What's the matter with tap water? A no-nonsense approach to water-scrying

 Okay, so I'm generally pretty tolerant of other people's magical rules and guidelines.  After all, magic and divination are very subjective arts, and have long been taught through word of mouth and tradition.  This means that there's a wealth of folklore associated with them.  Unfortunately, this also means that there are some truisms that are speculative, dogmatic, or just plain stupid--and they will never die.  Instead, they get propagated in book after book or repeated online as gospel.  My current favorite:  Never, ever use tap water for water-scrying.

Obviously, water that comes out of the faucet at the turn of the handle is just too mundane and accessible to fill your scrying bowl.  Proper water must be gathered from a lake or stream, under a full moon, preferably from a sacred site after asking the blessings of the local fairies.  (Rainwater is reputedly acceptable, as well--which is great news unless you happen to be in Texas in the summer.  Ahem.)  Never have I heard or read a satisfactory explanation for "gathered" water is necessary to produce visions.  But I have a couple of theories that sound plausible:  Maybe pond scum contains little-known psychoactives that are good for scrying.  Or maybe the undines get filtered out at the water-treatment plant.  Maybe making your whole room smell like a lake is essential for getting in touch with the element of Water.  I wonder, if I just get a bowl and fill it with my tears of frustration, would that be okay for scrying?

Now, I'm making fun, and perhaps being a little bit harsh.  If doing a preparation ritual is valuable to you, if it seems essential to your scrying practice, then do it.  However, if you're like me and (I suspect) most people, it's hard enough to find half an hour to dim the lights and close the door.  Never mind finding the time harvest the right water.  Also, these days most pagans/occultists are urban folks.  Unless you happen to have a nice babbling brook within walking distance, gathering water means driving somewhere.  That uses our finite fuel resources and pollutes the air and water, and how do you think the undines feel about that?

And before we start talking about the transformative power of ritual, lets not forget that too often, all these rules and rituals become an excuse for avoiding practice:  "Ooh, I want to learn to scry, but first I need to save up for that pewter cauldron and moonstone necklace, then I need to wait till the next full moon so I can go harvest some moonwater."  No you fuckin' don't.  Just grab that glass that came with the Jim Beam, turn on the tap, and go to town.  It's better than nothing, and the pewter cauldron will still be there when you're ready for it.

Also--I'm not jaded about tap water.  Tap water is pretty damn cool.  There are billions of people in this world who would love to not have to walk to some creek to get water.  So try some gratitude, water snobs. Also, if you just take a minute to think about the miracle of the water cycle, you realize pretty quickly that water is water.  That "ordinary" stuff coming out of your faucet has been in clouds and waves and dinosaur veins and toilet bowls.  All water is magical, whether it comes out of the tap or the well of fuckin' Avalon.

Now, I like pretty tools as much as the next person  But there's a difference between appreciating the beauty of tools, and fetishizing them.  To externalize the process of magic too much is disempowering to the practitioner.  When you experience visions they are (depending on who you ask) in your head, in the ether, reflecting off your aura--but they're not literally in a bowl of water, tap or otherwise.  The only reason that tap water won't work for scrying is if you believe that it won't work for scrying.  And you shouldn't believe that, because it's just dumb.