Over the last 3 weeks Tony and I have been having a break to rest and play - I call this 'filling the well'. Playing and resting is an important way to tune into the element of Water, an element that helps us to bring flow and balance into our relationships, creative works and our own healing. During this break I have been preparing for our new course on Women's Celtic Spirituality and so it's no surprise that I have been working deeply with this beautiful element that was so important to the Celts and to the Goddess. In this course and in the Spring Equinox Healing Waters Circle, we will be working with blended essences created from ancient and sacred wells of Findhorn in Scotland, Findhorn Flower Essences and the natural healing mineral springs from right here in Victoria.
This week Tony and I spent time in the Wombat Forest collecting water from the healing mineral springs around Kynteon, Trentham and Lyonville. Central Victoria has more natural mineral springs than anywhere in Australia and they are free for us all to use. Although always known to the local Aboriginal tribes in these areas, they were found by settlers during the gold rush in the mid-1800s. Very quickly these natural springs became centres for healing and well-being, for bathing and for drinking and today some of the pumps are still housed in beautiful victorian rotundas. My favourite is the Lyonville Spring which seems to magically appear in the middle of nowhere in the Wombat Forest with nothing around for miles but trees, trees, trees...
While researching the history of the mineral springs I came across these evocative photographs of groups enjoying the springs and also this hilarious 'professional opinion' from 1868:
A 'professional opinion' given in 1868, claimed that Victorian mineral water was beneficial "in diseases peculiar to young girls with general debility" and "for gentlemen who have lived rather too freely".
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| Kyneton Mineral Springs Pump |
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| Kynton Minerals Springs Pavillion |
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| Trentham Falls |
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| Collecting water from the rocks at the top of Trentham Falls |
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| The road to Lyonville Mineral Springs
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| Stairs leading down to 'the eye' of the minerals springs trench |
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| A lovely gift of sacred water for our new essences and water blessing New Moon workshop |
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| The Lyonville Spring pump in it's little home in the middle of the bush |
