Connecting With Our Air Element: A Cacao & Gong Journey
This is the second ceremony in a series of five, in which I guide you through a shamanic cacao and gong journey to meet each of the five elements in turn — Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Ether — and discover how they live within you. If you haven’t yet worked with the Earth element ceremony, I’d invite you to begin there. Each element builds on the last. Today, we journey to meet Air.
Air is the element we take most for granted. Most of the time, we are not conscious of it at all — we simply breathe in and out, and that is that. It is only when something disrupts it — a chest infection, a tight throat, a blocked nose, the shallow breathing that comes with anxiety — that we become aware of how completely our life depends on it. Every single breath is a gift. The moment we leave the womb, it is air that steps forward to give us our life.
Without air, we could not sing, cry, whisper, laugh, or speak. We could not be heard. And in the shamanic tradition, air is the keeper of thought, of vision, of inspired knowing — the great carrier of messages between worlds.
What Is the Air Element?
In the Mayan medicine wheel I work with for my cacao ceremonies, Air lives in the North direction. It is the element of the night, the bright moon shining, clarity of thought, and the ancestors. Its spirit guide is Hummingbird, who teaches us to trust the path, even when we cannot see where it leads, and to accept only the sweetest nectar in life.
The Air element represents our ability to vision, to be inspired, to think clearly, to analyse and communicate. It manifests as the type of mind that is innovative, creative, tolerant, and hungry for insight. When our Air element is balanced, we feel genuinely inspired. We search for truth, we tell our stories with ease, we think fast and find solutions. We can take an idea and communicate it to others in a way that lands.
When our Air element is out of balance, the picture looks quite different. We may become overly cerebral — spinning in our thoughts, overthinking, unable to rest. We can become ungrounded, full of inspired ideas that never make it into action. Or conversely, we may feel mentally foggy, unable to access clarity or inspiration at all. Sometimes an Air imbalance looks like perfectionism, or becoming irritated when others are not open to our ideas.
Air in the Body: The Gift of Breath
On a physical level, our relationship with the air element lives in our lungs, throat, and respiratory system. How freely do you breathe? Do you breathe deeply into the belly, or shallowly into the upper chest? Many of us, through stress, trauma, or simply modern habits, have developed patterns of restricted breathing that keep us in a low-level state of tension without ever realising it.
The gongs in this ceremony specifically support the respiratory system — their frequencies help to open and release tension held in the chest and throat, and the deep states of relaxation they induce naturally return us to a fuller, more nourishing breath. When we hydrate well before a gong session, all the cells of our body can vibrate more freely, receiving and responding to the sound with greater depth.
Air and the Mind: Thought, Vision, and Communication
Air carries our thoughts — and it also carries the thoughts of others to us. This becomes particularly significant during times of high wind, when the Air element is at its most powerful. Strong winds can amplify the energetic field around us, making us more permeable to the emotions, anxieties, and thought-forms of the people around us. If you notice yourself feeling inexplicably agitated, overwhelmed, or swept up in other people’s dramas during stormy weather, this is likely why.
A strong, balanced Air element helps us to be the calm in the centre of that storm. We can observe the winds — both literal and figurative — without being destabilised by them. We remain clear-headed, grounded in our own perception, and able to discern what is truly ours from what we have simply picked up from the field around us.
This is also the element of visioning — of receiving inspired guidance from spirit. Air carries messages. When we are open, clear, and in right relationship with this element, we become better receivers: more able to access the clarity, inspiration, and direction that is available to us at all times.
Being in a Reciprocal Relationship with Air
In shamanic practice, we do not only ask the elements for their gifts — we also ask what we can offer in return. When I journeyed with the Air element to prepare this ceremony, the guidance I received was immediate and practical: plant more trees. In the eight years I have lived in my current garden, I have planted thirty trees. Air asked me to find space for more.
Your own offering may be different — perhaps it is reducing air pollution in some way, spending more time outdoors breathing consciously, protecting a wild space, or simply singing more. The air loves song. It loves to carry joy as well as worry, and when we offer it beauty, it responds.
Part of this ceremony’s journey is to sit with the Air elemental and ask: How can I nurture you? What can I offer in return for all that you give me? Let whatever comes through be your guide.
The Ceremony: Meeting the Air Elemental
After cleansing our energy field and calling in the seven directions, I guide you into the lower realm — our inner landscape — through a place in nature that you already feel connected to. We travel there as a tiny light of consciousness, scooped up by a golden mist, flying across the landscape until we land in our chosen place.
From there, we look for our portal down — a rabbit hole, a cave, a tunnel in the earth — and we descend into the lower world landscape. At the bottom, the five Elementals are sitting together in a circle, waiting. Today, we call upon the Air elemental to step forward, and they take us on a journey within the landscape, showing us what we need to see about our relationship with this element.
The experience will be uniquely yours. Some people receive vivid visions; others sense, feel, or simply know. Some people drift into a deep, restful state, and the subconscious does the work quietly, with the gong sounds as its companion. All of it is valid. Come without expectation, and with a willingness to receive whatever arises.
You might come with a question. Perhaps there is something in your life right now — a relationship, a work situation, a creative project — where you would welcome the Air element’s clarity. Or perhaps you simply come open, ready to receive whatever the element wishes to show you.
The Role of Cacao and Gong
Cacao is optional in this ceremony — a cup of tea or simply your conscious intention works beautifully. But for those who choose to drink it, ceremonial cacao deepens the experience by opening the heart, releasing feel-good hormones into the system, and softening the analytical mind so that the shamanic brain — the right-brain, intuitive, visionary consciousness — can come forward more fully.
The gongs guide us from beta consciousness — our busy everyday awareness — through alpha and into the theta and delta states where visioning becomes possible. The left brain, distracted by the rich complexity of gong sound (a single gong can produce over thirteen distinct frequencies at once), quietens. The right brain wakes up. We enter the daydream state: still awake, but able to envision as if in a dream.
If you have an especially chatty analytical mind, try imagining a volume dial in your thoughts and gently turning it down. The gongs will do the rest.
How to Prepare for the Ceremony
A little preparation helps you arrive in the best possible state:
Drink plenty of water beforehand — well-hydrated cells vibrate more freely with the gong frequencies, supporting the physical cleansing and realignment that sound healing offers
Prepare your ceremonial cacao before the ceremony begins if you are choosing to drink it. If not, have a glass of water or a cup of tea nearby.
Use good headphones or speakers close to you to receive the full range of gong frequencies.
Create a comfortable, supported space — seated with cushions or lying down on a mat or bed. Have a blanket ready.
Have a journal to hand — after a shamanic journey, insights can fade quickly. Writing immediately afterwards captures what came through
Come with a question if you have one, or simply an open heart and a willingness to receive
Give yourself a gentle, reflective time afterwards to integrate the experience.
Continue the Five-Element Journey
This Air ceremony is the second in a series of five. Each element holds its own medicine and its own teachings:
→ Earth Element ceremony (first in the series)
→ Air Element ceremony — watch free on YouTube
→ Join a live cacao and sound healing ceremony
→ Book a one-to-one shamanic healing session
→ Explore The Shaman’s Way — a full year of shamanic training
Every little piece of healing we do for ourselves ripples outward and touches everyone we meet. We are all connected through breath. We can heal our world, one heart at a time. Let us begin with our own. 🌿
