The sacred geese of the Deva river

Rivers, metaphorically and comparatively speaking, are like people: from their birth, until the moment of their death - which occurs, when they flow into the Nirvana of the sea or, failing that, into the Purgatory of another larger river - they always have a story to tell.

The course of your life, like the course of a person's life, can become stories of love or heartbreak; of joy or sadness. But unlike these, which soon lose that inheritance of magic and fantasy, the life of rivers is also a cult of the unusual, where the common, as a general rule, soon tends to manifest itself in something wonderful, which makes you feel something special, when you expand your spirit and let yourself be carried away by the charm of those waters, which, as the great Hindu poet, Rabindranath Tagore, said, are the ones that really polish the pebbles with their music and song.

Furthermore, there are many creatures that, attracted by its beauty and the generosity of life that unfolds in its path, happily settle on its banks, not only to drink, swim or provide themselves with substantial food, but also, to form a home and in some way, no less epic and brilliant, also become part of the legends and mythologies of men.

This takes on a greater character, above all, in some particular rivers, such as the Deva - which originates in the shadowy peaks of Fuente Dé, has as a tributary the famous Asturian River Cares and flows into the Cantabrian Sea - and which, in its etymological root , already carries the name of the Goddess implicitly: that benign Magna Mater, who was worshiped, millennia ago, by those of Celtic origin, who would make practically all natural corners their true temples.

Taking this into account, it should not be surprising, at all, that the different species of palmipedes that come from many parts of the world to mate on the banks of this paradisiacal orchard, which are the Picos de Europa, are never lacking in presence, especially everything, from the geese, animals closely linked to the different pilgrimage routes and by default, considered their guardians.

It matters little, or in fact, nothing, if such paths head towards Compostela, where the pilgrim goes to venerate the holy relics of the Apostle Saint James the Greater, or they enter through any of the numerous labyrinths that run between valleys and mountains, leading to these along dizzying paths, endowed with a charm that exalts and intoxicates the senses, to the very heart of Liébana.

That is, towards the heart of that small mountain paradise, in whose most important monastery, that of Santo Toribio - formerly, San Martín de Turienzo - the largest fragment of the True Cross is venerated, a martyrdom element in which Jesus Christ was crucified and later recovered for Christianity, through a prophetic dream, by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, under whose reign the Catholic religion was established as the official religion of the State.

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