Water Symbolism
The Great Mother and Return to the Primordial
To say water is vital to life is to state the obvious. Perhaps this is why over the centuries humans have ascribed such rich symbolism to this life-sustaining element.
Scientific Properties of Water
Water occurs naturally in the world, occupying over 70% of the earth’s surface in the form of oceans, lakes, rivers and glaciers. Similarly, 70% of the human body is composed of water; humans perish within only a matter of days if deprived of water. Plants utilize a combination of water and sunlight, often considered energetically as two opposite elements (water and fire), to create life-giving starch. Water is unquestionably necessary for life.
Chemically, the water molecule is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen and is positioned in a special way that results in it having both a negative and positive charge. Scientists believe that water in its liquid form is a collective of water molecules that form and re-form continually. Water undergoes a number of transformational physical changes when subjected to certain environmental conditions.
Additionally, water is one of nature’s most effective solvents, and many substances are found dissolved in natural water. Water falls from the sky as precipitation and emanates from the ground in the form of springs. The colossal power of water can be captured as usable energy and is of major economic importance.
Water Symbolism - The Prima Materia
Water is fundamental to creating and sustaining of life. As a result of this, water is most often symbolically regarded as the Great Mother or the prima materia, the universal womb. As the ultimate source of life, water is associated with birthing, fertility, and the feminine/yin, and is connected to goddesses and other mythological female creatures.
Water related spirits and goddesses celebrate the vitality of water and its status as the source of life. Artemis, goddess of the moon and ruler of the tides, is associated with menstruation.
Water spirits express the dual nature of water. Water sprites were tempters of evil, embodying both water’s life-giving and destructive properties, while the Naiads, Nereids, and sirens of Greek mythology were envisioned dualistically, emerging as either shy nymphs or dangerous, luring creatures.
Like water’s mutable scientific properties, its symbolic meaning is variable. Water is the source of all life, and it also has the power to drown and destroy. Its paradoxical nature lends to the notion of water, specifically immersion in water, as being a return to the primordial state. This is experienced through water’s many manifestations:
- Rain (fertility)
- Springs (the supernatural)
- Vast, undifferentiated seas (the primordial state, birth, and rebirth)
- Dark depths of the ocean (death, shedding of the old)
- Raging billows and waves (chaos, power, formlessness, destruction)
- Waterfalls (transition, the unification of feminine and masculine).
Dualist View of Water Symbolism
Symbolically, water represents a return to the primordial state, a death of the old and rebirth of the new. J.E. Cirlot’s A Dictionary of Symbols describes, “On the cosmic level, the equivalent of immersion is the flood, which causes all forms to dissolve and return to a fluid state, thus liberating the elements which will later be recombined in new cosmic patterns.”
The symbolic mixture of water and wine amplifies the element’s dual nature, indicating the mingling of water (passive/feminine) and fire (active/masculine), and of human and divine.
On matters of life and death, traversing a waterway can symbolize crossing over from life to death. In the Greek underworld, the ferryman known as Charon carried souls over the river Styx to the realm of the dead. In ancient Egypt, it was customary to bring the deceased Pharaoh across the Nile River to the west, a ritual of crossing over to the afterworld.
The lyrics from the hymn “Deep River” speaks to one’s longing to return to God’s promised land: "Oh, don’t you want to, want to go | To that gospel feast | That promised land where all is peace | Deep River, Lord | I want to cross over into campground"
Here, the Jordan River, in which Jesus is said to have been baptized, represents the divide between earthly life and the abundant place from where all originated and wish to return: campground, Heaven, the ethereal home.
In analytic psychology, water is the primary symbol of the feminine. This is derived from water’s fluid quality, portraying the dynamic, fluid female side of the personality. For many psychological and spiritual traditions, water also represents the power of the unconscious and the deeper layers of the psyche. In dreams, birth is often depicted using water imagery.
Throughout the ages, water has grown to symbolize many things to many cultures. At the crux of it all, it is that from which all life springs, and in the same moment is the grave of all things.
Sources:
- Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. Hans Biedermann, Meridian.
- A Dictionary of Symbols, J.E. Cirlot, Philosophical Library.
- Scientific properties of water paraphrased from "H2O – The Mystery, Art and Science of Water," Christopher L. C. E Witcombe, Online Learning Resource at Sweet Briar College.
The Element of Water is Rich with Symbolism
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