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Spring brought flowing water after winter’s ice. Streams and rivers swelled with melt-water, springs that had been frozen began flowing again, the land’s hidden waters surfaced and moved. These waters were understood as particularly powerful during spring awakening—they carried the earth’s renewed vitality, were Nerthus’s blood beginning to circulate again after winter stasis.
Ceremonies honored these waters, sought their blessing, attempted to secure their cooperation for the growing season. Communities gathered at significant water sources—major springs, river confluences, sacred pools—to perform rituals of acknowledgment and request.
The water might be collected in special vessels, brought back to fields and sprinkled on the soil to transfer its vitality to the land being planted. Or people might bathe in the spring waters, absorbing the earth’s renewed power into their own bodies. Women seeking fertility especially participated in these ritual bathings, understanding pregnancy as sharing in the earth’s generative force.
Offerings were thrown into waters—bread, coins, flowers, sometimes more valuable items in years when particularly strong blessing was needed. These gifts sank into depths, carried the community’s gratitude and requests to whatever powers dwelt in the hidden places beneath the surface. The water received these offerings and in return was expected to provide its blessing—rain when needed, moderation when excess threatened, the proper flow that allowed both irrigation and drainage.
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