The Well at World's End

The Well at World's End

"Those who in youth and childhood wander
alone in woods and wild places, ever after
carry in their hearts a secret well of
quietness and.... they always long for rest
and to get away from the noise and rumour
of the world."
   ___ W. B. Yeats, 'Letters'


    The Well at World's End is one of those secret places of restoration, healing and beauty that are sought in faery stories.  To carry its refreshing waters, we have to overcome obstacles in our path, identify and ask the help of allies who may not be human and purify ourselves in order that we may be worthy to receive the immortal draught.
    The surest doorway to the secret threshold between the worlds lies hidden deep in our experience of childhood. Search your memory for the sweet, essential time of childhood play when the universe was in your grasp: when the dammed-up stream behind your house became a river in flood, when your own body became the horse you (now rider too) intrepidly rode, snorting and stamping along the path. Remember the dappled jungles of undergrowth wherein toy figures became heroic in their adventures, battling with mighty ants. Recall the stories that you told yourself, reading the landscape with masterful childhood senses that instinctively knew the way between the worlds.
    Those stories, feelings, and perceptions are your childhood passport to the realms of the Well at World's End. Those magical waters have power to revoke the march of morality and to invoke the wild places of the heart. They recall to you the allies that you made when you played unselfconsciously - allies that you have ignored through lack of trust and because you have 'put away childish things.'  When you long to rest from the whirling everyday world, remember your own Well at World's End and drink deeply of its waters.

"Recall your childhood allies. (These might be places, toys, books, games, friends, animals.) Give them thanks for their companionship."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]