Meditation: Contacting the Undines

A young woman with long dark hair is sitting by the loveliest well she has ever come by. In fact she comes here whenever she can get away. If you could see the well, you would know why. It is in a lonely lush woodland and is made from stones, now covered in moss and lichen. The young woman is not the only one to have discovered the well, for it is believed to be a sacred place, associated with the goddess. Today around the walls, visitors have placed sprigs of primrose, feathers, stones, seashells, bunches of herbs and ribbons, all in honour of the goddess and the spirit of the well.

The young woman does not know why she is drawn here and why she feels a sense of peace when she visits. She could not tell you the reason why she has come here on a drizzly day, the air smelling of wet ferns and damp moss. As she sits beside the well she places her own bunch of primroses with the other offerings. She takes a deep breath and instantly feels at peace with her verdant surroundings and in turn with her inner self. She feels the breeze running through her waist-length hair and thinks for a split-second that she hears a woman singing on that breeze. She wonders if someone else is coming to visit the well. She listens for the singing again, but only hears the sounds of the woodland. She drops a primrose petal into the well water and watches the ripples spread across the sun-speckled water. When the ripples have ebbed away she looks down at her own reflection.

In the well water she sees a beautiful young woman with waist-length dark hair. She smiles when she smiles, she blinks when she blinks, so she thinks it must be her reflection. And yet there is something different today. She drops another petal into the water and the reflection ripples. She whispers her goodbyes to the well and starts to make her way back home, down the public footpath. She ponders on her reflection, not knowing why she is dwelling upon the image. Until she realizes one thing: her undine reflection was naked, whereas she had peered into the well fully clothed. The reflection could not have been her.