Earth & Water – we all know them, but do we know how they affect us and how we can use them in our daily lives to restore balance and bring healing to ourselves and our environment? As an Andean Solar Priest, we are taught about the intricate relationship between the elements of nature as well as their influence upon us as humans. In this 2 part series I would love to share a few basic insights based on the teachings of the Sacred Andean Tradition. Read Part 2 here. 

EARTH – Transforms us

Beautiful mother and bountiful provider. The Earth brings forth everything physical in our lives. She governs our physical reality, like a mother, giving us shelter and food, clothing us and allowing us to grow through her nourishment. Anything tangible came from this earth, no matter how much it may have been altered or modified by humans after taking it from the earth, it is from the earth. When we think of the Earth in this way, we can learn to call on her energy to help us navigate and change our physical situation and transform it into something more supportive. The same way she can break down an old leaf and turn it into nourishing food for another plant, she can take the energies that no longer serve us and transform it into something that can feed us.

Within our bodies, we carry all the same components that make up the earth; vitamins, minerals, metals, all up to atomic level, we are made up out of the same composition of our mother earth. So when we are in lack of any of these, with practice, we can absorb these from her to restore health and balance to our organism.

We can draw energy from others (which could be seen as energy vampirism), as well as the physical world around us. To start working with the Earth in an energetic way, go out to her and make contact with her. Take off your shoes and sit in a position where the soles of your feet touch the earth and you can lay the palms of your hands on her too, or lay down with your shirt lifted up and make contact with your navel. Then, start talking to her, telling her your worries, fears and secrets, your ailments and the things that aren’t right in your reality.

Ask her to absorb the energy of all these things from you and feel her take it. Listen to her answer as she takes this energy and starts transforming it, changing it into something beneficial and nurturing for you and returning it back to you. Thank her and take a few deep breaths and continue with your day. You will feel much lighter and energized. Doing this regularly will form a powerful, sacred bond with you and the Mother.

WATER – Cleanses us

Formed from earth, birthed from water. From our most vulnerable state as a fetus, until the day we depart from this form, we are dependent on this element.

Our entire organism is nothing more than a compilation of tiny sacks of water – cells. She flows, she freezes and she flies – as do we, with our emotions. The element of water is directly tied to our emotional state and expression.

When we become disconnected, depressed, or struggle with grief, we tend to freeze over, become hard and cold to the world. When we fall in love, or we become fired up with passion, we boil and become gaseous, flying high, out of touch with reality. We go through storms of anger, emotional high and low tides, tranquil flowing times and sometimes confusing rapids. In our body, she gives signals of our emotional pains through our kidneys and our liver, even our blood. We need to pay close attention to these messages so we can work with her.

When we feel emotionally stuck like a stagnant pool, frozen like a block of ice, or floating like gaseous clouds, we can work with the element of water to return to balance, tranquility and flow. She will wash over our spirit, rinse through our soul and clean out all the muck that is keeping us from clarity.

Find a stream of flowing water and sit by it, you can even enter the stream if you are comfortable, and face downstream, seeing the water flowing away from you. Visualize and/or feel the water coming from behind and washing over you, through you, and away from you and see all your mucky energy being washed away, downstream, far away from you. Feel the water rinse through every cell in your body and every vibration of your energy, cleansing you fully.

Ask the water to bring back flow and tranquility to you. To melt your frozen parts and bring down the rains from your floating clouds. Ask her to restore balance to the water aspect of your being. Thank her for what she has done for you and take a few deep breaths to come back to yourself. Once a strong relationship is formed with the Water in this way, you will be able to work with water in any form, be it from a tap, a shower, a pool, the ocean. Just keep love and respect in your heart and she will cleanse you.

These descriptions and practices have barely scraped the surface of how the Elements operate in our existence and how we can form relationships with them, accessing and using their energy and teachings in our day to day lives to help us become masters of ourselves, but they bring a starting point of what can be a beautiful relationship with the Elements and yourself. Let Nature teach you, after all, it is what created you… us… everything. Read Part 2 here.