All things breathe. The energy of the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, being inseparably combined, emanates and sustains everything so that things can grow and come into existence.
The spirit of fire comes from the Sun, the spirit of water comes from the Moon, and the spirit of soil comes from the Earth. Air (Mercury) acts as a neutral connector, flowing in all directions, alchemizing fire (Sun), water (Moon), and soil (Earth) into being. The Sacred Four rule over the four Fixed points of the compass and represent a manifestation of the Divine force in everyday existence that could be touched, felt, and appreciated.
A profound truth whispered through the ages is that all matter in the universe is Saturn, and Saturn is a reflection of elemental devas, which are ethereal beings that dance among us unseen.
Without the elemental devas of the Earth, nothing could have been fully formed. They are the architects of the natural world and the ones who bring balance to all things. Through their diligent work, the cosmos is harmoniously orchestrated, ensuring that everything is in its rightful place, even if our human perceptions suggest otherwise.
This also correlates to a human being. The heart draws in the element of fire by pulsation (Sun), the lungs take in the element of water by respiration (Moon), and the stomach takes in the element of soil (Earth) through the food it ingests. The human body is a miracle because, within it, the whole universe is undulating, pulsing, and shimmying its creative ‘manna’ energy. Everything throbs with a vibrant life; even the subatomic particles of the atom are alive.
Paracelsus, the most celebrated of the alchemists of the Middle Ages, gave this example to assert his magical theory of our relatedness to the Earth and Heavens:
"If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in the ocean and Earth. Melissa officinalis is not only in the garden, but also in the air and in heaven. What is Venus but the Artemisia vulgaris that grows in your garden, and what would become of your heart if there were no Sun in the Universe?”
Goethe, in Faust, echoes this feeling, reflecting:
“…With impulse, mystic and divine,
The powers of Nature here, around my path, revealing?
Am I a God? – so clear mine eyes!
In these pure features, I behold
Creative Nature to my soul unfold.”
At this juncture, two hot questions are suggested.
First, what must have been like for these men to have lived in such an intensely intimate relationship with All That Is?
And second, how bizarre and awe-inspiring to think that every life on Gaia has its orbit of life and carries genetic codes for its celestial cousin.
Let the mind dwell on the sphere of these questions. I raise them here only to introduce a different reality: was Paracelsus suggesting that the earth we walk on is "just" earth to one person and heaven to another?
Perhaps in less direct ways do we discover, through the process of searching for our inner knowing, as Paracelcius and Goethe did, that the heavens are impressed upon the Earth and the human constitution through the mystical link that binds the soul to the stars.
This, in a sense, means that it is in our genetic memory to look up to the silent midnight sky. Just as the sacred Stars, the Moon, and the Sun belong to the Earth's heaven, so does the Earth belong to the heaven of the Moon and the Sun. As we look up to them, they look up to us. They are our heaven; we are their heaven. We reveal their will, and they show ours.
