Spirits of the Air: Meet the Sylphs

Who are they?

The sylphs are the air spirits, free, limitless, and visionary. They dream with a poignancy that would make the most adept lucid-dreaming enthusiast drool with envy! There is no world they cannot imagine, no space in which they cannot create beauty or allow it to emerge. Like the mermaids, they can envision each person’s best version of themselves, and it deeply inspires them. Air is mental but it retains empathy alongside that quality as well.

Traits of Astral Sylphs

Sylphs have the most potential to teach us how to meditate and communicate telepathically. Mermaids are fantastic at empathic communion, but because sylphs are so easily able to clear their minds of clutter, they become cognitive reflectors of everything around them.

When you are in their realm, you will know what it means to be free. Freedom starts soul-deep in a state where there is no obligation, no sense of “duty” as we would define it, and no constraints on artistic creativity. There is just pure inspiration, and it can give you a high that is distinct from mermaids. With mermaids, the energetic “high” feels like you have been drugged and can’t quite wake up from the dreamy feeling. With the sylphs comes clarity, energy, and imagination.

Astral sylphs understand the healing power of imagination, the ability to dream, and the skill to tap into the immutable bliss present throughout the universe. What does it mean to hold the universe inside of your heart and watch it expand? How does it feel to follow the threads of every story and watch the seeds you’ve planted come to fruition? It feels like heaven, which is the sense I get from their domain. What is heaven but a state of balance? We all seek divine or spiritual equilibrium, where we exist in a state of perfection with everything falling into its correct place. This is how sylphs perceive the universe. They do not judge polarities but see everything as necessary on its path to bliss. There is no way we can “fail” in this knowing space. You might say there is a universal quality thrumming throughout the valences of the sylph realm… A cosmic connection to all that is and all that will be.

Air on the Mind Meditation

Air carries the power of highlighting similarity rather than difference. Air finds its freedom and intellectual joy in creating, but rather than using opposites for their creative inspiration like salamanders do, sylphs find the common ground and use that to further their imaginations.

In this meditation, all we are going to do is start clearing our minds of thoughts. This can take a lot of practice! Frustration is one of the biggest obstacles to doing this well, so if you have thoughts drift across your mind, do not judge them. Just observe… let them do as they will. Think of them like clouds, drifting across your mind. The point of making your mind into a mirror is so that you can properly reflect what someone else is thinking and be able to give it back to them so that they feel understood. How do we make the most inspiring and meaningful art without discerning another person’s innermost being with clarity?

         Perhaps you want to use this meditation on yourself. When we clean out mental gunk and blockages, we clear pathways for information to arrive to us most easily. Energy will always follow the channel of least resistance, so all we are doing is learning to let go of what does not serve us, so our minds can reflect purer truths.

         You can imagine yourself as a piece of silica in the air as you get more used to the feeling of emptiness followed by reflection. In Arizona, we have a lot of silica in our atmosphere, which basically reflects sunlight like a mirror and beams it down intensively to the earth’s surface. You don’t want to be caught without sunscreen! Even though high amounts of silica in the air can be health hazards, the concept is very useful spiritually. Who can develop the skill to reflect another person’s inner Self back to them and help them discover the mansions of their inner being they were previously unaware of? What congruences can we find from mind to mind? How can we identify equal playing fields and passions between us? The realm of air spirits is so much more than this, but I think it is one of the best places to start so that we can interact with sylphs and our fellow humans more efficiently.

Meet the Sylph, Cadence

Cadence is not a spirit listed in any magical text I have found. I met her after I meditated for a couple of years with the sylphs listed in Franz Bardon’s works (Cargoste and Parahim) and she was a true delight! When I first met her, I was having a hard time discerning her name. When I asked if I might have it, she said, “Name me.” I leaned into her aura a little and absolutely loved what I found. The outer aura is full of stories, kind of like Amue’s, but instead of being enriched by the lives of beings she cares for, it has a folklore essence to it. I feel like a little sister, hanging onto her words and hoping for some crumbs or short stories to inspire me throughout my day. Sometimes the tales are cautionary, other times they are humorous. Her stories have rhythm, just like the wind realm in which she resides. Her task is to know the meanings of wind patterns and the vibrational designs they leave behind. She almost treats them like a lover… dancing with them in her soul and divining her favorite parts, which she turns into poems or narratives. The following poem came through from her… She has a deep knowledge of human art and of the things that motivate us. She peers into the core of reasoning and speaks to the winds as well as she does to people, “From where did you begin? What is your purpose? Let us dance and leave your best behind to remember you by.” (I must say, she thinks like an artist too.)

"Monet on St. Vitus"

Yonder 'round the fiery sky

Blessed with stacks of solar coins

Frisking past the sordid night

Whirls lovers' dance-impassioned

Fatal shoes blush'd crimson red

Flushing sweet Her victim's death

Fastn'd by the fanged bite of

Scarlett Rose and Clementine

Clouded eyes and fevered brows

O'er branching swords and squashes

Swirl to Sainted clarinets

Near Vitus Gargoyles nesting

Tambourines and violet climes

Paint grainy wines past Harvest

Brush Monet against the dome

Bohemian and setting

I could listen to her all day. During one of our interactions, I really want to hear a story. I feel like a small child tugging at her sister’s arm, begging for one more morsel of magic. I ask her if she could tell me something that carries some relevant meaning for humans today… What tale would she tell to the powers that be? What story could be cautionary, but useful for us? Fortunately, Cadence is always happy to oblige, falling into her hypnotic rhythm of folklore with a sing-songy tone that makes me feel almost hypnotized, yet fully alive. I feel like I am on the edge of my seat, yet under a spell simultaneously.

“Tale of the Fisher Kings”

Rhiannon's birds were whispering

As they soared above the moldered kingdom

They couldn't wake or lull to sleep

The world between dimensions

They kept skipping over the ripples

Of windy currents and Time

Like little pebbles over the surface

Not really wanting to Dive

What they knew too well

And no one likes to tell

Is that there were many Kings

Trapped in the dash of their own fevered questings

They did not sit at the round tables

But hunched their shoulders in isolated corners

Of the castle, which was dank and gabled

With mounted tails and silent mourners

You see, all the Grails were empty

They had been out fishing far too long.

They didn't even have enough oil to light their lamps,

Yet kept the curtains drawn.

There wasn't anything left to regret

Or they were not capable of it

Save for the debts they incurred

When they stole the last Trident

They could never pay its price

Let alone wield it like the pelagic*

They didn't have enough eyes* to see

That beasts can never control magic

Even Poseidon couldn't save them

When his family hung on the hooks

And he met his own swinging Gallows

In the trials from their Holy Books

Still, their hazy eye-nets

Cast themselves at invisible mountains in the distance

They chose to mine for gems like dragons

And built statutory moats for fences

Thus their whole world fell off its tracks

It couldn't find its way back

To the realms of volumes and sovereigns,

Powers and provinces

The only thing that still creeps on the dead beach

Is the old Lady Goldsmythe

Shaking her finger at the chatty blackbirds

And hunting for a rye-wolf* to make bread with.

The diversity and relevancy of Cadence’s storytelling almost make me forget that she is not human. I have told her before that the Druids would have found her to be an invaluable resource! She is a never-ending resource of word wizardry and truth transmuted into composition. Being in her energy field makes it very clear that she is not a mortal, but she has this way of relating to others in such a way that everyone she meets feels like a friend. Whenever I engage with her presence, I understand the true meaning of, “Merry meet and merry part.”

The Sylph, Hazen

Hazen is a relatively new friend of mine, having met him in the past couple of years, here in Arizona. I encountered him while up in the mountains in Flagstaff, with the wind whipping around a mile a minute. I had been promised a storm by my weather app, and there was no way I was missing out! This was during the first shut down of the pandemic in 2020, so I was happy to be out in a space far away from others. I sat on Mt. Humphrey admiring the dust devils sweeping through the wild flowers on the slope I was resting on with my thermos full of tea in hand. I decided, quite casually, to meditate and see what appeared in my field (literally).

Before I can fully analyze his presence or understand exactly who has drifted so near to me, I feel him in my breath. His presence fills up my lungs and expands my chest. It surprises me, but it is not at all unpleasant as a current of airy energy runs through me. I feel as if I am being breathed, effortlessly. “Let me carry the burden of your biological needs for a moment,” he says. (This guy does not waste any time.) “Be with me in this space… Watch the universe unfold as you were told it would. [He means the storm.] There is nothing outside our discernment. Every particle, down to its quantum, twirls in our inner world. Every essence of the dust, rain, and piece of land that meets the storm’s greeting is our domain. Bask for a moment, and I will carry you too.” And he does. I feel carried along with the heart of the storm, rolling in. I live the life of each leaf, branch, raindrop, and earthly ephemera tossed around by the wind within the span of a few minutes. I feel his presence, viscerally through my skin and lungs, every pore opened up to sensation and pure experience. It feels like the thrill of being on a roller coaster, but without the fear… Just the pure thrill of existence embodied. The following was written to honor Hazen’s presence and preserve a small fiber of his essence in my work.

 “To the One with Air in Their Soul”

 To a being such as this

The gales and gusts are always speaking

Art and music nearly weeping, to emulate his Bliss

Nothing escapes her eye

Cat’s paws* and cyclones line up their busy spins

Swirling obediently under her direction

In their keeping

I will never feel the sting of Anemone*

Or so the Victorians claimed when they created bouquets of Forgotten Love* and Sweet Nothings

He makes me feel free

Tugging me waist-deep into bright horizons

Spanning eternity’s length

Her touch is a sweet brush

Crafting sigils in my heart

And naming the memories

With Them I become a cloud in my mind

Knowing every lightning strike (like a lover)

A guardian of birds in flight

Violins will climb high mountains

Snapping their strings against the peaks

To sing with him for just a minute

Her heart is still

Much like the will

Found in whistling wind from the canyons

Their inner being is a gentle breeze

That alights on my shoulders,

And lends me its wings.

Honestly, I can barely remember how we parted that first time. As quick as a cyclone, he was there and then gone. Vaporous, but rich with substance. Each time we meet, he appears and leaves rather suddenly. To him, there are no uses for greetings or goodbyes… there are just experiences to be fully sensed and enjoyed together. He wants the core of life, with no fluff. The Aries in me loves it! To some, he may seem abrupt, but like a cyclone that sweeps across a plain, his mark is always meaningful and easily remembered. He appears to be very androgynous and, like most elementals, is not particularly attached to human pronouns, but when asked if he wanted they/them pronouns in reference to him, he said that if he were a human, he would adopt he/him descriptors.

He speaks with authority because he knows I am 100% there for whatever he has to offer but will occasionally answer my questions when I have a moment to do so within our experiences together. I jokingly tell him he is like a manic pixie dream boy in the elemental realm and it makes him laugh. Once, I told him, “I have envisioned a life in which you decide to be human…. Just one life where you choose to experience it.”

         He looks at me sideways with curiosity and says, “Tell me.”

“Kites at the Ends of Our Love”

Our love drinks sweet tea

And wraps its wings around us

Reclining on the porch swing

Your voice is a honeyed rosary...

I love to perch on its doorstep

And sit counting the beads

When our bodies blend and give birth to new Siddhis

I tie strings to the tails

And watch them flutter in the breeze…

          We sit together for a short spell imagining this alternate reality. He likes my life partner too very much, so the idea entertains him. As he imagines and stays still for a few seconds, I lean my senses into the edge of his aura and feel the endless bliss of living one’s fantasies in every moment. His inner aura almost feels like a camera lens that constantly changes angles… Observing, noting, living the life of a million things caught in his breeze all at once. It is a little dizzying! He smiles at me before he leaves this time, thanks me for sharing my dream, and then bounds off to his next.

The Nature of Air

         Out of the four elements I discuss, air is the invisible one… We can observe its effects, but not air itself with our human eyes. When I first began to extend my senses into the element, I was concerned that I would not be able to translate it clearly to other people when writing or speaking about it. Air is felt, even if it is not seen, and the gifts it returns to humanity go far beyond my understanding. It is too vast and deep to explore all at once but is generous. Every time I dip my cup into its well of magic, I know it will come back full.

The Significance of Air Integration

What if we could know each being’s thoughts before they arise? Discern their truest wish and create stepping stones for them to realize their bliss? What if we were intimately connected to all the passion in the universe and never ran dry of inspiration… What worlds would we build? What forms of ourselves would we Allow and breathe into existence? The sky is the domain of consciousness, pure thought, and wide-open luminosity. The energy of the sylphs can be reclaimed as to move in our world with the art of ease and put our whole souls into each step we take. What is more divine than stepping through the stars with grace? What are the mysteries of the snow, the rain, the wind shears, and the gusts that each have their purposes? These are the things we can begin to contemplate.