From the book, Sylphs, Undines, Gnomes, and Salamanders.

See http://www.lava.net/~pagios

A Meditation on the Sea

Follow Istiphul and me in our joining of minds as we sit on the sand with our feet in the water: Imagine the sea--blue-green waves stretching from continental shores to continental shores. Look at the waves in front of you. Look at the waves as they spread out to the horizon and envision the vast expanse beyond as they circle the earth. Consider the winds that drive them and the tides rising and falling.

To the north, feel the icy pole of the world. Consider the wilderness where snow falls for a half of a year in darkness. Gaze upon white cliffs of ice and the icebergs to which they give birth. See and feel them drift to the south. And, toward the Equator, feel the warmth of moist trade winds. Visualize the archipelagoes and the island chains. Sense the ease with which clouds form from the seas and the hurricanes fashioned from the warm air rising.

Visualize also the shores of islands as they gradually or rapidly drop down to the ocean floor. Send your mind into these depths. Among the deepest trenches of the sea are lost ships, volcanoes, and darkness, but you are able to walk here without difficulty.

The trick in a meditation such as this is to become what you are contemplating. Become the primordial sea. This is the first step--feel the sea's heartbeat, its breath, its currents, its tides, and the myriad forms of life dwelling within it. There is no need to hesitate--the sea is already within you. The waters of the oceans flow through you salt rich. Though you live in air, there is also air within the sea. The ice in your drink--it is not so different from the iceberg floating free from the glacier's grip.

The ocean, though vast and mysterious, is also the dream of being accepted--of being able to relax, to let go, and to flow in a place too great for the mind to imagine. Wave after wave of sensual caresses, with rhythm and passion, renew, heal, and yield to us the taste of beauty and freedom.

Istiphul has something to add. She says, "Place your hand in water and feel the water connecting you to all the seas of the earth. Become a billion waves dancing to a thousand separate winds. To know me is to learn to perceive as I do. For a moment let go and be as me--the soul of the sea."