Woodland Pool

(Leaf 9) – Reflection

 

The Water of Leith (2005)

Inland bodies of water and rivers were sacred places in ancient Britain. Archaeologists often find so-called ‘votive offerings’ at such locations. These objects can be anything from humble coins or small pieces of jewellery to swords, ceremonial shields, or pieces of armour. It’s thought that the mirror like surface of water might have been seen as a kind of portal. A barrier perhaps between the here and now (the realm of mortality) and somewhere beyond (the realm of immortality). A barrier which can only be transcended by death, as suggested by Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘The Tollund Man’. Perhaps, by casting such objects (or even, dead bodies) into water they might become transmuted and make that leap between worlds for us. Given as an offering to the ancestral Gods, who might receive them and somehow send their favour back through that earthly barrier. It’s a kind of animistic belief which is common to many cultures around the world going back to the earliest of times, centred on ways of life which were closer to the natural rhythms of the earth, the elements, and the changing seasons. I’ve always felt a tingle of something otherworldly in such places, and occasionally I succumb to that age-old urge. A personal rite, performed variously of simple respect, of thanks, or, of asking for a secret wish to be fulfilled. I’m not sure when I wrote the following poem, or if it relates to any specific place in particular – but it is a reflection upon those old ritualistic instincts which continue to abide within some people, particularly those of us with an eye to our ancient past and the countless generations who have lived and passed through such places before us.

 

River Pinn (2021)

 

Casting a coin

into the woodland pool,

minted the year of my birth.

 

Grantchester (2008)

All photographs by Tim Chamberlain.