Sacred waters

As opposed to holy water, water elevated with the sacramental blessing of a cleric (Altman 2002:131), sacred waters are characterized by tangible topographical land formations such as rivers, lakes, springs, and oceans. These organic bodies of water have attained religious significance not from the modern alteration or blessing, but were sanctified through mythological or historical figures. Sacred waters have been exploited for cleansing, healing, initiations, and death rites (Altman 2002:6).

Ubiquitous and perpetual fixations with water occur across religious traditions. It tends to be a central element in the creations accounts of almost every culture with mythological, cosmological, and theological myths (Altman 2002:3-6,13-20). In this way, many groups characterize water as "living water", or the "water of life" (Varner 2004:19, Altman 2002:2, Strang 2004:83). This means that it gives life and is the fundamental element from which life arises. Each religious or cultural group that feature waters as sacred substances tends to favor certain categorizations of some waters more than others, usually those that are most accessible to them and that best integrate into their rituals (Altman 2002:3).

Sacred Waters (1960 film)

Sacred Waters (German:An heiligen Wassern) is a 1960 Swiss drama film directed by Alfred Weidenmann and starring Hansjörg Felmy, Cordula Trantow and Hanns Lothar. It was based on a novel by Jakob Christoph Heer, which had previously been made into a film in 1932.

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Sacred Waters (1932 film)

Sacred Waters (German: An heiligen Wassern) is a 1932 German drama film directed by Erich Waschneck and starring Karin Hardt, Eduard von Winterstein and Hans Adalbert Schlettow. It is part of the heimatfilm genre. The film was based on a novel by Jakob Christoph Heer, which was later adapted into a 1960 Swiss film Sacred Waters.

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