Be Like Water

An Eclipse Message

About ten years ago, I was working on a short documentary film about water. We were on location at a natural springs whose water had recently been privatized by a newly constructed resort. Grandma Aggie, a Native American elder and member of the Siletz tribe of Oregon that had long dwelled on this land, instructed our film crew to thank water every time we drank it, used water to bathe, or crossed over waterways on bridges. She told us to say “Thank you, I love you” to the water. She performed a water blessing, never once criticizing the resort owner for limiting access to the waters that she and her ancestors considered sacred. Instead, in the soft, powerful, yielding way of water, she taught us to come into relationship with the water, perhaps knowing that this relationship would open our eyes in time.

By following her lead over the years, I have gradually come to perceive water as a living being, just like you and me. Something about slowing down, paying attention, and being curious about how to come into relationship with this being has awakened this awareness in me.

I pass Grandma Aggie’s instruction on to you and invite you, too, to develop a conscious relationship and communication with water. Thank the water you drink. Notice the water you use and appreciate water’s generosity. Feel how the water in your area forms the boundaries of the ecosystems in which you take part. Consider this to be your evolutionary work for these next six months.

We on Earth (and as Earth) will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun at 6:58am Eastern Time this Saturday, March 29, when the Earth, Moon, and Sun line up in such as a way as to eclipse the Sun’s light. The six months between any two eclipse pairs are a distinct evolutionary chapter and this current chapter is heightened in intensity because of a number of other significant astronomical events coinciding with this eclipse.

What does our holy Earth body feel in response to such a celestial event? Our bodies, as extensions of the Earth, register this periodic cosmic geometry as a kind of planetary energy reset.

The reset brought on by this particular eclipse is bringing its evolutionary gifts through the medium of water in all its forms – rain, ice, humidity, the Ocean, tea, our tears. With its awesome life-giving powers, Water, once praised and worshipped by our ancestors, is now commodified and harnessed to work for us, yet our respect for water seems to diminish in almost direct proportion to our technological advancements. Why is that?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Water is a source of life for us. We know that without water we could not live, and we would not be here. This life-giving power of water is no more evident than in the ocean. Having given birth to the first forms of life on Earth around 4 billion years ago, the ocean is Gaia’s womb of creation. Honoring Water is honoring our origins, our source. Honoring Water is ancestor reverence.

Take some time late Friday night and early Saturday morning to praise and thank our primordial ancestors that arose out of the ocean, and Ocean herself for her hospitality with us humans. Connect with any of your own ancestors that may have had a special relationship with water, and praise them too for any connection that you are able to feel with this miraculous being we call Water.

The ancient Vedic Seers observed that the part of the heavens where this new moon and solar eclipse is taking place was related in some way to the ocean. They noticed that this part of the sky had a certain power related to rainfall. Over the next six months, we may see significant irregularities with water, the oceans, and rain. For instance, we might see heavy rainfall in some places, but drought in others.

Faced with this kind of wild instability in the climate, we can’t help but be reminded of material impermanence and the ephemeral nature of life in a human body. Accepting our impermanence, we can drop deeper into what does last – that foundational conscious awareness that is always here: the Ocean of Consciousness that gives rise to our entire experience.

Many elder astrologers, including my teacher, James Kelleher, are predicting specific challenges in the world initiated at this eclipse, including: an era of heightened transformation and uncertainty lasting until Feb. 23, 2028 (with the months of March, April, and May 2025 being especially volatile and, perhaps, April 19 being a notable hotspot); grief among the citizens of Iran initiating in mid-April; and continued suffering for and pressure on Ukraine to make a deal that possibly sacrifices part of their territory between now and August 2026.

How do we hold information like this? What do we do with the knowledge that our brothers and sisters around the world – both human and other-than-humans – are suffering? Our hearts call us to action, but what action? And with what attitude do we act? Given the part of the sky in which this eclipse takes place, the element of water holds some clues.

Consider Verse 78 from the Tao Te Ching:

Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’s greatest help.

True words seem paradoxical.

(translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)

Here in the West, legendary martial artist Bruce Lee is often credited with popularizing the Taoist principle in this verse with his famous saying, “Be water, my friend.” His own movements and martial style were certainly an embodied example of the power, fluidity, and invincibility of water.

The third stanza in verse 78 is translated in vastly different ways by different translators, but I like the poetic liberties Stephen Mitchell takes in his translation above. Taoist writer Derek Li offers a further explanation of verse 78’s third paragraph and final line that unpacks what mastery of this principle looks like in our human experience:

“When we encounter humiliating setbacks, we tend to respond with some combination of disbelief, shame and anger. Only a sage can emulate water, accept the situation and deal with it effectively. Likewise, when we encounter misfortune, we tend to dwell on how unfair it is and rage against it. Only a sage can be like water, flow with the situation and turn it around. It is softness, not aggression, that ultimately leads to triumph. This is often the opposite of what we expect.”

In this historical moment on Earth, being like water means not opposing hatred and violence with hatred and violence, as retribution only furthers the cycle of suffering we aim to bring to an end. Instead, we lean in and suffuse that which we want to change, like water, seeping through the cracks, overcoming circumstances by wearing away their hard edges, slowly, over time.

This weekend, contemplate the connection between Impermanence and the life-giving powers of Water. Life on Earth constantly changes form. No human life is permanent. It is born, it dies, and new life forms are born again. This cycle is made possible by water.

In these times,
b e l i k e w a t e r