Water as the archetype of Consciousness and life

Water is the basis of life. In fact, we say that life itself is what is sustained by water, we know that our bodies are made of the greater part of water, and also the Earth, the greater part of the Earth is made of water. Water is within all of the life forms that are here on Earth. And indeed it is in other places in the cosmos. Water has been a very important archetype. In ancient traditions across different cultures, that are water deities like Neptune. And coming from India, there's the goddess of water goddess Aapah. And then later on the deity of water, Varuna.

 I have been preparing my next course, which is called Invoking the ancient waters: dance as the secret intelligence of water”. I have been dwelling in the domain of the archetypal intelligence and teaching of water. I'm going to share some reflections with you around the water archetype, and importantly, what it offers for us in our times.

 Sometimes we think that archetypal wisdom is quaint. And it's it's kind of interesting, but thay are myths and legends and what bearing can it have on our everyday lives. And yet, the intelligence of archetypal traditions is incredibly important, especially for the times we live in. Because at its core, what archetypal wisdom offers is how to navigate the plurality of reality. Reality is diverse and plural. And when we only lead with the paradigms of the mind, however useful they are, we are not equipped to deal with the multifaceted multi-dimensional domain of reality, which cannot be arranged into a linear rationalization all the time. Of course, there are parts of reality with which we can do that. But the whole movement of reality is unavailable for this kind of neat linear arrangement. And these archetypal traditions were vessels, in which all other parts of reality, including our mental consciousness, and all of its paradigms, and narratives, all of that find its rightful place. And that's the beauty of an archetypal intelligence is that it doesn't deny anything. It just allows things to fall into the rightful place, when we are able to approach reality, from the lens of that archetypal intelligence.

 And especially in our times, it's a time of great polarity and division. And we often feel that there is nothing available to us either other than yes or no or signing up to one side or the other. Whereas what this archetypal intelligence offers is that plurality can coexist, that many different things can co exist, and that they can all find their place and value in the expansive domain of reality. So that's a little bit about why this intelligence is important. And what is particularly important because water is invoked as consciousness itself. By this I mean that when we speak of consciousness, and we are speaking conceptually or intellectually, or even when we consider consciousness is something that is not of our body, we often think there's consciousness and this body or matter and the two are different things.

But indeed, what is proposed in this invocation of water as consciousness is that actually consciousness is infused in matter, it moves, it is incessantly moving, it's dynamic, it actually creates form and activity, because it is infused in our bodies within matter as water is, you can see that as I said, at the beginning waters in our bodies, water is in the trees in the soil, within the animals around us. So what it proposes is that consciousness is actually becomes real through its material, manifestation, activity and experience. And this is this beautiful gift of water.

 The first teaching is that this element of consciousness this experience of consciousness, is not far away or more from us, but it's actually intimately available within our bodies. And it is. What can I say it is abundantly available all around us in the oceans around us in the animals and birds and everything around us. This infusion this imminence of consciousness is readily available to us it is not far away our nor is it other than its material manifestations. Water has a very important archetypal role in the dance I offer which comes from the Indian archetypal tradition, because the very archetype of the dancer Apsara the name means beings that flow in water, which means beings of water. So dance itself was an expression, this archetypal dance, I'm not speaking here of any dance. But where dance is approached archetypally and expressed archetypally, it actually is this intelligence of water, because the intelligence of water is not of thought or word, but it is something that is unavailable to thought and word it is something that is greater and more expansive than words and thoughts. And therefore it was this dance that is revealed in the dance of the observers, which is that intelligence of water as movement.

 So what I want to share with you in this video is four teachings of water. And then I want to end with a beautiful prayer, which is an ancient Vedic prayer, just an excerpt from a beautiful prayer to water. So the first element of water is that it is the source of life, which is where we began that water is, is what sustains life. And in fact, life is what is depends on water, what water sustains, is life. So as the source, it's the birthplace, it's the embryo. And therefore it has this maternal aspect to it the water as the great mother's that births life. And in the Indian archetypal tradition, water is called the embryo of fire, because fire is that passion, and the energy that infuses our action, we need energy for action, it's the heat of the action and the passion of the action, but fire is also not just any action, but it is action as offering, because fire is always used in rituals and ceremonies as a way as a, as a where you gift your offerings, where you offer fruits or things that you bring to the offering you offer into the fire. So there is an element of the fire in invocation which is about offering the waters themselves offer, because waters offer life unconditional life, there is an offering of waters that is life sustaining, life nourishing. So this is offering we meet the offering of the waters. In fact, in one of the hymns it says that the waters flow towards those who are in offering, when we are in offering this intelligence of consciousness comes to us. I'm just going to perhaps clarify what I mean by consciousness in this context. I don't mean consciousness as in the way we think about it, that the mind is conscious and the conscious, you know, we are conscious because of the brain and the mind.

By consciousness here I mean sentience. In other words, it means what is it that makes reality sentient, makes nature sentient, and that is not just infused by our mental sentience in a way, don't create meaning in nature, or give it a purpose and a rationalization. But this is the sentience that is of nature itself, the sentience that is of our body itself. So that's what I mean by consciousness. It is not something that is created by our minds. But in fact, our minds are part of this greater consciousness. You could call it reality. You could call it the divine, you could call it nature. It's all the same thing. So this consciousness is the birthplace is our birthplace. It's our souls. It's where it's, it's the it holds the embryo, and it's from where we birth, not just materially but also in terms of, of course, our own consciousness. So in other words, the waters the invocation of the waters, wholly intelligence about our own In the nature of who we are before, the narratives and the stories and the roles and everything that we engage or that is imposed upon us or that we receive immediately upon birth, but this is who we are in our elemental, primeval self, just like a seed becomes a tree, or a flower, bed becomes a flower, there is that innate unfolding, that is already held in our bodies, because we are of the same nature as the waters that birthed us. So what is as the source of our sentience as well as the source of our body and material manifestation.

 The second thing is that the quality the teaching of water, the second one is the quality of spreading. We when we speak of waters here, it is a particularly the oceanic waters that we consider. So when you stand and you look at the when you stand on a seashore and you look at the ocean, you have this, the sense of the waters spreading, it's not like a river, necessarily, or a stream. But it's this spreading sideways nature of the waters. And when we invoke waters in dance, the physicality of waters this quality of spreading, you can see that it is a very basic physicality of many archetypal dance traditions, where we often traditions can use things like masks which are spreading sideways, or movements, their body movements are very much about that spreading sideways movements. So this, this experiencing of this expansiveness sideways, which is not just about what is in front, or what is behind us.

 So normally, in our lives, all of our paradigms are organized about, you know, building on the past, looking into the future. So there is this linear chronological arrangement of facts and experiences. Whereas the waters suggest that there is a different quality of experience in this spreading sideways, just consider that how little we even look sideways with our eyes. Now you can join me if you like, as you're watching me, is just moving the eyes sideways. We don't do that very often. So this space beside us is where we are invited to experience that spreading sideways and things being beside us, not behind us, front of us on top, or underneath us. But that life being beside us this reality that is beside us.

 Again, in many traditional dances, you can see how people hold hands or have hands on top of the are shoulder to shoulder or they hold people's waists and they have this sideways spreading lines. All of this is suggestive of that experience of life beside us that we hold all of life hand in hand beside us. And that is the plurality the abundance of plurality is that it's not that we are on top of the plurality. But plurality is truly experienced as this beside all of life that we are side by side with all of life doesn't matter if it is a little and, or it is a lion, that it's all standing beside us. I'm shoulder to shoulder. And this is that invitation to that sideways domains that sideways spreading waters. And in that realm of sideways is also that horizon where the earth and the sky meet again, when you look across the ocean, you can see this beautiful point where the ocean and the sky seem to melt into each other. And that is also that non duality, neither one nor the other. But everythingness it's that beautiful everythingness that is also the teaching of water.

The third thing is that water has its own movement. We know that the ocean is incessantly moving, we're not creating the movement of the ocean, but it has its innate movement. And this is in part this intelligence of water is its movement. And we say for example, there is an ancient saying I can't remember which where it comes from. But they say that you know about the sea from the fish, or you know about the fish from the sea, and it's the same thing about the dance, the dance actually holds this movement intelligence of water. And this intelligence of water is not something that we have created, but it is innately there in water. And what it suggests at the consciousness level is that consciousness is incessant. It's moving, it's dynamic, it's pulsating. It's not about the stillness, nor it's about action. But it has this incessant movement, which is of its own. In of its own sentience. It's not the movement that we may, we may be familiar with, in our in our daily lives, but it is a movement of itself of its own sentience of its own intelligence. And what the archetypal dance of the observers proposes, is that this their dance is the revelation of that intelligence. And it was called revelation, even in the ancient dance texts, because it wasn't created by somebody. But it was revealed, it's a revealed intelligence about the nature of the consciousness, which is a teaching of the waters.

And the fourth is the mystery of waters, the great oceans hold deep mystery, we are constantly finding out things that we have, we don't know. And there's so much we don't yet know. This is interesting, because when we, when we live in our daily lives, we think that we have progressed so much, and we know so much. And we are our hubris will propose that we are the most superior beings that has ever lived. And there is nothing mysterious left, because everything about Earth, we know everything about our bodies, we know. And that yet nothing is further from the truth, of course, that actually, there's so much about even the nature of our body that we don't know, there is very little that we know about consciousness. And there is also so much we don't know about itself. So the waters holding the mystery in the depths.

 And the mystery here is not to be solved. It's not inviting solution. And in fact, if we go towards it with this aim of solving, it's not available to us, it's no longer there, we might think we've solved something. But that's not the steps, not the mystery, the mystery is forever elusive. And the what the waters, the teaching of the waters is that the mystery itself is an intelligence, it is not that it becomes intelligence, intelligence only when it is solved. But that, in itself, the mystery holes and intelligence, and this mystery is actually the essence of reality is mystery. And when we are able to experience this intelligence of mystery, then we can approach reality, without this hubris, without the hubris that we know everything, or that whatever we don't know is just waiting for us to conquer, conquer it with our knowledge and our expertise, that we are, in fact, we become much more a part of nature, we participate in nature, we can stand side by side with all of the other life, and all of the other beings in nature, when we can allow the mystery to remain mysterious, but not because we are ignorant. But in fact, because we are able to taste that intelligence of mystery, without feeling that we must solve it. So that is the teaching of mystery of the waters.

 So the four teachings I shared with you in this video, the first that the water, the waters are the source of our sentience, our body, our nature, and it is when we invoke and return to that intelligence of water, that we are in fact returning to our own souls, our who we are in our essence and who we are at that primeval level, at that level of Earth's soil, water and life in its broadest sense. The second teaching is that waters are not linear. It's not about a chronological arrangement of experience, but it is about that spreading that vastness, that the generosity of that gaze and that experience of the spreading consciousness. Third is that water has its own movement, its own sentience. It's off itself, it is not infused by the explanations we bring to it. But that if we can, if we can collaborate with water, then water will reveal its intelligence and its teaching to us. And the last is about the mystery that water holds eternal mystery. And the invitation for us is to attend to the intelligence of mystery itself.

 Before I go to the hymn invoking water, I just want to, to actually share a perhaps a, an example from our daily life, which might help you to consider this invocation of water. I often think about the surfer. The not that I'm a surfer, but for me, there is something about the relationship of the surfer their movement in water, their being in water, which is that wonderful balance between yielding and agency. It's not all about yielding. So this is not a passive surrender to the waters, because then we will drown. That's not the invitation of the waters. It's not a passive surrender. But it's like that surfer is where we, of course, we have a base of skill, the surfer has an incredible basis of skill, but that when the surfer is in the waters and surfing those big waves, there is so much reliance on that body led intelligence, when the waves come crashing, more than just the skill. On top of that skill. There is the body that intelligence. In fact, it's almost like what the skill in teaches is, how can you find the courage and the intelligence to yield to the movement of the waters, just enough, but be present, so that you can move with the waters. So we're not resisting the waters, we're not fighting the waters, but we move with the waters.

 And that is what dance does in an archetypal tradition is that it offers that intelligence, which is about navigating consciousness. It's not surrendering passively, to consciousness, because we are overwhelmed by like the waters will overwhelm us. Neither is it resisting and trying to carve our own reality. But the skill that the dance is proposing is about navigating that delicate balance between yielding and agency. It's that beautiful, collaborative dance which you know, like the surfer is exhilarating and terrorizing at the same time.

 So let me now end with this. A few lines from an ancient Vedic text—Vedas are ancient texts, philosophical texts from India and there is a beautiful invocation of the waters, just want to share a few lines from that. So here in the invocation, the waters are involved, as the as holding within it, immortality. So immortality here is a sense of timelessness. It is not the opposite of death. It's not living forever. But it's like that incessant movement of the waters in that incessant movement is where we can experience that timelessness. And again, it's not the opposite of time. It's something else it is really about the movement. So it is it holds within a mortality. And it holds within healing, healing, because when we return to our souls, when we return to that pattern within the seed of who we are, not who we've been twisted or or are met, or you know, shaped into being by the many stories and roles and narratives, but who we are in that seed, that is what brings us in To our wholeness, and then we can hold all these other roles.

So like I said, we don't deny anything, of course, we have roles to perform and things to do in our daily life. But when it is held in that intelligence of that seed, the source the beginning, then everything else falls into place, and makes meaning. So that is the healing. So it is what holds immortality, the waters hold healing. And the waters hold, it says the horses and the cows. So here, a little bit of explanation as necessary. The horses the horse, is an archetypal invocation of our energy. So I spoke of the fire earlier on the fire as the quality of action, the passion that infuses our action. The horse is a very similar archetypal invocation, it is about that, that active energy of action action that is dynamic that is active, that is invigorating, that is life giving.

So that is the horses. So the water, what is often compared to a herd of horses that are unleashed. So this tremendous power of water is also what we have in our bodies. Our action is not meant to be limpid or austere without passion, but it's like this herd of horses pauses that are released, we are invited to be passionate and dynamic in our action, and the cows referred to the body itself. So the body like the cow that is grounded, that is generous. That is, you know, cows, we often consider the cows as a animal that is easy to domesticate. And also that is very important, especially if, for example, in Indian culture, the cow was always a very important animal, because it gave milk which was a very important food, but what it the cow symbolizes is that simplicity, generosity, life, nourishing, quality, and that is our body. Our body is very simple. It's there in our everyday day-to-day life. It is life nourishing, and life sustaining. And then you have the energy of our action from this body, which is full of dynamism, passion, and which is also life invigorating.

 So all of this comes from the waters, this teaching. It's when we return to the waters, the elemental waters, its intelligence and teaching, which is very much of the body of the earth of the soil of life around us when we return to that. It is also what gives brings to us the teaching that is about that timelessness about our healing our wholeness and about energy, energetic action, and the life nourishing qualities of our own body.