Winter ~ A Season of Rest
Daylight has given way to longer nights and there is a chill in the air. Flora and fauna have retreated into dormancy. The trees have dropped their foliage, eliminating what no longer is needed. Their tree sap, the precious treasure they want to keep for springtime, has been stored away in the root system. Nature is in the process of gathering her energy underground, collecting her waters, the juice of life, to prepare for the rapid growth in spring. The sun’s path in the sky now stays closer to the horizon, and the prism effect of the atmosphere creates sunsets with spectacular hues of pastels. The nights are long and dark. The celebration of the Winter Solstice in most traditions is about the light in the darkness, the small dot of Yang in the large fish of Yin in the Taoist symbol, which promises the return of light and life in the face of seemingly ever-increasing darkness and stillness. The gift of this season is the rest granted to Mother Nature. The water can accumulate as snowpack in the mountains, fill the aquifer with rain, gather in brooks and streams in the valleys, and collect in lakes. Nature’s empty water reservoirs are being filled again so that she will be able to provide the needed resources to sustain life in fields and forests for the whole coming year.
The Nature of Water
The nature of water is that it is life-giving and has the ability to adapt to any shape of container, like a cup, a vase, a valley, a riverbed, or a lake. Water can change its characteristics and manifests sometimes as a shallow quiet stream and at other times as a thundering mountain torrent carving a gorge. There is water like a still, deep blue lagoon or an inundating tsunami, a tidal wave, there is water that is frozen in a glacier, grinding rock over eons, or a sudden steaming geyser, able to power big machinery. Some waters appear to be stagnant and polluted, while others are pure and crystal clear, usually through movement. We know that flowing water can provide us with power, turning waterwheels or turbines. We all are very much aware of the force of water, when it overpowers us, from a river flooding whole towns to the surf eroding shorelines and carving away cliffs, to torrential rains, blizzards threatening our harvest, and then the unstoppable tsunami. It is sobering to know that we can send a man to the moon, but no technology has been developed to stop the power of water. All these qualities, characteristics, and attributes of the Element Water are found in our bodies, mind, and spirit: hydration, blood pressure, vitality, adaptability, persistence, endurance, and power, physical, mental, or spiritual power.
The Organs/Officials the Water Element governs.
The Water Element governs the Urinary Bladder, representing a water reservoir.
Like in nature, the Water Element inside of us assures that we have enough energy reserves to draw on to get us through the day, like driving with a full tank. It assures that every living cell in our body has the water it needs to survive and much like the mountain dew for the grass in the field, Water refreshes every cell in our body.
The Water Element governs the Kidneys, which mimic nature’s aquifers filtering impurities, regulating our water metabolism through osmosis, and controlling our blood pressure, assuring that fluids get to every cell, like a river current, directing our energy and giving our mind the power to push through to finish a project by the deadline, drawing on our adrenals to unlock our reserves or in an emergency get us to safety.
Water’s Gift to our Mind ~ as The Urinary Bladder
For our mind, the Water Element as the Urinary Bladder provides depth to our psyche, allowing us to draw on what we have learned and dive deep into our memory banks and the subconscious to draw up knowledge and wisdom, which is why we call “profound” what comes from such depths. Sometimes we are afraid to go deep and feel safer remaining superficial.
Water’s Gift to our Mind ~ The Kidneys and Adrenals:
The gift of the Water Element as the Kidneys, provides our mind with the power to implement our knowledge into action, to create the needed pressure and urgency in ourselves to move things forward, giving us the willpower and endurance to reach the finish line in a race, a competition or to complete a project in time, much like the waters in a river push forward until they reach the sea. When we are in danger, the Kidneysand the adrenals allow us to unlock our reserve of energy to get us to safety. Since our body and our mind react to any threat to our lives, whether real or pretend, the adrenals are also triggered by stressful experiences like traffic, conflicts, horror movies, or even the news, which are scary most of the time. Our mind can tell us it is safe to cross the street, because the traffic light reassures us, but our body still feels the threat of the bus coming toward us. The movie screen has us there experiencing running from the beast or the killer, while our mind craves some more popcorn. Knowing what uses up our adrenal energy, like driving, extreme sports, or any thrill-seeking activities, we can learn to listen to our bodies, use our reserves mindfully, and stop when we feel fatigued. Sleep, rest, quiet, and meditation are ways how we can replenish our adrenals.
Water’s Gift to our Spirit
This rest period of winter’s darkness is the closest we come to death every year. That’s why the emotion associated with the Element Water is Fear, fear of danger, threats to survival, and ultimately the fear of death. To be able to be hyper-vigilant in case of danger is an asset for our survival as a species. Therefore, courage when facing danger is not the absence of fear, but the power to move ahead despite it. To live in this world without knowing the future and the outcome of our actions requires Faith. Our sleep brings us close to the experience of death every night, taking us down into our unconscious, and showing us life without our bodiesin our dreams. We know that besides fatigue, falling asleep requires trust and faith in the cycles of Nature that we will wake up again in the morning. We have to relinquish control and let our ego surrender, which constantly watches out for any threats to our survival. Sleep is the ultimate state of feeling safe and therefore is so restorative, not only for our body but also for our mind and our spirit. In sleep, we stop all activities and become still except for our lungs and our heart. In our dreams, we are given the experience of another reality without our physical bodies. Having faith in the structure of the universe allows us to return to our waking state.
The Gift of Water for Meditation
In much the same way, meditation is restorative because it brings us to a relative state of stillness, except we are awake in meditation. We try not to move our bodies and focus only on our breath. Focusing on our breath as the only thought we allow our mind to have, brings our mind to the present moment. As a result, we have to leave behind our feelings about the past, like regrets or resentments. We have to set aside all our worries about the future, all the possible scenarios, we imagine “could” happen, all the “what ifs,” all of which are hypothetical, since we cannot know the future. We try to allow our mind to only notice the air going in and out of our lungs. Here we can experience a higher degree of stillness, especially at the top and the bottom of our breath. Focusing on the moment between heartbeats would bring us one step closer to non-movement and the experience of stillness. Experiencing such relative stillness allows us to go into a deeper state of meditation and closer to the source.
Water’s Gift as the Archetypes of our Organs/Officials
Water is the Element that is in the closest touch with the other world, the world beyond death, the world of the spirits. The Archetype that represents this aspect of reality and wields the power to apply knowledge into action is the Magician, the shaman, the guru, or the modern-day therapist who has one foot in this world and one in the other world, being a guide on the threshold of both, which includes the world of the mind and the spirit. In this way, the Water Element provides us with the gifts of intuition and premonition.
The second Archetype of the Element Water is that of the Sage whose memory or reservoir of knowledge is the source of all wisdom. The Sage knows what others don’t, can tap into the collective unconscious, the secrets of the Universe, and knows when to share those secrets and when the world is ready to receive such knowledge.
Recognizing these Gifts in us
All these characteristics can be seen and experienced in us, in our bodies, or in our minds. Sometimes we are fearful, hyper-vigilant, or even paranoid, while at other times we are courageous and bold. We show persistence like the steady drop of water that carves the rock, we can be shallow like a puddle, forceful like a torrent, or as deep as the ocean, holding secrets and profound wisdom. We have to remember that the gifts of the Water Element and its qualities can be present or can be lacking, depending on the state of the Element in us, either able to adapt to a situation like a lake or being rigid like a glacier, having faith in the unknown or being afraid of impending doom, being powerful and courageous or timid and playing it safe.
The Water Element is what provides the ability to have faith. Faith is another form of knowledge, knowing something that can’t be proven yet. Dr. C. G. Jung was once asked in an interview: “When you were growing up, did you believe in God?”
He answered: ”Yes, I did believe.” The interviewer continued: “…and now? Do you still believe?” Jung replied: “No, I don’t believe anymore. I know.”
The Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto shows us in his book “The Hidden Message of Water,” that water has a memory, remembering everything it is exposed to, all vibrations, traumatic as well as kind and happy. He studies ice crystals of water exposed to different vibrations. Now since our body is ¾ water, we can understand how vibrations like sound, words, or music can affect us, which means, it is to our advantage to choose carefully what we expose our body to, what type of impressions we want our Water Element to record and remember: will it be scary sounds and insults or beautiful music and kind words? This explains the benefits that daily affirmations, chanting, and prayer can have on us.
The Study of Water as a Practice
To study the Water Element and its complexity, we can begin by feeling and observing its nature, by being in its presence, sitting by a stream or a lake and observing the plants’ and animals’ relationship to it, or on the beach feeling the force of the surf on our body, feeling it in the shower or the pool, tasting it going down with each sip of water we drink and experiencing the effect it has on our psyche. Experience Nature as the Element Water.
One World 