let us be liberated

working with water

After communing with earth and fire, what a relief to connect to the element of water.

Maybe because water is so obviously life-sustaining, or maybe because so many of the forms it takes are so beautiful, I find this element very easy to engage with and learn from.

One thing I want to point our awareness towards is how water moves. From the precipitation cycle which draws moisture into the the highest clouds and then drops it all the way down to follow gravity all over the earth; to the way that water moves between states like ice, steam, and fog; to the way that water moves through our animal bodies; for all its simplicity, water knows where it is going and the path of least resistance to get there.

We also might gain from noticing how water knows how to change states, especially in relation to temperature and gravity. We also might benefit from leaning into water’s power to hydrate us AND wash us clean. We also might engage with water’s ability to be soft enough to wash a baby and powerful enough to carve away stone.

Water also has an interesting relationship to time; the creek dries up, the lake freezes, the ice cube melts.

We all live on a water-covered planet. We all begin in water (in utero) and we are in a profound relationship with water as long as we live. Whether we have become numb to it, or not, the water element is always dancing within us and all around us.

Here are some ideas for connecting to water:

• Every time you wash your hands, really drop into that experiential moment you are sharing with water. If you need liberation from something, ask the water to help you wash it away.

• Every time you drink a glass of water, speak blessings (for yourself, someone else or the world) into the water before you drink it.

• When you shower or bathe, connect to the water and use your fingers and imagination to clean the energetic field (or aura) around you.

• If you are blessed to be able to water some plants, either in a community garden or your own, join your energy to the water flowing through the hose or watering can and feel what it’s like to be the water bearer.

• Sit near a natural body of water and let the sound of the water talk with you as if you speak the same language. Let the babbling of the stream or crashing of the ocean waves or even the soft sound of a turtle pulling themselves from the pond onto a rock tell you what you need to know and perhaps more importantly, wash away any errors in thinking that might be going on.

I’m sure you get the idea and maybe will be further inspired by reading the titles of various water meditations I’ve written and recorded. Just looking at these reminds me of how many forms water can take and how many feels it can take us through.

And the last thing I’ll leave you with today is the very good advice to try on water’s perspective. A few years ago I took Farmer Rishi’s Regenerative Gardening class and he taught us to look at the land we live on/with and imagine ourselves as water in order to investigate - how much fun is that land for water to visit, play and dance around? In that one exploration, where I imagined myself a drop of rain or dew visiting the garden, that I suddenly understood which changes I could make to encourage water to stay a while, to linger and engage with the land (and me!) for a longer, more beautiful time. (Especially when I understood the underground water table as a place where water would love to hang out for a very long time - maybe even beyond my lifetime.)

Water is such a generous elemental - one that has been in a long dance with life on earth - I really hope that I’ve inspired us to engage with water in a conscious (and magical way) in order to make the most of this very important relationship.

Until next time,

Jess

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“The way to find your own myth is to determine those traditional symbols that speak to you and use them, you might say, as bases for meditation. Let then work on you.”

—Joseph Campbell

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“I had no idea what to expect within our displaced human community after spending years listening to people in this country say, “you’re going to need a gun to protect your stash” and “thievery is going to run rampant, everyone will be trying to take what you have”. But what I was met with was the complete opposite. A man told me his house had slid off the foundation and was gone, and in the same breath he offered me water. Two firefighters got together anyone who had a chainsaw or ATV and worked tirelessly to evacuate people trapped in their houses. A teacher started a makeshift nature school for kids. Every person I saw would stop immediately to ask if we were okay, if we had water, food, if we needed anything. I watched so many individuals step up while the bigger systems overlooked us. I watched it over and over again.

Anyone who had construction equipment got to work immediately. Some dug out a new road to the north where the original one had collapsed. At one point the mud made it unsafe again, so they spent their days fixing the road after every single car. Others began cutting up trees that fell on power lines so the electrical company could do their work quicker when they arrived. An excavator helped build up a road so people could use the bridge to the health center, who offered their generator and satellite wifi to anyone that could make the trek to their building. The elementary school turned into a bustling, well-organized food pantry. The women who ran it even remembered that I had Celiac disease and reserved a special box for people with food allergies.

Amongst all of this, no one cared about the dividing lines that have been defining our country. Politics ceased to exist. Who you were didn’t matter. Humans were supporting humans as a matter of survival. We all knew there was no way to get through this as individuals and the immediate unity that was formed was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Mutual aid sustained our entire town.”

 - Mila from Spirit Dirt, read the whole post here

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“Perhaps instead of standing at the river’s edge scooping out water, it’s better to be in the current itself, to watch how the river comes up to you, flows smoothly around your presence, and reforms on the other side like you were never there.”

— Paul Graham

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“The raft is used to cross the river. It isn't to be carried around on your shoulders. The finger which points at the moon isn't the moon itself.” 

― Thich Nhat Hanh

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"And that's how we measure out our real respect for people - by the degree of feeling they can register, the voltage of life they can carry and tolerate - and enjoy. End of sermon. As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you."

 - Ted Hughes

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An artist should stay for long periods of time at waterfalls
An artist should stay for long periods of time at exploding volcanoes
An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at fast-running rivers
An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the horizon where the ocean and sky meet
An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the stars in the night sky

- Marina Abramovic

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"Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of all creation - mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity - and enjoy the falling blossoms and scattering leaves."

 - Basho

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“But I do not think that the banks of a river suffer because they let the river flow, nor does the earth suffer because of the rains, nor does the atom suffer for letting its energy escape. To my way of thinking, everything has its natural compensation.”

- Frida Kahlo

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“Each woman has potential access to Rio Abajo Rio, this river beneath the river. She arrives there through deep meditation, dance, writing, painting, prayermaking, singing, drumming, active imagination, or any activity which requires an intense altered consciousness. A woman arrives in this world-between-worlds through yearning and by seeking something she can see just out of the corner of her eye. She arrives there by deeply creative acts, through intentional solitude, and by practice of any of the arts.”

― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD

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"You can never really go back to the same waters. Not only are you no longer the same, but neither are the waters you left. The current has changed. The elements of nature have affected the stream. When you return, although it appears the same, it really is a different river and you are a different person. Therefore, you cannot cross the same river twice."

- Alice Walker

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“Imagine this scene. You’re really thirsty – so dehydrated that you’re feeling faint. Yet here’s the weird thing: You’re walking along the bank of a wide river that’s so clear you could see the bottom if you looked.

But you’re not looking. In fact, you seem oblivious to the surging force of nature just a few yards away.

Is it invisible to you? Are you so preoccupied with your suffering that you’re blind to the very source that would end your suffering?

Up ahead you see a man. As you approach, you realize he’s holding a bottle of water. You run to him and beg him to let you drink. He readily agrees. Gratefully you guzzle the precious liquid, then thank him profusely.

As you walk away, he calls after you, “By the way, there’s a lot more water over there,” and he points to the river.

Do you hear him? If you hear him, do you believe him? Or do you keep walking, hoping to find another person with another bottle somewhere up ahead?”

- Rob Brezsny

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

The self you leave behind

is only a skin you have outgrown.

Don't grieve for it.

Look to the wet, raw, unfinished

self, the one you are becoming.

The world, too, sheds its skin:

politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.

It's easy to lose this tenderly

unfolding moment. Look for it

as if it were the first green blade

after a long winter. Listen for it

as if it were the first clear tone

in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.

And if all that fails,

wash your own dishes.

Rinse them.

Stand in your kitchen at your sink.

Let cold water run between your fingers.

Feel it.

 - Pat Schneider

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