King of the Elements

June 3, 2012. Blog #18

As I have continued to reflect on “what is here, now?” the theme and sacred question of my sabbatical, I have alternatively noticed outer world and internal world experiences in the moment. It is and has been surprising how these two worlds, realities have been reflections of each other.

Over the course of these past 6-7 weeks, I have noted what draws my attention and is primary in deciding where to go. I keep coming back to the elemental.

When I first travelled to Ireland, I remembered the living mythical landscape, especially the earth, with it’s hollow hills, sacred forests, caves, bog, and grassland of deepest green. It’s cairns, standing stones, ring forts, stone castle and abbeys seemed to exist and persist outside of time. And the waters and holy wells, sacred rivers, and the unimaginable vastness of the western seas were revered as a major participants in the mythohistoric drama of the last 5,000 years or more. The skies are vast and always moving and transforming, the wind, a living presence, is a major factor in tolerance of outdoor activity. The oft hidden sun and the scent of burning turf around each home’s hearth, gave hints of the fire in the Irish mind, though a less visible presence.

As I returned to Ireland, I headed for the mountains of Wicklow the first week. It felt important to get reacquainted with the land, the earth itself. Of course the rain was also a living presence along with wind. I visited earth based Neolithic dolmens, menhirs, and Court tombs, mythic faery sites, ancient, 6th century abbeys, and monasteries and medieval castles of many eras. But gradually, these ceased to hold as much fascination for me. I headed west to the rugged wild Atlantic coast. For many days, the oceanic water was the prevailing element of power, as I traced the shoreline exploring north and west. I spent hours and days, contemplating, sitting, walking, gazing out to the beautiful boundless western ocean. I sought each bed and breakfast with an ocean view. The land remained mysterious and alive, but seemed outmatched by the raging waters dashing upon its eroded rocky shores. The sun was out surprisingly a lot, yet seemed weak and little warming. The chill, even with the sun out, was a demonstration of the power of air, in the form of wind. In Ireland, on the Scottish Hebridean island of Iona, surrounded by the Irish Sea, and in Dighty, beside the entrance to the Scottish highlands were ruled by the wind.

The Ceile de spiritual tradition esteems the elemental nature of things. There is a whole mythology with deep psychic resonance storied around the elements. For Celtic Ceile de, the elements were also used as metaphors for personality aspects. ( e.g. Such a person has a lot of fire and air, little earth and water). Also, there is a vital spiritual connection to the Christ, who is considered the King of the Elements. In the bible, it refers to Christ, as before the beginning, “first born of all creation, without Him was not anything made”. What would it mean spiritually for Christ to be the King of the Elements? I hope to learn more as I continue to read, study, and contemplate the tradition.

I am fascinated and drawn to the powerful confluence of wind and water and it’s meeting with the earth, such was the Celtic part of my journey. If was interesting to note the gradual emergence of my body’s cry for the missing fire, the heat of the sun. So, was I drawn to the far south mediterranean island of Crete, halfway between Europe and Africa. The power of the sun is intense and dangerous here. It also frees my musculoskeletal system to loosen, and my pace to slow. It offers my skin the vitamin D, as well as the shades of ultraviolet radiation. Not a time for humans outside, the flowers, vegetables, and fruits luxuriate in their photosynthesis during the midday sun, explosive growth. The wild geese do not leave for the winter. Siga, siga, say the Cretans, slowly, slowly…..

And again, now the horizonless Libyan Sea stretches east to west and further south than the earth’s curve can reveal, outside my cottage windows. I can watch the wind play with still water or roar across the tossing whitecaps and crash of the surf. The French Impressionist painter, George Seurat would revel in the sun scintillations on the wavelets, a pointillist’s dream. The nationally protected Island of Chrissi stands a hazy gem in the mid distance. The mountains behind the town of Irepetra are the brooding source of heavy clouds and they sculpt the sunsets in their gold and fiery reds and pinks. The moon is nearly full, outshining the stars these last nights.

What do I mean by the elements? As a chemistry premed student, I once knew the periodic table of the elements, with all of its rare earth, halides, noble gases, metals, minerals and crystals. And with the increasing speed of each neutrino collision, new elements were discovered, some that lasted a 10 to the minus 50th of a millisecond. How could these substances be truly elemental if there were new ones being discovered or created every year or decade? And these elements could be radically transformed when reacting with other substances. When I think of elements in this context, I think of the building blocks of matter, each with it’s different number of protons, neutrons, and multileveled + and – charged electron spin patterns etc. Also, what we have come to realize about matter is that it is mostly space, with extremely tiny bodies orbiting each other in relatively vast space. Our bodies, this table, that mountain, ocean, or forest give our eyes the illusion of solidity. Matter, “this is real stuff”, is actually empty space, in which spin tiny subnuclear particles, some still undetectable except by its effects upon other objects in certain extreme artificial situations.

Well, all of that stuff is mind boggling, and difficult to wrap my mind around. It does not easily yield a tangible poetry of creation. So, what of the earlier eras in which the elements referred to the empirical essence of outer reality, “air, water, earth, and fire” (and mystics and alchemists spoke of the 5th element, or quintessence, more on that later)? These, my senses, imagination, and experience celebrate as the poetic core of reality.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to examine my mental, spiritual, emotional, and sensual experience of the elements of air, water, earth and fire as I live with them directly day by day, here on this sun baked, earthy island of wind and wave. Something about this contemplation is calling me, wants to be discovered; I don’t know what it is, and such reflections so often find their metaphor for internal awareness as well.

Please forgive my own play with poetry around this topic :->)

I sing an elemental elegy
to Na, Cl, and H2 O.
Beloved saline universe
my natal home.

Oceans and mountains and forests
the Paps of Fife,
wee hills and valleys
rivers of her creative life

Canyons and caverns of earthsoul
Measureless to man
clay made conscious,
thank you, madame.

Breathless and presence still,
howling gale, Spirit
wind blows where it will
and enlivens the sail.

Spark of genius, madness,
creative image, and
lightning strikes gladness;
kindles the living land.

Photons and Atoms enfleshed
Spirit and soul married
fire and light awakened
her earth flesh unburied.

Spark of solar fire enlivens
matter in her abundance,
the underworld soul incarnates
the clay creatures radiance.

Eternal fire, vital breathe stirs
her to earth’s orchestral dance,
Out of darkness, rebirth occurs
the endless sacred romance.