Elements

“If you surrender to the air, you can ride it”

— Toni Morrison

To integrate water, one has to invoke air.

To integrate earth, one has to invoke water.

To integrate fire, one has to invoke earth.

To integrate air, one has to invoke fire.

To hold water, one has to hold earth.

To transmute fire, one has to transmute water.

To gather air, one has to gather fire.

To empower ether, one has to empower air.

To return to earth, one has to return to ether.

To flow with water, cultivate lightness (destroy solidity), and cultivate trust (release fear).

To mold with earth, cultivate transformation (destroy rigidity), and cultivate devotion (move away from distraction).

To tend the fire, cultivate humility (tame arrogance), and cultivate faith (tame doubt).

To rise with air, cultivate peace, discriminating awareness. and discriminating wisdom.

A Meditation

Rather than picture these elements as concepts, try to have a felt sense of the energy of the elements within you.

Rather than contemplate the elements, see if you can inhabit them with your beingness.

Use your senses, memories, and imagination to smell, hear, see, feel, and taste this place. Create it in your being. It’s there. Find it. And the combination of visualizations, imaginations, sensations that you create to conjure it become your golden key. There is only one key, and you are the creator of the key and the holder of the key. It should be your secret —something that belongs only to you. There is no right way or wrong way to create your place. And in time, it may change or transform. As it does, your key may also transform. That’s ok. It’s a magic key. And you can use it whenever you need to find this deepest place within your being and enter your true ground.

By J. A. Jones