Fluidity, presence, courage and compassion…
As I’ve worked with the Sea Soul Blessings more closely, four fundamental principles of this flow of sea wisdom have come into focus.
These four shape the seafloor: they are the bedrock of the sea’s message as I’ve received it so far.
Each is a state that we learn through our love for the sea, and our interactions with it. Precious sea knowledge with which to strengthen and support our lives on land.
Here, the quality of “being sea” is expressed as being in continual movement and change, fully inhabiting your life in the moment, and doing so with bravery and love.
I visualise the Sea Soul Blessings as returning waves of wisdom that the sea can nurture within us if we pause and step into them, allowing the sea to guide our movement forward.
And each wave draws on these four qualities – that represent the spirit of the sea: fluidity, presence, courage and compassion.
Fluidity
Perhaps the easiest of these to grasp is fluidity.
For in every instant, the sea models movement.
In every shifting and connecting droplet of seawater, each rolling wave; in its unending tidal shifts, its dynamic synergy with the changing weather and the skies.
The sea offers a constant visual lesson in the beauty and power of transformation. It models a need for adaptation that requires us to be present with what is, even as it changes.
Presence
As we connect to fluidity, so we connect to the now.
By the sea, in the sea, we are alert to change. Anticipating what is to come, drawing on what has gone before.
But most of all, we are called by the sea to experience the immediate wave as it lifts us – as we move into and through it towards the next.
In the sea, we can sense the vast horizon – even as we are anchored in close circumference to the current moment of being utterly alive.
Courage
The sea sings to us of courage, through stories passed down through generations and across cultures. Of the unknown, adventures, other worlds. The only true wilderness that remains on earth.
When we step into the sea, we step into all of these stories.
To do so, we call on courage.
For in sea wisdom, courage is a quality of relationship – of our movement towards and through the sea. And through fear.
The courage to step towards what we cannot see. To find faith that we are strong enough to face the wilderness within. To feel the shock of the cold.
In the sea, we find the courage to push our limits, to survive the tidal zone and beyond. To stretch into the discomfort, and give ourselves up to be held.
Compassion
The sea itself is not a compassionate force. It does not model love directly, it simply is – the sea. Those courageous stories of travel and discovery light the sea’s potential as a path to connection between us – but one that has more often been used to conquer than to love.
And yet, in spite of it all, the constancy of the horizon continues to offer up daily visual proof of our potential for extension and relationship. With the sea. With each other. With our past and our present. For we too came from the sea.
And while it may be destructive at times, the sea nurtures a magnificent diversity of life-forms.
When we are by or in the ocean, we reconnect with nature and the world around us.
We feel a sense of oneness.
As within us, the sea nurtures awe.
At its sheer immensity, and the smallness of our tender vulnerable selves within it. Looking out at the sea, we feel both minimised and extended.
As we connect to the sea, we connect to common humanity, the root of self compassion.
We learn from what we love.
And from what we fear. The sea can bring us the wisdom we need, if we seek it. We need only to look, to ask bravely, to step in. It is both beautifully simple, and complex.
To embrace the entire ocean of our precious lives, we may first use the sea to cultivate mindful presence: the ability to be present to whatever is.
And if we are to step fully and courageously into the challenges that come with life’s inevitable fluidity, compassion is a trusty vessel.
Of course, the very nature of fluidity, of life, means that it is ever-changing.
While there are four core qualities that form the basis of the sea’s wisdom, the Sea Soul Blessings invoke 48 different qualities offered by the sea.
Because some days the sea wisdom we seek will be hope, or bliss, or magic, or to be soothed. Sometimes it will be resilience, belonging, acceptance or space. As we change, our needs change, and our understanding of the sea’s message shifts with us.
We learn by loving the sea, observing it, stepping into it, swimming through it.
By using Sea Soul Blessing cards as guides.
By choosing to receive, accept and explore the wisdom of the sea in our lives.
We learn how to be fluid and open to change, courageous and present, connected to compassion for ourselves and others.
We start to live our lives as the ocean – expanding our horizons, extending our reach, and finding our brave kind way through the changes and challenges ahead.
Purchase your own Sea Soul Blessings cards via the shop menu above, or find out more about how to use them here.
If you would like a one to one session to deepen your understanding of the role of sea wisdom in your life, choose a Sea Soul Session.
We also offer, by donation, Sea Soul Insight – a single card reading to help you explore what the sea’s message could be for you today: a taster of the Sea Soul Blessing’s power for you right now.