Air

Air is the realm of logic, the realm of rational thought, the realm of sequence and separation. Here lay the spreadsheets, the number sequences, the mathematics of our lives, the very essence of the pristine and meticulous. Air is where things begin, in the continuously moving recesses of thought. Here begin intention, planning, plotting, and analysis. Air’s opposite is Water, the realm of emotion. Air is represented by the knife or sword, which directly connects to the separating, cataloging logical mind. Air is the lightning strike of inspiration  followed by the flame of action.

Many things within out daily lives fall into the realm of Air. Air is considered the element of Spring, and the Dawn, the place of beginnings. It is held in the East, where the Dawn emerges, to begin the day.

However, it’s not all wonderment and breezy hillsides perfect for cloud-gazing. To be stuck in Air is to be detached from emotion (water, being the opposite of air), to be so caught in the thought process that action is not taken. But you can’t think your way out of an emotional state, which is how the opposite applies.

Also, if you think about what wind can do, wind uncovers that which is buried. It takes time, and it takes meticulous work for something as insubstantial as the very air we breathe to move something. But if left to its own devices, it can also whip up a tornado, a force that simply cannot be stopped by the hands of anything but physics. Physics, one of the most cerebral of all sciences, is the best tool to use when trying to pull apart this phenomenon. And yet, nothing can stand in its way unscathed. Wind can bring a mountain to dust as it has done with Uluru, the great rock of Australia, or it can hum the most silent of places into life, like the great Singing Dunes of Death Valley in the US.

Wind sings with a voice like no other, it bites in heat and in cold, and without it, there can be no life as we know it. The very air we breathe becomes our own voice, and it carries our words as far as it can. No wonder Air is the realm of thought and intention. Our words become that intention, that focus of our thoughts. The wind in our words lets us communicate ideas. Words themselves are as precise and meticulous as any math problem; no wonder air must be used in order to bring them out.

Air is a Masculine element, along with Fire. The Feminine elements are Water and Earth.