The Water Phase

 

Water contains the life principle of flow, adaptability, flexibility, but also the qualities of power and of form. Contemplate the yielding, containing, supporting qualities of water, as well as its hard, devastating power as in a tidal wave or tsunami. Our bodies are 78% water. Water's season is the time of conserving, turning inward, resting — winter. Blue and black are the colors of Water. The Water energy channels are the Kidneys (yin) and the Urinary Bladder (yang).

Fear is often listed as the emotional aspect of Water but we tend to think negatively of fear as something to be avoided. Fear is necessary for our survival. Were it not for some basic fearfulness, or perhaps more neutrally we might call it heedfulness or cautiousness, we would not hesitate to step in front of an oncoming car or to go charging at windmills like Don Quixote. Animals that survive are the animals that have a healthy dose of fear. The synergic feelings of the Water phase are apprehension, resolution, volition, and trust

In distress states, the hyperactive spectrum includes bravado, audacity, foolhardiness, superiority, suspicion, mistrust, and paranoia. The range of hypoactive manifestations includes inadequacy, timidity, inferiority, fearfulness, panic, and phobias.

Pervasive moaning, groaning, or humming sounds may reflect an imbalance in Water. The corresponding healing sound is 'W00000,' with the lips forming an '0' as if to blow out a candle.

Taken from article in Massage & Bodywork Magazine (Dec/Jan 2003) by Barry Kapke, Director of the Bodhiwork Institute in Petaluma California and founder of Insight Bodywork.  www.bodhiwork.org

QUESTIONS: WATER AND YOU

These questions can help you feel the currents of water in your life.  Watch the movement of a river and imagine it flowing through your mind.  Allow the answers to the questions to flow downstream with no hesitation.

 

1. How do you feel by the sea?  By lakes?  Rivers?  Swamps?

2. How do you feel in Winter?

3. Are you afraid of the dark?

4. Are you afraid of death?

5. What is your greatest fear?

6. Do you enjoy scary movies?

7. Do you see danger?

8. How much salt do you want?  How much salt do you eat?

9. Do you enjoy drinking water?

10. Are you a good swimmer?

11. What are your ambitions?

12. How do you feel when you have to do something

you have never done before?

13. When has fear kept you from doing something

you wanted to do?

14. When have you overcome your fears?

15. How do you feel in blue clothes? In a blue room?

16. When have you lost control of your bladder?

17. What or who inspires awe in you?

18. What makes you anxious?

19. What phobias have you had?

20. Do you fear God?

21. When have you felt nervous?

22. When have you felt excited?

23. Do you enjoy roller-coasters and other carnival

rides?

24. What motivates you to get out of bed?

25. Do you meditate?

26. When have you trembled?

27. How do you feel in rainy weather?

28. Where does your tap water come from?

29. Where does your sewer water go?

30. How much water did you use today?

31. When have you experienced peace?

As you consider the variety of responses to the questions, think about how wide and deep your emotional responses to life are and how constricted and narrow they are. Where do you feel most frightened? Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the great river, the great en­ergy flow of life. Ask this lifespring to take you into the depths of life's experience. After you've bathed in this source of your existence, reflect on its gift of quenching your deepest longing, and give thanks that Wa­ter will take you to it.

Excerpt from Plant Spirit Medicine by Eliot Cowan   www.bluedeer.org/psm.html

 

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 WOOD     EARTH     METAL    FIRE