Life without water- can you imagine? Water can symbolize life itself. Water is important in many rituals across all religion in the world. It is believed to have healing properties too in physical and spiritual healing. Holy or sacred water from springs or pools of many places are used by many people in physical and spiritual healing process. Whether it is water from river Jordan, pool of Siloam or Bethesda, Zam zam from Mecca, Lourdes or river Ganga, some mystical powers are attributed to these sacred water.
The Bible tells of Jerusalem\’s Pool of Siloam. In Christian tradition, it became associated with a miraculous healing after Jesus sent a blind man to the pool with instructions to wash. As a result, the man received his sight. Jerusalem\’s pilgrims would flock to the Bethesda Pool and Siloam Pool to purify themselves in these public mikva\’ot and, at times, to seek healing. Water from River Jordan where the baptism of Jesus took place, the water from this river is taken as holy water.
In catholic churches, a small quantity of holy water is typically kept in a stoup, which is placed near the entrance of the church. The faithful bless themselves when entering the church by dipping their fingers in the holy water and making the sign of the cross. Holy water is also sometimes sprinkled upon the congregation during the Mass; this is called aspersion.
In the theology of Roman Catholicism, holy water is a sacramental, a “sacred sign which bear(s) a resemblance to the sacraments.” Holy water recalls the sacrament of baptism.
In Lourdes mid19th century soon after Bernadette’s vision of the Virgin Mary, the water issuing from the grotto at Lourdes began to bring about cures in people, the spring was designated a place of miracles.
In India, the sacred River Ganges embodies for Hindus the water of life. Bathing in the Ganges frees the bather from sin, the outward purification serving as symbolic support of inward purification. The source of the Ganges lies in the Himalayas, the mountains of the Gods, and descends to the plains of India as if from Heaven. The city of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges hosts 50,000 funerals a year. Death is the city\’s main industry as thousands of Hindus travel there in order to die within sight of the sacred river and then be cremated on her banks.
A more scientific explanation as to why some wells are considered to have healing properties – and others are not – is that the waters themselves might have special physical properties. Possibly they are high in beneficial trace elements.
Zamzam water from Mecca
The well of Zamzam is located within in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 20 m (66 ft) east of the Kaaba the holiest place in Islam. Millions of pilgrims visit the well each year while performing the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimages, in order to drink its water.
According to Islamic tradition, Hagar the second wife of Abraham with her son Ismail was desperately seeking water for her infant son, but she could not find any, as Mecca is located in a hot dry valley with few sources of water. Muslim traditions say that Hagar ran seven times back and forth in the scorching heat between the two hills of Safa and Marwah, looking for water. Getting thirstier by the second, Ismail scraped the land with his feet, where suddenly water sprang out. There are other versions of the story involving God sending his angel, Gabriel, who kicked the ground with his heel and the water rose.
Water has memory
water is frequently thought of as a substance that can carry the energy of a person, place or even a thought. There have been several recent studies by quantum physicists which have documented water molecules re-arranging themselves according to the energy and thoughts that surround them; this gives some credence to the borderline supernatural properties some belief systems assign to water. Holy water is structurally similar to regular water, but it nonetheless supposedly holds the blessings with which it has been imbued.
