four elements

Often when I'm feeling unbalanced in my life I use the four element system to see where the imbalance lies. The four elements are air, water, fire and earth. Each element refers to a quality within us -

Air - thought, mental action
Water - emotions, intuition
Fire - passion, inspiration, daring
Earth - practicality, physical manifestation, grounding

Most people are just naturally inclined to have more of one element than another. Alternative medicine techniques like Ayurveda and acupuncture/Traditional Chinese Medicine recognize the natural leanings we have toward one element over the others and heal through balancing.

Even astrology and tarot use the elements as guidelines. The twelve signs of the zodiac are broken down into air signs (gemini, aquarius, libra), water signs (pisces, cancer, scorpio), fire signs (aries, leo, sagittarius) and earth signs (capricorn, taurus, virgo). The four suits in the tarot deck are swords (air), cups (water), pentacles (earth) and wands (fire).

Each of these elements has an individual strength and weakness associated to them. Our tendency can be to rely on the strengths of the elements we're most comfortable with...sometimes to the detriment of the others.

For example.

I'm a thinking person. I've got a lot of air and water happening. The element I find myself rejecting more than others is Earth. It bores the hell out of me. People who are naturally 'earthy' tend to be more comfortable dealing with the little details that make things work - to do lists, the mechanics of things, the process of building something and watching it grow. They recognize the strength of 'earth' - the power these practical actions have in the world. I recognize it too, I'm just not inclined toward that. The other day, I got an email receipt that stated 'keep this copy for your records' and I thought... "What records?" but at the same time I recognized that I should be keeping more records. Not necessarily receipts for donuts or books from Amazon, but other more practical things. The weakness of earth is when we get too wrapped up in the little things and don't see the larger picture. Or when we're too patient and afraid to change things that aren't working.

Last month when there were riots in London, my first thought was 'there is a lot of fire energy going on over there.' It was also in America, where everyone was pissed at Congress and Senate about the budget cuts and in Philadelphia, where random groups of kids were forming flash mobs and beating up total strangers. Fire is the necessary element for change. It's the spark that comes up in us and tells us that we don't like the way things are. It can also provide the fuel to move us toward what we want. But if it's not balanced with the other elements, it can be destructive.

It's interesting that certain elements can strengthen each other (air + fire) or weaken each other (water + fire) or just create a mess (water + earth) if there is an excess of one or both and not a healthy balance between them all.

Water is my favorite symbol for emotion. Often in dreams, bodies of water are though to represent the emotions or the unconscious mind. It has an interesting power - depth and fluidity. Currents and tides...these are often easy parallels to make regarding our emotional makeup. But like all the elements, when it's out of balance and unchecked by the equal presence of the others we can end up with tidal waves, flooding or in the personal sense - depression or existing too deeply in our emotional/intuitive self and not connecting to our emotion in a way that can be manifested externally in a productive way.

The same can be said about Air. I could go on about the power of Air. There is much to be said for understanding situations and oneself. Cleverness, flight and agility of thought...I'm a big fan. But I also recognize that unchecked, the energy of air can keep you moving from one thought to another, one interest to another, one place to another. Without the grounding of Earth, the intuition and emotion of water, the passion of fire...air can be too hollow and weightless and then our minds can be like tornadoes or hurricanes and we can be like a lost balloon.

Aside from this apparent local weather recap I've written here, it can be a helpful spiritual exercise to look at our tendencies and recognize which elements we allow to run rampant within us, and which we reject or limit excessively. And from a buddhist perspective it's always interesting to ask ourselves why we limit certain elements. What don't we like about them? What about them scares us? When we answer questions like this, it can be easier to see our ego.