Discovering the Intelligence of Water – Exploring Symbols in Ice

A First Encounter with Water Consciousness

The first time I saw the documentary The Secret of Water on Gaia.com, it blew my mind. The film explores the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto and his research into the effect of words, intentions, and music on the molecular structure of water. I’ve added a YouTube video below so you can get a glimpse of why his work fascinated me so much.

Although Dr. Emoto is no longer with us, his research stayed with me. I found myself searching online, hoping to learn more about how to try this technique myself—but came up empty. Then, by what felt like synchronicity, I saw an Instagram post that introduced me to the work of Veda Austin the next morning.

The Work of Veda Austin

Veda Austin explores the intelligence of water through a process she developed that allows you to freeze water at home—no microscope needed. Her technique reveals what she calls “crystallographic expressions” in ice, images that appear in response to words, photos, objects, or even emotions. You can sometimes literally see animals, flowers, or symbols emerge in the ice.

Her ongoing research also explores recurring patterns she calls "hydroglyphs"—symbolic forms that consistently appear in response to specific stimuli. I was so intrigued that I purchased her method and hydroglyph PDF. Coincidentally, I had just bought a new fridge and freezer, which made the timing feel perfect.

My First Experiments with Ice Symbolism

As a watercolor artist, I work with water every day. It’s my favorite medium because it's fluid, intuitive, and alive. Water always finds its own path and brings movement into every painting I create. That’s why the connection between water and creativity feels so natural to me. When I discovered that water could also form visual language in ice, it felt like an extension of what I already knew from painting—only on a different, magical level.

Impatient as I am, I didn’t wait for the Petri dishes I had ordered. Instead, I grabbed a glass measuring cup and started right away. One of my early experiments involved exposing tap water to my hummingbird birthday card. In the ice, I saw shapes resembling the way I painted the bird’s wings. 

Hydroglyphs also appeared in the ice: symbols for "living," "completion," and "light." “Completion” especially struck me, because a birthday is the celebration of 'living' and the completion of a year.

As I experimented further, I learned that the source of the water makes a big difference. Rain and hail water tend to create playful, energetic splash-like patterns (see image below). Tap water, in contrast, showed more chaotic structures and sharp lines. Bottled mineral water became my favorite, as it produced softer, more organic forms—like fern-like hydroglyphs. Since then, I’ve started drinking mostly bottled water too.

Through trial and error, I’ve learned a few things:

• Just like with Zen drawing or intuitive writing, freezing water works best with an open and relaxed mind.
• No two ice formations are ever the same—even under identical conditions.
• Don’t set your expectations too high—many freezings don’t yield clear or recognizable results.

Veda’s Instagram and her book offer a wide range of highly detailed and striking images in ice—powerful enough to puzzle even the greatest skeptics. I’ve often relied on Veda’s Hydroglyph manual to help interpret the symbols I saw. It’s a valuable tool, especially in the beginning. This is why I now call them “ice readings”: intuitive interpretations of the symbols and images that appear in frozen water.

• Good photographs are important. Since ice looks different depending on the light source, I usually take multiple photos while holding the frozen water up toward the light coming from the window. 
• Be quick—the ice melts rapidly, and its appearance can change within seconds.

Later, when reviewing the images on a large screen, I often notice far more than I did at first glance. Some messages in the ice can feel deeply personal, reflecting your emotional state or offering insights beyond logic.

Interestingly, the most striking ice readings often happened when I least expected it—when water seemed to reflect something "it couldn’t have known." For example, one of my earliest experiments involved exposing water to a small photo of me on a brochure, while I was drawing. The photo itself barely showed the drawing paper or subject because it was so small, yet the resulting ice pattern immediately reminded me of a heron’s feather.

I didn’t understand it at first—until I remembered that the feather had been part of the photo. I had to find the digital version of the photo and zoom in to find out that I was actually drawing the feather and not the shell on that moment. It felt like the water had picked up on something subtle, yet deeply significant.

The Sailboat Symbol Appears

One day I said to the water: Connection—God is connection. I froze it, and what appeared was a sailboat. I saw it clearly, along with what looked like sunbeams behind a cloud. It reminded me of a sailboat I had seen in one of Veda Austin’s videos.

What followed was uncanny. No matter what stimuli I used—photos, drawings, words—sailboats kept appearing in my ice. I even changed Petri dishes to make sure nothing physical was influencing the result. Still, sailboats. They came through stormy weather, reached a symbolic shore, and then—eventually—they stopped. Even now, sailboats sometimes return, but never with that same consistency.

A Tree in the Ice: an unexpected result

I’ll end with one special example. I often walk my dog Bodhi past a weeping willow near my home. Inspired by the tree images on Veda’s Instagram, I decided to photograph the willow for one of my future ice experiments.

The next day I froze the water, but I forgot about the photo. I didn't expose the water to anything specific, but spoke some words about how I felt. When I saw the resulting ice, I was stunned: my first thought was “a tree!” But then doubt crept in. Was it really a tree?

It wasn’t until a few days later, walking past the willow again, that I saw it from the same angle as my photograph. The resemblance between the tree and the ice formation gave me goosebumps. How could the water have known what I had forgotten?

While other people pass by without looking at the tree, I feel like I’ve witnessed a quiet miracle in the water I froze. Since then, that tree has become special to me and I greet it every day.