Nehalennia watches, stays, prays, and offers graces and guarantees. She takes the time and lives in the always. This ability to be still and pray is something that has traditionally been part of women’s skills. From her, I learned to pray, to change my images, to look beyond the present. Nehalennia teaches me to muse, to let time pass, and while musing create a space where I hear my calling.
Nehalennia watches, oversees, and abides, connected to the always.
It’s not about what Nehalennia does, but how she is. To dwell, to contemplate, to bear, to walk, to revere, to respect, to watch, to observe, to obey, to flow, to fulfill, and to perform. Nehalennia is connected to all time.
Vigil of Nehalennia
She conducts the waters
of knowledge and well-being
through the ages
veil her in the mysteries
Awake in the womb
She masters the power
The desire burns
to embrace the world
She picks up the thread
spins a guideline
weaves life
into a robe of love
She soothes the raging wind
breaks the clouds open
holds the weather
brings the souls home
Time may ripen
she receives genuine
The future lies in her lap
She creates new life
Anneke Wittermans ’05
Nehalennia has the helm in her hand. She carries a compass and shows her autonomy, she has vision and observation, registration, and good discernment, which give her the authority to be captain of her ship. Nehalennia is a woman at the helm, making a safe crossing.
Being able to fine-tune and chart a course that is favorable. Being able to fine-tune and agree to chart a course that is beneficial.
Nehalennia, the healing light by the water, saves ships in distress in her wake. The Dutch clear light is famous, the clouds and the wide view of the North Sea, you can see far, see over, and see clearly. The old Celtic name of the North Sea is Helle, hence all those names such as Den Helder, Hellevoetsluis, and Helmond, all the way to Norway. She may have been named after the luminescent sea, bioluminescence, caused by sea sparks.
Nehalennia wakes me up to re-develop the old knowledge of womanhood. She asks me to be awake in my lap. Nehalennia is watching, teaching me to take time to look. Nehalennia shows me to live with pleasures. She invites me to fulfill my steps. She shows me how to refine in repetition. Nehalennia asks me to dance in her footsteps before the sea. We need places where we can train the nurturing mind, and where we can grow the nurturing mind. With Diadans and Stichting Beweegreden, we explore the nourishing power of thought while dancing.
Facts around Nehalennia
Domburg is the site of the discovery of the first 12 statues in 1647 after a storm at low tide – Domburg itself has almost forgotten about it. The drawings and etchings of these 12 sculptures show a sanctuary that had previously disappeared into the sea just off the coast of Domburg. Clearly described in the book by Mrs. Hondius Crone.
Since 1970, 300 altars with her image have been found in the river Ooster-Schelde. Everyone in Zeeland knows her name, but the meaning of such a rich woman’s history remains in the mist for the rest of the Netherlands.
Nehalennia altars are gifts from traders from different places in West-Europe. Most research has been done to discover who offered these altars These Gifts were from Traders of fish sauce, pottery, salt and wine, skippers and shipowners, soldiers, and the urban elite given in the period 100BC- 250 AC
Since 2004 I promote Nehalennia s existence and teachings through dance theatre and poems.
Nehalennia Initiations
Initiation The ‘healing light’ by the water
Initiation Mother-to-daughter initiation in passing on
Initiation into light and healing
Initiation in passing away
Initiation into lovemaking and pleasures
Initiation into the Starways 51th-degree latitude
Nehalennia remembers us
Mother-to-daughter initiation in passing on
Inheritance through the female line
Forgive respect reconcile and honor ancestors
I stand on the shoulders of the ancestor’s foremothers
Grandmother’s motives move through generations
Nehalennia Initiation into light and healing
The ‘healing light’ of the water
Family Tree of Transformation,
Each woman can filter her female family tree
Waiting and watching transmission through light –
Nehalennia The Power of Autonomous Woman
Ode to the last of the female lineage
Initiation
Into the art of praying visualize clean images
Bearing fruit
Appreciation of the mature woman
Nehalennia, the healing light by the sea
Healing light by the sea,
The holy women in the mist,
as seers and ministers,
as bearers and gatherers,
as beauties and sages,
we can hardly remember
Traces are obliterated,
altars destroyed.
Even though 300 goddesses wash ashore,
we don’t see them,
we leave them unseen.
We no longer recognize
and acknowledge women’s existence.
We are emancipated away from womanhood.
The holy women were
independent and dignified,
They were educated and skilled.
They were women of value
Something in us knows,
but the world intoxicates
our collective memory
in a mist of matter and prosperity.
The holy women of the waters
were initiates of conductivity,
as trainers and coaches,
as teachers and healers,
as purifiers and polishers.
We search frantically
for new abilities.
Being a woman, being a man,
is a new skill.
Something remembers a value.
In the depth of knowledge
wisdom dwells lonely
Waiting for valued existence
Anneke Wittermans May 2004
Nehalennia Mysteries of Apples and Pears
Demeter and Persephone
Initiation into lovemaking and pleasures
The art of being of senses, senses, and a waking womb,
Underworld (Walcheren)
Circe= Zierikzee
Nehalennia: the art of seducing to well-being and into Al time
Initiation in passing
Patroness of a safe passage
Preserving values
Carrying the essentials
Release reconcile and celebrate relations
Nehalennia knows the art of farewell
I spin in fine threads
with which I weave a net
in which the qualities
of a human will be preserved
Between the stars
I know to find you
I connect with you
along gossamer threads
Tender is my desire
to cherish
that which you liberate in me
I spin in fine threads
with which I weave a net
in which the qualities
of a human will be preserved
Between the stars
I know to find you
I connect with you
along colorful threads
Tender is my desire
to cherish
that which you liberate in me
Nehalennia knows the art of farewell
Anneke Wittermans 2012