by Sara Firman, May 2009 for VisionSpaRetreat.com
Venus, as Botticelli portrays her in the renowned painting of spring called Primavera, is the moist, florid, green lusciousness of life on earth. It's an Ozark early May weekend with rain dripping from a forestful of trees all around the cabin where I live. When yesterday's phone conversation with Barbara Harmony (also in an Ozark Cottage surrounded by green lusciousness), upon which this post is based, came to a close I asked Barbara what she had planned for the rest of the day: 'I'm going to enjoy the rain,' she said cheerfully.
Barbara has inspired Vision Spa Retreat, partly because she's been a strong and effective Advocate for Water Quality and Bioregionalism over the past 30 years. Her home and her inspiration for all those years has been Eureka Springs, a spa-resort town, deep in the Ozark hills of Arkansas. Barbara is a Lifelong Learning Coach, Minister, and Astrologer. You could say that Vision Spa Retreat's tag-line 'water consciousness for personal and planetary health' is personified by Barbara.
Venus at work
Although now she only takes appointments at home, at one time if you visited Eureka Springs in good weather, you might have come across Barbara in a shady dell at Basin Springs offering Tarot and Astrology readings. You'd soon discover that this delightful and insightful woman, can also give you a very scientific perspective on the springs and explain why it is crucial that we grasp the fact that 'we all live downstream'. Barbara is a woman of many parts, and they are all inspired by the healing power of water.
I'm going to step right into that mystical Botticellian scenery and share a tantalizing piece of astrology with you. Among her water assets, Barbara has the planet Venus in the sign Pisces in the Sixth House of her natal chart. Whatever your knowledge or view of astrology, this information provides a fitting watery storyline for the conversation she and I enjoyed about how spa culture might help build a community that is not only concerned with human wellbeing but is also more environmentally conscious (especially regards water).
Astrologically speaking, Houses describe areas of life experience or circumstance. The Sixth House is about work and health. Planets within a house describe what we do there. Signs describe ways of doing. The sign Pisces is associated with Water, healing, compassion, flowing and spirit. Venus symbolizes feminine, balancing and harmonizing functions. She's linked with the element Earth, with values and esthetics, and with actions that produce solidity, coherence, sympathy, peace, and beauty.
That is a rather apt description for Barbara's life path and service.
On one of her websites, Barbara says: 'I believe that my vision of the world has affected my experiences of life. I began to fulfill my dreams when I moved to the Ozarks. I chose a life of voluntary simplicity, working creatively on the global issues of world peace, ecology, clean water and deepening the quality of life for all people.'
She once wrote me: 'The Ozarks is a healing place... I have come to appreciate the beauty of the trees, hills, rocks and water. Every day the beauty heals and revivifies me.'
Living near water
I began our conversation this time by asking Barbara where her love of Water might have come from? She told me immediately how fortunate she felt for the New Jersey childhood growing up right beside a creek; the holidays with her grandmother in Atlantic City, NJ, enjoying the ocean; and the weekend swimming parties at Ramapo River or a man-made lake called Laguna Beach. She had imagined settling in California but says 'Eureka, I've found it!' is the best way to explain her sudden arrival and long-time sojourn in Arkansas.
Within the current city limits of Eureka Springs there are over 60 natural springs. The area was well-known to different tribes of indigenous peoples who came (always in amnesty) to enjoy the healing waters. They considered it sacrilegious to camp or settle over the springs. This sentiment was not understood by the settlers when they arrived in the 1800s. Thousands of water healings were reported from that time, says Barbara, and a spa culture was soon flourishing there.
In fact, Barbara added: 'This town was founded for no other reason but because of the healing water .... People would go from spring to spring with little metal cups and drink the water. There was also some opportunity to bathe in the cold mineral waters. All manner of claims were made for their healing. Different springs were known for healing different ailments - some were supposed to be good for eyes, kidneys, liver. The springs got to be known for being the purest in the world at the 1904 St Louis World Fair!'
Not until 1981, largely through the efforts of Barbara and other local activists, was a proper study done of the spring waters. Scientific tests using optical brighteners to trace water flow were conducted under the supervision of the well-known hydrologist Tom Aley of Ozark Underground Lab (Missouri). A Citizens Advisory Committee was formed. The thousand water customers in the city were surveyed. Most of the springs were in trouble. I asked Barbara whether things had improved since then.
In her usual humble and compassionate style, she replied: 'There is some progress but it is really slow and I can see it in myself, you know, how long it has taken me to really get it. But when you come from a place where there is soil that does provide some filtration, it's hard for people to get it that, basically, we are sitting on rock, and there is no filtration.' Barbara is talking about the Karst geology of the Ozark bioregion - vast rock caverns and channels through which water flows rapidly and freely over long distances.
With all Barbara's experience of working with concerned citizens and government bodies to coordinate water issues, I asked her what she thought were the most effective ways of getting people's interest and building a sense of community and concern. She noted with pragmatic wisdom, that really the prime thing that motivates people is crisis. In the case of Eureka Springs, the crisis was concern about a proposed sewage plant and the effect it would have on the springs and water supply in karst terrain.
Barbara Harmony is a founder and co-coordinator of The National Water Center, which began in 1979. Since then, the Center has followed its mission as water quality advocate, striving to educate others about the true nature of water in the broadest sense of ecological balance and harmony. The NWC has published two books: the environmental classic, We All Live Downstream; and Aquaterra: Metaecology and Culture.
Perfect and pampered
Considering the water shortages now experienced in many places and widespread concerns about water quality, I asked activist-campaigner Barbara if she thought spas could still make a case for their service in the possible face of criticism for their use of water. 'You know, the amount that people use in a spa is minuscule compared to the water used in agriculture,' she said, 'I don't think people should feel guilty in a spa - spas make you feel like you're perfect!' (laughing happily).
Venus in Pisces speaking again, Barbara added emphatically: 'I think that everywhere across the board people benefit by being pampered.'
I hadn't fully appreciated that Barbara could speak from quite a bit of personal spa experience. 'The thing about spa is that it can be very different if you've got an afternoon, or a day, or a week ... I love the idea of three months!' she exclaimed having read about my spa sabbaticals concept. So, we went on to talk about some of her spa experiences; and when I suggested spa might have been an alternative career for her, she answered with characteristic enthusiasm that she's been thinking it might not be too late, even in her sixties.
I'm very fortunate to have her on my team.
Barbara's first spa experience in her twenties was a 'rite of passage'. She and a friend, who had just finished nursing her baby, took a week at a spa in Clearwater, Florida. They ate good food, exercised, had massages, and 'felt just wonderful'. In her thirties, living in New York, she partook of Elizabeth Arden's 'Miracle Mornings' - massage, facial, hair-styling, manicure, all topped off with a tasty lunch. The pink robes she described were surely Venusian.
She still gets massage regularly - Eureka Springs has 'so many therapists and places' ... 'It's fabulous, I just love it!' We talked about some of her favorites. Suchness Spa is 'like entering another world', 'a feast of art from Thailand' and 'they have amazing fancy showers'. The Eureka Massage Company (and Julie Rogers) also got a special affectionate mention for simple, elegant, beauty. Eureka Springs is a feminine town of prettily painted B&Bs and art galleries; all tucked into moist, flowery, mossy, forested hills-and-hollers.
None of the spas in Eureka Springs use the once-highly acclaimed natural spring waters; they are not allowed to, since the sewer lines are close to the springs and could leak. By contrast, natural waters are available in the other well-known Arkansas spa town of Hot Springs; though there too they have suffered all manner of historical and political controls since the days when the indigenous peoples enjoyed them peaceably as part of a pristine wilderness.
Soulful writer, Thomas Moore wrote (p. 139): 'Venus is goddess of gardens, and [...in Botticelli's painting...] she stands deep in the green shadows of forest and garden, a nature goddess as well as a patroness of the civilized dance of human graces.' Barbara now does her astrology readings in her garden-home sanctuary - a water flowform sculpture graces the entry way - she notes that people always comment on 'how peaceful it is'. Her tabby cat Alice, a rooster, and a peahen are part of the healing team.
Barbara is a keen advocate of permaculture, a growing system developed by Australian Bill Mollison and designed to work the land in a self-sustaining way that supports rather than suppresses nature:
'I think food is an important part of spa and having the food growing there and being able to eat live food I think is one of those experiences that can really turn people around.' I agree and have recently been promoting the 'sustainability' value of onsite gardens in spas. Growing your own spa food, spa teas, spa products - setting spas in nature and gardens - all these relate to the pervading nurturing and beautifying theme of my conversation with Barbara.
Water and community
Barbara is modest about her achievements on behalf of water and Eureka Springs which - with Jupiter (planet of expansion) in caring Cancer at her Midheaven (place of action in the world) - have been significant: Arkansas Watershed Advisory Group 2004 Volunteer of the Year; Renew America Success Story Awards; Arkansas Women's Political Caucus Uppity Woman of the Year Award; Governor's Volunteer Excellence Award Water Center Success Story, Global Assembly of Women & Environment, 1993.
Barbara has not only been locally focused in her mission, but also participated in water events worldwide. I asked her if she'd ever seen spas represented at these and she said - she had never realized this but - they hadn't been! The Bioregional events have 'holistic health' tents but nothing specifically on spa. 'It would be fantastic to have a whole spa section at the World Water Forum!' said Barbara. This event is about water sanitation and big business, but it's a huge gathering that might benefit from the softening intimacy of spa.
Talk of gatherings and community led us on to communal bathing rituals, and the inclusive, equalizing, playful effect that affords. Barbara told me with obvious delight of her Swedish sauna experience where the ritual of the sweat included the requirement for everyone to tell a joke before all ran out naked and jumped into the cold Baltic sea or rolled in the snow. Ritual and spa go together. Barbara is a ceremonialist herself, regularly conducting weddings that are uniquely adapted to the couples. She likes to point out that Eureka Springs is an Aquarian city, founded on Valentine's Day 1880.
Water goes with caring. Barbara notes that she's always been interested in her own emotional growth and wellbeing as well as in supporting that of others. She'd add that our emotions can affect our surroundings, including water bodies. When I visited her a few years back in Eureka Springs, she was excited about having sent away some spring water samples to Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto. His mission is to demonstrate that thoughts directed into water can influence it's health (as indicated by it's frozen crystal structure).
With Venus in Pisces, Barbara is sensitive to healing spiritual energies. She told me of two experiences of water as spirit she'd had at Bioregional Gatherings on the Guadalupe River, Texas. A Water Committee of 10 people was meeting outside: each had 3 minutes to say what was happening in their area - when everyone had finished a light rain came over the group for 3 minutes exactly. The other event occurred in a group of 80 women who 'really spoke from their hearts' - when they finished, a mist filled the space but this time indoors.
The Bioregional Water Committees have been Barbara's greatest support in her work for water: 'There are people - like me and you ... not that many ... I could point to 50 or 100 people - who are all on the same wavelength [about the importance of water] and that to me is very encouraging.' Despite some health challenges and having surely done more than her share of hard work, Barbara is still very active in the 13-member Springs Committee for her home town:
'It's a terrific group of people, very experienced and knowledgeable. ... We're going to launch another very big project with the US Geological Survey for studying the springs and mapping them using all the most up-to-date technology. What we did 30 years ago ... it's all still very important now. We got recorded [recently] for an historical archive [chuckling] and it was funny to think of ourselves as being historical.'
Barbara is clearly someone who sees water as alive and vibrant with meaning and value. Several years ago now, I joined her and a small group of other water lovers for an online sharing experience through Eureka Springs Online, which has sadly since ceased. We discussed everything from water healing modalities to gravel mining in Ozark streams to water art and music. It was informative and fun, both terms that are also very fitting for Barbara herself.
I closed by asking Barbara Harmony what she'd like to see happening in the world next:
'Spa culture [by which I mean] appreciation for slowing down, consuming less, more safety and security, health care ... I'd like to see that whole spa culture idea integrated into health care.'
Barbara is right on the mark as far as a number of other Ozarks women I've been corresponding with in recent months are concerned, in particular Linda Watson (Owner, Wellness Without Walls, St. Louis, MO) and Mirra Greenway (Owner/Director Massage Therapy Institute/Greenway Massage, Columbia, MO).
Although now she only takes appointments at home, at one time if you visited Eureka Springs in good weather, you might have come across Barbara in a shady dell at Basin Springs offering Tarot and Astrology readings. You'd soon discover that this delightful and insightful woman, can also give you a very scientific perspective on the springs and explain why it is crucial that we grasp the fact that 'we all live downstream'. Barbara is a woman of many parts, and they are all inspired by the healing power of water.
I'm going to step right into that mystical Botticellian scenery and share a tantalizing piece of astrology with you. Among her water assets, Barbara has the planet Venus in the sign Pisces in the Sixth House of her natal chart. Whatever your knowledge or view of astrology, this information provides a fitting watery storyline for the conversation she and I enjoyed about how spa culture might help build a community that is not only concerned with human wellbeing but is also more environmentally conscious (especially regards water).
'I have a certain sense that I'm just a person that's a mouthpiece for the water ... I'm just propelled by it somehow.' B.H. May, 2009
Astrologically speaking, Houses describe areas of life experience or circumstance. The Sixth House is about work and health. Planets within a house describe what we do there. Signs describe ways of doing. The sign Pisces is associated with Water, healing, compassion, flowing and spirit. Venus symbolizes feminine, balancing and harmonizing functions. She's linked with the element Earth, with values and esthetics, and with actions that produce solidity, coherence, sympathy, peace, and beauty.
That is a rather apt description for Barbara's life path and service.
On one of her websites, Barbara says: 'I believe that my vision of the world has affected my experiences of life. I began to fulfill my dreams when I moved to the Ozarks. I chose a life of voluntary simplicity, working creatively on the global issues of world peace, ecology, clean water and deepening the quality of life for all people.'
She once wrote me: 'The Ozarks is a healing place... I have come to appreciate the beauty of the trees, hills, rocks and water. Every day the beauty heals and revivifies me.'
Living near water
I began our conversation this time by asking Barbara where her love of Water might have come from? She told me immediately how fortunate she felt for the New Jersey childhood growing up right beside a creek; the holidays with her grandmother in Atlantic City, NJ, enjoying the ocean; and the weekend swimming parties at Ramapo River or a man-made lake called Laguna Beach. She had imagined settling in California but says 'Eureka, I've found it!' is the best way to explain her sudden arrival and long-time sojourn in Arkansas.
Within the current city limits of Eureka Springs there are over 60 natural springs. The area was well-known to different tribes of indigenous peoples who came (always in amnesty) to enjoy the healing waters. They considered it sacrilegious to camp or settle over the springs. This sentiment was not understood by the settlers when they arrived in the 1800s. Thousands of water healings were reported from that time, says Barbara, and a spa culture was soon flourishing there.
In fact, Barbara added: 'This town was founded for no other reason but because of the healing water .... People would go from spring to spring with little metal cups and drink the water. There was also some opportunity to bathe in the cold mineral waters. All manner of claims were made for their healing. Different springs were known for healing different ailments - some were supposed to be good for eyes, kidneys, liver. The springs got to be known for being the purest in the world at the 1904 St Louis World Fair!'
Not until 1981, largely through the efforts of Barbara and other local activists, was a proper study done of the spring waters. Scientific tests using optical brighteners to trace water flow were conducted under the supervision of the well-known hydrologist Tom Aley of Ozark Underground Lab (Missouri). A Citizens Advisory Committee was formed. The thousand water customers in the city were surveyed. Most of the springs were in trouble. I asked Barbara whether things had improved since then.
In her usual humble and compassionate style, she replied: 'There is some progress but it is really slow and I can see it in myself, you know, how long it has taken me to really get it. But when you come from a place where there is soil that does provide some filtration, it's hard for people to get it that, basically, we are sitting on rock, and there is no filtration.' Barbara is talking about the Karst geology of the Ozark bioregion - vast rock caverns and channels through which water flows rapidly and freely over long distances.
The Ozark karst ecosystem is an underground wilderness of caves, springs and aquifers that over the millennia have formed in the carbonate bedrock of the Ozark Highlands. Stretching from northern Arkansas and southern Missouri and into eastern Oklahoma, this amazing underground landscape harbors bats, salamanders, fish, crustaceans and other invertebrates, including at least 60 species found nowhere else on Earth.... This landscape is also a precious groundwater source; safeguarding the subterranean ecosystem means safeguarding drinking water for humans and keeping the water that feeds beautiful Ozark streams clear and clean.... The porous and fractured nature of karst terrain makes it very susceptible to pollution. After rains, runoff from streams and the ground can enter aquifers quickly, transporting unfiltered contaminants ....
With all Barbara's experience of working with concerned citizens and government bodies to coordinate water issues, I asked her what she thought were the most effective ways of getting people's interest and building a sense of community and concern. She noted with pragmatic wisdom, that really the prime thing that motivates people is crisis. In the case of Eureka Springs, the crisis was concern about a proposed sewage plant and the effect it would have on the springs and water supply in karst terrain.
Perfect and pampered
Considering the water shortages now experienced in many places and widespread concerns about water quality, I asked activist-campaigner Barbara if she thought spas could still make a case for their service in the possible face of criticism for their use of water. 'You know, the amount that people use in a spa is minuscule compared to the water used in agriculture,' she said, 'I don't think people should feel guilty in a spa - spas make you feel like you're perfect!' (laughing happily).
Venus in Pisces speaking again, Barbara added emphatically: 'I think that everywhere across the board people benefit by being pampered.'
I hadn't fully appreciated that Barbara could speak from quite a bit of personal spa experience. 'The thing about spa is that it can be very different if you've got an afternoon, or a day, or a week ... I love the idea of three months!' she exclaimed having read about my spa sabbaticals concept. So, we went on to talk about some of her spa experiences; and when I suggested spa might have been an alternative career for her, she answered with characteristic enthusiasm that she's been thinking it might not be too late, even in her sixties.
I'm very fortunate to have her on my team.
Barbara's first spa experience in her twenties was a 'rite of passage'. She and a friend, who had just finished nursing her baby, took a week at a spa in Clearwater, Florida. They ate good food, exercised, had massages, and 'felt just wonderful'. In her thirties, living in New York, she partook of Elizabeth Arden's 'Miracle Mornings' - massage, facial, hair-styling, manicure, all topped off with a tasty lunch. The pink robes she described were surely Venusian.
She still gets massage regularly - Eureka Springs has 'so many therapists and places' ... 'It's fabulous, I just love it!' We talked about some of her favorites. Suchness Spa is 'like entering another world', 'a feast of art from Thailand' and 'they have amazing fancy showers'. The Eureka Massage Company (and Julie Rogers) also got a special affectionate mention for simple, elegant, beauty. Eureka Springs is a feminine town of prettily painted B&Bs and art galleries; all tucked into moist, flowery, mossy, forested hills-and-hollers.
None of the spas in Eureka Springs use the once-highly acclaimed natural spring waters; they are not allowed to, since the sewer lines are close to the springs and could leak. By contrast, natural waters are available in the other well-known Arkansas spa town of Hot Springs; though there too they have suffered all manner of historical and political controls since the days when the indigenous peoples enjoyed them peaceably as part of a pristine wilderness.
Soulful writer, Thomas Moore wrote (p. 139): 'Venus is goddess of gardens, and [...in Botticelli's painting...] she stands deep in the green shadows of forest and garden, a nature goddess as well as a patroness of the civilized dance of human graces.' Barbara now does her astrology readings in her garden-home sanctuary - a water flowform sculpture graces the entry way - she notes that people always comment on 'how peaceful it is'. Her tabby cat Alice, a rooster, and a peahen are part of the healing team.
Barbara is a keen advocate of permaculture, a growing system developed by Australian Bill Mollison and designed to work the land in a self-sustaining way that supports rather than suppresses nature:
'I think food is an important part of spa and having the food growing there and being able to eat live food I think is one of those experiences that can really turn people around.' I agree and have recently been promoting the 'sustainability' value of onsite gardens in spas. Growing your own spa food, spa teas, spa products - setting spas in nature and gardens - all these relate to the pervading nurturing and beautifying theme of my conversation with Barbara.
Water and community
Barbara is modest about her achievements on behalf of water and Eureka Springs which - with Jupiter (planet of expansion) in caring Cancer at her Midheaven (place of action in the world) - have been significant: Arkansas Watershed Advisory Group 2004 Volunteer of the Year; Renew America Success Story Awards; Arkansas Women's Political Caucus Uppity Woman of the Year Award; Governor's Volunteer Excellence Award Water Center Success Story, Global Assembly of Women & Environment, 1993.
Barbara has not only been locally focused in her mission, but also participated in water events worldwide. I asked her if she'd ever seen spas represented at these and she said - she had never realized this but - they hadn't been! The Bioregional events have 'holistic health' tents but nothing specifically on spa. 'It would be fantastic to have a whole spa section at the World Water Forum!' said Barbara. This event is about water sanitation and big business, but it's a huge gathering that might benefit from the softening intimacy of spa.
This year on 16-22 March 2008, 33 058 participants took part in the 5th World Water Forum, in Istanbul, making it the world’s biggest ever water-related event.
Water goes with caring. Barbara notes that she's always been interested in her own emotional growth and wellbeing as well as in supporting that of others. She'd add that our emotions can affect our surroundings, including water bodies. When I visited her a few years back in Eureka Springs, she was excited about having sent away some spring water samples to Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto. His mission is to demonstrate that thoughts directed into water can influence it's health (as indicated by it's frozen crystal structure).
'I just thought that was so exciting having those photos demonstrating that what you were thinking actually changed the water!'
With Venus in Pisces, Barbara is sensitive to healing spiritual energies. She told me of two experiences of water as spirit she'd had at Bioregional Gatherings on the Guadalupe River, Texas. A Water Committee of 10 people was meeting outside: each had 3 minutes to say what was happening in their area - when everyone had finished a light rain came over the group for 3 minutes exactly. The other event occurred in a group of 80 women who 'really spoke from their hearts' - when they finished, a mist filled the space but this time indoors.
The Bioregional Water Committees have been Barbara's greatest support in her work for water: 'There are people - like me and you ... not that many ... I could point to 50 or 100 people - who are all on the same wavelength [about the importance of water] and that to me is very encouraging.' Despite some health challenges and having surely done more than her share of hard work, Barbara is still very active in the 13-member Springs Committee for her home town:
'It's a terrific group of people, very experienced and knowledgeable. ... We're going to launch another very big project with the US Geological Survey for studying the springs and mapping them using all the most up-to-date technology. What we did 30 years ago ... it's all still very important now. We got recorded [recently] for an historical archive [chuckling] and it was funny to think of ourselves as being historical.'
Barbara is clearly someone who sees water as alive and vibrant with meaning and value. Several years ago now, I joined her and a small group of other water lovers for an online sharing experience through Eureka Springs Online, which has sadly since ceased. We discussed everything from water healing modalities to gravel mining in Ozark streams to water art and music. It was informative and fun, both terms that are also very fitting for Barbara herself.
I closed by asking Barbara Harmony what she'd like to see happening in the world next:
'Spa culture [by which I mean] appreciation for slowing down, consuming less, more safety and security, health care ... I'd like to see that whole spa culture idea integrated into health care.'
Barbara is right on the mark as far as a number of other Ozarks women I've been corresponding with in recent months are concerned, in particular Linda Watson (Owner, Wellness Without Walls, St. Louis, MO) and Mirra Greenway (Owner/Director Massage Therapy Institute/Greenway Massage, Columbia, MO).
Linda Watson: 'Often our life's work is our greatest curriculum for our current careers and this is true for me. I started my work in the church, advanced to mental health, and then health care. Today my focus of whole health is a perfect integration of all of the above, adding the wisdom of this wealth and 21st Century knowledge.'
Mirra Greenway: 'Our philosophy includes a commitment to health and well-being along with that of the planet's in general and our local greenways in particular... We devote our extra time, money, and energies to helping preserve the environment which provides so many health and exercise opportunities'.
Mirra Greenway: 'Our philosophy includes a commitment to health and well-being along with that of the planet's in general and our local greenways in particular... We devote our extra time, money, and energies to helping preserve the environment which provides so many health and exercise opportunities'.
And there are many others further afield whose work I also follow keenly. One such person is Marion Schneider, who will be the subject for a special feature on Vision Spa Retreat's blog soon.
Find more about Barbara Harmony and her work here:
The National Water Center
Planetary Healer
Barbara Harmony's blog
For a beautiful Water Meditation by Barbara see also Inspirations on Vision Spa Retreat.
See this article based on an interview with another friend of Vision Spa Retreat, Jonathan De Vierville: The evolution of spa.
For another Arkansas story by Sara Firman see White Eagle frees the waters (about an encounter in Hot Springs, AR) on Diving Deeper.
Update (2011): A series of posts on Hot Springs, AR, exploring past, present and future spa culture.
