Now, after the vivifying glimpse of the goal, the investigation of the hidden world begins. Here we have a child poking around in a sacred well like the ones that are still visited in Ireland. A hidden figure seems to blow on his outstretched hand (see detail). There is a divine feminine energy associated with these ancient wells; she is Brid (Brith), later called Brigid, the Celtic goddess of Wisdom. You could call her the Celtic Sophia. In Ireland these well and cave complexes are considered entrances to the Otherworld, the transcendent. People come to these wells for healing and wisdom.

Jung tells us that the Gnostic figure, Sophia, represents the pattern of our fate and is the knowledge of the preexistent aspect of the psyche I referred to in Lake of My Home. She is also associated with the wind and is thought of as the breath of God. She is God as an invisible breath-spirit, the breath that heals and makes whole. Wisdom dwells in the depths, the wisdom of the mother. Sophia is the feminine aspect of God that Jung says needs to be reunited with our god-image.

I image the child to be one's potential wholeness asking, "Who am I, where did I come from, where am I going?" By poking around the entrance to the Otherworld, i.e. the unconscious, it seems that this potential wholeness comes into contact with the feminine energies, the forces that nourish and sustain life. To be breathed on by this feminine spirit would be to receive this energy.