Stream in Sequoia National Park, U.S. [Photo courtesy of PD Photo via Creative Commons]
Stream in Sequoia National Park, U.S. [Photo courtesy of PD Photo via Creative Commons]

“Let the stream follow its course,

it will know the way among the mountains.

Watch, and it will lead you to the ocean

with gentle certainty — unforced.

Have faith in your direction.”

David M. Bell, Spirit of Nature: The Harmony of the Five Elements

As with all of the elements and Nature herself, Water is a master teacher, in so many ways.

Indeed, one of my most challenging ancestral-wisdom, ‘shamanic’ lessons came with Water as guide, testing my faith and ability to release form (and a certain type of control) and flow … or rather seep … as water might.

Sequoia Falls [thanks to PD Photo for permission to use this photo]
Sequoia Falls [thanks to PD Photo for permission to use this photo]
In Taoist Five Element theory, water is associated with flow, movement, and cleansing (or washing away), of course, but also with the emotion of fear, the direction of the North, and with the ancestors.

In many indigenous wisdom traditions, across many cultures and times, Water is an important symbol — baptism occurs with water, fertile seasons require water, people and things are blessed with water, deserts bloom again with water. You can think of more examples, yes?

As with all energies, and as we see in Nature, water energy can flow, or grow stagnant, be lacking, or be dammed up or blocked.

In the river closest to where I currently dwell, the water sometimes seems to be hardly moving at all, and yet there is a current of movement happening beneath the surface. At other times, thankfully not often, it has overflowed its banks.

And at any given time, including right now, in some areas there is drought, while in others an excess of water that threatens structures and washes things away.

The same is true for each of us as well, literally and metaphorically.

David Bell makes the point nicely in Spirit of Nature:

“If our Water energy is blocked we may become fiery in our obsession with the future, but unable to move freely towards this future. We may begin to groan … and complain; we feel too much solidity of presence and have lost our connection with the fluidity of our nature.”

What is the connection with the fluidity of our nature, or rather what’s the state and quality of that connection right now with the more formless, faithful, flowing, yin-Feminina aspects of our nature?

Our Watery qualities are essential to help us flow with and through the intense energies and dynamics of change and transformation that are currently underway.

So what does Water Teacher have to say?

Love on the Way,

Jamie