PEACE IS THE SOUND OF HEAVEN ON EARTH
Guest Column by Pamela Gaunt
My husband and I walked past the ancient village church to find the carefully marked path to the pilgrimage place of St Clether’s Holy Well in Cornwall, England.
We were led through a hushed valley filled with bluebells, buttercups, and white flowers of wild garlic.
Someone had tended the ancient route with recently scattered rose petals – so we stepped with care on this precious offering feeling gratitude and blessed.
We paused for some time to watch a Merlin bird hovering high in the blue skybefore it swooped down into the valley.
Then there it was…this medieval site of a grey stone chapel, where holy waters bubbled up from an underground stream into an exterior bathing chamber. Here, pilgrims would cleanse themselves before the water flowed gently through a channel into the quiet dark chapel and rippled beneath the stone altar. A local Saint’s relics had once been laid there…so the water was said to be blessed by the holiness of the Saintbefore flowing into a well. Here, pilgrims drankthe waterto heal, and renew body and souls.
Of course, this special place … the valley, the forest, the bluebells and wild garlic, the Merlin bird, and thelife-giving water … had been there for eons, long before Saints and chapels. For this place had an eternal silence that broke your heart with its beauty.
Then I saw it… asmall wooden bench with words carved on the front:
“Peace Is The Sound Of Heaven On Earth”
I wondered if they who had blessed the path with rose petals had also created this modern-day wooden bench altar?
I read out loud, slowly, gently, so the words became a prayer carried out into the valley by the holy waters.
“Peace Is The Sound Of Heaven On Earth”
Since my visit to St Clether’s Holy Well, I have opened my ears every day back home in my beloved West Wales. There is, indeed, a pulsating peace which is the sound of Heaven on Earth.
Yes.
There truly is.
Pamela Gaunt is a psychotherapist, priestess, and storyteller who lives in West Wales U.K.
She lives alongside a permaculture farm with her husband Jono and has opened a pathway for the return to paradise. (See www.
Martin Rutte
