The Five Elemental Ladies Renewing Meditation
Vietnamese folk religion is an ancient tradition deeply rooted in animism, ancestor worship, and reverence for the natural world. One of the most fascinating aspects of this belief system is the reverence for the Five Elemental Ladies, who personify the five essential elements that govern the universe: air, fire, earth, space, and water. These elements not only represent the physical forces that sustain life but also symbolize deeper cosmic principles of balance, energy, and interconnectedness.
Each of the Five Elemental Ladies personifies a unique natural energy or force that influences the world, guiding both the physical and spiritual realms. The elements—air, fire, earth, space, and water—are essential to maintaining harmony in the universe as well as our own body and mind, and these deities govern their respective elements.
This meditation focuses on renewing the five elements.
Renewing the Earth Element
Focus on an imagined image of the Lady of Earth before you. Send a strong request from your heart, asking the Lady of Earth to heal the earth element in your body, including your physical parts, bones, tissues and organs. Whatever physical problems you might be having, feel in your heart that the Lady of Earth has the capacity to relieve the suffering you experience and remove the deeper causes that brought the condition into being.
Brilliant light emanates from within her heart, reaching infinite universes, and collecting back the essence of inexhaustible vitality and the powerful blessings of wisdom mind. The energy streams forth from the Lady of Earth’s heart and body and completely absorbs this nectar of light, cleansing and revitalizing my body, speech, and mind.
The request sends a signal to the Lady of Earth, asking her to take action. In response, the Lady of Earth generates a tremendous amount of light from her heart. The light reaches into the ten directions to all the earthly places in all the universes to invite healing energy. In your mind’s eye you might see the Lady of Earth’s light reach to golden fields of ripening grain, sun-kissed sands, mountains bathed in golden light and deep veins of gold beneath the surface of the earth. The strength and capability of these earth places streams back into the Lady of Earth and merges with her. This concentrated earth essence pours out from the Lady of Earth’s heart and showers over you in a radiant cascade of golden yellow light and liquid. See it as an immense flood that bathes you inside and out, flowing over and through each part of your body. This golden light and liquid strengthens and rebalances your bones, organs and tissues.
As your body’s earth element is rejuvenated you become more grounded, steady and coordinated and can more easily focus on whatever task you need to do. Think to yourself that all the emotional and physical problems associated with the earth element are purified and your body is rejuvenated and healed.
Renewing the Water Element
Now focus on the water element in your body – your blood and lymph and the fluids in and around your cells. Since your body is 98 percent water, this element is very important to your physical well-being. The water element is also related to your emotions, which ebb and flow with a watery rhythm.
As before, make a strong request to the Lady of Water to rebalance and heal your water element. As you do, light goes out from the Lady of Water’s heart reaching in ten directions to the water places of the universe. In your mind’s eye, see the light touching the crested waves of oceans, ponds and pools, gentle rains and powerful thunderstorms, brooks and streams and mighty rivers, collecting their blessings. You don’t have to be concerned that the Lady of Water is in any way robbing the world of its water energy. Actually, since the water element in your body and the oceans, rivers and streams are connected, as you heal and rejuvenate your internal water element, you are helping to cleanse and purify the waters of the world – at least at an energetic level. The same is true for each of the five elements in this meditation.
The strength and capability of these water places flows back into the Lady of Water in the form of sapphire blue light and liquid. This liquid crystal essence of water energy fills the Lady of Water’s body and flows from her into and through you in a powerful flood of blue light and liquid, strengthening and rejuvenating your water element.
Balancing your water element helps you to enjoy life and be more content with people and situations. As your emotions begin to smooth out, they become calm, like the surface of a peaceful lake. Affirm that the fluids in your body and your emotions have been purified, harmonized and balanced.
Renewing the Fire Element
The body’s fire element includes all the physical processes that involve energetic transformation, including digestion and the regulation of body heat. A well-balanced fire element is also essential for healthy skin, as blemishes and rashes are often red and fiery, an indication of too much internal heat.
People whose disposition is too fiery are often impulsive or “hot under the collar.” They are easily annoyed and have a low tolerance for other people’s viewpoints. But too little fire can have the opposite effect. If your inner fire is burning too low, you may lack vitality and find it quite difficult to generate enthusiasm for projects and Ideas.
Send strong requests from your heart to the Lady of Fire. In response, the Lady of Fire sends light from her heart to the fiery places in all universes. You might visualize the Lady of Fire’s light reaching to red rivers of lava and active volcanos, wild fires and forest fires, supernova and fiercely burning stars, the molten core of the earth itself. The lights the Lady of Fire sends have little hooks on the ends that collect the essence of the fire element as coral-colored, red-orange light and liquid and absorbs it to herself. Then she showers you with the perfect blessings of the fire element as a flood of poppy red light and liquid.
A healthy fire element strengthens your will power and helps you to feel passionate and inspired about what you are doing. Affirm that your fire element has been purified and has come into perfect balance.
Renewing the Air Element
The air element is associated with breathing and the breath itself. In essence, it is the energy of movement within the body and is responsible for circulation, respiration, elimination and sexual release.
The air element is also associated with the mind and with mental functioning. Too much air can make you feel like an “air head”- flighty, unsettled, impatient, or excessively nervous. Too little air can dull your mind and make you feel confused. You easily get stuck in difficult situations, and you may also find it hard to concentrate or meditate.
As before, send a strong request to the Lady of Air. She radiates hook-like lights from her heart that travel to touch all the windy places – green treetops bending in the breeze, powerful windstorms and hurricanes, wind-swept grasslands and wind-driven cloudscapes. From these, she collects the perfect essence of air and draws it back to herself as a brilliant emerald green light. Then, she showers you inside and out with the emerald essence or air, healing and revitalizing your life force and rejuvenating your mental consciousness.
When your air element is in balance, your mind is curious and flexible, and you have the ability to move effortlessly to new thoughts and new perceptions. You learn from mistakes and can more easily transform negative states of mind such as anger and jealousy into positive ones such as love and compassion. Affirm that your air element has been rejuvenated and has come into perfect balance.
Renewing the Space Element
The final element to be healed is space. In Tibetan philosophy, space is much more than simply a vacuum. Rather, is the element that makes room for everything else to exist. Without space, everything within your body and everything in the external world would be smashed together.
Too much space can make you “spacy.” Too little space can have the opposite effect. You may feel crushed or oppressed, claustrophobic or suffocated.
Again, you send strong requests to the Lady of Space, and she sends hook-like lights out into space – not just physical space where the planets and galaxies whirl, but the infinite space of potential for manifestation. Next, the Lady of Space collects the essence of space as clear white rainbow light and liquid and pours this deep clear white essence into and through you, helping you to be more spacious and accommodating.
A well-balanced space element allows you to be open-minded and “spacious” enough to accommodate the various thoughts, moods, experiences, and feelings that make up your life. You are neither crowded by your experiences nor disconnected from them. You allow everything to happen in its own time and in its own way. There is enough room for your life to happen. Affirm that the space element in your body is purified, harmonized and perfectly balanced.
This concludes the meditation on renewing the five elements. End with a dedication of merit.
May any benefit generated by our practice today
Be shared equally with all whom we encounter,
Whether near or far away,
And may it’s effects ripple continuously
To aid in the healing and transformation of the world.