Making Friends with Wind
Recently, I have been thinking quite a lot about how, as a white descendant of European immigrants to this continent, I can cultivate a more emotionally intimate relationship with the Earth. I believe that the crises of Nature, Culture, and politics that we are now witnessing are a result of humanity forgetting that Life is a complex interconnected web of energy and matter, and that Nature needs us to be energetically/emotionally connected to Her as part of the fabric of Life. Working with the 5 Phases of Chinese Medicine gives us hints, points us in the right direction, and helps us rekindle ancestral memories of that connection.
The 5 Phases describe the distinct energetic qualities of the cycle of life. We can’t see energy but we can see its effects all around us. In the Summer/Fire Phase we know that it is the heat that makes the plants grow to maturity. The old books of Chinese Medicine say that the climate of Summer/Fire is Heat. In the Spring/Wood Phase we know that the sunny warmth surges, beautiful one day, cold and blustery the next. We know the sap in the Maple trees surges upward on warm days and falls back at night allowing us to collect it. The old books say that the climate of the Spring/Wood phase is Wind because wind gusts, surges, and pauses. Blowing one minute and not the next. It is the same movement pattern as the sap in the trees only we are observing it in a weather pattern in this instance. Wind is the weather that surges.
5 Phases
We have lots of ways of thinking about wind that can help us remember our relationship to Wind and how She connects us to all of Life. We throw caution to the wind, run like the wind, are gone with the wind, get wind of something, get a second wind, get winded, break wind, experience winds of change, occasionally get three sheets to the wind, or scatter to the four winds, and sometimes whistle into the wind. We rarely stop to think about the literal meaning of these phrases, but they all give us hints about the nature of Wind and how we interact with Her in both body and mind/emotion.
It has been a windy winter and early spring here on the Maine coast. It has been so windy that, for me, it was just too cold and unpleasant to go out for my regular walk. Being couped up indoors never feels good either! I can imagine that as the world warms, She will get windier because warmer air rises more rapidly and it creates wind behind it. As it turns out, in Chinese Medicine thinking, Wind is the climate associated with the Spring/Wood phase. “In like a lion and out like a lamb,” goes the saying about March winds. When Spring is here, the more esoteric aspects of wind are more available to work with because they are part of the energy that gives rise to Spring, and it’s all around us at this time of year. We respond to the energy of Spring and Wind just as the birds do when they suddenly burst into song in mid-February and as maple trees do when their sap begins to rise a few weeks later and is eagerly collected.
Wind is a powerful force in Nature. It has the power to push the ocean into giant waves and flooding tides, to bend and break trees, and blow man-made structures over like a house of cards. Wind also gently cools us in summer, brings us oxygen in winter, balances, billows, gusts, carries seeds and pollen, and moves things from here to there.
Perhaps the most mind-blowing thing to consider about Wind is that this very air, that is blowing by this minute, in your lungs this second, came from somewhere else. This very air has been around the globe countless times, it has been inhaled and exhaled by an infinite number of other people and animals, has been inhaled and exhaled by an infinite number of plants. And, it has been doing so since the dawn of time. This very air! So, our ancestors breathed this air, dinosaurs breathed this air, trees in the Amazon breathed this air, fish in the ocean breathed this air, and now we breathe this air. That feels deeply connective to me when I think of Wind that way. Wind connects all of Life on Earth. If I had a friend who had connections with everyone on earth, that would be a great friend to have.
Wind interacts with us physically and emotionally. Meaning that just as physical wind pushes us along on a windy day, emotional wind also keeps us moving forward in our lives. Think of a conversation you have had with someone where you don’t necessarily see eye to eye on something. We can say it is an emotionally windy experience because you are using words and feelings to create winds of change in the situation. You are unsettled; they are unsettled. And you come out the other side, hopefully with some new understanding present that wasn’t there before. Spring energy is about growth and rebirth, physical and emotional. This “windy” conversation, if successful, results in both growth and a rebirth of the relationship for both of you.
Ritual is an old technology that our ancestors used to maintain their spiritual relationship with Nature since the beginning. It works because it connects our Hearts, our emotional bodies, to a symbolic form and offers it as a landing pad for Nature, as a living Spiritual Being, to connect to us. We still have some ritual in our culture for big occasions like weddings and birthdays, but I have been thinking about little rituals woven into daily life that could create more intimate, daily connections with the Sacred all around us. I decided I would create a little ritual to connect with the Wind, to thank Her for all her gifts, and ask for some help with a project. I took a strip of cotton cloth (2x12 inches) and a Sharpie pen, and wrote Her a little note, a prayer.
“Dear Wind, Thank you for moving me along my path. For clearing the way for me and not letting my thinking get bogged down. Please help me with offering Resilient Spirit healing work as far and wide as it is needed, for I know you are in contact with all beings on Earth. Help me travel with you to wherever you want me to go.
Love, Amy”
Then, I took my note out to my beautiful apple tree friend in my garden. I faced each of the directions, and read the note to first the East Wind, then the South Wind, the West Wind, and finally the North Wind. I brought a bit of sage to burn as something sacred to be carried on the wind and it seemed polite to bring a little gift. I feel like the offering gift could have been anything that interacts with Wind, such as a song or windchime. Traditionally, people have burned herbs like sage, cedar, sweet grass, or palo santo as a bridge to connect with the sacred. I chose to follow their well-worn path because these herbs carry the energy of those traditions and have a relationship with people back through time to when people knew the Earth was sacred and how to be in relationship with Her. I would like to be included in their chain of traditions. I then tied the fabric to a branch where it will wave in the wind, sending the prayer forth with each flutter. (Tibetan prayer flags work this way also.) I will leave it in the tree until I sense it has finished its work. I imagine that will be toward the end of April when we shift seasons again. I will then offer it to the Earth with gratitude by burying it beneath the apple tree amongst the daffodils that will be there by then. Planting it like a seed feels appropriate and I’m excited to see what “grows” from it.
If you have a group that would be interested in learning more about cultivating your Resilient Spirit in turbulent times with a short teaching, a meditation, and energy healing, please let me know. I’d be happy to come.
Please respond to this email with any thoughts or questions. I’m always happy to hear from you.