Naturalistic Paganism
In “Sacred Springs, Part 1,” I described my first visit to Barton Springs, the most famous limestone springs in Austin, and explored the role that Barton and other major Edwards Aquifer springs play in indigenous spirituality. But there are many other artesian springs along Austin-area limestone creeks, including a small, unnamed spring just a mile from my home, near the headwaters of Walnut Creek in Northwest Austin. Last summer I spent time there grounded and centered, with senses wide open.
The spring fed two pools beside the then dry bed of Walnut Creek. Black and blue springwater dancer damselflies hunted around the upper pool. In the lower pool swam small fish and a pair of ribbon snakes, for whom I now call the place Snake Springs. A bluejay sounded alarm, screeching at me from a tree branch that arched over the creek bed. So much wildlife concentrated in one small spot, relative to the empty trail that led there. The spring water was life, when it hadn’t rained in nearly two months and temperatures regularly climbed above 100 degrees.
This area’s limestone creeks and springs are where to go, when you want to listen to the way water talks to stone in this particular place. There are no words to conjure this experience in the mind; the only thing for it is to move the body there and listen.
The creeks are the land’s circulatory system, branching out among the hills, scratching their way through the chalky bedrock, draining to the River all that flows: rain and runoff alike. Parched in summer and winter, swollen in spring and fall.
The springs, where groundwater finds its way to the land’s surface, are mystery revealed: tangible, cold, and refreshing. A source of relief from the Hill Country sun’s relentless fire and the source of life unseen elsewhere. Places where many of the human stories of this place were determined, where Native Americans and European colonialists collided.
Cultivating right relationship with creeks and springs is central in my place-based practice. The creeks and springs need from me appreciation, careful use, and a light tread on the surrounding land. I offer stacked stones, trash pick up, and occasional songs to these local gods that flow. I avoid using pesticides and chemical fertilizers and try to plan landscaping around my home such that water soaks into the soil, instead of running off into the nearest creek. I wash my car at the car wash and make sure any leaks are repaired promptly. In local elections I vote for political candidates who support strong watershed protection. Healthy creeks and springs are cool and clear, with strong populations of greenbloods and redbloods, and without trash, debris, or excessive algae. So may it be.
What relationship do you have with the waters where you live? What gifts do you exchange?
A version of this article was first published on Anna’s blog, Shrine for Small Gods.
Anna Walther
Anna Walther lives in Austin, Texas, where she practices place-based paganism, by honoring ancestors, observing the movements of the sun and the moon, collecting local stories, visiting trees, creeks and springs, and learning about the plants, animals, and minerals with which she shares her home. Anna is a student nurse, and she attends First Unitarian Universalist Church with her husband and children.
Naturalistic Paganism 
Back in 1999, when I was going through classes with a coven, the induction meditations and pathworkings always started with a visit to a place that my teacher had been to, Rose Valley Falls in SoCal. I decided one year for my birthday to visit this place to see what there was to see. It is a tiny place, with an attached campground that is out of the way and only 6 camp laces. the hike to the falls was only about 3/4 of a mile and a bit steep, but well worth the walk. Just opposite the falls is a hollowed-out tree that leans back, with an opening that allows you to lean back into the tree to see the falls. One of my students said that the falls were the male feature, while the slit in the tree was the female, and the meeting of the two meet in a perfect conjoining of love. The Falls range from a deluge to a trickle — we are still in a drought here in Southern California — and accumulates in a two-tier pool further down from the falls.Overarching trees keep the place cool and the water cold. The buzz of insects and the silent communication of the trees and ground bushes are all the mind needs to hear. It is a place where my students and I go every year at Imbolc to be refreshed and to pick up new directions for the seasons :). It is our place practice.
Sounds beautiful. I like seeing my local sacred places at each point in the seasonal cycle, but I feel particularly drawn to my local spring at Imbolc as well.
My patch of desert is my sacred place, nature plants it and populates with critters of her choosing and I put out about seventeen pounds of allegedly bird seed, but I have a cotton tail rabbit and a ground squirrel that run out to meet me when they see me with walker and bucket of seed. I have to have water shipped in as the well went dry twice in thirty years here, so I put out a gallon of water one,two, or tree times needed, just had a 1000 gallons of water delivered today. With all the small animals doing well, so are the predators, the Road Runner, Snakes, Coyote, Bob Cats, and Mountain Lion, Hawks, Golden Eagles and then lastly the Vultures. My food and water is what I refer to as my rent for living here. As less of the native seed is being eaten on my land, more of it is sprouting, and native plants begin to fill in some of the gaps. I let the desert be the desert. Seventy years old and disabled, I don’t have to travel anywhere to get to my sacred spot. I live on it.
Sounds like many beings are thriving in your sacred spot. Most of the seed I put out goes to squirrels, too. 🙂
Firstly, it is so refreshing to hear another Pagan refer to her practice as place-based! For so long I felt like the only one 😛
Secondly, I’m also in the Austin area! Although Balcones Canyonlands is by far my favorite place to melt away, St. Edward’s Park is much closer. Sometimes I leave wildflower seeds as offerings in places, especially where I’ve spent some time quietly reading
Love St. Edward’s Park, too. Thanks for reading, and nice to meet you!