Journey Through The Elements

Take a journey through the elements - to discover the subtle qualities that each lends into the being of our lives. Earth, Water, Fire, and Air have for long been primordial aspects of nature upon which we have related. In this meditation, we discover their characteristics, properties and open ourselves to experience and reconcile with the power of the pose.

Transcript

Welcome to this meditation practice,

A journey through the elements.

In today's practice we will look to discover this symbology of the elements,

What earth,

Water,

Fire and air can represent to us,

And how these primordial aspects of life and being can integrate and best balance us as we move forwards.

So to begin now we're just going to come into a comfortable position,

Whether it's seated or lying,

Whatever feels good for your body today.

Just ensuring we can really relax here,

Be soft,

Yet at the same time extended,

Lengthened and alert.

And just becoming aware of our breath,

The delicate feeling of the air moving in through the nostrils,

And feeling that we can use our breath now consciously to anchor ourselves in this moment.

And feeling that we can really leave the day to one side,

Leave any preoccupation,

Anything that's happened or might happen,

Just letting that kind of fade,

As you breathe and become one with your breath.

And seeing if as we breathe we can really drop down to experience this moment from our hearts,

From a place of love,

Compassion and tenderness.

Just letting all those barriers break down.

Taking another couple of deep breaths in through the nose,

And out through the mouth this time,

Letting it all out.

Once again in through the nose,

And out through the mouth this time,

Letting it all out.

Letting it all out once again in through the nose,

And everything out through the mouth.

Lovely.

So maintaining your eyes closed now,

I just invite you to visualise a forest.

You're walking through this forest.

It's a little mysterious but the sun shining through the trees,

The sound of the birds,

Reassuring you with a sense of rhythm,

Nature's breath blowing through rustling the leaves,

Blessing your skin.

And you continue walking until you come across this majestic tree,

Really something extraordinary,

So extraordinary that it compels you to want to sit by it.

So you make your way and sit at the base of this tree,

Feeling that you can kind of root down with its roots,

Feeling that you can be tall with your spine,

And expanded just as its trunk and its branches,

But at the same time not too rigid,

And able to flow and adjust to the wind just as it does.

And so you come to this tree,

Closing your eyes,

And just decide to really meditate,

To feel what is within,

What is one here.

And as you do so,

This very grounded feeling in your body,

Makes way to this kind of internal warmth rising up.

Just breathe with me now,

Feeling you can stimulate a little bit of that internal warmth rising up,

Feeling if you can be sensitive to it.

And this warm and bright sensation,

Evolves into a light,

This kind of guiding force,

This force guiding you to look within,

Within the chambers of the soul and the inner universe.

And so this light very faintly starts to illuminate a new terrain,

This kind of underworld,

This kind of system of roots and slightly darker backdrop now.

And with that same reassurance in your breath and in your inner nature,

Feel you can really drop down into this world to see what this light would like to show you.

And so this light swivels and turns its view,

Conjuring up an interesting circumstance,

Where there are four balls in front of you,

Each with a different colour.

So on your left hand side,

Really feel it on your left hand side as we connect with it now,

There's a ball of a kind of reddy brown colour,

Representing earth.

Moving on to its right hand side,

A blue ball,

Representing water.

Another one red and hot,

Representing fire.

And finally,

Another,

Representing air,

Transparent.

And so you decide to journey into the elements,

Bringing your awareness and your attention into that first ball of earth,

The light takes you in with it and you dive into this ball,

A universe of its own.

Here you're faced with a new and peculiar terrain,

Rocky surfaces,

Heaviness,

These symbols of material matter.

And just feel what's behind these words for you,

Feel the sensation that earth provokes within you.

What does it mean to be as earth?

So just breathing into this sensation,

Feeling that the light is descending into your base,

Into your roots,

And here cultivating a fertile ground.

This is the base of you,

The aspects of yourself that are foundational,

Structural,

Of great importance and able to give life to so many other forms,

Able to be the fertile ground for the evolution of organisms and life.

So just breathing upon this earth.

So you continue to walk down this terrain of earth,

Noticing your footprints in the ground,

Noticing the texture of the ground,

Hearing the sound of your firm footsteps.

And all of a sudden,

You start to feel a few drops of rain falling on your skin,

Glistening on your skin,

And reminding you of that ball that you saw earlier,

The element of water.

And keeping your eyes closed,

But bringing your hands down in front of you,

Feel you can almost hold that ball of water in your hand,

Feel that you can almost feel its temperature,

Its slightly fluid texture and feel,

And feel that it almost now comes,

Integrates into your body,

Comes into your body,

And that same fluidity you're feeling in your spine and your arms,

And you can even move slightly just to fully embody that.

Water,

An element of flow,

Of emotion,

Of feeling,

Of opening oneself to perceive with the intuition,

And with all the vibrations and waves that we emit and perceive.

So just make yourself one with that feeling that you can breathe,

Flow,

And adapt as water.

You see yourself as part of this great ocean that started off as a little drop,

That gradually became aware of its all encompassing magnitude,

Its reaches.

And feeling is part of this ocean,

You really let these jet streams and currents take you,

Letting the natural feeling and directions of your body play out in this space.

Feel this current moving in through your left side,

Down your body and bringing you deep into the depths of the ocean,

Really deep down,

And here you can perceive the ocean bed,

Out of which you see little bubbles and kind of heat waves emerging from a certain opening.

So you come in a little bit closer now and this guiding light of yours opens up a new scenario where you're able to gaze into this aperture in the earth,

In the crust of the earth,

And see its core,

Its molten core,

Fire you are reminded of,

The element of passion,

Of assertiveness,

Of universal creativity and conviction.

And with this recognition you let that ignite your very soul,

Bursting up and out,

Evaporating out the water and feeling the heat,

Feeling the intensity,

The burning desires that reside deep in you.

And breathe with this.

And just allow the primordial sensation be embodied and expressed without any specific thing,

Just feeling that fire,

That desire,

That inner passion come through and be breathed,

Experienced in your body.

And feeling that this fire can kind of burn up,

Transform,

Convert any unnecessary material,

Any emotional baggage,

Any built up and constricted paradigms and structures in the mind-body,

They can just be kind of burned and melted through.

And you're just there with the fire,

Feeling its warmth,

Its heat,

Letting that infuse into your heart open,

Brightened,

Elated to dance.

And as these flames dance,

You begin to become aware of your environment,

The air that fuels this fire,

The way in which your breath brings passion and energy into your being and body.

And so now you release into this breath,

Into this air,

Into this atmosphere around,

Just being sensitive to how it feels to connect to air,

Expanse,

Openness,

The container for many things.

And feeling that in this great container,

You can perceive all the vibrations of life,

You can perceive all the forces of communication,

All the signals of the world and universe happening now,

Happening with a similar rhythm to the breath of wind as it touched your skin in the past.

Your memory,

Your instincts calling you back now to come back to your magnificent tree.

And so this swirling light,

This guiding force lifts you back up to sit back at your tree,

To just integrate all this for a moment,

The element of earth you experienced,

Touch base with it now.

What does it lend to your life and soul?

The element of water,

Feeling it now,

Being it now,

Of fire,

And what does that provoke within you?

And lastly,

Air,

Take one more breath with that sensation.

And feel that you can draw upon the power of these elements,

Using them as a language to bring you back into balance and approach life with all the qualities that they lend.

You give thanks to this guiding light that showed you these incredible realms.

You bring your hands to your heart,

Honoring your process,

Honoring these great elements,

And honoring life as it dances and dives,

As it creates and destroys,

As it loves to happen.

Thank you for listening.

Namaste.