Wisdom of the Wind

The Wayward Wind Wails

Often when we hear people speak of the elements, it’s done so only in its mystical or energetic format, but I’ve found there is also a profound practicality in recognizing and working with the elements in everyday life and air has been a deliverer of messages for me in profound ways.

Understanding and mastering the meaning of the air has been a lifelong process for me, so I felt compelled to share a little of what I’ve learned specifically in relation to its windy expression. Let us embark in these “airwaves” together in an exploration of the power held in how the element of the air speaks to us through the wind.

Like many things in this world, mankind often creates from an uncentered-ungrounded-unloving place that manifests a reductionist process resulting in anti-nature, anti-life, products and propaganda. For example, the wind turbine attempts at more “efficiency” ultimately insults the true power and goodness nature aims to provide. When we work against nature, it harms us, when we work with it, it gives to us, it moves in harmony.  And while there is also a natural destructive cycle of the elements, of the natural world, it is humanity at battle with itself in fear of this aspect of being that turns innovations into blasphemous “modern” displays.

I call the wind “The Invisible Alchemist” for she can be balmy and sensual, gentle and caressing, or wild and moody. All traits embodied inside something unseen, yet necessary for transforming real life.

How can something invisible have so much power, force, impact and tangibility? The tangibility of wind can chap our skin, move things around, purify and destroy.

If you lose your breath through over-exertion or an abrupt happening, people will say, “You had the wind knocked of you.”  This implies that the air we breath is not sitting inside of us in stillness but active, moving, winding, like the wind.  Even when we sit still, the air moves and our breath flows, in the same way when we try to block out all sound, we still hear our inner voices, faint sounds unrecognized prior move to the forefront.

When we emulate in art what we imagine the wind to look like, we use swirls and waves. Like water, a quiet day, however peaceful, can also feel eerie, stuck or unsettling.  The absence of something brings our attention or gaze to our surroundings in a different way than its presence, both impacted by the same thing, be it a person, an animal, or an element.

The birds know the wind best as they glide on it like an aethereal carpet. They warn us when the prevailing wind is coming that can shake the foundation for which we are planted if we have ears to hear.

Moving to an open area of pastures and the vast openness of land without many trees to break its intensity, I now wonder if the wind ever really stops. It seems like it is always lurking around the corner ready to jump out and make itself known.
Nothing standing on the land where I live is weak, because anything here from house to trees, from concrete statues to bees, from window shutters to me, is still here because it has been fortified and made strong by the wayward wind. Strong backbones required in order to thrive or be at the mercy of natural selection. Sovereign songbirds and trees that know how to sway stand up again and again and again to the gusty winds. The only way to thrive here is to befriend the tempestuous temptress, the dusty gales. I never expected this when I moved, yet the right students and teachers always have a way of finding one another on the journey of life and I hope she’s learned a thing or two from me…. (that’s a joke). 😉

As the wind cannot be controlled, it is an opportunity to be in discomfort, embrace chaos. It is the recognition that both destruction and purification are sort of one in the same.

The archetypal nature of destruction through wind reveals itself through the symbolism of Kali or Morrigan and wreaks havoc yet cleanses. The destruction we fear in life often clears the path for that which is destined for us to find and if we don’t embody that power and bravely step into ourselves, mother nature will come in and make it happen for us in a not-so-pleasant way.

The temptress seduces with her swift movements, powerful curves, warm touch…as it was so perfectly said in the song lyrics from the movie, Dirty Dancing, “she’s like the wind.”

In stillness, she waits to play her part in the grand play. In vast open fields she finds freedom to let her wildness out in all its mightiness, un-tempered by anything standing in her way, blocking her dance, or restricting her wildness. She tickles blades of grass and envelopes mighty trees at once, a reminder that we too have this inside of us, though tethered to the sacred vessel as its container, winding through our veins, dancing inside our lungs waiting to be heaved in and out as it feeds the fire, the spark inside of us. It is a carrier of information, a messenger of magic, it turns and grows when we find embodiment and movement to-and-frow, it’s alive.

The enthralling experience of the howling wind has kept me up at night wondering what will still be standing when I awaken, wondering what song it is singing, wondering how something can be so purifying yet depleting?

The wind slithers through cracks in walls and windows, a shape-shifter on a mission to carry messages weaved from intention. She molds herself as she moves through and around, yet never changes her nature as she howls.

She’s a daredevil daring you to face it, step into it, cleanse it, move with it, be carried by it, if you want to be transformed…if you are courageous enough to see it?

Isn’t it interesting how we use the word “windfall” to describe receiving material gain? A ripe fruit falls as it is blown down by the wind. She hands it to you without you having to climb for it, grace and ease inside turmoil that heaves ‘round branches and leaves. She sweeps up and carries more than we know, she sings and she even helps things to grow, you can find her right under your nose, all you have to do is open your window.

She carries information across vast terrain, she picks up your words and moves them like a whirlwind across the airwaves, across the universe, she’s a sculptor of stone, a wave making metronome, she’s the ultimate nomad that roams.

The wind has reminded me that nature knows so much more than we can ever understand, that the inter-working of the aether fuels the land and something greater is always at-hand.

My fence blew down as a reminder that maybe my boundaries were too weak and it was time to erect a stronger stance in my own life. Shingles blew off the barn and shed, a reminder to protect my head, my mind, my insights. Limbs blew down creating quite a mess, reminding me to be mindful of my footsteps.

So the next time the wind blows, let your hair down, let yourself be known.

Maybe a cleansing air-bath, adjusting your sails, or your fire fanned is just what you need?

• Maybe the chaos that gives way to a messy mane is helping to clear away a ruminating mind that is full of clutter?

• Maybe the soft breeze brushing your hair from your neck is the reminder you need to be present and connect with your breath?

• Maybe the wind chimes playing a song, is the perfect melody to remind you to appreciate your home?

Remember when you blow a kiss, blow out a candle, blow on something hot, you are working with the energy of the wind and there is magic to be caught inside that tangible nature of her unseen power, sometimes cool, sometimes hot.

From throwing caution to the wind to winding down, the way the wind and the element of air sneaks into our language and is ever-present goes beyond symbology, beyond her energetic and mystical ways and right onto the page of daily life, a reminder that we are deeply connected to the elements, that we are them.

Breathe deep, feel the coolness of your breath as it escapes through your nose and continues its journey on. Open your windows and let the breeze flow, the stagnancy wane and the freshness bring clarity and cleansing to your home. Heed her warnings when they draw close and yet be not afraid to stand tall in her wake, to listen to her shrieks, to feel her whispers, to dance in her wildness, to befriend her, to face her, to know her….and if she knocks you down, you must simply get back up and continue onward.

~ Angela