This is the fourth in a series of posts on the Elements. I recommend you read Earth, Water and Fire first.

Air is the element that relates to the soul. I think that to really talk about the Air element, you have to really understand soul. Soul is an ephemeral thing. We can recognize that we have something overlaying our lives that guides us…which is Self- not something outside the self- but we have a really hard time finding any words for it.

Like Air, we can’t really see soul…but like Air ruffling the leaves or blowing a house over, we can see the effects of soul. Let me explain.

The Sufi’s teach that virtues are a projection of the soul, that an awakened soul does not need to learn manners, as soulfulness is innately mannerly. There are some qualities of being which stand out as uniquely soulful; these being innocence; that is the wise and humble knowing, fearlessness, harmony and beauty. These are magnetic qualities of a person’s soul and we all emanate them to one degree or another. The more awakened a soul is in this body, the more clearly the innately virtuous nature of the soul will shine from that person. It is not that they are prim, it is that they emanate something essential from their being in spades…their soulfulness. Soul is innately innocent, yet wise, strong, yet sweetly sensitive. It is elegant and true. Like the Air, the soul shows in the effects of soul driven personality, in the impact of the elegant, mannerly virtuous nature emanating from this ephemeral part of our being.

I believe that the breath is the organ of the soul, attaching it to this body we each have, animating it, refreshing it each moment of our lives.

Sufi’s also teach that Air is all pervading and that it is infused with the Divine Light. Thus when we breathe, we breathe life.

The Lakota people teach that when the water is poured on the hot rocks for the sweat ceremony, the life of the stones rises in the steamy air and becomes a sacrament, the Breath of Life.

The Buryat people teach that a person has three souls. One is created from the joining of two humans…their natural ability to form life on their own. It is entirely dependent on the body…very intellectual and practical. This is a once born soul, and the teaching goes that it returns to the earth when the body passes. Another soul comes from the river of life. It is a wise in the sense of knowing where the flows of life lead and come from; a practical, flowing, forceful Self. Another soul comes from the Tree of Life where it rests like a bird upon the branches of wisdom. This soul is said to be flighty, distractible, mercurial, intense….and when fully awakened in the body, extraordinarily wise in the sense of intuitive knowing about spiritual laws, the nature of reality and how the spiritual informs the physical. These soul Selves combine to form a complexity of personality, foibles and strengths.

I do not know if these teachings are true. I know that there’s something that resonates as True in each of these teachings…more so than any other teaching I’ve ever received about the nature of the soul. LIke the Dalai Llama, I’ll believe what feels True until it is proven untrue and then I’ll change my mind. *smiles*

Here’s another Sufi teaching about Air:

• Carries healing power
• Energizes
• Is the purifier of the body
• Can carry thought and feelings short and very long distances
• Can balance the emotions, thinking, and energy
• Is your Connection to the outside world and the world within
• Can help you to be understood by others.
• Develops magnetism.

In this same article, Devi Tide, a very respected Sufi teacher in the Healing Order continues:

“Breath is audible and visible, and when a spiritual person, by spiritual exercises, strengthens and purifies the breath, it becomes more intelligible, as a light and a sound. Life and light, in truth, are one; the breath is the life, and it is the same breath which is light. Breath in fact is the light of all senses; the senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch perceive all things by the light of the breath. When the breath is absent from the body, the body with all its perfect mechanism becomes useless. It is natural, therefore, that every sense must become powerful and keen if the breath be developed and purified. The adept … can operate the breath in any part of the body which needs healing.”

You will find some Air meditations at that link above which are lovely studies of the Air element. Their purpose is to focus on Unfolding the Heart, so that one might prepare for being a healer, but they are useful for making relations with the Air element as well.

For me, the experience of understanding the elements is incomplete unless you do spiritual practice and immerse yourself in the experience of their natural phenomena. It is important to discover the phenomena in your own being, exclusive of the study of your natural environment too. The study should proceed over years. You will see this as a simple concept, but as time passes and you make the relationships you establish with these elements go very deep, the perception of them and the accompanying concepts expands in surprising ways. It effects how you experience you life.

For instance, my initial perception of soul was something Baptismal. It is this thing that’s full of sin and needs to be washed. Nothing in there about Air. When I did finally study Air from the Sufi perspective, I found that I needed to let loose the idea of sin. It didn’t match with this whole idea of the soul being Innocent and harmonious. My practice, told me that my soul was indeed innocent, beautiful and harmonious. I could feel it…I was returned to a simple Truth inside myself. It was a revelation to me to test the veracity of a spiritual teaching such as I’d learned in my early Christian teachings and find that it doesn’t add up to Truth to me. I felt cast adrift for a time…but I can to stand firmly in the things that I’d tested against my Truth sense and the faith in me expanded farther than ever before as a result.

As the experience of my study of Air and Soul unfolded in the next years following this revelation, I realized that, reflected in the beauty around me, was my place in relationship to the rest of creation. I realized my purpose in having this body and this life. This then became the foundation of my sense of soul…this sense of my place in the whole of Creation. That sense of belonging went far deeper than anything I’d experienced in my life before. This sense of worth and place is a direct emanation of soul. *smiles*

My viewpoint grew more complex from there…but I think you get my point.

I have been writing a book lately. Here’s an excerpt:

Soul:

The soul in us is something eternal and full of grace. It is innately Spirit…but it is also individual and unique. It is You; a personality, but not an ego. Think about that for a bit as I finish the rest of this remark. The soul needs connection, purpose and success, so identifying, carrying out and achieving personal goals is one primary way of meeting this need. This focus is not about shallow things. It is about the things that matter a hundred years from now, the things that matter next year to you. Those sorts of purposes are not only individual but also have an element which serves the greater good…now a further word about ego and personality. An ego is the right of things. The right to do, be, go, have, think….A right to be right. A personality is just the collection of beautiful attributes that make you unique, such as a love of jambalaya or Indian food. Get the difference? You are not your ego. That is simply how you choose to be right in the world. To get to the soul, you have to be pure personality…holy….you.

• Experience of fulfilled purpose
• Personal evolution
• Reverence
• Sharing of inspiration
• Harmony
• Cooperation
• Ecstatic connection to the Soul of the Universe/the Land

The basic emotion of the soul is inspiration, wonder, joy, gratitude and love. I expanded on this entire topic in a brief essay here. In most of the remarks in this essay on the parts of Self, I made suggestions for how to access various levels of being. I didn’t for the Soul. That is because they are the same as for Spirit.

Between these essays and the other links, you’ll have much of what you need in terms of meditation practice and suggestions for rituals or activities that can be ritualized, such as dance. However, I thought you might benefit from two more links. One is a link to the Sufi Healing Order E-Class Archive. You’ll find some great essays in there, with all sorts of terrific meditation practices and stuff to contemplate. You may also find that some of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s lectures helpful. He never wrote anything down, he just sat and led meditations, answered questions and then taught lectures on the themes of those questions. It is his students who have compiled their notes and recordings of his teachings, some of which is at that link. He was Persian and his thinking is both formal and very esoteric; his thoughts give in the language of mysticism. It may not be easy to understand him if you are not used to the viewpoints of the words used by mystics. Also, he was raised on teachings from the Qu’an. This is a very patriarchal text and he lived in patriarchal times, passing on in the 50’s. His thinking was not at all patriarchal about alot of things. He was considered nearly heretical by more traditional Sufi’s for allowing women to become formally recognized guides and leaders in his Order of the West, which he established after following a vision to bring Sufi teachings to other parts of the world besides the Middle East. If you can deal with these differences in language and dogma, there’s lots to learn in Murshid’s (word for teacher) teachings, because they are based on sweet beautiful ideas and practices as you’ve seen from the few points I’ve shared here.

I leave you with one final thought about this topic of Soul and Air. I have a teacher who is fond of saying, “You have a brain. Use it!” He is fond of telling stories too. Instead of giving you the answer, he’ll pat you on the head and tell you ’shut up and listen’ and to use your own brain to figure stuff out. Like this teacher, the Sufi’s and many other teacher’s I’ve had felt that understanding is different from knowing. I could tell you that the sky is blue…but how do you really understand what sky is, let alone what blue is unless you can see it? You cannot see soul. You have to live it. You can feel Air in your lungs, or watch it blow over a house or ruffle leaves in the trees. But do you really understand these things…and your relationship to them until you directly encounter them and let them impress their wisdom on  you through familiarity and practice?

Understanding the Elements must come through study. I cannot hand you the understanding. You must seek it yourself.

I will do one more post in this series on the topic of Ether.

Images by Andrew Gonzales. This last link is to my art review site. There is adult content on it. Do not wander off that page if you will be offended by such content. That single page has no adult content. It is a review of this artwork you see here, which is just wonderful stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. You’ll find links to Gonzales’ site there.