THE MAGIC OF WATER

WEST MARRIN

Once considered the substance that distinguished planet

Earth from the rest of the Universe, water has now been
discovered to exist everywhere from the coldest depths of
interstellar space to the surface of our sun. Water is
unquestionably the most anomalous and one of the most
ubiquitous molecules in the cosmos. While science diligently
labors over the questions of how, where, and in what form
water is found in our universe, the question of why it is so
enigmatic has been left to the philosophers.

GEOMETRIES AND RHYTHMS

Revered as one of the four fundamental Elements (i.e., fire,

air, water and earth) from which all matter is created,
ancient cultures ranging from the Sumerians to the Greeks
proposed that water is the mediator between cosmic energies
and earthly forms and that everything we see is simply a
unique form of this magical substance. A sixth century B.C.
philosopher named Thales hypothesized that water is the
primary substance of all being.1 He proclaimed that water
was the most unusual substance if, for no other reason, it is
the only one to exist on Earth in three different phases (i.e.,
solid, liquid and gaseous) simultaneously. According to
Thales, water was the original substance of the universe out
of which everything is created and to which everything
returns. This reverence to water and its universal role was
not limited to the ancient cultures of Europe and the Middle
East. Both the Vedic and Taoist traditions recognized that
“all was water,” while the Bible’s Book of Genesis identifies
water as the primal substance that existed before the
separation of heaven and earth.

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Whereas these proverbial waters may not literally refer to the
H2O molecule, they depict an energy or substance that seems
to be best represented by the essence of water. According to
sacred geometry (see Figure 1), the material realm (a cube)
was created from the etheric realm (a dodecahedron) via the
substance of water (an icosahedron). These three geometries
are related to each other via the mathematics of the infamous
golden ratio or phi. As such, the observable world (earth)
was believed to be created from an unmanifested realm of all
possiblities (the Absolute) through an unobservable life force
or creative energy (aether or akasha) that, in turn, was
facilitated via the physical mediator of water.

FIGURE 1. The five regular Platonic solids are the only

angular three-dimensional geometries composed
entirely of regular polygons that, when spun about their
center vertex, create a sphere (symbolizing the
Absolute). The faces constitute the side panels of the
solids and are represented by a triangle, square, or
pentagon; the edges are the straight lines that outline
each of face; and the vertices are points where two or
more edges converge. The five solids include a
tetrahedron as fire (1), a cube as earth (2), an
octahedron as air (3), a dodecahedron as aether (4),
and an icosahedron as water (5). Reprinted from
Universal Water.2

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Ancient writings and pantheistic characters indicate vortices,
waves, ripples, and other so-called flow forms were
considered among the most mysterious and powerful of
water’s attributes. A twentieth century German naturalist
named Theodor Schwenk was fascinated with water’s flow
forms, particularly as they were reflected in rhythms. He
theorized that water’s relationship to time was inherent in its
rhythmical movement that spanned cycles ranging from
seconds to years.3 He further demonstrated that the wave
patterns on a body of water were characterized by various
harmonies and rhythms that he described by distinct
frequencies, overtones, and resonances, not unlike a musical
instrument.

Based on these observations, he surmised that water is the

ideal medium for form-creating processes because its
vortices and underlying rhythms function exactly like
delicate “sense organs.” He believed water has the ability to
recognize everything by its rhythm and to then balance or
harmonize the rhythms between two or more forces or
forms. According to Schwenk, all organic formation is based
on etheric forces (aether), which in turn receive formative
impulses from the spiritual world (the Absolute). It is these
etheric forces that he believed utilize the mediator water,
which is able to vibrate in resonance with them and, thus,
facilitate the passage of formative impulses or information to
the material world.

MOLECULES AND NETWORKS

Since Thales made his observations regarding water, science

has continually uncovered more and more unusual physical
properties of what seems to be a relatively simple molecule.
While individual water molecules may appear simple, the
substance in aggregate (including the interactions among
neighboring molecules) certainly is not. Rather than just a
random collection of individual H2O molecules, water
displays a large-scale connectivity or coherence that is

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related to the manner in which individual water molecules
interact with one another. Essentially, each water molecule
can link to as many as four of its neighboring molecules via a
unique magnetic connection known as a hydrogen bond.

Water’s hydrogen bonds differ from more common chemical

bonds in some peculiar ways. Most chemical bonds endure
for eons if temperatures and pressures do not fluctuate and if
chemical reactions do not occur. By contrast, the hydrogen
bonds of water have a lifetime ranging from picoseconds
(i.e., a trillionth of a second) in its liquid phase to as long as
an hour in its solid phase (ice). This means that the rate at
which hydrogen bonds in water are broken and formed
varies by a factor of a quadrillion, creating a multi-rhythmic
cacophony (or symphony) that spans about 60 octaves.
Everything contained within or contacting liquid water alters
the cacophony as the hydrogen bonds are locally rearranged.

The constant rearranging of bonds between neighboring

water molecules is responsible for many of water’s strange
chemical and physical properties; however, scientists have
been unable to identify the rules governing this switching.
Their inability does not imply that the switching rules are
haphazard—only that science is overwhelmed by water’s
dynamism, which has been traced to quantum events known
as zero-point vibrations. These odd vibrations govern the
exchange of water’s hydrogen bonds and are impossible to
predict due to the uncertainty inherent in quantum events.4
Unlike the dynamics of other chemical bonds (e.g., those
holding a single water molecule together) that are governed
by the familiar laws of motion and heat, the dynamics of
water’s hydrogen bonds are propelled by an unknown energy
from seemingly empty space that persists even at a
temperature of absolute zero.

Scientists have long modeled liquid water as a self-

organizing network of water molecules in everything from
liquid water to crystalline ices. By definition, any network

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must be composed of nodes, which in the case of water are
its individual molecules. In essence, the hydrogen bonded
system of water represents a binary network where all
possible bonds between any two neighboring molecules are
either broken (OFF) or unbroken (ON). Researchers who
work at the fringes of postmodern science hypothesize that
water’s vast and ever-changing network may serve as a kind
of information system—not unlike the binary systems that
characterize today’s computers. Whereas the question of
whether water is primarily an information network has not
been answered, much of what is postulated about its vast
network has been extrapolated from brief glimpses and then
mathematically modeled to generate a more complete
description (see Figure 2).

FIGURE 2. This schematic is believed to resemble the

network structure of liquid water; however, scientists
have been able to observe only a fraction of the
network. In the view on the left, large dark spheres
representing oxygen atoms are connected to smaller
and lighter-shaded spheres representing hydrogen
atoms. Hydrogen atoms are situated along the
connecting hydrogen bonds. Water’s hydrogen-bonded
network is difficult to depict at the scale portrayed on
the right; nonetheless, note the seemingly infinite
matrix of individual water molecules as the hydrogen
bonds (white lines) intersect the oxygen atoms (black
spheres). The network’s structural complexity and
hydrogen bond dynamics may be a key to water’s magic.
Reprinted from Perspectives on Biogeochemistry.5

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Systems theorists have postulated a connectionist strategy in
which simple components, when appropriately connected,
express cognitive properties.6 In such a system, these
authors suggest that there is no need for a central processing
unit to guide the entire operation because the passage of
local rules to global coherence is accomplished through self-
organization. In other words, the so-called cognitive and
adaptive behaviors may be traced to a binary network that
changes connections between components according to a set
of switching rules. It is only the network and its associated
switching rules that are required for coherence.

Could this be a reason why water’s network, while linked by

short-range hydrogen bonds between neighboring molecules,
has been observed to behave as both an extensive system and
as individual smaller subunits or so-called clusters? Could
this explain why water’s hydrogen bonded network seems to
behave locally, globally, or as a combination of both?

FORMS AND ENERGETICS

Water’s mediation reveals itself on scales ranging from the

molecular to the cosmic. At the molecular level, water is
essential to both the structuring and functioning of common
biomolecules such as proteins and DNA. Scientists have
discovered that biology’s life-sustaining information often
passes through the intermediary of water, which is able to
mediate conformational changes that serve as a critical
information stream for biological life. Water’s ultra-dynamic,
self-organizing network and its unique way of connecting
adjacent molecules (its own and those of other substances)
allow it to mediate an information-conformation exchange
that has been related to both adaptability and diversity in the
biosphere. Because earthly organisms are truly water-based,
biomolecules are sometimes characterized as supporting,
rather than orchestrating, the role of water in life processes.

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Similarly, all bioenergetics are based on the difference in
electrical potential between hydrogen, which acts as the
primary fuel for everything from stars to bacteria, and
oxygen or oxygen-containing compounds that burn the
hydrogen or its associated compounds. The autotrophic
organisms (plants and certain bacteria) are able to harness
the energy of the sun or of chemical reactions to split water
into these oxygen and hydrogen atoms and, in doing so,
create the organic material (food) that they and all other
biological organisms ultimately oxidize in order to form
water and, thus, garner their needed energy. At its most
fundamental level, bioenergetics could be perceived simply
as the splitting and forming of water molecules.

Water in the form of oceans, clouds, and atmospheric vapor

is the major controller of long-term climate regimes and
short-term weather on Earth. In this role, water mediates
the redistribution of incoming solar energy over the surface
of the entire planet. During this period of rapidly changing
global climate, it is water that will deliver either the
consequences or the reversal of climate change. Water vapor
(not carbon dioxide) is the only greenhouse gas that can
affect Earth’s climate on a short-term basis. Moreover, water
is instrumental in connecting the outer reaches of the
planet’s atmosphere with its surface (via lightning induced
by ice particles), the surface weather conditions with the
most fundamental vibration or hum of the planet’s interior
(via seawater’s acoustic wave guide), and the cycling of the
planet’s massive plates between the solid crust and molten
mantle (via water’s roles in lubricating, crystallizing, and
even healing rock). The earth continues to utilize the
substance of water to produce, modify, and dissolve the vast
array of features that we recognize as our planet’s surface.

Finally, water has been identified as a kind of midwife in

assisting to birth stars from interstellar dust and gas clouds
that are scattered throughout our galaxy. Actually, water
both assisted in the birth of the sun and was created during

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its birth—accounting for much of our planet’s water. When
stars eventually die (sometimes observed in a flood of water),
they release into interstellar space the atoms that comprise
the observable world. A very unique type of water ice
(known as amorphous) that exists only in the depths of outer
space is believed to have gathered, combined, and delivered
to Earth a few simple compounds that served as the basis for
life’s biomolecules. This ice appears to be solid but flows and
dissolves substances much like a liquid. Not confined the
boundaries of Earth, water is found throughout the universe
as a vapor, liquid, or solid.

DESIGNS AND INNOVATIONS

Although not completely understood from a mechanistic

perspective, the magic of water is currently being exploited
in a wide variety of innovative human technologies. Unlike
conventional human technologies that have relied primarily
on energy and materials to address challenges, Nature seems
to rely almost entirely on design and information to meet its
challenges. As perhaps the natural world’s most visible agent
of change, water can be mimicked or emulated in designing
man-made devices and systems that operate more efficiently
and with fewer negative consequences than do ones based on
conventional engineering principles.7

Examples of hydromimicry can be found in the design of

everything from water stirrers and pumps to artificial
glaciers and wetlands. For instance, one of the most efficient
means of mixing water in tanks or ponds utilizes a small
device that looks like the inside of a conch shell and is based
on the complex geometry of a water vortex. Additionally, the
processes that occur when freshwater meets seawater (e.g.,
estuaries or deltas) may be harnessed inside membrane-
containing tubes to turn turbines and generate electricity.
Similarly, the specialized protein structures in cell walls that
are responsible for transporting water in and out of living
organisms (i.e., aquaporins) are used as models in designing

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of carbon nanotubules, which can efficiently desalinate or
remove salts from ocean water. Finally, the design of large
water structures, such as wetlands or glaciers, may now draw
upon water’s physical properties or spatial patterns in a way
that produces the most efficient man-made replicas. As
water acquisition and treatment shifts from large centralized
systems to smaller localized technologies, mimicking water
in natural settings will become increasingly important.

Water has been identified throughout human history as

playing a pivotal, if not definable, role in creating life forms,
transferring information between the unobservable and
observable realms, and symbolizing the intelligence and
power of nature. Naturalist Loran Eisely noted that, “if there
is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”8 While we
may never be able to fully explain the magic of this simple
substance, we are a product of its magic—at least physically.

REFERENCES

1. Kenneth Davis, John Day. Water: The Mirror of Science.

Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1961.
2. West Marrin. Universal Water. Maui, HI: Inner Ocean
Publishing, 2002.
3. Theodor Schwenk. Sensitive Chaos. London, UK: Rudolph
Steiner Press, 1965.
4. Robert Matthews. New Scientist (8 April 2006): 32-37.
5. Egon Degens. Perspectives on Biogeochemistry.
Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 1989.
6. Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, Eleanor Rosch. The
Embodied Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.
7. West Marrin. Hydromimicry. Kauai, HI: Water Sciences
& Insights (e-Book), 2009.
8. Loran Eisely. The Immense Journey. New York, NY:
Vintage Publishing, 1959.

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