Accessing the Elemental Realms

Accessing the Realm of Water

To access the elemental realm of Water: Sit or lie in a comfortable position where you won’t be interrupted, and close your eyes. Breathe calmly and regularly; ground, center, and release. Imagine your body is hollow and surrounded by all of the water of the Universe. Start bringing the water into your hollow body by breathing it into your lungs, absorbing it through your skin and pores. As the water fills you, visualize yourself gradually sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

You are not sinking into a material ocean, nor are you inventing one. What you are doing is seeking out, isolating, and submerging yourself in the watery aspect of your own nature. On the astral level of consciousness you can become aware of, and communicate with the entities that populate the water element. The undines can be elusive in the early stages so you may have to do the exercise several times before finding success.

Accessing the Realm of Fire

To access the elemental realm of Fire: Sit or lie in a comfortable position where you won’t be disturbed. Again, focus on your breathing, just follow it and don’t try to change it. Ground, center, and release while you are following your breath. Imagine your hollow body floating in the middle of an infinite universe of fire. Steadily breathe in the fire, absorb it through your skin, and allow it to concentrate within yourself.

Again, you will be experiencing the fire-element in your own nature which leads to the dragon’s realm. It is the most encouraging realm to work with for the beginner because your body heat will rise when the process is working. Salamanders can be evasive and hostile until they get to know you. They don’t mind teaching us but they don’t like to give in or do the work for us when we are in their element. They also abhor teaching when the student refuses to their fair share of the work, when this happens the salamanders can disappear and not re-emerge for you until you can regain their trust.

Accessing the Realm of Air

To access the elemental realm of Air: Again do the basic techniques and visualize your hollow body in a universe of air. Ground, center, and release while concentrating on your breathing. Absorb the air into yourself with a steady but relaxed concentration, feeling yourself to be lighter and lighter until you have the sense that you are floating in the element that you have isolated. This realm is the least emotional of the four; it deals mainly with intellect. It is hard to place yourself in a realm of pure mind without any other balancing factor but the sylphs will help you to achieve their realm. They enjoy teaching how to control your mind, level out your thoughts, and how to tap into your creativity.

Accessing the Realm of Earth

To access the elemental realm of Earth: Apply the basic technique of relaxing and breathing; ground, center, and release. Then make yourself aware of the solidity, of the permanence of the earth. Absorb its weight into your hollow body, know that you belong to it, that you are a part of earth and can survive naturally in it. Allow your earth filled body to sink deep into the ground that surrounds you.

The earth element realm is the easiest to explore because it is literally our stomping ground. Gnomes are the elemental that are closest to us in form and function, they teach us to open up the caves within ourselves. However, it is up to us to decide how to apply that knowledge. Being so close to humans, gnomes are occasionally discernible without a deliberate act of projection. They generally appear as moving shadows out of the corner of your eye.

Phaedra's Notes:

Even though there isn't one for spirit, I really like this set of exercises. I highly suggest not doing them all in one sitting or even in one day. Several students that I've worked with have had strong reactions to individual exercises.

These are excellent for both beginners and advanced practitioners. I have found them to be great at helping to connect to the element and to aid in really getting a good feel for it and its properties. You can also use these exercises to help work on connecting with elements that you don’t feel an affinity for, giving you insight to the element as well as getting you aware of the energy from it.