[This blessing was originally written for a group of healthcare chaplains, but the author invites you to change the final sentence to better reflect your context. It is inspired by the beautiful words of Aaron Freeman, author of “You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral.”]
In neo-Pagan traditions, we recognize five elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. We call on these Elements to help us in a variety of ways, and I invite you now to invoke the Elemental Blessings within your own body:
Settle comfortably in your body, in whatever way that means for you.
Earth: For the Element of Earth, I ask you to consider your bones. Protein, collagen, and minerals make them up- mostly the mineral calcium. Calcium, formed in supernovas racing across the Universe billions of years ago, making up leaves, shells, and the limestone and gypsum of the Painted Desert, and the White Cliffs of Dover. Your bones are kin to the crust of the Earth and every seashell in the ocean. May your bones remind you of your strength.
[pause]
Air: Take a deep breath with me, hold it a moment and feel the pressure of air in your lungs. Every red blood cell in your body carries oxygen, the basis of all energy transfer reactions on Earth. You are holding in your lungs a piece of the Earth’s atmosphere, nitrogen and oxygen and others; nitrogen from the outer reaches of our solar system, formed as the Earth Herself grew from nothingness. Breathe out, and may that breath remind you of your own adaptability and movement.
[pause]
Fire: Your body is powered by fire. Listen, for a moment, for your own heartbeat. Lay your fingers on your wrist and feel it. Every beat creates electrical impulses which power your heart—enough each day to drive an electric truck 20 miles. Your brain, which controlled that touch and that awareness, fires electrical impulses at a rate of 500 signals per second per nerve cell—all powered by fire. Your mind is made of lightning, and your heart is a wildfire. May that fire rekindle joy and passion in every place where the flames have been guttering.
[pause]
Water: Continue to feel your pulse, the liquid life under your skin. We are born of water, cradled in amniotic fluid the same salinity as the ocean. We remain made of more than half water, and our blood moves in tides like the ocean Herself, carrying nutrients and waste across each of our internal shores. Our plasma has nearly the same salt and ions as the sea, and our white blood cells and platelets are as ceaselessly vigilant for potential harm to us as the most loving mother. May the tides of your own blood wash away that which is unneeded, and return to you all that you require.
[pause]
Spirit: The elements of our bodies lay inextricably intertwined with our spirit. We are living temples, the stardust embodiment of the joy of the Universe Itself. We carry in ourselves oceans, mountains, lightning, and sky. Every photon of light which has ever touched our faces will exist in a hundred thousand sunrises forever, every Btu of heat radiating from our bodies right now has been around since the creation of the Universe itself. We are the manifestation of Cosmos’s laughter, and may we hold that knowledge close as we share ourselves with our patients and the world.
May it be so. Ashe. Amen. Tathaastu. Sathu. Shalom. Ameen.