As I believe we’ve already established, Crows have a close relationship with the elements. To become an elder Crow, one must have spent at least a year dedicated to each element: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Because we have each designed many, many rituals centered on an element, we have also written several pagan chants and Goddess songs honoring the elements.
In the pantheon of pagan elemental chants, air seems to have received short shrift. You always find it included in chants to all four elements, where it would be conspicuous in its absence. But you rarely find it holding a chant on its own. (Ironic, since without air moving through our vocal cords, there would be no chant at all. In that way, I guess all chants are air chants. I digress…)
Even within most elemental chants, we seem to concentrate on the physical aspects of air—yes, our breath is air. When air moves fast, it’s the wind blowing. Observant lot we are, us pagans.
I believe what has drawn the Crow Women to our elemental dedications is the chance to develop a deeper understanding and relationship with the elements and their spiritual meaning. Spend a year with a single element (in many of our sisters’ cases, multiple times), and you truly begin to peel back the layers of the elements and their associated directions.
One of the most remarkable examples of this depth of understanding is exhibited in my sister Carole Crowwomyn’s beautiful song “Calling the Elements” on the album Crow Magic. For each element, she has captured a breadth and depth of that element that you rarely see.
Bright sky, eagles take to fly, east wind blow
Sun rise, far-seeing eyes, blessed sight to know
The path, the song, forever new, like the dawn,
Goes on and on, calling me, shows the way to go.
For my chant, “Air, Lift Me Up” (also on Crow Magic), I did not reflect upon nearly so many facets of the element of air. It was born more of one simple concept.
The chant came during my Unbearable Lightness of Being year of studying air. As the element of inspiration and wisdom, I was looking to air as the goddess’s way to help me out of my human brain and all the cognitive biases and fallacies that it constructs. I saw the wisdom of air as a different kind of Knowing, a different way of Seeing than in my mundane mode of thought.
Air, Lift Me Up is a prayer to beseech the spirits of east and air to help me rise above my brain-thinking to a place of spiritual Sight. If only I can rise above my situation and look down with clear eyes and unclouded Knowing, perhaps I can see with more clarity and perspective. Then I can act with more compassion, patience and foresight.
Lift Me Up, Let Me See. Spirits of air, help me get a new, wider perspective. Let me see with clarity.
Lift Me Up, Let Me Know. Spirits of air, take me out of my mental patterns to seek better understanding and higher wisdom.
I Want to See. Goddess, I am ready to open my eyes.
I Want to Know. Goddess, I am ready to open my mind.
Air, Lift Me Up. Spirits of air, help me rise above and be a better Me for the world.
Like most pagan chants, “Air, Lift Me Up” can find a place in ritual. However, its use in personal devotion is perhaps its most beneficial value. If it speaks to you, I hope you’ll share how you choose to incorporate it into your spiritual life. Please leave us a comment!