ChristoSophia in Chester


In May, 2015 we undertook another of our many pilgrimages to England and made our first stop at Chester Cathedral. This was because it was conveniently only a short distance from the Manchester Airport, but we soon discovered that there was a much deeper purpose for making Chester Cathedral our first destination, and our experience there bestowed a blessing upon our entire pilgrimage.

We approached the cathedral through the picturesque streets of Chester, with its ancient Roman walls and medieval half-timbered buildings. As we entered the city center we could see the impressive red sandstone cathedral looming up before us. This building, which began as a Benedictine monastery in the 11th century, was converted into an Anglican cathedral in the 16th century. It was dedicated to the 8th century female Saint Werburgh and from earliest times was a pilgrimage site for those who came to seek her aid in miracles of healing as they drank the water from the sacred well of the church.

There were many treasures to discover at Chester Cathedral: the medieval woodwork which is some of the finest in England, beautiful gilded roof bosses, a number of intriguing Green Men, and the Cloisters with its lovely 19th century stained glass windows. But it was when we stepped outside to the cloister garden that we discovered the greatest treasure of all: in the center was a fountain that depicted the Biblical story of Jesus and the woman at the well. The figures formed a circular arc, joined in their lower limbs, hands clasped together over the shared cup from which water continually flowed into the round dish beneath them, then spilling over into a pool enclosed by square walls. I was completely overwhelmed when I first saw the sculpture and heard the music of the sacred fountain. This Old English saying immediately came to mind:

I walked very slowly around the entire sculpture, absorbing each detail from every angle. Most incredible of all to me was the look of silent communion in their eyes – the intensity of the gaze that seemed to capture the timeless and transcendent within this very moment. After a time, still transfixed in the rapture of the encounter with this numinous image, I settled on a bench for further contemplation. All of the exquisite beauty of this natural setting that is in its full glory on a day in May – the fragrant flowers and trees in full bloom, the melodic chorus of birds joined by the harmony of buzzing bees, the warmth of sunshine in the crisp air – fused with the sacred song of the “living water” that flowed abundantly from the jointly held cup. My heart was opened wide and I felt in a visceral way the truth of the inscription that was engraved on the four sides of the pedestal that held the figures:
I later found out that the sculpture called “Water of Life,” created by Stephen Broadbent and installed at Chester Cathedral in 1994, is famous worldwide. I was not all surprised!

For me this was the most beautiful image of sacred union that I have ever seen. While it is based on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in which he requests a drink and then offers her the water of eternal life, the representation of their union points to a profound meaning beyond the literal text. Sometimes the woman at the well has been associated with Mary Magdalene (1). The Water of Life clearly indicates an erotic connection between Jesus and the woman, therefore linking her with the figure of Mary Magdalene as many envision her today (2). The sacred love relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is one level of meaning that can be seen in the mythic truth expressed through this sculpture. It also symbolizes all human lovers who are united in the spiritual depths of the heart. The figures are joined as one at the base and so are lacking feet. As it is our feet that connect us to the earth, grounding us in the world of time and space, these two beings represent the sacred union that transcends the earthly realm. They convey an image of the spiritual love between “polar beings,” as Boris Mouravieff refers to those who are united in a mystical love that transcends earthly life. The completion of this sacred union manifests its greatest mystery, the creation of one essential being in the depths of their souls. This is the mystery through which the complete wholeness of the Divine manifests on Earth (3). The union of the sculptural forms of Jesus and the woman at the well represent the sacred union of polar beings that reflects the archetypal truth of the union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. In this way the Water of Life sculpture conveyed its deepest meaning to me as the personification of the divine Masculine and Feminine, the union of Christ and Sophia. As ChristoSophia, the spiritual powers of Christ and Sophia – represented in the earthly realm as Jesus and Mary Magdalene – unite in a differentiated wholeness of divine Love and Wisdom that is clearly shown in the Water of Life.

The meaning of this experience continued to unfold for me as we continued our pilgrimage to our second destination, Wells Cathedral. The city is named for its ancient springs that were sacred to the goddess, which now pour forth from a fountain in the central square, and I recognized this resonance with the feminine imagery of the Water of Life fountain at Chester. We participated in the Eucharist at Wells and the sermon was based on the prayer of St Francis, “Lord, give me a transformed and undefended heart.” It seemed to me that this was the “heart” expressed in the profound gaze of love between Jesus and the woman at the well. The sermon focused on the need to let go of all the defenses that we build to protect ourselves, which close our hearts to love. I reflected that the continual flowing of water from the shared cup in the fountain at Chester symbolized the flow of love from the “transformed and undefended heart.” As each partner offers the cup of “living water” to the other, the mutually reciprocal act of giving and receiving becomes one flow of sacred love. This Water of Life, the continuous stream of life energy that we experience as love, is so abundant that it overflows the container held by the individual lovers to replenish the pool which is the Source from which it came. The flow of love energy through hearts that are open cannot be confined within the relationship, as it naturally and spontaneously pours forth into the world and transforms it.

Further meanings of the Water of Life emerged for me as I continued to meditate upon the image in the following days. The central visionary revelation of the sculpture is its portrayal of Jesus and the woman at the well as two separate beings, yet joined as one. This expresses the essential quality of sacred union as nonduality; the image reconciles the paradox of individuality and unity. The figures symbolize the differentiated unity that underlies and transcends our sense of separation and fragmentation. The nondual realization is the essence of Christ-consciousness, the unboundaried consciousness that is the sign of a truly “transformed and undefended heart.” It is this Christ-consciousness that is reflected in the gaze of love between Jesus and the woman at the well as they look deeply into each other’s eyes and behold the essence of each other’s soul. Through this mutual vision they are able to see the Beloved in the beloved, the Divine in human form. The representation of nonduality as two individuals that appear to flow into each other, accompanied by the sound of flowing water, depicts an image of unity in motion. Sacred union is not static but a dynamic flow of love that pours forth as abundance of life in an endless circulation of love that is the presence of Heaven – here and now – on Earth.

This sacred union was also deeply moving to me because it is such a powerful image of the return of the Feminine that has been suppressed for so long in Christian tradition. As I look at the woman at the well as she arches over the figure of Christ, giving him the overflowing cup, I am reminded of the Grail stories that are central to the mythos of Britain. The cup and dish forms that appear in the sculpture are common images of the Grail in the earliest stories, and feminine figures are the primary guardians of the Grail. My response to the Water of Life brought forth the memory of the ancient tale of “The Loss of the Voices of the Wells.” It is set in the Realm of Logres – the mythical name for Britain – a land of paradise in which the inner and outer worlds were united. Maidens attended its sacred springs and offered a cup of limitless bounty to all travelers, providing nourishment for all their needs. But this condition of blessed abundance was destroyed when an evil king and his knights raped the well maidens and stole their sacred cup. The maidens then went into hiding, and with the loss of the “voices of the wells” the Realm of Logres became a barren wasteland. At the center of all Grail mythology is the quest to find the lost Grail so that the waters will flow freely once again, the Earth will be healed, and unity will be restored to the human race. This will only be accomplished when the Feminine emerges in her full power to take her place of equality in union with the Masculine. It is apparent that there is a resonance between Jesus, who offers the “living water” of abundant and eternal life, and the well maiden who offers her Grail filled with abundance to all who ask. The woman at the well is a personification of the ancient Grail maiden who enacted a role later identified with the Jesus of Christian scripture. The female St. Werburgh, whose miraculous healings were associated with the sacred well at Chester, is another form of this archetypal Grail guardian.


In the Water of Life sculpture, the woman who bears the cup represents the re-emergence of the well maiden who brings with her the Grail of wholeness to heal the wasteland of our contemporary world. The sacred song of the fountain powerfully evokes the return of the “voices of the wells.” In the mutual offering of the Grail that contains the “living water,” Jesus and the woman at the well portray the equality and reciprocity of the union of the divine Masculine and Feminine – ChristoSophia. The Water of Life is a prophetic image of the restoration of the lost Grail to humanity for it expresses the unitive vision which the Grail bestows in the mythological tradition. It is a herald of the Second Coming, revealed in the Biblical tradition as the “holy city, the New Jerusalem,” personified as the “bride adorned for her husband” who descends from heaven to celebrate her sacred union. (Rev. 21: 2) The “bride” of Revelation enacts the archetypal role of the divine Feminine as Grail bearer:

As the bride unites with the bridegroom, their love is the “living water” that overflows the cup and pours forth into the world; the sound of the water splashing into the pool is the song of divine love that flows throughout creation. We enact this image, and aid the realization of its prophetic message, when we too receive the gift of the Water of Life. Then we can join Jesus and the woman at the well through the undefended heart that gazes with the eye of love, and enter into the sacred union of ChristoSophia.

(1.) See Cynthia Bourgeault, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, pp. 237-8.

(2.) See the writings on Mary Magdalene by Margaret Starbird, Jean- Yves Leloup, Tau Malachi, and Cynthia Bourgeault

(3.) Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis Book Two (Newbury, MA: Praxis Institute Press, 1992), p. 251.


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