Drinking Water Read Online Free PDF

many, it serves the dual purpose of symbolizing both death and rebirth. Immersion in the baptismal font can represent the death of the past life of sins and birth into the Kingdom of God, hence the practice of baptizing adult born-again Christians. In Islam, too, water is used for spiritual purification. Many mosques have a clear pool of water just outside the walls, where ablution is required before praying. One can find similar practices among the ancient Greeks and the followers of Zoroastrianism.
    In ancient Rome, sacred wells and springs also symbolized spiritual purification. They were cared for by priests and the vestal virgins. The virgins’ chastity obviously symbolized purity, but so did their connection with the spring waters. The vestal virgins were not allowed to drink water that had passed through the Roman water system. They only drank water from a marble tank situated in their temple that was filled daily from a sacred water source.These chaste priestesses performed a ritual every year during the ides of May, at the full moon, intended to beseech the gods for the continuous flow of sacred spring waters. Their symbolic purity was complete—no contamination from sexual activities or waters entered their bodies.
    I NTERESTINGLY, MANY CULTURES HAVE A STRONG MYTHIC TRADITION that presents the very opposite of the Fountain of Youth and spiritual rebirth. Rather than drinking water to provide eternal life, water now provides the means and a balm for death.
    Rivers serve as the crossing point between life and afterlife in many cultures. In Greek mythology, for example, the spirits of the recently deceased must cross five rivers. The River Styx is the first boundary between earth and Hades, the domain of the Underworld. It was guarded by Phlegyas, and gods made oaths upon its waters. Gods that broke such oaths had to drink the river’s water, making them mute for nine years. The next crossing was the River Phlegethon, eternally burning. The River Acheron followed. Placing a coin under the tongue of corpses ensured the spirits could pay their deathly toll to the famed ferryman, Charon, for transport across the Acheron. Those who arrived without a coin were refused passage, and had to wander the river’s banks one hundred years before they could cross.
    Approaching the end of their journey, souls then crossed the River Cocytus, the river of wailing. The final river, less well known in popular tales of the Greek Underworld, is the River Lethe, also known as the River of Oblivion or the River of Forgetfulness. Drinking its waters caused spirits to forget their life on earth. This amnesiac draught broke the spirits’ ties to the past and eased the transition to their new immortal existence.
    Similar tales of amnesiac drinks to ease the passage of the dead are found in Nordic, Hindu, and other cultures. In Fiji, for example, the dead spirit must stop at a spring as he makes his way to the other world. Upon tasting the water, he forgets his lost life and friends, and stops weeping. This drink is called Wai-ni-dula, or the Water of Solace.

    Drinking special waters eases the passage of those who remain to mourn on earth, as well. The Tring Dayak people in Borneo cannot drink ordinary water when in mourning. Instead, they drink only “soul water” that has been gathered from the leaves of vines. Presumably this pure liquid, untouched by the soil, is a lingering connection with the pure realm the recently departed have now entered. In northern India, following a funeral, the elder Kacharis of Assam pass out santi jal , the Water of Peace. Drinking this terminates the mourning period. After a funeral, the Chaco Indians of the American Southwest drank hot water.
    Burials in the famed Indian River Ganges make quite physical the role of drinking water and passage from this life. According to tradition, the dead person’s family carries the body to the banks of the river. Here, water from the Ganges is poured into the