Listening to Nature
5.7 Listening to Elementals
Listening to the Stars
The stars saved his life. Ecological philosopher Derrick Jensen experienced repeated childhood abuse and pointedly says, “I did not die because they [the stars] spoke to me.”[1] He describes going outside at night, laying on the grass, looking up, and giving his emotions to the stars, “In return the stars gave me understanding. They said to me . . . This is not your fault. You will survive. We love you. You are good.”[2] Listening to the hopeful message of the stars provided Jensen with the fortitude and courage to continue living.
A psychological materialist might say that Jensen’s listening to the stars is a personal projection brought on by trauma. That is one possibility, but there are other interpretations of his experience. Alternatively, listening to the SONG of life acknowledges many perspectives of listening. These perspectives include fifty-four sensory capacities of humans in addition to the five senses, thinking processes of interpretation and understanding, the faculty of intuition, and the mystical and transcendental dimensions of experience as well as scientific materialism. Jensen’s star message can be interpreted through the lens of all of these listening perspectives.
Stars are one type of element found in the natural world and are composed of mostly hydrogen and helium that produce light and heat. There are many other elements [3] found in nature that we can listen to.
Periodic Table of Elements
As of this writing, the modern periodic table, managed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, contains one hundred and eighteen elements.[4] Each element is defined by its own atomic mass, state, electron configuration, electronegativity, atomic radius, density, and so forth. I will not be discussing listening to all one-hundred and eighteen individual chemical elements of the periodic table. Rather, my focus is on listening to four major elements (combinations of elements from the periodic table) found in most cultures in the world since ancient times. These are the elements of earth, air, water, and fire.
Elementals in Wisdom Systems
Elements of earth, air, water, and fire appear in many wisdom systems throughout history. The quartet of elementals appears in ancient India, Hellenistic Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Middle Ages.[5] To illustrate, I briefly describe several examples of how these four elements are configured in different wisdom systems. The four directions of the medicine wheel of many North American Indigenous tribes are often associated with the four elements.[6] There are three astrological signs for each element in the modern astrology system, and other astrological systems include Hindu, Mayan, Aztec, Tibetan, Arab, Hebrew, Egyptian, and Chinese.[7] The spiritual Wiccan system includes a pentad with four elements (plus an additional fifth element of spirit or space).[8] Finally, the Chinese system of Feng Shui employs four elem