From Jessica. Snow in her Oct 29th newsletter
After working our way through the elements of earth, fire, water; we come to air.
The timing of this elemental mini-series is starting to reveal its synchronous perfection.
We need air right now in so many ways.
On the most basic individual level, consciously connecting to the breath is the most natural way to commune with the great (mostly “invisible”) power of air. So, let’s start today with some of my favorite wisdom from music-legend Willie Nelson (maybe take three nice cycles of breath, right now, as you read it?)…
“The secret is breathing. Everyone knows that filling your lungs with oxygen is good, but not many people choose to do it… …Through breathing, you deepen your contact with the world around you. An open window is a wonderful place to breathe deeply. When you clear your lungs, you expel the old and take in the new. The new air, of course, brings oxygen to your lungs, your bloodstream, and all the cells of your body, including your brain. When you expel the old air, you also provide carbon dioxide for trees and plants that make oxygen for you… …The hardest thing to see on this incredible planet is the eternal circle of life, which is anchored by the links between sky and water, between day and night, winter and summer, O2 & CO2. Each of those links is infinitely more solid and everlasting than you and me. The water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe are our connections to that circle. We have many forms of spiritual strength, but physically the choices are few and simple. If the choice you make is to breathe deeply, you can uncork the genie of your own personal power."
- Willie Nelson
Another POWERFUL way to know the magic of air is to realize, recognize and/or remember that we all (human and non-human alike) share the air. As I say at the very beginning of our Aquarius meditation (available as audio here or the written version in Dreamworld) -
The air you breathe may certainly have been in the lungs of Cleopatra, or Crazy Horse, or some other luminary. Right now, you are breathing the same air that a jaguar in the Amazon or an elephant on the Serengeti or a grizzly bear in Alaska exhaled three days ago.
When we look at earth from space, the “pale blue dot” of our planet is surrounded by one atmosphere… that we all share.
As we go through our week keying into the consciousness of air we might find ways to “share air” (with people, with plants, with animals) in new, more expansive and generous ways.
Another powerful way to work with air this week shows up when we understand how the air element relates to both logic-thinking AND the imaginal. At first glance, this is a little counter-intuitive; because our overculture ALWAYS puts these two at opposite, diametrically opposed sides of the spectrum. Our society tells us a thing is either logical OR came from imagination.
But air, ever connective, every surprising, shows us that the powers of logic and the imaginal can be combined BEAUTIFULLY, and to great affect.
A small example, let’s say, logically, I know I need to make more money next year than I did this year. From that point, I can start to envision or imagine myself doing so, feeling into it and getting new ideas. Then, I swing back from the imaginal space and consult logic to help me break the journey down into achievable steps. I can then return to the imagination any time my resolve diminishes - letting the vision enliven me once again.
Let’s now do an example in reverse. Let’s say I am meditating, and an old acquaintance keeps “popping in” to my awareness and sort of “waving” at me through the mists of time. When I emerge from meditation, I need logic and discernment to determine whether this means I ought to reach out to that person OR (and this is very often the case) I simply need to think through what that person symbolizes for me and attend to whatever that symbolism points me towards.
Just like the perfection in the cycle of in-breath and the out-breath, when we become adept at air consciousness, logic-thinking and the imaginal become two parts of a cycle that naturally nourishes itself; and can run infinitely.
I feel like I’ve been saying this for years now, but we really are - on individual and collective levels - going through a very hard time. Especially online and in the United States - if we were being bombarded by media before, now we risk being buried under its emotion-tension-terror-avalanche.
So, my friend, wherever you are on this beautiful blue-green. planet, I invite you to choose some aspect of air to help you through it.
Read the full post here: we are each other's destiny