Critics have had much unflattering things to say about ?The Last Airbender?. And it isn’t such a good movie. Brett and I joked throughout the film. I took my 3D glasses off and on and didn’t notice much difference. The characters are left significantly undeveloped.
It’s a pity because I think the idea and story behind this film is brilliant. How amazing to have a story about the elements and how one person can unite them. I mean, this is open to healing symbolism. I could see a lot of potential. I wish they had a decent script writer to go with the dazzling effects and ideas. Then maybe it would have been elevated to where it should be.
The air bender is a boy called Aang who is 12 years old. At this young age he was told that he was destined to be an avatar, the savior of the people. However the cost of this responsibility was this: he could never have a family. This sends him away at the point where he has only learnt air bending, although he does have the potential to learn the other elemental skills. He gets stuck in an icy sphere for one hundred years.
Of course I immediately picked up on how a similar story is being played out in my life: I am sitting with this problem of being unable to create my family. And at times I do feel a bit stuck or frozen in shock at my predicament. Although I do have a hubby and two love dogs. We are a family of sorts. And I am trying to heal people through EFT, although I am still progressing through my learnings.
Well Aang gets broken out of his ice by Katara, a water bender. He gets a bit of a shock when he discovers the passage of time and that all his tribe have been killed by the fire benders. This is an important theme of overcoming grief at their demise in order to be in a place that will help others. Similarly, we need to deal with our grief of being childless right now before we can be emotionally stable enough to help ourselves let alone others.
However, getting back to the story, this event only makes Aang ever more determined to help save the remaining earth and water people from these burning enemies.
One fire bender is Zuko, who was banished by his father. I cannot remember the details as to exactly why this came about, but he has to prove himself to dad by bringing the air bender back, like a prize.
This is a very interesting aspect of the story, because I saw him as the shadow part of ourselves, the part we don’t want to deal with and banish. Maybe we can’t even remember our quarrel with that part, but that conflict continues none the less. In a telling moment in the film, after Katara freezes Zuko with her water skills, Aang unfreezes his head and tells him ?We could be friends, you know.? The uniting force of the air bender wants to integrate and heal this part.
The air bender defeats the fire benders in a climactic dramatic moment where he uses his newly acquired water bending skills to raise the ocean against the fire bending ships. They keep telling us in the film that water represents acceptance. As the water rises up, the people stop fighting. As your levels of acceptance and letting go increase, your inner conflict lessens.
I guess this is a powerful lesson for us. Letting go and accepting is the first step toward healing.
Since this film is part of a trilogy, it is encouraging to know that our story is not yet over. We still have to learn the earth bending and fire bending skills. And maybe we will get to find out if that boy will ever have his family after all?
As an extra piece of information, I’d like to share Angela Wu’s take on how we should work on healing the different elements within ourselves. This is from her book ?Fertility Wisdom?.
Part of the inspiration behind this blog (finding flowers in the rain) is based on her belief that our body is like a garden which we need to nurture. This obviously implies that we need to eat the proper stuff in order to be fertile, but we also need to harmonise with nature in order to bring about fertility. Although the rain may come, if we focus on one positive thing and continue doing what we can, miracles may happen.
Angela gives five elements:
1. Wood: the beginning of new life, nervous system, creativity, decisiveness. Healing Sound: Shh
2. Fire: heart, circulatory system, expressing love. Healing sound: Haaw
3. Earth: digestive system, anxiety/ peace. Healing Sound: Vvvv
4. Metal: respiration, immune system, sadness, cutting, editing, reshaping. Healing sound: Sss
5. Water: vital fluids, flexible, power, urinary, reproductive system, fear. Healing sound: Whoo
If you’d like to know more about how the healing sounds can help balance these parts of you, go here: http://healwithheather.com/6soundss.htm
Now? on a more personal note ? here is an experience I had recently on my own four elements.
I was sitting in an EFT Level 2 workshop. We were split into partners and given the exercise to ?read? the person intuitively. The lady I was paired with had an amazing vision of me.
She saw that my feet were on fire. There is obviously some movement happening here! To the right she saw a rush of wind/ air. But it was only on one side ? showing imbalance. The earth was placed low in my stomach area ? she said I needed to nurture myself. Then she said the water element was floating up in my chest, but it was higher than what it should be. Here the message was to be more content in who I really am (state of being), rather than what I should do (worrying about action).
This was a greatly encouraging picture which outlined to me exactly where I needed to work on to regain my own balance and bring myself back into alignment with God, instead of trying to rush around trying to do things in my own strength.
Well, I’m sure there is a lot more to say about the elements and healing, and I’d be interested in your comments. What is clear to me is that I still have a lot to learn and I will continue to be like Aang the air bender ? working to integrate and heal the different elements of myself.
