The Holy Well at Alderley Edge, Cheshire.
When you give yourself to a place
Its mossy woods remember secrets
you poured into its waters,
your struggles through mud,
it gave you visions, songs
to sing to its racing stream,
oak to stand solid against your void,
hazel tips to brush skin,
wren’s beady eye to watch over you
its hearty clack for courage.
you lie awake and remember.
You long to return to the bending stream
where aconite and orchids grow,
where imagination swift as the current
is caught by stoop of alder
Your heart skips a beat as you walk
over the rise, down the slope where
your grief emptied itself.
This time you stagger through – laughing.
If you look closely at the at the top photograph, you will see a small green leaf tucked into the mouth of the spring (although it is locally known as the Holy Well, it is in fact a natural spring). This leaf is replaced everyday; a task passed on from one Well guardian to another. This guardianship is a quiet, anonymous, generations-old tradition, which was still in practice when I visited the Well a few months ago. The present guardian was given the task by the old lady, who had looked after the well her whole life, before she passed.
Alderley Edge is a sacred landscape and very much alive, and the Holy Well is its beating heart.
“When you give yourself to a place,
Its mossy woods remembers secrets..”
More posts on the magic of Alderley Edge here, here and here
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