Tag Archives: 4 elements

Reconnecting with the 4-Elements at Ojo Caliente

thank you tripadvisor.com for use of this photo

Recently, I visited Ojo Caliente, one of my favorite places on the planet. There is something so incredible, expansive, refreshing about this remote mineral springs about an hour outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The geography surrounding the springs is magical. There are these monolithic rocks that the springs press against that appear to me like ancient beings watching over the area. All this under the wide blue New Mexico sky.

There is something hard to describe about the sky in New Mexico. For me, this is maybe what defines most the feeling I have of New Mexico. I feel the part of me that belongs to the sky:  I am a bird perched at the edge of a rocky crevice, the moment before flight.

Anyway, Ojo Caliente has several natural baths, each fed by a diferent spring and posessing different mineral qualities. Around the tubs a rather high end resort has come to be, but the pools themselves remain rustic. I love connecting here with the elements of water, sky, rock, and the fiery heat rising from the deep to infuse the waters.

Reuniting with nature I have found to be one of the best ways to align with my innermost self. My personal feeling is that dis-connection from the natural elements is maybe the primary reason living in a city gives rise to stress. So, living in a city part of the time, as I have been, just means I need to make intentional effort to spend time with the elements via baths, candles, breath work, etc…

More ideas on generating the elements can be found in my book, The Playing Card Oracles. Below is an excerpt from my second book, The Teacher Within. It was inspired by one o my visits to Ojo Caliente.

Oh, the Water

Oh, to turn rich, multi-dimensional experience into words

ironed out on a page is the unsavory task of the writer.

My only wish is that my words could carry you

as the indescribable sensation of floating adrift.

If only my words could suspend you like water itself,

I would feel my task complete.

So please, dear reader, won’t you lend me a hand,

and loose those tired thoughts which to you have become like dry land,

and allow me to fasten sweet buoys to your heart strings?

We will be rogue sailors, if only for a brevity,

destined for islands of wild adventure that our best maps somehow failed to chart.

And returning home, while haunting the old familiars,

don a new fleck of color in the landscape of the eye,

decidedly resembling mist.

–Ana Cortez, The Teacher Within

High Frequency “Medicine”

 

Being a student of the Shamanic traditions, I have now begun to view what I come into contact with as “medicine.” According to ancient Shamanic wisdom, for example, if you get bit by a spider you now have spider “medicine,” and it becomes a power and a gift that you incorporate into your being.
It has recently become a part of my awareness that all things I come into contact with have a “medicine” that I can incorporate into my being and gain energy from. Each moment a new offering, a new opportunity from Spirit. This being said, it also now becomes imperative that I be very good to myself and minister to myself as best I can, not indulging in influences that I do not wish to incorporate into my being. For example, I find it imperative to strictly moderate violent media (and mainstream “news” in general,) junk food, and time with people who I do not feel happy being with. On the contrary, there are influences I notice nurture me and contribute to a greater feeling of well being, and some of these I will share here.

In terms of food, I notice staying away from wheat and also milk makes me feel much better in so many ways. Cheese, yogurt, and grains other than wheat are fine for me. Mind you, these preferences have not come about because of any particular mental conviction but rather experiential conclusions. I also am finding it invaluable to stay open to changes in what feels nourishing and nurturing and allow myself to rewrite my rules at any time.

One recent discovery is dark berries crushed up in thick coconut milk with some high quality dark chocolate melted in. I eat it like a thick mash. I did not get the recipe from anywhere but followed my instincts and am finding it a necessary staple for me at this time. Today I had deja-vu while eating it and remembered eating it in a dream right after the Japan nuclear crises. In the dream I was looking for a food to protect me from radiation. I do not know if this food serves this purpose, but it was an interesting flash back.

My body also wants almonds now everyday and greens are also a daily “medicine.” When I am eating greens I feel so particularly satisfied.

Sunlight is huge for me. I feel an instant lift in frequency. I like to just sit in my yard in the sun (sworn off sunglasses*) and watch my dogs. Low key feels so much better to me now than anything else. Activities such as shopping or errands are ideally kept to absolute minimums. An hour or two now and then is plenty of crowd and traffic “medicine” for me!

If I am in real need of a recharge I will put my bare hands on a tree for a few minutes or in the dirt in gardening season. For a real treat, I love going bare foot. My animals are a necessary daily touchstone for me also. Meditation is, of course, maybe the most foundational practice of all and twice daily feels the best.

Surrounding myself with beauty, good people, nature, vibrant food, animals, peaceful surroundings, spiritual perspectives and spiritual practice are all medicines my soul soaks in and I feel starved and “out of sorts” without.

Maybe you have had experiences that correspond to mine. Maybe you know what it feels like to be “out of sorts” from a vibrational stand point. I have learned for myself I have to take care of me before I can be of use to anyone else on the level that I have personally been called to serve. This is because I am here to heal. This is square one. Now multiply exponentially.

*Spirit showed me in a vision how sunglasses starve the pineal gland (the third eye) of it’s “food,” which is the sunlight.

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