when the sea whips up enormous waves or the rain never stops?
Water gives life and at the same time takes it away; nothing has changed in this regard. Thus the transfer of water's natural power from the material to the immaterial world seems but logical. Our unwavering respect for water ensures that it remains the holy element. The believer will probably ascribe this deeper meaning to it for all time - even if this is not what he has bought at the roadside in Mexico.
