The Elements Manifest

Energy, it surrounds us and flows within us transforming as it goes. It is vast and all consuming but attributes seem to arise that may help us understand it. Civilizations for ages have strived to decipher the mysteries of the eb and flow existence. We recognized that energies elicited phenomena that fall into certain categories. We could see these distinct patterns in not only their surroundings but within themselves. One interpretation of these forces are the Elements. Air, Earth, Fire and Water. 

Each Element has characteristics associated with it that describes its effects on its surroundings. Think of them as the extremes we experience, the poles of existence. Hot, cold, wet, dry, these four categories describe forces that are readily felt. Each element represents a different combination of these attributes; four combinations that simplify the complex energies we encounter day to day. Air is associated with hot and wet. Earth its opposing force is dry and cold. Water is both wet and cold and is balanced by fire which is hot and dry.

Air and fire share the attribute of warmth, both lift energy upwards in our surroundings. Due to this parallel their energies feed into this sensation to magnify heat. Water and earth are both cold with slower, more momentous frequencies. Together they ground one to intention.

The Elements manifest in experiences in our surroundings and within our bodies.

Air

Air is manifest in the body as your blood, that which carries the breath of life. It is the movement of energy, not just as our blood or air in your lungs, but as the nerve impulses that contract and expand our muscles and the thoughts that flow through our mind.

Air expresses itself inside ourselves and externally in our surroundings. Outwardly it is our atmosphere, the upper and lower, above and below the clouds. Both these levels represent the extremes of expression of this element. The lower atmosphere is denser, moist with water and fast moving because of its proximity to Earth. While the upper is light and less dense, heated by the radiation from the sun.

Earth

The element of Earth within us is our digestive action, the conversion of food and water into energy. We quite literally ingest the earth and then return what we cannot use. It grounds us to the terrestrial world as our planet pulls us to its surface. In our emotions it manifests as perseverance, stability and strength.

Water

The element of Water manifests as the solvent of life. In our body it is our mucus, that which coats our interior and transfers compounds throughout. In our cells it is our cytoplasm, allowing for the flow of ions. It connects all of our systems into one and is the common thread that connects us to all other lifeforms. It is expressed in our emotions as flow, intuition and memory. It is our ancestral knowledge revealing itself as gut instinct.

In our surroundings the element of Water is ever present in the cycles of rain and snow, in the oceans and rivers teeming with life.

Fire

Fire is a transformative agent. Within you it is the fire in your stomach, acid that converts what you eat into the energy you need. It is expressed in your emotions as inspiration, passion and creativity giving you a spark to transform your ideas into actions.

It is hot and dry, the force under the earth's surface that has the gift of destructive rebirth. It is the wildfires that renew forests and meadows allowing new life to thrive. We have used it since the dawn of consciousness to warm ourselves and transform our food. The picture here is of the piles of ash left over after a volcanic eruption, the power of when fire meets combustible air is so clear by the massive rocks thrown for miles by the force of the eruption.

Within water arose life complex, but without the presence of the other elements life would not have arisen at all. The Air provided necessary building blocks in the form of gaseous compounds. One hypothesis of the origin of life is that these compounds bubbled up through water, heated and released by magma under the oceans floor. There they may have gotten stuck in porous rock, The Earth, brought together and allowed to react to create compounds that would later form the backbone of amino acids and our DNA. This theory describes a beautiful conjunction of the elements resulting in all living beings. Without one this magic would not have come to be, it is with the union of all four that our existence is as it is.