Course Two: Nature 71
allow the current to dislodge you from your spot and
move you into the flow of the stream. While you are
floating in the water you may even find that tears arise
spontaneously. Consider that your own inner water
has risen to meet and exchange blessings with the same
element outside your body: water seeking itself.
There’s something miraculous in that ability.
Before leaving your visit to the Water, silently
thank and bless the Spirit of Water that has so kindly
and mercifully extended itself to you.Lesson 6: Air
I am the Air around you
I am the breath of life within you
I am the wind blowing through you
I am all that I am!
—Abbi SpinnerWe have moved in our study from the most dense and
material of Elements, Earth, to the most gaseous and
permeable, Air. Air may be the most difficult of the
Elements to discuss, simply because of its quality of
invisibility. We have a mystified attitude about Air—
that it is insubstantial and perhaps untrustworthy. We
may even make the mistake of thinking it is the least
powerful of the four Elements, because it seems to
lack materiality. But Air is the one we are most im-
mediately and vitally dependent upon. One may sur-
vive over a month without food, and several days
without water. Body temperature may drop for hours
before life is threatened. But we can live only a few
minutes without air. Life on our planet is dependent
upon the oxygenation process. It is impossible to con-
sider our relationship to Air without considering our
breath, the taking in of oxygen, and the releasing of
toxic by-products of the living processes.
In my immersion in the experience of each of the
Elements, I have built and flown rubber-band-driven
model airplanes and many kinds of kites, joined the
Civil Air Patrol as a boy to fly in small planes, and
gone up in a hot air balloon. I have taken many air-
plane flights all over the world. I have even bungee-
jumped off a high bridge over a deep canyon. I have
faced the ferocity of Air in a Missouri tornado and a
Florida hurricane. But there is much more I have yet
to do in this Element. I still want to experience sky-
diving, ultralite flying, and hang gliding. I want to go
up in the air on a huge kite pulled by a motorboat....Quest: Breathing the Wind
(by Farida Ka’iwalani Fox)How might you begin conscious interaction with
this subtle and yet powerful Element? One blusteryday of Winter, take a walk on some windy promon-
tory, where you can enjoy both the sweeping view
and the sweeping gusts of fresh air. Take some time
to observe the effect on nearby trees and plants. Per-
haps you can discern a pattern to the wind in the way
that the trees’ branches billow and wave. Or, sitting
on a grassy slope, you may perceive the air move-
ments by observing the rippling, waving prairie
around you. Air motion, in its swirls and eddies, waves
and troughs and circular forms, is not unlike the
ocean, whose waters flow, rush, and ripple.
Weather patterns and the great ocean cur-
rents are extensions of each other: cur-
rents of air and currents of water, affect-
ing one another in an inevitable way. Is
there a deeper, hidden Mystery here?
After observing and contemplating the
attributes of Air in the natural setting, turn
your attention to yourself and your interac-
tion with this Element. Perhaps the joyous
play of the wind will inspire you to swoop and
dip and twirl, dancing with the wind for your partner,
and feeling the rush of the air on your face, the free-
dom of leaping and running through space! Allow
yourself this freedom, to dance the Dance of Life, and
allow movement to lift you, to give you wings, to
lighten your heart.
Now turn to your breath. Much can be learned
by studying your own breathing process. Notice how
you are breathing at different moments during the day.
You may find a correlation between your mental/emo-
tional state, the quality of your breath, and the quality
of your life. Take a normal but full breath, in and out,
through your nose. Notice that when you are upset or
agitated your breath is more rapid and noisy. When
you are calm and peaceful, your breath is also. It is
possible to control, to some extent, the emotional at-
mosphere around you through controlling your breath.
Take now another breath and, as you inhale, be aware
of the breath as it passes through your nostrils. Feel it
fill completely and naturally the vessel of your body,
knowing that it carries all that you need at this mo-
ment for your renewal. Release it slowly and gently,
allowing whatever tensions you may have experienced
today to disperse with the exhalation.
It is not necessary to expend great effort on this
exercise, nor is it supposed that the more noise and
intensity you produce, the more effectively you are
breathing. The breathing process is with us from the
beginning to the end. As taught by slower cultures,
breathing is meant to be enjoyed. Let us begin with
our conscious connection with the Element Air by
learning to enjoy breathing and learning to notice what
effect different types of breathing may produce in our
emotional state.- Nature.p65 71 1/14/2004, 3:33 PM