(Video) Meditation on Sacred Springs & Music!

October 01, 2020

Click for video: Meditation !

Truly not all that long ago, only native Americans lived in Wisconsin. Names of their villages forgotten. The modern city built on the isthmus between Lake Mendota & Lake Monona we call Madison. The chain of Lakes fed by the Yahara River retains Native American legacy with the names; Mendota, Monona, Waubesa and Kegonsa. An expression of reverence Native Americans created large earthen mounds in the form of animal/spirits surrounding the lakes. For them the Great Spirit infused everything: All the four legs, two legs, wings of the air and plants rooted in ground. Inclusive in their habits of thought and speech they frequently began prayers with the invocation to All My Relatives. The chain of Lakes in Madison fed by the Yahara River has one anomaly; Lake Wingra which lies to the west of Lake Monona. Created by many springs that cool water gathers to form Lake Wingra then overflows eastward into Lake Monona. Native Americans who lived near Lake Wingra considered the springs sacred. The following poem illustrates that a human doesn't have to be a Native American to share that feeling of connection.

Water

As rain

Falls on

Surrounding terrain,

Drips off trees,

Soaks into ground,

Moves slowly,

Inexorably

Through dark soil

And rock:

The unseen

Appears

A spring

A stream

Flowing into

Lake Wingra;

So too

Spirit

Gathers

In us

A conscious

Manifestation of

Universal

Being!

Lake Wingra!

Many years ago my wife and I lived near Lake Wingra. Daily I walked a path through the wetlands that surround the west side of the lake. The path crossed a spring that came out of a crack in a large rock outcropping. Just above the spring Native Americans had created a Bear Mound as part of their spiritual practice. One afternoon in late February after a fresh snow blanketed ground, I stopped to contemplate the first spring where water streamed out of rock near my feet. The bright sun warmed my back and the rock such that a garter snake had crawled out on a rock shelf to sun. I stood for the longest time lost in being with the flow, listening to the sound, observing the shadows of bubbles as they streamed over pebbles that lined the channel where cool water flowed to nourish water cress lining the channel only a little ways downstream.

Filled to overflowing I returned home, picked up my guitar, quickly created a piece of music in an attempt to capture that energy. I call the piece Wingra Spring. I play the music frequently as a form of meditation.

I returned to the spring recently, took pictures and a video of the rock crack and water streaming out from underground. For a suggested Meditation first view the video, listen to the natural music the water makes flowing around stones.