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Ether Springs Eternal

I remind myself often that the principle of the Five Elements in Ayurveda provides a useful language for discussing wellness and creating goals in a Polarity session. It’s helpful to have a common set of words, firmly rooted in the body - therefore the sensory experience - when tackling the greater depths of a mind/body connection. Recently, however, a new client reminded me that these elements are very much more than simply platforms for discussion. She had confided in me about her constant joint pain and then, as is so often the case in Polarity, seamlessly transitioned into a conversation about all the people in her past she misses for one reason or another. I dutifully mentioned that the element Ether resides in our joints and is also associated with the sensation of grief. By embracing Ether, opening ourselves to the joy of the expansive unknown, we are challenging ourselves to reach for our highest potential. What can we do to get your system excited about Ether, I asked? I expected that subtle light of new awareness to spring into her gaze as she made the connection. But instead her eyes darkened and, cocking her head slightly to one side she gravely said, “Ether….that’s dangerous stuff isn’t it?”

The Elements are so much more than symbolic representations of our physiological or emotional condition. Sitting beside a roaring river at the point where the bank narrows and large boulders squat securely in the water’s path, it’s easy to remember this fact. Beneath the roar of gushing current, and embedded within the mesmerizing blur of clear water racing over mossy stone and disappearing into a swirl of white, lies my clear and limitless heart. Even the smell of mossy water from the nearby sprays is enough to return my system to a state of balance. And then again, and again, I remember that Polarity Therapy is not simply a form of bodywork which seeks to restore a natural state of balance to the body on a physical, emotional and spiritual level. It is a living, active process which owes its fundamental efficacy to the macrocosm/microcosm concept. “As within so without. As above so below”. The mind/body connection isn’t built on conversation or with common words in a dialogue but lived, experienced, integrated through our actions, senses and reflections.

So what does that make of the client’s statement about Ether? Merriam Webster defines Ether as a light, volatile, flammable liquid C₄H₁₀O chiefly used as a solvent and especially formerly as an anesthetic. Yes, Ether can be dangerous stuff. Ayurveda describes Ether as the space in which everything happens, or, the distances which separate matter. And yes, Ether can be dangerous stuff to the ego. It releases us from the very pain which gives name, weight and meaning to that which we are not ready to let go. Pain fixes us and our experience in time and space, which is also the ego’s primary objective. But it also prevents us from moving forward as it mistakenly believes that the pain associated with an event is the same as the event itself. Ether encourages us to drop the weights and embrace a less predictable, less encumbered expanse where change and disruption are guaranteed constants. But here, so is joy. Pain narrates our individual story and gives it purpose, validation and the illusion of permanence. Ether, on the other hand, gives us space to have a story, even the painful ones, but prevents us from attaching to the pain and thereby becoming that story. I have pain. But I am not my pain.

Ether can be a powerful element to work with during the late winter, early spring period as it is precisely in times of transition that we are called upon most to release attachment, surrender and allow space for new, perhaps unpredictable events to follow. As the snow melts and releases its water and frozen debris from last season, it makes way and provides the space for a fresh, new, vibrant season of growth and new awakenings to arrive. Our own inner wintry fortresses are called upon to melt and give way as well. Those shutters we put up last fall want to be swung open; the clutter accumulated in the shadowy corners of a darkened hall call to us for sunlight, clearing and fresh air. Our hearts open, and yet, there is always a momentary pause or hesitation as it realizes that this coming season is a call to new life. What died in the fall and was buried in winter has no permanence in spring. Ether gives us the space and encouragement to release old bonds, or patterns that will not support us moving forward. It gives us courage to let go of that which seeks to hold us back or bind us to an old way of being. Spend some time this week with the remainders of a snow bank, or appreciating the fragile lip of ice at the edge of a crest of snow as it melts from below. Take in a breath of sun-filled but still icy air and let it clear out those spaces between places deep inside.