Margaux Crump

Flowing from a two-month pilgrimage throughout Wales, Well Being(s) is a collaborative body of work with Jake Eshelman that explores the deep ecology of Welsh sacred springs, inclusive of the myriad folkloric, microscopic, and other invisible beings who reside in these spaces. This work began in 2023 as a series of photographs we made while in the field. Since returning home, it has continued to evolve into a multi-disciplinary body of work. 

Folklore passed down through generations brought both of us to pursue this work in Wales and it was folklore that offered a field guide for how to find and respectfully engage with each sacred spring.

It tells of common people collecting water in everyday vessels and mythic well maidens offering water in chalices. It encodes glimpses into sacred ceremonies and rituals, contextualizing offerings of white stones, seashells, honey, and more recently bits of cloth.

As sites where life-giving freshwater emerges from the earth, wellsprings have been considered hallowed ground across cultures and throughout human history.

This is especially true in Wales, where sacred springs are steeped in social, cultural, and spiritual significance often recognized as thresholds to the otherworld. As such, wellsprings are known as popular haunts for an array of nature spirits, witches, ghosts, saints, demons, and denizens of the Otherworld, making them hotspots of natural and super-natural biodiversity.

Interactions with sacred springs for water, healing, and divination were once an essential aspect of daily life. Through the practice of well guardianship, offerings, ceremony, and codes of etiquette, humans have long worked to maintain the harmony of these shared spaces. Yet today, these relationships are fading into folklore and are maintained by increasingly small circles of people who engage with the deep ecology of sacred springs.