20 Years Later, Avatar’s Deepest Episode Has Never Been More Important

Aang learned some of his most valuable lessons in this Book 2 episode

“The Guru” is the penultimate episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 2, and it introduces Guru Pathik (Brian George) as Aang’s (Zachary Tyler Eisen) spiritual guide. After receiving an invitation via Appa, Aang visits the Eastern Air Temple hoping to learn how he can master the Avatar state. Instead, he gets an elaborate lesson on the nature of spiritual energy and its relationship to the chakras. Nearly two decades after its original release, “The Guru” feels even more relevant than ever before.

Pavi ends episode 9 walking along a path made of light in a cosmic void, approaching a red symbol that seems to be associated with Ellora. To anyone familiar with the concept of chakras, that connects Ellora itself with the root chakra, typically associated with the color red. As Guru Pathik tells Aang, the earth chakra governs survival, and fear blocks its flow. That sounds like an apt description of life in the Haven of Wind and Sand given the nature of the Anomaly, so the Pathik’s other lessons might wind up being just as important.

Aang’s most unusual teacher makes the abstract feel simple

Aang arrives at the Eastern Air Temple expecting a lesson about mastering the Avatar State. Instead, he’s told he must open the seven main chakras of his body so that spiritual energy can flow freely through him. Pathik takes Aang to a series of pools connected by a stream. Debris obstructs the flow of water. Clearing it restores the flow. Emotional burdens affect spiritual energy in much the same way.

It’s an elegant demonstration, and Pathik’s personality makes it even more approachable. He’s patient, cheerful, and perfectly willing to let a bit of joy seep into an otherwise deeply serious lesson. He gives Aang room to ask questions and resist ideas he doesn’t understand. That warmth matters when the training involves asking a 12-year-old to confront his trauma.

As Pathik explains, each chakra has a purpose and can be blocked by a specific kind of “emotional muck.” As he proceeds through the seven chakras, Aang experiences visions, starting with everything he is afraid of as he opens the earth chakra.

“You are concerned for your survival, but you must surrender those fears,” Pathik says. “Let your fears flow down the creek.”

Each step in the process involves acknowledging that which blocks the chakra and letting it go; in other words, a certain degree of emotional detachment is necessary to open each chakra. Guilt makes Aang revisit running away before the Air Nomad genocide and all of the people he’s hurt. Shame forces him to acknowledge his rejection of firebending after accidentally burning Katara. Grief returns Aang to the loss of his people, but Pathik reframes it as an expression of love that forever remains inside his heart.

Aang’s memories turn each lesson into an examination of his character and something of a poignant recap that revisits the series’ more emotional beats. We’ve watched him carry these experiences for almost two seasons. Pathik finally asks him to sit with them and reflect. The fifth chakra represents the voice and is blocked by lies. The sixth is the light chakra that deals with insight and is blocked by illusion, chief among them the illusion that everything is disconnected when it is, in fact, united. In some ways, that feels like one of the more important lessons of all.

The chakra lesson fundamentally changes how bending works

“The Guru” also finds a brilliant way to make this philosophy matter outside Aang’s training. While Pathik explains that everything is connected even if we perceive them as separate, Toph is locked inside a metal box. Her captors assume they’ve found the perfect way to restrain an earthbender. But this is the iconic moment when Toph Beifong discovers the particles of earth within the metal and invents metalbending. This dramatizes the exact point that Pathik is making at the perfect moment, giving us a physical expression of the spiritual lesson.

Aang interprets the idea in a more straightforward way: while the four nations appear divided, they are all a singular people. Pathik compares it to the four elements as well. Though they appear different, they are each an expression of the same spiritual energy flowing through a person and expressed in the physical world.

Now think of the Seven Havens, which feel far more divided than the four nations ever were. The people of Ellora are ruled by fear of the storms rolling in from the Harshlands, and that fear only grows with the arrival of the Anomaly. If we look at the energy flow of the entire world — which is likely what Seven Havens wants us to do — we see a world broken not by storms, but by negative emotions that drive people apart.

Pavi’s vision seems to draw a direct relationship between the Avatar’s spiritual life and the wider world. “The Guru” supplies the framework for thinking about that relationship, even while Seven Havens hasn’t made any of this explicit. When Pavi looks at chakras in the cosmos, are they hers, or the world itself? Is Akasha plagued by lies and deceit? Do the people of New Ba Sing Se experience great shame? Is the Anomaly purple in Republic Forest?

The hardest lesson is the one Aang cannot accept

The final chakra complicates everything Pathik has taught Aang up to this point. He promises Aang complete control and awareness over his actions. The thought chakra deals with pure cosmic energy and is blocked by earthly attachment. When he thinks about those attachments, all he sees is Katara. He immediately struggles with the apparent contradiction: Why would training that helped him embrace love now demand that he let her go? “Three chakras ago, that was a good thing!” he says.

Aang desperately wants the ability to protect people, but the only way to let pure cosmic energy flow in is to let those kinds of attachments go. As Aang walks along a stream of light toward an enormous cosmic version of himself out in space, he senses that Katara in danger. He turns away, the path collapses, and he abandons his training to help her. And yes, it’s extremely Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back.

Pavi’s vision at the end of Seven Havens episode 9 is clearly intended as a visual callback to this exact scene. But the emotional connection at the heart of it is probably just as important. If Aang saw a giant version of himself in the Avatar state, and Korra later walked a similar bridge to connect with a similarly huge astral projection of herself, what does it mean for Pavi to instead see seven enormous chakras? Does the cosmos reveal to each Avatar that which they desire, that which they need to fulfill their mission, or more broadly the scope of their destiny and role in the cosmos itself?

One thing’s for sure: the imagery and themes at play clearly associate Ellora with the root chakra, and the fact that there are seven Havens maps far too neatly onto all of the chakras that there has to be a greater significance here. Whether or not we’ll get a clearer idea of what this means depends on what actually happens in the rest of Seven Havens season 1. That said, rewatching “The Guru” feels like essential homework for anyone who wants to better understand what’s going on in Seven Havens — and what’s going to happen moving forward.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender is currently available to stream on Paramount Plus and Netflix. The final four episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens season 1 will be released on Paramount Plus on Oct. 30.