The Element of Air: Additional Reading
Outline:
The Enlightened Mind
The Air Element (from The Four Elements)
Introduction
Air in Kabbalah—Four Planes
Air in the Human Realm
Exploring the Air Element through Imagination
Meditating on Air
The Air Element in Hermetics
The Voice of Air
A Sylph in the Form of a Woman
The Realm of the Sylphs
The Sylph Parahim
Checklist
The Sylph Cargoste
The Ecstasy of the Air Element
Keolani and the Sylph
See also my partial collection of writing on sylphs http://williammistele.com/collectedsylphs.pdf
Mysteries: The Enlightened Mind
We think. We solve problems. We formulate plans of action. We investigate, experiment, hypothesize, observe, and theorize. We test, research, and we draw conclusions. We use our minds to do many things. But what is the mind itself? What consciousness is behind all mental activity? And what is the enlightened mind?
In feudal societies, social mobility and personal volition were minimized. If you are a king or feudal lord, you do not like to be criticized or have your actions carefully examined. Why not have monasteries where the best and the brightest sit doing nothing. For the sake of social stability—to reduce political unrest—that would be perfect.
By contrast, in the modern world, society and government depend on the active participation of the people. As an ideal, government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is individual initiative that keeps government and society fair, free of corruption, and user friendly. In terms of the sephirah of Hod, we want an enlightenment that liberates individuals and empowers them to play a dynamic role in their world.
I do not think of enlightenment as something embodied in a saint, guru, master, avatar, or world teacher. Rather, an individual is free to develop enlightened states of awareness that he can draw upon as he needs. Here is one form of enlightenment, though there are as many kinds of enlightenment as there are stars in the sky.
But first, a little humor. From Stories of Magic and Enchantment.
And seven mighty angels, lords of creation, stood before the throne of the Creator. And they petitioned him, asking for advice on how to deal with the human race. Sitting upon a throne that exists neither in space nor in time but rather is beyond, the Creator replies, “Did I not create the blue sky?” And the first angel replies, “Yes, you did.” And the Creator asks, “Why did I do so? I could have left above the earth darkness and clouds of dust and ash, or else impenetrable mists of dissolving acids.” And the angel replies, “You created the sky by day so that in one single glance men might see that regardless of the raging storms of life, regardless of being surrounded by death on all sides, and regardless of the horrors that pursue them from the moment they are born, the mind itself is open, pure, and clear.” “Is that it?” asks the Creator with a tone of voice implying the angel is missing the main point. And angel, good at improvisation, replies, “And, in contemplating the sky that embodies freedom and the enlightened mind, there shall come a time when each man shall find the universe reflected inside of him.”
Recall that a good symbol holds your attention and is captivating. It is sufficiently physical and familiar that we can relate to it. At the same time, it is slightly outside of everyday consciousness so that it provides insight and challenges to us to let go and see the world through new eyes.
The sky is useful as a symbol of the enlightened mind. The sky is open, vast, limitless, and luminous. You can gaze at the sky and then imagine your mind is the sky. Such a mind is detached and, in the same moment, it is astonishingly receptive and capable of understanding all aspects of any problem or situation. Such a mind is brilliant, crystal clear in thought, perception, and understanding.
Under Magical Virtue, I described experiences relating to the air element which fills the sky: The first thing I notice when I imagine myself being weightless is a feeling of freedom. There is no gravity holding me down. I am not bound or limited by anything. This is the opposite of being depressed; instead of being weighed down, there is a feeling of being buoyant, elevated, and lifted up.
The air element also carries with it a sense of detachment. The sky contains weather conditions, but the blue sky itself remains vast, open, and clear. It is unaffected by thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, and white out conditions.
And with the sense of weightlessness comes clarity. To see clearly you have to actually look without bias or preconceptions. With air and sky, nothing pulls you in one direction or another; nothing pushes you to make a judgement or draw a conclusion.
The weightless sensation, like the air element itself, also carries a sense of harmony. Air in the atmosphere is constantly balancing opposites of hot and cold, wet and dry, high and low pressure, calm and turbulent, electric and magnetic, sunny and cloudy, and night and day, etc.
When you feel united to the air element, and in this case, to the entire atmosphere of the earth, you feel an endless, boundless outpouring from within yourself of freedom, harmony, beauty, and wonder which we can call joy.
And finally, with the clarity, vastness, and harmony is a stillness. This stillness is a wisdom that understands how the world unfolds; to everything a time and a season.
To summarize, there is a state of mind that embodies clarity and freedom. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, and experiences are things that appear within the sky. They may be wondrously beautiful, or horrible and terrifying. But the mind itself remains clear, luminous, open, vast, and free.
By focusing on the relation of breathing to the atmosphere, it is possible to develop a feeling of being connected to the sky. There is an ecstasy found in this connection that can be heightened to the extent one begins to realize that breathing is its own religion.
The Air Element
Sit with me. My temple is the sky
Introduction
Air in Kabbalah—Four Planes
Air in the Human Realm
Exploring the Air Element through Imagination
Meditating on Air
The Air Element in Hermetics
The Voice of Air
A Sylph in the Form of a Woman
The Realm of the Sylphs
The Sylph Parahim
Checklist
Introduction
The air element is our amazing atmosphere. And similar to the sky we seek to develop minds that are open and clear. The air element is also
found in breathing, for in breathing we draw upon the atmosphere’s boundless energy to keep ourselves alive.
And yet, as Arjuna complains to Krishna in the Mahabharata, “The mind is harder to subdue than the wind.” Ever in quest to acquire more knowledge, we must be cautious and alert so as to avoid misuse. And yet we will turn to the vibration of the air element again and again to resolve conflicts, solve problems, and attain harmony in whatever we do.
The Air Element in Kabbalah
We can briefly speak of how the air element presents itself on four planes in Kabbalah—akashic, mental, astral, and physical.
Akashic Plane
For the akashic plane, imagine a vast, limitless, empty space. No light, no sound, no form or substance. Nothing is there.
The principle by which the air element arises from this void goes like this:
Because there is no attachment, nothing to hold onto and nothing to lose, and because no one is attacking and no one is being attacked, no attack is occurring, and there is nothing to attack with, there is no greed and there is no fear, and so there is perfect clarity and absolute freedom.
It is simple. Nothingness or the void presents itself as an actual physical sensation—it is vast, open, and empty. You look around and there is nothing threatening you and there is nothing that you need. You are in a self-sustaining state of awareness without form or image.
The air element is also active on the akashic plane. As such, it embodies cosmic wisdom—a great stillness of perfect balance and harmony is behind and underlying the unfolding of the universe.
What lies hidden in the moment?
A stillness that embraces the universe.
It is as if each moment is frozen and complete in itself. And yet also each moment is united to all other moments in time. Find this stillness in yourself and you approach the source form which all clarity and the enlightened mind arise.
Mental Plane
On the mental plane, the air element produces the qualities of enlightenment—mirrorlike detachment and clarity, a mind that is vast, open, and free.
There is a stillness in which every conflict is resolved, every problem solved, every discord becomes harmonious, and every weakness transforms into strength.
Find this stillness within yourself
You perceive the present situation you are in with great sensitivity and also you are completely transcendent, perceiving from a vantage point independent of all situations of history.
Blessed are those whose minds are as vast and clear as the sky, for their peace shall be as a sea that has no shores and as a stream that flows from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.
Astral Plane
On the astral plane, the air element is a fascination with the nuances of perception, feeling, and experience. Who can perceive each moment as something new and filled with wonder?
Emily: “Does anyone ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?”
Stage Manager: “No. Saints and poets maybe...they do some.”
—Thornton Wilder, Our Town
For Shakespeare, each person’s life is a story worth telling. And if you listen carefully to that story, you will witness a great mystery unfolding before your eyes of life both improvising amid ambiguity and uncertainty and yet also seeking with infinite determination to fulfill its deepest dreams.
On the astral plane, the element air is sweet, delightful, and light hearted. It establishes rapport so that a relationship is almost musical. And it enables an individual to feel at ease, balanced, and free. It brings with it the thrill of discovery and wonder—it perceives an unknown universe revealing itself as new in each moment.
The air element is associated with the sensation of weightlessness. And with this comes a feeling of being playful, outrageously cheerful, and joyous. Even if hyper sensitive, its sensitivity makes for great artists. In an instant, it can move into rapture, becoming caught up with what it perceives, imagines, or dreams.
Physical Plane
On the physical plane, the air element is within nature and the energies underlying nature.
Obviously, in nature we are surrounded by a sea of air. The study of meteorology, weather, and climate track the operations of the atmosphere. Yet equally, the air element is in our breath and plays a dynamic role in our metabolism. Pranayama for example attempts to enhance the actions of the respiratory system.
The Air Element in the Human Realm
Within the realm of human beings, the air element is strongly tied to psychological traits such as being alert, artistic, sensitive, establishing rapport, and feeling alive in the moment.
In terms of mind, it produces strong academic traditions and scholarship. In government, it is a judicial temperament, a sense of fair play, negotiation, and resolving conflict so there is a mutually satisfying solution. It provides oversight, vision, and equal opportunity.
In science, it is curiosity, detachment, clarity, investigation, analysis, hypothesis and experimentation. In philosophy, psychology,
anthropology, and the social sciences, it is the systematic integration of your ideas and observations. It is understanding and wisdom.
I recall professors I have studied with. They sought to be completely open in their minds, to take in all the details and history of their areas of research. And yet they tried to summarize and integrate all that they observed and understood so it was expressed in one coherent and clear set of concepts.
Again, the underlying clarity and sense of freedom originate from the void of akasha. From that source, the mind is inspired to perceive with detachment amid ambiguity and to pursue knowledge and freedom within the limiting circumstances and confusion of history.
Positive qualities belonging to the air element are independence, familiarity, optimism, agility, attentiveness, friendship, harmony, judicial temperament, a tolerance for ambiguity, temperance, fair play, honesty, impartiality, even handed, a sense of humor, truthful, open-minded, objective, detached, alert, positive, curiosity, articulate, concise, thoughtful, reasonable, analytical, self-reflective, and wise.
Negative qualities of air are frivolity, narrowmindedness, self-deception, out of touch with reality, lack of feeling, haughtiness, rudeness, presumption, boasting, squandering, gossiping, lack of endurance, slyness, dishonesty, fickleness, overfamiliarity, etc.
Exploring the Air Element through Imagination
Recall how the air element operates in nature and your experiences with weather and wind. Recreate these sensations and perceptions. And then open yourself to the feelings and energies underlying the images of air and weather.
For example, imagine the air in a clear, blue sky. I see the circle of the horizon surrounding me. There are mountains in the distance and oceans stretching out curling and circling about. The air is light, the pressure
high but sometimes low. There are water vapors ascending in evaporation and precipitation where rain falls.
In air, then, there are these things: high and low pressure, hot and cold, moist and dry, calm and turbulent, and even in a clear sky surging electrical and magnetic positive and negative charges.
And underlying these observations, sensations, and perceptions? The element of air is constantly engaged in balancing opposites producing a benevolent harmony that governs the atmosphere. Without it, we would not be here.
The mind is like the sky—regardless of the wild and raging storms that may arise, there is a clarity that presides.
And so there is also in each moment an artistic sensitivity that appreciates each sensory sensation. Combined with detachment this becomes a sense of wonder at the beauty of the universe that surrounds us.
Meditating on Air
If I relax during this meditation, I feel I have become the atmosphere. I no longer am aware of a me sitting here. I feel united to the sky.
Since my awareness is open like the sky, my body feels also very open. It feels like air currents are passing through me with ease.
Similar to mermaids, there is an extreme empathy. But for the air element there are faint changes and disturbances in air over large distances. Unlike the mermaids, the focus is not on love and flowing, but on harmony and freedom. Detachment is always present even when there is extreme sensitivity.
Breathing itself, as with an inhalation, is like eating a gourmet meal. You feel the texture, vitality, energy, and the life force animating, renewing, and rejuvenating in each breath. You feel you have the body of a sylph with its acute sensitivity to the air element.
Here is perhaps an individual’s greatest experience of relaxation. There is a floating sensation of feeling free of all gravity, weightless. And so you are also free of tension and also of anxiety. There is no sense of worrying about the future. No constriction within one’s lungs when some disturbing emotion passes through the body.
You will notice that sylphs love those with an enlightened mind. This is a mind that is open, clear, embodying freedom and that radiates boundless light. For sylphs, such a mind expresses the essence of the sky.
There is also an awareness of electrical and magnetic charges in a clear sky, in clouds, in the earth, and in the various kinds of lightning. It is part of the dynamics of the clouds and weather.
Like a sylph, because you can sense the faintest disturbances and changes in the atmosphere, you can also sense how people breathe and the breath within their lungs. Aware of the energy within their chests, you can tell what it is like to be that person—that individuals’ sense of freedom, how they approach the future, and the where their consciousness is focused.
I love the sound of wind gusts in a moonless night. At first cautious and shy like a feral cat and then she unleashes her full might in a blast. I sometimes send my mind out there and follow her tracks. The wind responds as if I am the sky and she the lover who comes home at night to lie down by my side. Lightning and thunder, rain and hail, tornado and storm cell, in wild passion we dance and whirl.
The Air Element in Hermetics
In Chapters 1 of Initiation into Hermetics, Franz Bardon has the student very carefully attempt to analyze his personality traits in terms of the four elements. In chapter 2, the students is advised to work on his negative or weak traits to make them positive. Self-analysis and improving one’s character are doubtless a lifelong work.
In chapter 3, the student moves on to working directly with the energies of the four elements. This is a serious and bold movement forward. It takes you from awareness of yourself as you act within society to an awareness of being connected to the energies underlying nature.
Bardon: “Let us now pass on to the exercises concerning the air element. Take up the same comfortable position, close your eyes, and imagine yourself to be in the middle of a mass of air that is filling the whole universe. You must not perceive anything of your surroundings, and nothing should exist for you but the air-filled space embracing the whole universe.
“You are inhaling the air element into your empty vessel of the soul, and the material body thorough the whole-body breathing (with the lungs and pores). Every breath is filling the whole body to an increasing extent and with more air.
“You have got to hold fast the imagination of your body being filled with air by each breath in such a way that is resembles a balloon. Combine it at the same time with the imagination that your body is
becoming lighter, as light as air itself. The sensation of lightness should be so intense that finally you do not feel your body at all.
“In the same way you did begin with the fire element, start now also with seven inhalations and exhalations. With this exercise done, you should again have the positive feeling that not the smallest particle of the air element remains in your body, and consequently you should feel in the same normal condition as before.”
Now that is something you will probably never hear a Bardon student talk about when reviewing his vices—“There is too much tension in my life. I am too much on edge. So my affirmation is ‘My relaxation is so great, so free of any tension or sensation of weight, that I do not feel my body at all.’”
The difference between the above practice and my own is that I do not use Bardon’s suggestion regarding breathing. Energy just appears to me. Breathing it in and out is redundant and actually inappropriate for my nervous system.
Also, instead of an empty vessel embracing the whole universe I am focused on the actual air element within nature on this planet, namely, in the atmosphere.
The Voice of Air
I am clear and free of fear. A helium balloon rising, a boat on the sea sailing, a bird in flight gliding. Northern Lights way up there. Yet you can find me in the ocean trench, in the abysmal depths. I am inside ice and rock. There is no gravity in me. I am weightless. I balance all opposites.
I am the blue sky, an open expanse miles high. I am the thunderstorm, up and downdrafts; electricity and lightning abound. I am the tornado, barometer falling, inhaling, spinning around. Step inside me you may try but beware you may die. I am the hurricane clasping the white caps close to my breasts with a
storm surge to ride and a calm eye without a wind that sighs. I am snow, rain, mist, fog, hail, sleet, and haze. I am the dust and fire storm, trade winds, north winds, and jet stream running away. I stir the leaves in the trees with a very gentle breeze. I am the atmosphere of the earth circling around. I have my own currents and tides.
Give me a conflict and watch me create harmony. Give me evil and malice and watch as I create light from out of darkness. I am the journey that begins in ignorance and ends in knowledge. I am the quest that originates in lies, treachery, and self-deception. Yet nothing that exists can prevent me from attaining total liberation, for I am truth that is infinite and omniscient. “What is the bid? What is the bid? What is the price of wisdom?” the auctioneer shouts out loud. “I will accept any honest man dedicated and committed. He shall apprentice to me for forty or fifty years and then he shall attain complete enlightenment.” Give me a hundred such men and the world will be saturated with freedom.
I am air, immortal and divine. I never lie and beauty walks by my side. I am air. Find me in your breath, in your chest.
A Sylph in the Form of a Woman
You may not be able to sense why but around one of these women you begin to feel high. Whether she knows who she is or not, her kingdom is the sky. She is equally the breath and sigh of wind caressing your skin, the trade winds, and the jet stream. By definition, she loves freedom. Like the wind, she comes and goes and is about as easy to control. Oh, she can drop in when your life is like a song she wants to sing. Then out of pure pleasure, she sits down next to you and harmonizes—interweaving silence and sound, tension and resolution, pitch and dissonance, counterpoint and rhythm. Octaves, notes, cords, together they perfectly blend. What you think and feel, the very sensations of your body, she reproduces and then adds beauty, finding harmony in the progression. But make no mistake. She loves men the way the sky loves storms—all that urgent need, that passionate craving, whirlwinds flailing, hail and wind shears ascending and descending, storm surge rising, barometer falling, lightning arcing. For her, men put on quite a show. But men are not something to hold onto when it is time to let go. I know women exactly like this. They think human thoughts and they have human needs. They have the same opportunities and choices to
make as other women. The difference is that from the core of her being she believes with all of her heart, whether she ever says this or not, that she is the embodiment of freedom. The limitations of our world do not define much less control or shape her will. Learn from her that in each moment wonder is spilling over. Be anointed with her beauty.
The Realm of Sylphs
When I speak, the winds obey.
--the sylph Drisophi
For me, if you think, perceive, feel, act, and have the freedom of sylphs, then by definition you are a sylph. And at this point the sylphs will certainly consider you to be one of their own regardless of whatever else you may be.
How to enter the realm of the sylphs? Let’s try. Though I have to point out, if you have created a sensation in your body of being weightless so that you do not feel your body at all, then you are already at the gate of their world.
I place my mind into the realm of sylphs. Instantly I feel I am high in the sky on a clear day. The horizon of the earth circles beneath me. I feel free. I am full of dancing energy. Nothing weighs me down. There are no fences, no limits, and no boundaries.
Because my nervous system can sense any wind, storm, or weather condition, I feel free of restrictions. The sky is my mind. It is open, clear, luminous, and free of attachment or anything that would bind.
Like the atmosphere itself, I love harmony and balance. There is constant give and take and negotiations taking place between
opposites— hot and cold, moist and dry, highs and lows, fire/light/electricity and water/feeling/magnetism.
But to be as one who dwells here most of all I love the enlightened mind because it is totally free and I love the artistic imagination because it is witness to every nuance in each moment unfolding.
But let’s be real. Is there any real reason to learn about sylphs or to explore their kingdom? Not really.
Unless you an artist, a musician, a poet, a performing artist who works with the spoken word, or a negotiator who must find the right explanation; perhaps someone interested in enlightenment or a weatherman, a storm chaser, an ecologist, a climatologist whose concern is the onset of the next ice age; a sky diver, a glider pilot, a hang glider, a farmer, a sailor or ship captain; and you might be worried about rain and droughts, preventing hurricanes from hitting major cities or the tornadoes that run about. The insurance company, Berkshire Hathaway, might be interested in reducing annual payouts of billions of dollars due to weather damage by hiring a weather controller or two.
And then there is pranayama and breathing in yoga. Or you might be Elijah who has returned—he was a master weather controller, far better than the Dalai Lama’s. Or perhaps you are one of those who seeks to attain astral or physical immortality in which case the sylphs realm is part of your trade.
Franz Bardon:
“The magician visits each of the elemental kingdoms as often as he likes and in each he learns whatever concerns the knowledge of magic. Going into the air element, he will see the most beautiful beings with a gorgeous, etheric body, soft and supple.
“The magician must mentally imitate the air spirits by moving about as if floating in the air. Not long from now, the air spirits will address him.
“Here likewise the magician is cautioned against addressing any of the beings first, lest the same ill fate should befall him as previously described. If after repeated experiments the contact with the air sprites has been established, they will inform the magician about whatever concerns the air element. He will be taught many magic secrets and practices of which no man living would have the least inkling.”
However, Franz Bardon also says of air spirit—the sylphs, “I desist from giving any fuller description of these intelligences for the simple reason that the spirits of the air are, apart from being very shy, not at all pleased with men. It takes much effort to force them down and only a genuine magician will succeed in getting them entirely under his control.
The reader will be given more information on this zone and its spirits in the second chapter dealing with the hierarchy.”
Degrees of Connection
Let’s be clear. At times, the human realm is closely associated with the realm of sylphs. The scientists who says, “There is no greater pleasure than the thrill of scientific discovery” is speaking as a sylph, even though he knows nothing of magic.
Those Irish bands who spontaneously jam all night—wild, carefree, and frenzied—are sipping the nectar of bliss that sylph’s sip. Or maybe you have attended one of those life coaching seminars and had that experience of reframing. You look at your life and see struggle and confusion. But if you change your perspective and understand the lessons you were learning, it is suddenly clear that harmony was there all along, hidden behind the conflict, waiting for you to dispel the dark with new light.
The self-analysis of personality traits Bardon offers is a preliminary exercise. You try to take responsibility for what you feel and how you act. At that point, you can take another step toward the realm of sylphs through meditation.
If you contemplate the wind and weather and imagine you are in the sky weightless and free, then you are finding the sylph inside of yourself. But no one says in seminars,
“Now imagine that you are bouncing up and down at the end of a diving board. As you lift off over the pool, freeze that moment in your memory where your upward motion ends and for a fraction of a second you feel completely weightless. Prolong that moment and turn it into a meditation.”
A feeling of weightlessness is the primary sensation you master in order to stand before the gate to the realm of sylphs. Or being up in the sky and looking around at the horizon from seventy thousand feet. Everything is open and clear.
Or simply practicing active listening with another person. You listen and then paraphrase what the other is saying noting separately the cognitive content of what is said and then the feeling the individual has as he speaks. Here you are acting with the detachment and clarity of a mirror. Sometimes the other person will say to you in response, “You understand me so well it is like you are inside of my head.”
In the above examples, we are finding the vibration of air within ordinary human experience. If you feel free inside, then you have the luxury that other people do not have of being able to perceive with delight. Like I say, sometimes human experience and the realm of sylphs overlap.
If we extend our meditation a little farther so that relaxation, clarity, and harmony fill our body, soul, and mind, then we cross that line where enchantment takes over. A woman once said to me, “Why don’t you join us? We are a wave rolling across the sea.” She meant they were so in the moment flowing like water that they knew themselves to be a part of nature.
We could say the same for the air element. “Why don’t you join us? We are as the wind moving through the sky; we are as a cloud floating on the wind; we can feel the entire atmosphere of the earth as a sensation on our skin.”
Is there a practical application to possessing the awareness of sylphs? Yes there is.
Confused? Someone’s reaction or thoughts bothering you?
Take a sylph break. Imagine you have the detachment of a mirror, that you perceive with perfect clarity without thoughts interfering. Add to this the sensation of being high in the sky, light blue from horizon to horizon, and embodying absolute freedom.
But to really get your money’s worth when it comes to the sylph experience? Feel so relaxed, so weightless and free of tension, that your body disappears.
Which is to say that you feel as light as air, as vast as the sky, and that you create harmony with your mind.
Or, if you like to think as a scientist, once you know all there is to know about an area of research, then you can solve all problems and resolve all conflicts. Sylphs prefer to perceive from a position of knowledge and harmony rather than from a position of doubt and confusion. Having the sky inside of your mind is an ultimate form of reframing.
The Dream of Flight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQYN2P3E06s
Once You Have Taken Flight
You’ll Decide
Gaze Towards The Sky You’ll Know That
That Is Where Your Heart Will Feel At Home
The First Great Bird Will
Take Flight Toward The Sun
Sweeping Over The Great Mount Ceceri
Filling The Universe With Wonder And Glory
Mankind Will Be Lifted
By His Own Creation
Just Like Birds Into The Sky
Oooh Oooh
Filling The Universe With Wonder And Glory
Once You Have Taken Flight
You’ll Decide
Gaze Towards The Sky You’ll Know That
That Is Where Your Heart Will Feel At Home
Glory! Glory!
And John Magee:
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
To summarize, if you want to experience the air element take a relaxation break. That experience is well within the safety and familiarity of the human realm.
If you want to go a little further and experience the air element in nature, you take a sylph break. Now we are using serious meditation to find the sylph within ourselves.
And then there is that magic moment where we cross the line and enter the realm of sylphs. It is no more safe or dangerous than meeting a woman who is a sylph in human form.
Although with the incarnated sylph you may be bewildered as to why she does not bond or attach herself to you. That is what women are supposed to do, right? It is that human thing again—“I give you this and you give me that and now we have a relationship.” But this is not likely to happen with a woman who embodies freedom.
All the same, we can imagine warning signs at the entrance to the sylph realm kind of like the warning signs the lifeguards have at a beach—
Beware of riptides Beware of strong undercurrents Beware of jelly fish No lifeguard on duty Swim at your own risk. Dangerous shore break Sudden unexpected waves Sharp coral Slippery rocks
You get the idea. It looks like a beautiful beach. Let’s go for a swim. Just be aware that serious danger lucks here.
On the other hand, we do not see these signs at the beach:
Do not flirt with the mermaids—you risk losing your survival
instinct and may suffer serious withdrawal symptoms
Beware of the sea—it is a living being. Beware of love that encircles the planet Beware of innocence— only the moment exists and it is forever new and wondrous Beware of time shifts—past and future are as real as the present Beware of losing your identity in infinite beauty Beware of enchantment—of bliss beyond human experience
And so if there were warning signs at the gate to the realm of the sylphs they might say:
Do not flirt with the sylphs—the obsession may last a lifetime Beware of feeling free—here there is no selfishness or greed Beware of enchantment—of forgetting you are a human being. Beware of losing all inhibition Beware of feeling your mind is the sky— the winds will obey your command without asking why Beware of rapport reaching ecstasy and rapture— Because another is thinking your thoughts and feeling what you feel does not mean you can bind the other to your will Beware of happiness—of feeling you have finally come home,
for then the cares of this world, the sorrows and loss, will
appear like a mirage on the horizon—they are there and then
they are gone. Oh, and do not smoke cigarettes—for some reason it makes sylphs very upset
All of which is to say that you can enter and meditate within the realm of the sylphs without actually interacting with them. It is a state of mind and an awareness of a realm on the astral plane. If you feel at home here, you are free to drop in anytime.
Perhaps there is an item on your wish or bucket list—to visit a foreign country and rent a castle for a week. From the balcony, the sea stretches out to the horizon. And there is a throne room where kings once sat. Treaties were signed here that define the borders of nations. There is history and a feeling of sovereignty.
Meditating in the realm of sylphs is kind of like that. You plan and then go on a vacation. Except here it is not sovereignty but a great harmony that underlies all things. You are transcendent. The experiences of life and the events of history are seen from a great distance.
Here the thoughts in other’s mind are clear to you the way a sylph can perceive the wind shears and turbulence in a storm or electro-magnetism and pulsing of lightning in a cloud. Or like as it says in the poem,
My mind is the sky,
Pure, clear, and open
Its air flows through my chest
Its winds are my breath.
There are certainly enough conflicts in life. The air element and the realm of sylphs assert the that for every conflict and opposing force there is a balance and a hidden harmony that was in charge all along.
The Sylph Parahim
Of course, we can also interact with actual sylphs. After all, we are in pursuit of magical equilibrium, establishing a balance within ourselves. And yet how little we know about what it is to be a human being if we have not met the intelligences underlying nature that surround us.
And yet such encounters are almost exactly analogous to interacting with another person through telepathy, clairfeeling, or reading the other’s mind or aura. If you can do that, then you simply use the same ability to perceive a sylph in front of you.
On the other hand, if you are not psychic, you can get equal if not better results (get more for your time, energy, and money) by apprenticing or studying with a scholar in some tradition you feel attracted to, a musician, an artist, or even take a set of seminars from someone in writing or the performing arts like Robert McKee who teaches screenplay writing.
Or, maybe you love magic and that is where your sense of wonder takes you.
Orif, a spirit of Venus, was once discussing with me the sylph named Parahim. Orif said,
“When it comes to this air spirit named Parahim, you must move very carefully. Imagine the blue sky way up high. Nothing exists but the enlightened mind. The only sensation is weightlessness. And there is a great stillness and an even greater longing to achieve harmony.
“Now match your aura with hers so that when she looks at you she sees herself in another form. The clouds, the winds, and the storm are your outer form, like a cloak you wear, but you are the life underneath and animating these natural things. You are the unfolding of all the desires of the winds.
“She is so sensitive she feels the fingers of ice spreading across the surface of a pond, the breath of frost forming on a window at dawn, the icicle dripping, the leaf falling, the trail of eddies from the bird’s wing, and the rippling in the air when the birds sing. For her, air is a harp and a violin.
“Ah, you have reached the point where her thoughts are yours—you see through her eyes and hear with her ears. You feel with her body. If lovers could do this then just seeing each other would create bliss.
“In the sky above the clouds there are kingdoms of the soul where men may go to banish every sorrow. Here there is no fear. To breathe this air is to feel freedom everywhere. And the law here is harmony. Every
conflict is resolved because the mind is so open, vast, and clear it encompasses the entire world below.
“The air is a harp and a violin. If you listen carefully you can hear them playing in the wind and the song is the heart of Parahim singing.”
Checklist:
On a personal level, learn to articulate your ideas, feelings, and assert yourself with clarity.
Manage your stress—be aware of your internal biorhythms and your external “stressors”—events, activity, or stimulus that causes stress. Make relaxation a goal.
Take relaxation breaks in which you enjoy the moment, appreciate the familiar, and to savor the presence of wonder.
As you involve yourself with groups and society, develop listening skills such as active listening. Be detached and open-minded as you strive to understand other’s points of view.
As you acquire experience, develop a judicial temperament—withhold judgment until you weigh case histories, facts, insuring that all sides are equally and fairly presented. Learn to investigate and research so you think your own thoughts and draw your own conclusions.
Learn the basics of mediation, negotiation, conflict resolution, and setting goals.
Understand the part reframing plays in taking problems and conflicts and arriving at mutually satisfying solutions. Reframing is viewing a problem in a way that produces the best results. Observe carefully the extent to which an idea, a set of words, or an image can shape and change emotions and feelings.
Develop an open mind that is vast, luminous, free, and unshakeable like the sky.
And finally, evaluate some of the air siddhis—the magical perception inherent in the air element. Can you sense how another’s mind works? Can you reproduce in yourself the brain waves of other individuals so you not only understand their thoughts, but you sense how thoughts arise in their minds?
Having trouble imagining telepathy? Just imagine you are the other person—review everything you know about that person’s behavior, choices made in the past, biography, body language, voice, intonation, word choice, and emotional range of expressions. And then imagine you embody all of these.
There. Now when you focus on something some of the other person’s thoughts appear in your mind.
The Sylph Cargoste
You will notice that the elemental kings and queens tend to embody in their nervous system their element as it vibrates throughout the entire planet.
I am very comfortable, after years of meditating, on sensing water in my body and feeling a part of water in nature. Like there is a small stream between Mt. Rincon and Mt. Lemon outside Tucson, Arizona. It has cut down about four feet into the solid rock. I like to imagine sitting in the stream and feeling a part of that flowing water. But it takes effort for me to imagine feeling connected to all water on earth the way mermaids like Isaphil or Istiphul can do naturally.
By contrast, when I meditate on the air element, in a few minutes a sensation comes through of the vibration of the entire atmosphere of the planet. There is a kind of pressure on the outside of my body and a vast expansiveness that includes air at sea level right up through the ionosphere.
Of course, this is the vibration in the aura of the sylph Cargoste. The mermaids may say things like "The universe is on fire with wonder, beauty, and ecstasy." And that makes sense because as water they are pure receptivity so that they can feel the light and fire of stars burning inside of themselves.
For Cargoste, the sylph, "The universe is on the verge of exploding because of the joy it contains." Cargoste, as air, is proactive. I ask him about this. He says, "This pertains to my inner source of inspiration--It is the nature of Divine Providence to reveal the purposes underlying the creation of the universe. Among these are the ability to create harmony, beauty, joy, and love where they do not exist. There is life as we know it. There is life as we can create it from out of visions of ecstasy."
The Ecstasy of Air
My mind is the sky--
Pure, clear, and open.
Its air flows through my chest,
Its winds are my breath.
In the air element is found clarity of mind and the attainment of
freedom. The air element is so vast and expansive, so
encompassing, those who are illuminated by its wisdom vanquish all confusion and overcome all attachment. The beings who reside in the sky, the sylphs, enter each moment seeking to attain and to abide in complete harmony.
The universe is on the verge of exploding because of the joy it contains.
The Sylph Cargoste
One of the scientists who worked on DNA said, “There is no greater pleasure than the thrill of scientific discovery.” Now that man was anointed with the ecstasy of the air element.
For any number of reasons besides magical ones, an individual can experience a large dose of the air element. He may suddenly find himself artistically inspired (think Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with its vision of harmony).
He may experience an intellectual breakthrough (like the scientist who had a cold and stayed home and as he was peeling an orange suddenly envisioned that the way to pattern the DNA molecule is as a double spiral). He may experience beauty (Dante catches a glimpse of a young girl on one occasion and writes the Divine Comedy from that vision). The ecstasy of air grants artistic inspiration, insight, feeling transcendent, enlightenment, intellectual breakthrough, the desire for discovery, etc.
It is said that the enlightened mind is open, clear, luminous, and free. I woke up from a nap one day and spontaneously wrote a poem. The voice says in the poem,
I am a mirror so clear
I am in this moment right here—
It’s a moment so rich, so filled with bliss
So endless, so infinite
Only compassion can touch it.
Under conditions like this it is helpful to remind ourselves of the ecstasy of air element in its full power—that the mind is open, clear, and luminous like the sky. And each moment conceals within it treasures of bliss, wonder, and a freedom and harmony that know no limitation. If there is a genuine cosmic religion, then it should assist and empower us to find and develop these qualities in ourselves.
Keolani and the Sylph
Keolani sat outside on the lanai of her Maui cabin and read the press release: HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Flossie moved westward Sunday across the central Pacific toward Hawaii, where a tropical storm warning has been issued for Hawaii and Maui counties. Flossie has maximum sustained winds near 65 mph with higher gusts, the National Weather Service said. It's moving toward the islands at about 20 mph and landfall could come after midnight Monday. The advisories for Hawaii and Maui counties were in place as of 11 p.m. Saturday, meaning tropical storm-force sustained winds of 39 mph or more are expected within 36 hours. Oahu is under a tropical storm watch, which means tropical storm conditions are expected within 48 hours. Flossie's center was expected to pass near the Big Island and Maui on Monday and then south of Oahu several hours later. A flash flood watch was issued for all islands from Monday morning through Tuesday night, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser. Keolani is really nice person. She once worked as a model listed on Modelmayhem.com. But she got tired of doing modeling since some of the photographers were down right creepy. For a while she played gigs in some of the hotels for the tourists. She enjoys hula and swimming with dolphins. Lately she works offering web design consultation and has a part time job in an
elementary school running their computer network and helping out with any software or hardware problems. A few months back Keolani picked up a book at a used books store called, The Key to the True Kabbalah by Franz Bardon. She is not interested in magic or anything like that. But she noticed what he calls cosmic letters are actually a means to worship nature in all of its wild beauty. And this brings us to the problem with the tropical storm bearing down on her island. She knows that the roof of her cabin might not be able to handle gusts of 65 miles an hour. A big storm can get her roof to leak and that takes money to fix and money she does not have a lot of at the moment. So she dug out her book on kabbalah an hour ago and looked under weather control. That would be cosmic letter A according to what she read—good general all around full service problem solver in regard to all issues involving conflicts, mental problems, questions about wisdom, skill in art, and also controlling the winds. She next got out her little pitch pipe she had purchased on line and blew the note of G in the Treble clef. She held that note in her mind. Actually, she imagined the sound filling the entire sky and wrapping the earth around. And she visualized the light blue of the sky at the same time. It was easy for her to do this. The blue appeared dazzling and radiant in her picture. Actually she imagined she herself was the sky surrounding the entire earth. And then she imagined she was weightless or rather that the entire sky that she had become was weightless and so free of all gravity. I guess you could say Keolani has a flair for sensory concentration. But after all she worships the beauty of nature and there is no way to encounter nature without exploring the mysteries of your five senses at the same time. Now in this state of three sense concentration Keolani imagined four levels or planes of consciousness. She imagined the light blue color all around her as filling the realm of spirit or what is called akasha. And there she immediately perceived a stillness binds all things in a great harmony. Like the movement of the constellations, time and history unfold according to freedom but also always operating in accord with the laws governing the universe. And then she placed her
awareness in the realm of mind. And here she sensed how that great harmony of spirit appears within the consciousness of a human being. It appears as the enlightened mind in which all things are seen clearly and without any distortion or blur due to ego or attachment. And she also placed her awareness on the astral plane. And with the three sense concentration of light blue, the note of G, and the weightless sensation she immediately felt that kind of sensitivity that sylphs or air spirits possess—her senses became sharpened to pick up the faintest nuances of any sensory perception. And then she sensed here in our physical world the actual air and winds. She reached out with her mind and could feel the storm coming. It was so unlike the normal trade winds that usually embrace Hawaii. And then she held in her awareness all four levels of the cosmic letter A at the same time so they became integrated and one vibration: the level of cosmic wisdom belong to spirit that oversees the unfolding of all things; the enlightened mind in which there is perfect clarity and absolute freedom; the realm of soul or the astral plane where every sensation and feeling of being alive resides; and also the physical world with the actual winds, weather, and storm. Magic to say the least works best if your integrate all aspects of consciousness into one state of mind and being. And now extending her mind outward she could sense the spirit or sylph who is at the center, embodies, and directs the tropical storm Flossie. The sylph was both in the storm and also right in front of her floating in the air off the lanai. She senses his nature. He is very impulsive. He is thrilled by the awareness of warm, moist air rising off of the ocean. He feels rain is beautiful. And also that the hundreds of miles of storm that spread out over the ocean feels to the sylph like a bird with its wings extended rising on the wind of an updraft. But inside the sylph feels oppressive. There is a low pressure area that brings the clouds low to the ocean. And all that warm, moist air that rose to form clouds now is forced to release itself in torrential rain down pouring, drenching whatever is below. With preventing her roof from leaking in her mind, Keolani imagined she was both the sky and inside of the
sylph. She became him so that he was all she was aware of. She put on his body. She felt what he feels inside. She saw through his eyes. She thought sylph thoughts and felt sylph emotions. And then using his mind she visualized a force field around her island that in effect said, This island is off limits to high, storm winds. She felt that not as the words I just used but rather in terms of the sylph’s own consciousness—that the equivalent of a high pressure area was over her island and the tropical storm would be totally unable to disturb it. After a few minutes of this when Keolani felt she had made her point perfectly clear and also as an expression of the cosmic letter A that embodies perfect wisdom and harmony, she imagined the sylph back inside of its own storm. And then she mentally erased all that blue light and feeling of weightlessness she had created around herself. And then she went and ate some pieces of a coconut and a papaya from the tree in her backyard. What happened to the tropical storm? I don’t know. The news is not yet done. We shall see together how this story ends. Tomorrow is not so far away.