Long gone are the days of drinking naturally pure water from flowing rivers and streams-or even your tap. It is common today for people to use bottled water or to filter home water for drinking and cooking. How did we arrive at such a predicament, and what can we do about it? Continuing pollution, ever increasing population and industrial demands, destruction of the rainforests, and overuse of the ground water are responsible for the deterioration of water quality, but the underlying problem, as Marks shows in his wide-ranging, thoughtful book, is a lack of understanding of and respect for the nature of water itself.

Marks covers such diverse topics as water's role in the origin of the universe and of life, cosmic rain and water in interstellar space, water in the myths of various peoples and religious traditions, the power of water in the many forms it takes in the natural world, vortex energy and living water, water and the human body, water healing, and a history of water pollution. He shows us that, in the end, we cannot understand water unless we see it as a mediator not only between life and death but also between the physical and the spiritual worlds.

May 2004; SB; 256pp; 23.5 x 15.5 cm; pb;