AIR
Welcome to the Air Element
It is time to see life through the lens of our Higher Consciousness rather than through our programmed inadequacies. The air element moves within vast space, and the transformative aspect of this element has to do with dreams, vision, and what we believe is possible. The image we hold of ourselves is a pivot-point, the place where our past can inform our future. What do you believe you can have, achieve and feel? How can you be the most honest about that? What stories have you been told that you need to unlearn? Things do not have to be bad for them to get better. The mantra for the air element is “how good can it get?”.
In this meditation, you get the chance to work with difficult emotions or thoughts that arose recently. You will be invited to think of a situation that triggered you. This could be something that happened to you personally, or something you heard about that affected you. The only criteria is that it led to difficult feelings or thoughts.
Sometimes we want to be an image of a good person, or a spiritual person, so when anger or frustration arises, we reject that aspect of ourselves. When that happens, it creates a conflict and uses a tremendous amount of energy. We will practice creating space for the “ugly” reactions and thoughts and notice whether that can free up some space within.
We don’t have to be “love and light” all the time. We get to be on our own side, even if we don’t think it’s our “good side.”
DEEPENING PRACTICE:
After the meditation, feel free to journal::
What uncomfortable emotion did I end up contacting in this session?
Is this something I experience often?
Is it something I remember experiencing earlier in my life, when I was young?
Did I have any support, growing up, to experience this emotion freely?
If not, did I learn to make myself “bad” or “wrong” when this arose in me?
Now, how did it feel to say the inner “YES!” and agree to allow this?
What happened when I linked some movement to the feeling?
Is this, or something else that came up, something I can use later to be my own ally and strengthen my sense of inner support?
Affirmations for the Air Element
I open to divine inspiration
I know I am loved
There is nothing I need to accomplish
I am worthy just because I exist
Air Element Yoga
We begin the Air Element Yoga Practice by grounding, settling the body onto the earth and breathing deeply. We learn that we must root to rise, find our embodiment first before we expand into wider vision. It’s in the experience of contrast and duality that we find our deepest connection to truth. When we follow this type of flow, we are engaging on all levels - body, breath, energy, and intention - to seek out bigger dreams and to expand into the possibility of their actualization.
Air Element Pranayama
Connecting breath and awareness to a place in the physical body allows it space to communicate its wisdom and often shift into a more open state of being.
What is Swara Yoga?
Explore Swara Yoga and the Balancing Breath Technique
(from Yoni Shakti by Uma Dinsmore Tuli; page 466)
Mudras for Air and Space Elements
Matangi Fire
Mantra:
om hreem kleem hung matangyai phat svaha
The air element has to do with receiving and communicating truth. Matangi is the energy within you that thrives on the outskirts of mainstream culture, expressing her own truth.
Use this fire to invoke your own personal expression of truth.
You are a truth seeker. Never deny or try to quieten this to make others comfortable. You are meant to be an agitator at times. You don’t necessarily have to say a word, though sometimes you will. Often you will agitate in the most loving sense simply by your knowing. Hold compassion for the truth you behold. Get out in nature and spend some time communing with the infinite. The truth is your connection to the living truth of life itself. Truth always, eventually, prevails.
Alanna Fairchild
Gayatri Mantra
ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः
तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरेण्यं॒
भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑धीमहि
धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्
Om Bhur Bhuvaḥ Swaḥ
Tat-savitur Vareñyaṃ
Bhargo Devasya Dhīmahi
Dhiyo Yonaḥ Prachodayāt
General meaning: We meditate on that most adored Supreme Lord, the creator, whose effulgence (divine light) illumines all realms (physical, mental and spiritual). May this divine light illumine our intellect.
Word meaning: Om: The primeval sound; Bhur: the physical body/physical realm; Bhuvah: the life force/the mental realm Suvah: the soul/spiritual realm; Tat: That (God); Savitur: the Sun, Creator (source of all life); Vareñyam: adore; Bhargo: effulgence (divine light); Devasya: supreme Lord; Dhīmahi: meditate; Dhiyo: the intellect; Yo: May this light; Nah: our; Prachodayāt: illumine/inspire.
Element Sequence
Sound, Gesture and Movement combine in a practice to integrate awareness of your elemental nature.
Yoni Shakti, p. 183
When you have completed the moving sequence as many times as you like, you may choose to sit and repeat the mantra here.
Ma aham, aham annam; Ma aham, aham pranam; Ma aham aham manah; Ma aham, aham vignanam; Ma aham, aham anandam; Ma aham, aham sarvam; Ma aham, aham aham,
I am food; I am prana; I am mind and emotions; I am intuitive wisdom; I am bliss; I am all; I am, I am (pure being).
Embodied Element Puja
Sound, Gesture, Movement and Visualization make this sequence from Yoni Shakti a powerful ritualistic way to embody the elements, derived from Shakta Tantra.
Yoni Shakti, p. 189
Closing Mantra:
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते ।
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamudachyate purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavashisyate Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaanti.
Vision Quest
When you go into nature with a sincere intention and open your senses to receive, you plunge into wisdom.
This video serves as an invocation, an invitation to step over the threshold from ordinary to non-ordinary reality. When you step into this world, you invite signs and synchronicities, paying attention to guidance with all your senses. You open your heart to receive as much love as it can hold, even willing for it to break to refill larger, as more love is waiting to fill the space.
After watching the video, go into nature, away from humans as much as possible. Spend ten minutes or a whole day in this sacred space. Expect answers or guidance during your quest, in dreams, or later in the week. Be open without expectation.
Pay attention to nature mandalas interwoven in branches and leaves. Notice the texture of the ferns and grasses. Hear the wind caressing the treetops. Feel your feet make contact with the ground. Be astonished. Lose yourself in this love.
Yoga Nidra for Elemental Integration
Tratak Meditation
The word trataka means to gaze steadily. Tratak or trataka involves looking into the heart of a candle flame for as long as possible without blinking, and eventually holding the image of the flame in the mind’s eye when the eyes do close. The practice dates back to at least the 15th century, and can be found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which introduces two different types of tratak; Bahiranga Trataka or ‘external concentrated gazing’ and Antaranga Trataka or ‘internal concentrated gazing’.
You will need a candle for this meditation. It is recommended to practice this right after waking up or before going to bed.
Benefits include: resolving eye problems, clearing the mind and developing intuition
Closing Practice
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.
Let’s look more closely at the meaning of each word of this invocational mantra:
lokah: location, realm, all universes existing now
samastah: all beings sharing that same location
sukhino: centered in happiness and joy, free from suffering
bhav: the divine mood or state of unified existence
antu: may it be so, it must be so
It only takes one soul in any generation to stop the hand-me-down of the generational wound, to retrieve in new and old ways, and then hand down the restored holy instead. That will be the one who has just a little more consciousness than others in the family, one who gently and stalwartly refuses to take on the family wound without healing it, once and for all. This will be the one who stands for the first time in generations in full voice of justice, full loving heart, full generous and wise soul, without cringing, with a bold certainty that the holy is birthright for all-and who teaches their children to do the same. The rituals to do this are speaking beautiful truths, cleansing rituals, re-consecration rituals, and many add to these their own inspirational ornamentations, words, actions that are meaningful to them. Remember: no wall against the holy can hold us away from the holy.
-Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Untie the Strong Woman