Beyond Pop Culture

Elaria knew it was a strange thing to take into her stride, she had always been the easy-going type but even the other three protectors that formed the elemental quadrant with her seemed to have more difficulties in adjusting to their new position. In their defense, it was a pretty big responsibility to just wake up with a supernatural ability and to realise your true nature.

In a world where superpowers were a part of pop culture yet no one seemed to actually have them...finding out that you are a living incarnation of one of the four physical basic elements was enough to make anyone second guess their reality. June, the living air elemental incarnation had spent most nights skyping her long into the early hours of the morning as she incessessesantly chattered about uni and her day to day life.

The four women who were the feminine energy side of the elements all awakened on their 21st birthdays to find themselves in some strange sort of dream world. A reality that seemed to be like any other day but involved the addition of a shiny new tattoo across the center of their chest that represented a simplistic version of the element that had chosen them to be their human representation...if you could call them human anymore.

Whilst the whole process was very new to them all the most unnerving part about the whole experience was definitely the very laid back, bohemian attitude couple who had each introduced themselves to the women discreetly...yet in a public place. They were the current heads of the Guardians who worked and acted on behalf of Gaia, their mission was to train and protect the current elemental incarnations which only made up a small fraction of the physical incarnations they were responsible for. Seasonal, Zodiac, Element, Chakras, Continents, Nature formations such as deserts, and even animals all had a living physical incarnation protector...and this was to name only a few. 

Knowing she was the feminine energy half of the Earth element, which was just one of the 4 physical elements out of the lengthy list of physical incarnations...the protectors that had supernatural powers to watch over and protect all these aspects of Gaia’s masterpiece that was Earth-it was enough to overwhelm even the most emotionless, stable person.

The fact that her element was the namesake of Mother Earth herself had Elaria feeling proud of her recently acquired position...along with being a little overwhelmed of course. She had virtually met the other feminine energy halves of the 4 physical elements...yet she hadn’t met the masculine energy halves, or any other incarnated protectors. They were scattered all over the Globe.

There seemed to be no specific pattern or method in Gaia’s choice. June, the nervous small talker, and the air elemental protector was a petite, easily excitable Japanese artist who currently modeled for various fashion brands to pay her way through art school and make it as a painter and photographer. 

Her Instagram feed was filled with stunning shots of her sleepy, Japanese coastal town, and glimpses of her latest creations. Her sweet and easily influenceable nature made her seem like the perfect fit for an air elemental. Her artsy personality was free-flowing like the wind and air currents. 

Elaria herself was born and raised in Sydney suburbia and continued to not stray far from her roots. She worked 10 minutes away from home at one of the various and plentiful local pubs, went to university roughly an hour away in the CBD, and spent her free time with her dogs exploring the abundance of wild Aussie bush that surrounded her hometown. Considering her love for the outdoors, her new position as Earth elemental representative seemed a little more explainable.

So far, her only proper task since discovering her recently acquired position a little over a month ago had been to do a significant amount of reading the heads of the guardians had dropped off and to practice meditation and mindfulness, which was apparently the purest and most effective way to connect with Gaia, her element and the other elemental protectors.

Despite her fairly chilled out personality, with her uni workload, job schedule, and the various general stresses and demands of everyday life Elaria was finding it difficult to uptake the practice and art of meditation, of mindfulness and simply being. Initially, when she had first found out about her newfound position she expected it to be like all the Marvel or DC films and comics. 

She could use her supernatural abilities for good and help ‘save the world.’ Her powers would be somewhat easy to master and she would have international fame and success, backed by an incredibly good looking team of people just like her...gifted. They would have cool outfits that adjusted to their certain abilities and would be the awe of billions of people around the world. She would be someone...someone amazing.

Of course, these initial thoughts that once danced around her head made her blush in embarrassment now. Despite it being less than a month since she had initially had these thoughts...her view on her situation had changed significantly since then. 

These abilities of hers were a burden as much as they were a gift. They were a responsibility as well as a blessing. Her position was something sacred to be cherished, not a mockup of cheap mass-produced entertainment. They were a skillset to master, a position to grow into. The media had it wrong...superpowers weren’t just some easy to come by present that you stumble upon one random day and then learn abilities that make the world look at you in awe and wish to be like you.

Her gifts were her, she was them. They had become as much as her personality as she was the wielder of them. They demanded her respect and mutual companionship, just like she did for them.

So as she sat there, quietly clicking her pen as she attempted to compose her latest journal entry to the head guardians...she realised she had reached the next phase in her consciousness evolution. The ability to know 'the now.' To know one’s being, to know the weight and significance of stillness. After all, her gifts weren’t hers...she didn’t own and control them like pop culture led society to believe. She wielded and worked with them, just as they reciprocated back to her.

Superpowers were such a distant concept, an almost comical term you’d find in a Netflix description or a brightly coloured comic. No, superpowers weren't what she had, what she wielded. They were beyond powers, they were the knowledge of being oneself...of working for a higher power. They were the true understanding and realisation of being beyond oneself, of being part of a unity consciousness...of being the cosmos.