Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings – Elemental Breath Meditation
The Shamanu process nurtures the unity of personal and planetary well-being. Cultivating our living relationship with the forces that give us life – Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Ether, dissolves the illusion of separation and can help to reveal our true place in the great story of Life
To love the wildness of each element is to love our own inner wildness. We discover we ARE the Elements with all their power and creativity. Fostering this relationship shifts consciousness. We begin to think and act from our deeper, Ecological Self.
In this time of great change on the Planet, we enter a new adventure, one that requires a human mindfulness and a worldview able to craft mutually enhancing relationships with the primary forces of Earth.
Turning to the elements for nourishment and guidance, we simultaneously go inward to our deeper Self, and outward to our larger Self. We realize that the experience of oneness with the natural world must be the guiding principle in our lives and societies if we are to make it through this Great Transition and into a new era of peace.
Reviving the great joy of engaging consciously in a truly human intimacy with the entire natural world develops the radical creativity required to participate at the deepest levels of ecological and social transformation, and nurtures a worldview filled with reverence and wonder.
The Elemental Breath Meditation is one of the Shamanu teachings. When done on a regular basis, this breath can help us to reconnect and awaken the great forces of life within us, at the same time yields deep relaxation and insight.
The Elemental Breath Meditation
While the Elements move together in unity, masterfully playing their part in the self-regulating and creative processes of life, each is a unique ‘being’, with diverse qualities of expression. In this meditation, I will be referring to them as the ‘Spirit’ of that Element.
Find a comfortable place to sit, preferably in nature. If that is not possible then near a window so you can see outside.
Close your eyes and drop your attention into your body.
Do a soft scan of your body and release any tension you may be holding. Allow your breath be full and relaxed.
Now, bring your attention into your pelvis, and feel how solidly the earth below holds you. Whether you are sitting outside on the Earth or indoors in a chair – below all of us – holding all of us is the Earth.
Let your attention expand to your surroundings, feeling into the energy around you, taking in the sounds and scents. Let this be an act of deep nourishment for you.
Allow your body to soften even more and bring a gentle wave movement into your spine and torso. Ever so soft and easy, like the movement of a gentle ocean wave.
See if you can imagine yourself merging with your environment. No longer you ending at the skin of your body but letting your edges soften into a sense of merging with what we call the ‘outer’ environment.
Enjoy this for a few moments.
Air
Bring your attention to the Air Element, breathing in through your mouth and out through your mouth, full relaxed breaths.
Feel how air surrounds you and holds you in its embrace. No matter which way you move it will give, opening the space for you, yet never letting you go. Feel its softness, lightness, invisible in its nature, yet always there, always holding you.
Feel its touch against your skin. If there is a breeze how does it move you – your clothes or hair? What parts of your body feel warmed or cooled by the air?
Now bring your attention to your breath. How does air enter you? Feel its texture, its movement, its strength and softness. Notice how it flows effortlessly in and out – clear, unpredictable, ever-changing, powerful, gentle, always moving, spiralling.
The Air you breathe has been breathed by countless beings before you. Trees breathe out oxygen, so you can breathe in. Your exhalation, carbon dioxide, is the gift of life to plants and trees. Can you tune into how amazing this cycle is?
Go deeper. Feel Air touching every cell with its life-giving energy – inspiring lofty ideas, creativity, and intelligence – no longer separate from you – becoming you. You are Air expressing in human form.
For the next few moments let yourself fully absorb the deep nourishment, the miracle of Air becoming you, transformed inside of you, so that you may give back, through your exhalation, nourishment for other life forms.
Give thanks to the spirit of Air for the breath of Life.
Fire
Bring your attention to the element of Fire and the great Sun, breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose.
Let yourself feel how this element touches you, surrounds and warms you. How your body responds and opens to the warmth.
Feel its effect on your skin. How you can see its light even through your closed eyes. Feel how it penetrates through your skin, keeping your body soft, and fluid.
Plants capturing, transmuting and giving this energy to you with every mouthful of food you eat. How amazing is this?
Go deeper inside and see if you can feel or imagine its actions, its movement – metabolizing, transforming. The fire behind the process of digestion and absorption. Transmuting food, thought, feelings – igniting passions – energy from within you and around you. It’s actions – upward, outward, expansive, regenerative.
The rays of the sun, the warmth of fire – where do they end and you begin?
For the next few moments let yourself fully absorb the deep nourishment, the miracle of Fire becoming you, transformed inside of you so that you may give back the same generosity of spirit gifted to you by the Sun.
Give thanks to the spirit of Fire for the fires of Life.
Water
Now bring your attention to the element of Water, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
First, let yourself feel how it enfolds you, suspended in tiny droplets cushioned within air, caressing your skin and the openings in your body with its sweet and gentle nourishment.
Bring your attention to your mouth and feel how water spreads itself over your tongue, keeping your sense of taste alive with its moisture. Play with the water in your mouth and feel its movement, wetness and textures.
The water you drank this morning has moved through countless other beings through the millennia, recycling itself over and over again, carrying with it information that is now passed to you. Just as your secretions carry information about you to others. A perfect feedback loop available with every cup of tea or fruit you eat, if you are listening.
Now let your attention go a little deeper inside of your body. First connecting to your heartbeat and the gushing of fluids with every beat. Use your imagination to take you on a journey through the oceans, rivers and streams of your body. You are 80% fluids, rushing, refreshing, nourishing, hydrating your entire organism. Can you feel the wisdom coursing through you? Sometimes fast like rapids in a river, sometimes slow, like a lazy meandering stream.
Feel into the effortless way water brings what it touches to life. This is its joy – its purpose – its passion.
Remember, you are water. Water is you.
Take the next few moments to feel into the miracle of how water becomes and expresses itself as you.
Give thanks to the spirit of Water for the waters of Life.
Earth
Turn your attention to the element of Earth, breathing in through your nose and out through your nose.
Earth – you who gives us place. Who give us bodies to house our souls and spirits. You who loves so deeply that you weave intelligence into our DNA, develop hearts that beat and lungs that breath, digestive systems that take in and release until you become human or plant, animal or insect.
You live as so many expressions with such ease and certainly delight. You offer life from your body and welcome life back into your body. You are the great recycler – harmonizer – giver and receiver.
Bring your attention to your environment. Notice how all physical form around you is made from the body of the Earth, what you are sitting on, the plants, birds, electrical wires, machines, homes, your clothing – all given to us by the generosity of Earth.
Now turn inward to your magnificent body with its skin, eyes, bones, muscles, organs, tissues – designed in perfection to house your Spirit so that you may experience, grow and learn. Notice the diversity of shapes, textures and colours that create this remarkable form.
All of this given to you, on loan from Earth. Yet, here the Earth is – in expression as you. Take a few moments to sink into the awesome reality of this.
Give thanks to the spirit of Earth for this great gift of life with Her.
Ether
The 5th Element – Ether – space. Breath in through your nose and mouth at the same time, and out through your nose and mouth at the same time.
The most subtle of the elements. Science says we are 99.999% space – ahh, the illusion of being so solid.
Bring your attention to the space that surrounds you and lives inside of you. How it holds everything in its embrace – Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Star and galaxy.
Ever expanding, connecting all that is – unity, oneness.
Particles emerging into life – disappearing as quickly into ‘the mystery’.
All that exists held in the unimposing, expansiveness of space.
Now let your attention sink a little deeper into the space of creation, of all possibility, from which all life is Sourced. For you are Ether and Ether is you.
We give thanks to the spirit of Ether for this great gift of Life.
Now bring yourself back to where you are sitting, and feel into your inner and outer landscapes.
Where do the elements end – and where do you begin?
Let yourself sink into the one movement of Life – the flow of each of the elements moving effortlessly into you – bringing your alive – then effortlessly leaving you, but now, changed – carrying a part of you with them, to feed and inform your larger Self – your Ecological Self.
And the dance of Life continues in its beauty and wisdom.
Slowly stretch, open your eyes and greet this new day.
Variation:
According to the Ayurvedic tradition, each finger focuses the energy to one of the elements. When you bring that finger together with the thumb it increases the energy field of that element and helps to circulate its essence through our organism.
Air – Place the tips of your index fingers onto the tips of your thumbs while breathing in through your mouth and out through your mouth
Fire – Place the tips of your middle fingers onto the tips of your thumbs while breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose
Water – Place the tips of your ring fingers onto the tips of your thumbs while breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth
Earth – Place the tips of your baby fingers onto the tips of your thumbs while breathing in through your nose and out through your nose
Ether – opening your palms upward while breathing in through your nose and mouth at the same time and out through your nose and mouth at the same time
May the abundance of Earth Wisdom be always in expression within and through you.