In many mystical traditions, it is commonplace to attach significant meaning to what are known as the four elements: air, fire, water and earth. Each of the four hold literal, metaphorical and personal meanings.
Air is exactly that invisible atmospheric stuff that we draw into our bodies with every breath. It also refers to other invisible aspects of our lives like thoughts, ideas and decision making. Personally, air involves the act of breathing that we each do instantly engaging with every cell of our bodies. What can listening to air, mean? Listen to the wind, to our breathing, to the sensations of our bodies when we take intentional breaths, to the ideas, thoughts and decisions that we are processing at any given moment.
Fire is the hot stuff of flames that can both help and harm us. Seers and sages of all times have used it to represent our passion, creativity, love and zeal for life. Personally, fire shows up in the electrical impulses of every cell, our body heat, heart beat, and the energy that we put out when we engage people and life. What can listening to fire mean? Listen to the sun shining, to a candle burning, to what our heart yearns for, to our dreams, to the places that love and compassion call us to, to the dangerous places that anger and hatred beckon.
Water is that clear, wet stuff that makes up much of the earth’s surface. The ocean is a metaphor for the mother of all life out of which every living thing on earth has emerged, and it is often used to portray human feelings. About 70 percent of each of our bodies is made up of water. We are water creatures! What can listening to water mean? We can stand before body of water, lake, stream, or ocean, and listen. Listen and notice how a glass of water affects our bodies, or which feelings are running through us today and how they support us or hold us down.
Earth is the most visible of the four elements, the actual ground we walk on and the planet that is our home. Mother Earth represents solid, fertile, abundant, tangible embodied things to us. Our bodies are made of all the same stuff that compose Earth and the stars. What can listening to earth mean? Listen to the soil in our hands as we garden. Notice the shape, shine and presence of stones that we come across. Feel our feet on the ground, our weight in a chair, our contact required with earth with every step we take. Be present in this moment touching the earth and relishing that we are here, now.
The practice of deep listening is available absolutely everywhere and in any form, literal, metaphorical or personal, that we need to do it. These four elements might just be called the gifts of the Universe.
~Bob Patrick
