The Elements

Let’s start with the four elements and their properties:

These sets of properties are useful tools for distinguishing the elements and how they interact with each other.

The colors associated with each element attempt are very useful for visual exercises, so you’ll be seeing them quite a bit throughout this topic.

Properties

Air, being an active element, has movement and change in itself. It’s logic, reason, thoughts. Wind, breath, justice, truth, clarity, creativity, ideas, the mind.

Fire, equally active, is fast and explosive. Drive, energy, passion, willpower, drive, ambition. All action, no thought.

Water is passive, it ebbs and flows. It’s emotions, feelings, intuitions, and like a pond or the ocean, it can be shallow or deep. It might seem like it’s not moving much, but it has mass and speed when it needs to, and you can drown without realizing it. It’s everywhere in this planet, in our bodies, it’s abundance.

Earth, equally passive, exists, it’s just there. It has the patience of ages and will never budge until it wants to. It’s security, wealth, foundation, pillars, stability, also prosperity, materiality, growth. All inactivity.

Compatibilities

Elements with one matching property - for eg. fire/air with hot/hot - are compatible with each other and support each other, when paired.

Elements with no matching properties are incompatible, and therefore weaken each other.

Compatibility table