Monthly Archives: August 2017
An abecedary of Sacred springs of the world: Haiti
Haiti is a fascinating country for those interested in the overlap between pagan beliefs and the Catholic church. This is particularly evident in the beliefs associated with springs and particularly on the island, water falls.
Voodoo or Vodou is a religious practice which origins in the Caribbean from West African slaves under the French colonists adapting Yoruba and Kongo, Taíno (indigenous Caribbean) beliefs as well as Roman Catholicism and even Freemasonry.
One of the most notable features is the association of the springs and water bodies with spirits. One of the most important was Simbi a guardian of marshes and fountains, where he would help those in need of a cure from supernatural illness. However he can be a troublesome character and would kidnap fair skinned children who would come to fetch some water to drink and make them work under the water releasing them years later with the gift of second sight as a compensation!
Damballah
Another water deity was the Damballah, a snake whose lives in the water and the land. He is said not to be able to communicate but create a feeling a comfort, optimism and fertility. Interestingly he is associated with St. Patrick who is of course famed for vanquishing serpents in Ireland.
The most famed spring site is Machann Dessalines, where there is a small cave or gròt, associated with a man-made pool, where Vodou spirits Ezili Freda and Simbi reside giving their healing powers to those who submerge in the pool.
However, the most sacred water place of the Haiti’s is the Saut d’Eau found in the Mirebalais district where physical illness, social and psychological issues can be cured – it is hoped! Why? For it is here that in the 19th century either a vision of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel or her Vodou counterpart Lwa appeared in a palm tree nearby. It is recorded that a French priest afraid of the repercussions cut it down. It did not work for the site became the main pilgrim destination on the island. Those Roman Catholic attend the church of the Virgin Mary whilst the Vodou followers bath in the waters of the waterfall. The most important day is during the festival of Our Lady of Carmel, July 14-16th During this period the eucharist is said at the site.
The waterfall is also sacred to Damballah and it is said that its waters also cure infertility and it is said that many women give offerings of underwear. At the time of the festival the waterfall is a great spectacle of people in different stages of rapture taking in the sacred waters. They scrub themselves with soap in preparation for a leaf bath where medicinal herbs are used. They then bath again and after rinsing off the water, the priest and priestesses tell the attendees to them remove their clothes and offer them to the waterfall. By doing so they remove any illness or negativity and are reborn healthier with new clothes. The spectacle of so many people here all hoping for 7intervention from either the deity or the Virgin Mary, in a place where the pagan and Christian combine harmoniously.
Rediscovered! The Sister’s Well, Hoton, Leicestershire
Leicestershire is sadly not renowned for its holy and healing wells, this is despite two works, Bob Trubshaw’s seminal 1990 Holy Wells of Leicestershire and Rutland and James Rattue’s 1993 work on An Inventory of Ancient, Holy and Healing Wells in Leicestershire in LAHS. The majority of wells in the former are either lost or dubious wells, i.e not necessarily holy! One curious exception was the Sister’s Well at Hoton or Prestwold. Trubshaw (1990) records:
“Sisters’ Well (also known as Jacob’s Well) is on the perimeter of the disused airfield. A simple stone structure with steps down and wooden doors stood until World War II but the flow has now been culverted.”
Structurally this sounded like one of the more structure of the county’s holy wells and its loss was a considerable one. Another reason why this site was of interest is due to a local legend:
“A legend associated with this well tells how, during a three-month long drought, a sixteenth century maiden lady called Gertrude Lacey dreamed three times in one night of finding a stream by sticking a pilgrim’s staff from the Holy Land in a specific place. It was located in Langdale Field, and known as Spring Close after Enclosure. A pilgrim’s staff was dug up and, with the help of her sister Grace, she went off to the location. When the staff was stuck in the ground a supply of water was created which ‘has never run dry’. A double effigy in Prestwold church reputedly depicts these two sisters.
It is a common holy well origin motif and is found across the country and even overseas. However, rarely is it associated with secular figures which either emphasises the importance of the sisters or is a story transferred from a lost saint tradition. An interesting well who I thought only remembrance was the farm across from its location Shepherd’s Well farm.
It seemed clear that this was a lost site and then searching on the web for references to well in preparation of my Leicestershire holy wells I was amazed to come across this from Bob Trubshaw:
“In March 2015 the ‘solar farm’ on Wymeswold airfield was being extended. I received an email from Alexander Haddington to say that a friend of his had noticed that an old well had been uncovered to the north of the perimeter track. He thought the photographs his friend had taken ‘would be of interest’. ‘Yes, very much so!’ was the gist of my reply.”
I was similarly very keen to examine the site and photograph it for the book. I contacted the owners of the Solar farm and via a series of emails was welcomed to the site.
The landscape is perhaps the strangest to find a holy well. In a sea of solar cells, panels which spread across the relics of the airbase like a waves on the sea, enclosed in a wooden fence is the well. We removed a cone and some coverings and I peered inside.
The first thing that could be noticed was a series of steps into some deep murky water. The steps nearly reached the top of the concrete lid suggesting there may have been one on which the current covering rested on. The water arose from under an arch which was a right angles to the step and peering in there old stone work could be seen. .
The arch was a strong stone one upon which could be read slightly in the light ‘HL 1851’, did this refer to the Holy Land as the legend suggested? In the article for the Wold’s Historian, a Joan Shaw did some research for Bob Trubshaw and noted:
“The date and initials intrigued us and I was looking through the 1851 census last night to try and identify HL. As soon as I found the name Henry Lacey I was fairly satisfied that it was the Lacey family who had either found the well or, assuming it is older, had built the approach to it.
We looked at a map of the estate, the field appears to belong to the Packe Estate (or did) but the Lacey family owned land close by so it would be likely that they rented it and had perhaps rented it for many generations.”
The name Lacey being that of the two sisters showing that the family were keen to continue their beneficence. Either side of the arch was a piece of metal sticking out of the brickwork, which would appear to have been placed there to attach a metal or wooden set of doors on their as can be seen currently on a number of wells as shown below. Perhaps this would prevent the water being contaminated. These doors of course would not prevent it today as the water table has risen here compared to other places.
The site is remarkably well preserved and the landowners are keen to preserve it. I suggested that the whole concrete roof could be fully removed to allow a complete restoration and this may happen in the future. Whatever happens it is great to see this most interesting of Leicestershire holy wells being restored and rising from the ground like the origin spring – it holds out hope for similar rediscoveries perhaps.
“There is not a wife in the west country but has heard of the Well of St. Keyne” St. Keyne’s Well, St Keyne’s Cornwall.
An old cigarette card showing a women getting to the well first!
A Well there is in the west country, And a clearer one never was seen; There is not a wife in the west country But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne. An oak and an elm-tree stand beside, And behind doth an ash-tree grow, And a willow from the bank above Droops to the water below. A traveller came to the Well of St. Keyne; Joyfully he drew nigh, For from the cock-crow he had been travelling, And there was not a cloud in the sky. He drank of the water so cool and clear, For thirsty and hot was he, And he sat down upon the bank Under the willow-tree. There came a man from the house hard by At the Well to fill his pail; On the Well-side he rested it, And he bade the Stranger hail. “Now art thou a bachelor, Stranger?” quoth he, “For an if thou hast a wife, The happiest draught thou hast drank this day That ever thou didst in thy life. “Or has thy good woman, if one thou hast, Ever here in Cornwall been? For an if she have, I’ll venture my life She has drank of the Well of St. Keyne.” “I have left a good woman who never was here.” The Stranger he made reply, “But that my draught should be the better for that, I pray you answer me why?” “St. Keyne,” quoth the Cornish-man, “many a time Drank of this crystal Well, And before the Angel summon’d her, She laid on the water a spell. “If the Husband of this gifted Well Shall drink before his Wife, A happy man thenceforth is he, For he shall be Master for life. “But if the Wife should drink of it first,– God help the Husband then!” The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne, And drank of the water again. “You drank of the Well I warrant betimes?” He to the Cornish-man said: But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake, And sheepishly shook his head. “I hasten’d as soon as the wedding was done, And left my Wife in the porch; But i’ faith she had been wiser than me, For she took a bottle to Church.”
Robert Southey
Sacred trees?
This picturesque holy well is perhaps the most unusually associated with the properties that Southery alludes to above. Richard Carew in his 1602 Survey of Cornwall is the first to note the well and its trees:
“I will relate you another of the Cornish natural wonders, viz., St. Kayne’s Well ; but lest you make a wonder first at the saint, before you take notice of the well, you must understand that this was not Keyne, the man queller, but one of a gentler spirit, and milder sex— to wit, a woman. He who caused the spring to be pictured added this rhyme for an exposition : —
‘The name to lot of Kayne befell, No over holy saint, The shape four trees of divers kind, Withy, oak, elm, and ash, Make with their roots an arched roof . Whose floor this spring doth wash. The quality, that man or wife, Whose chance, or choice, attains, First of the sacred stream to drink, Thereby the mastery gains.’”
A 19th century view of well showing the trees above the well
Charles Hope (1893) in his Legendary Lore of Holy Wells records:
“It is a spring of rare virtues in the belief of the country people. It is covered in by masonry, upon the top of which formerly grew five large trees–a Cornish elm, an oak, and three antique ash-trees–on so narrow a space that it is difficult to imagine how the roots could have been accommodated. There now remain only two of these trees–the elm, which is large and fine, and one of the ash-trees.”
The Quiller-Couches (1894) consider in their Holy Wells of Cornwall relates to these trees:
“The trees are not as they were in the time of Carew and Norden. The oak, elm, and withy were blown down in a very fierce storm which occurred in the November of 1703. Some years afterwards, Mr. Rashleigh of Menabilly planted the present trees in their place, five in number, — two oak, two ash, and an elm ; and it is a double wonder, firstly, where in such a scant place they get nourishment ; secondly, why by their roots they do not disrupt the masonry, and ruin the well. When standing on the top of the well, all the trunks could be reached by the extended arms.”
However, they then note:
“On my last visit, one of the oaks was much decayed, and supported by a prop. The well has now no architectural interest, the entrance being a plain round-headed arch of native stone.”
Today these trees have lone gone a result of a repair to the well. Quiller-Couches again note:
“On visiting the well in 1891, we found it in a very dilapidated state, the arch tumbling to pieces. Of the five trees only two are left, an elm and an ash, both fine trees, particularly the elm.”
These concerns prompted the Liskeard Old Cornwall Society in 1936 to completely renovate the well, guided by A. C. Glubb according to Lane Davies who records:
“The trees decayed, the lane was widened….it all looked very new at first with bright granite stones, but will mellow in time.”
Now the well has indeed mellowed and is a delightful find by the roadside
Who was St Keyne?
A daughter of the Prince of Brecknockshire and aunt of St. David, she was said to be a beautiful and very holy women, who was sought by many important men as a bride. She is said to have vanquished serpents from the land by converting them to stone, the remains being fossilised ammonites. She is said to have lived in seclusion but was finally convinced by Cadock to return to which he provided the local people with a water supply by hitting the ground with his staff.
Marriage dominance?
Hope (1893) notes that:
“The well is said to share with St. Michael’s Chair at the Mount the marvellous property of confirming the ascendancy of either husband or wife who, the first after marriage, can obtain a draught of water from the spring, or be seated in the chair.”
It would seem plausible that it was a property derived from a pagan fertility tradition, so unusual is it in its nature. But do people visit it for this? Of this property, the Quiller Couches again comically noted:
“It has been related that Mr. Leah, then rector of the parish of St. Keyne, sent two dozen bottles of this gifted well water to a bazaar in the grounds of Mount Edgcumbe, and that they met with a ready sale at two shillings a bottle, with a loud demand for more.”
When I visited a man was there filling a bottle, I asked him what for and he wryly smiled well ‘just in case’ it was clear he was well aware. I peered into the well, the murky nature of the water, possible as a consequence of a dead mole in it, if I had to drink this to ensure dominance I would be happy to be henpecked!! I much prefer equality anyhow and one wonders in this day and age whether taking a draft was anyway acceptable?
holyandhealingwells 