It’s happening, The Great Turning. A phrase created by Joanna Macy, ecophilosopher, activist and Buddhist scholar to describe our change in consciousness as we witness the devastation we have wrought on Planet Earth. At varying speeds and stages we are waking up to our biggest mistake; that we place ourselves in the centre of the web of life.
We act as if the world’s elements – air, water, earth, space, and fire – were made for us to take and use ad infinitum. Now as Fire, the last of the elements, has arrived on my doorstep less than 60 km away that mistake has finally landed for me. I have been part of this extractive mentality promoted by capitalism, politicians and institutions. I look at the landscape around my home for what it can offer me rather than what can I give.
Macy reminds us that every element of our body, the air we breathe, the food we eat comes from the living sacred body of Earth. The first elements of life on earth course through our bodies, the cosmic dust 4 billion years old is inside us all.
I experience a sense of belonging to earth when I walk in bush near my home. Stepping out into the elements with no phone, no water, just me in the early morning, I am. I am a body that knows it needs clean unpolluted fresh air and water. It knows it wants trees to hug, insects, birds, and animals to stare at in awe and wonderment. “A body that wants another body to hold and be held”. I return home invigorated closer to my true source.
veroki (vero=true + ki=energy, source)
We are an infinitesimally small part of a living system, a non-linear, unpredictable world that’s getting a lot more chaotic the more we disrupt it. We mirror the natural world. How often have you felt unbalanced or scattered on a windy day. Irritable or fiery when the temperature rises. Heavy, congested and lethargic when the humidity increases? These are just expressions of the elements moving in our body and serve as a reminder to accept our animal nature.
When we lie, sit, stand and walk, bringing our full awareness and consciousness to the movement of these elements within us, we can ask deeper questions, “What does my body, heart or mind want to say? What do I need to let go of that might be making this fire inside, or wind worse? What do I need to keep and develop to ground myself back to a place a wholeness? And ultimately, how is love wanting to be revealed?”
Look around you and see which of these 5 universal elements are out of balance in the world right now. We are navigating an increasingly turbulent world burning up with the fire and air elements out of balance, impacting earth and water. Are we just throwing more logs on the fire inflaming situations with anger? We may grasp in fear, topple over with confusion, snap in anger or sink into despair.
When we are in touch with our inner world we can tune into the elements of nature and become more receptive to her voice screaming for our care. This calls for a quality of expansive equanimity. Steady in the face of fear, disruption, chaos and destruction, we can act with the full force of our loving being.
Menopausal symptoms can also be understood as an imbalance of these 5 elements especially the drying, disturbing qualities of air and space – insomnia, migraines, brain fog, memory loss and thinning of hair and skin. In the transition space of menopause, joints can become problematic. Hot flashes, are an imbalance in the air and fire elements and weight gain and fluid retention, from disturbed water and earth elements. Air and space however, remain the mistresses of menopausal transition and that’s why breathing, yoga and meditation can reduce or eliminate many symptoms.
