wildflowerwalker

Last night I woke at 4am. Bushfires are out of control in beloved forest just 16km away. The wind has been quiet and still for a few hours, smoke hangs in the air. But I am awake. Something is going on. I hear the fire alert go off downstairs. Only yesterday I downloaded the Fires Near Me app. I know I am safe so I don’t check.

The wind picks up again, it is chaotic and strong. I feel into it and my desire to help the forest and its creatures. Suddenly I am being shown a way to work with the wind, a way to harness and calm it. I can’t tell whether its coming from the Wind devas or from the ancestor who has been teaching me about the elements over the last few years, but the teaching is strong and clear.

Before I share the technique, a little background.

I’ve been learning from the elemental devas through direct revelation and shamanic practices for a number of years. Firstly it was to get to know each one, its spirit, its energy, its power. And even now I feel still only on the surface, there is always so much more to learn, every time new layers and awareness arises around each. And from these understandings, small ways of being in my world shift. When setting up space, I used to ‘call in’ the elements as learned from other people and traditions. But then my ancestor guide showed me this was coming from a separated viewpoint. ‘You need to activate them within you.’ And she taught me a simple embodiment practice to do this. So now we use this to set up space for a circle.

So back to last night. The teaching in a nutshell came from this basis:

• We are part of the weather systems. Everyone through their very way of being creates the collective weather that we live in. If you want to change the weather, work on yourself and the collective.
• We currently have a huge excess of the yang elements – fire and air. Masculine dominance. It’s the time of the year when the masculine is growing (spring going into summer = air going into fire element) and that accentuates it even more.
• The Wind is what is fueling the fires at the moment. (Interestingly I was told this morning that eagles – an animal of the Air element – often spread fires in order to flush out prey. They have been seen carrying blazing sticks and dropping them in new areas.)

Technique for Harnessing the Wind.

The wind or air element is the element of thoughts and ideas. It is the messenger element that carries all sorts of information on its wings – sound, smell, chemical messages and soundwaves. So much exchange happens within it.   Being a gaseous element, its energy is expansive, it moves to fill space. It is invisible, fast and lively, playful and can be full on. It can also be soft, gentle and extremely subtle.

In us, it can express in bubbly excitement and enthusiasm; scattered chaotic busyness; fast exchanges; frantic energy; or at its stillest – the subtle energy that connects us to perceiving spirit.

Harnessing the energy of Wind or Air is not about controlling it. This is very important. Even perceived control will not work in the long run, it will pop out somewhere else. We are not trying to have power over. What we want to do is become one with the air element.

1. Merge with the energy of wind. If it is raging wildly around you, allow yourself to travel and become the wind. Feel your oneness with it. We are all things. Don’t try to control it.
2. Once you have done this, you can practicing harnessing it. Call it inwards, invite it into a different state of expression within yourself. For me this was a state of deep meditation with the breath. The stillness and deep awareness of the breath, perceiving the subtlety of the air element being breathed through me and out of me again.

As I did this in the early hours of this morning, the wind which had been raging, calmed to a gentle breeze while I stayed focused. And I realised that if I can make a difference, how amazing would it be if lots of people were practicing this.

Let’s not forget to take responsibility for what we are creating in the world with our thoughts, our actions and our state of being.

We have an incredible amount of power to create positive change right now.

Freaking out, franticness and spreading fear through the airwaves is fueling the flames. How can you be more still and centred? What needs to happen?

How can we balance this excess of yang by bringing some yin energy in? More quiet time, meditation, rest, inward time?  

Can you take a moment to go inward and ask yourself what needs to happen next? What can I bring to this situation?