Sitting on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I can’t help but notice the wind. As the temperatures climb, the trade winds pick up bringing with them a cooling breeze as thoughts and memories drift and shift with the symphony of the wind. Something deep in my soul has guided me back again to the island of Maui to listen to the songs of the wind.
The wind feels different when on the island. It is true that the wind is strong here. The wind has nothing but open, ocean blue
to cross before it reaches land. Palm trees reach high into the sky and bend and sway while dancing with the wind as it passes by.
The wind is said to be like the spirit. In The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung wrote that the “breath of the spirits” had as its original meaning “air in motion.” Jung also said in this work, “In keeping with its original wind-nature, spirit is always active, winged, swift-moving being as that which vivifies, stimulates, incites, fires, and inspires. To put it in modern language, spirit is the dynamic principle…Basically it is the contrast between life and death.”
In song, poetry and in our dreams, the wind and the spirit are personified and animated. The wind has a “voice” and speaks to us. The wind is active like the spirit and it can inspire. Jimi Hendrix said in his song, The Wind Cries Mary:
Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with his crutch, it’s old age, and it’s wisdom
It whispers no, this will be the last
And the wind cries Mary
Amongst the lyrics in Hendrix’s complete song, the wind whispers, it screams, and it cries. It is true that the wind has a certain kind of wisdom, as Hendrix writes. If we allow ourselves to be open to its message, the wind can speak to us in a different kind of language. It is a language close to the soul with whispers from our distant ancestors and those that have passed by before.
As temperatures climb
Winds over the ocean blue
Sing a sweet song
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