The Elements

Much of the following material is from Aaron, but some is gathered from assorted web sites and much from the book Alchemical Healing by Nicki Scully (thanks to Doron's wife, Juju for this book). It is so blended that I won't always attempt to annotate what is from what source.

Always look at the whole; that is, all elements together and within each one, not just what is in excess or lacking in any one.

Earth:

Physical body/ material

Base chakra

Associated with yellow

Characteristics: physical, solid, dense, weighty, strong, structural, related to endurance and stamina, firmness; Earth contains and limits.

Balanced earth element: person is grounded, stable, secure, organized, considerate, objective, able to manifest needs.

Excess of earth element (i.e too much earth element, not enough air/water/fire in the earth element): person may lack flexibility, be stubborn, ultraconservative unable to change, uptight.

Excess of earth and of fire: person may be greedy, grasping, overindulgent.

Lack of earth in the earth element: person may be unstable, weak, lacking cohesion (can't hold things together), unable to manifest. Consider which of these would result from lack of earth/ too much air, water or fire.

Scully says:

"Earth is a combination of the other elements. It is solid and dense; it has weight and substance. It has form. It is the doorway through which all things come into being. We are born of Earth when we manifest in out bodies.. Physical healing and manifestation of anything in physical form is done with the element Earth. It is used to mend broken bones and torn or lacerated tissue. ...It can be used to build up matter and to create etheric tools used for healing. Though these tools are fabricated with your intention and the element earth, they are not fully formulated in the physical world." (Aaron says this last thought involves the pathway of intentions and akasha which we will discuss last).

Water:

Emotional body

Second (spleen/ sacral) chakra

Associated with silver

Characteristics: fluid, in motion, penetrating, cleansing, cooling, giving, responsive.

Balanced water element: person is flexible, adaptable, fluid, nurturing, compassionate, intuitive, with appropriate boundaries.

Excess of water: scattered, unfocused, hypersensitive, fearful.

Lack of water: unable to flow; stagnant (again we need to consider the overall balance. Lack of water in the earth element is different than lack of water in the overall balance of the elements, is different again form a water element that is too earth or air or fire heavy), insensitive, feeling heat, stuck. Person may have poor boundaries; also addictions (balanced water flushes both physical and emotional toxins.

Fire element:

Third (solar plexus) chakra.

Associated with red

Characteristics: hot, dry, expansive, destructive, consuming, intense, passionate, energetic. Relates to vitality, activity energy.

Balanced fire element: person is self-motivated, responsive, energetic, able to be intimate.

Excess of fire: angry, hyperactive, out of control, reactive, getting into everything but in a different way than water. Fire consumes immediately where water touches first, then may consume.

Lack of fire: lacking energy, sluggish, sloth and torpor,

fire with lack of air: may have the quality of slow coals that burn underneath, such as lingering resentment.

Air element:

Fifth (throat) chakra

Associated with Blue

Characteristics: light, open, spacious, intelligent, adaptable, flexible, free of boundaries.

Balanced air element: person is communicative, thoughtful, balanced, not clinging.

Excess air element: flighty, silly, filled with "hot air," overly talkative, gossipy.

Think of the air element with too much air and also too much fire, versus the air element that is overly heavy with water. Ice vs. bubbling lava. Consider how earth could support balance.

Lack of air: tight, claustrophobic, tight-lipped and uncommunicative, rigid. Think of the difference between lightly aerated soil and baked clay.

Ether or Akasha:

What is "akasha?" What is "ether?" From my book, Cosmic Healing: (boldface added for emphasis)

The energetic expression of the physical level is called the physical etheric (from "ether" the state between energy and matter) body. Here we find the elements that support the physical body, in their material and energetic components. This is part of the gross state. This material and energetic expression body exists in our everyday space-time continuum. Within this etheric body are the gross tissues of the body as well as the energy meridians and chakras. The next energetic expression is the subtle or astral body, which is transitional between the Gross and Causal states.

So the etheric body is below the astral, but includes the energetic aspects.

Wikipedia

Akasha (or Akash, Aakaashá, Ākāśa, is the Sanskrit word meaning "aether" in both its elemental and mythological senses.

Aaron says "Akasha," is a Sanskrit word and meaning "primary substance" – that out of which all things are formed. Nicki Scully's book names it as:

Akasha is the basic medium of creation. It contains all potential and all information– the basic patterns of creation. It is associated with the crown chakra because the crown is the doorway to the superconscious mind, the collective higher intelligence. . . . Another symbol for akasha is the vessica pisces, or more literally, the vessel of the fish. . . . The sacred geometric design comes from the interaction of two circles, one symbolizing above, the other below. When these two circles intersect one anther, the space that is created in the center represents above and below coming together as one.

Aaron has given me the image of the akasha as this: ever thought and action sends out a filament of light from the chakra in which it originates to the object. When there is no contraction, it is a silver, fine filament. When there is tension, it hits the object and comes back to me, back and forth, creating a heavy rope. The field in which all this happens is the akashic field. It is the field in which karma is created and released. It interests all the planes and levels. Much more about this and the intensive.

Seventh (crown) chakra

Associated with Violet

Characteristics: Beyond space and time, universal solvent, all embracing and inclusive, intelligent, infinite potential.

Balanced akasha: the person will be in touch with the higher self open the akashic field and able to access information, able to astrally project, inclined to service to all beings,

Excess of akasha: disoriented, confused, even comatose. Ungrounded to relative reality, spiritually arrogant.

Lack of akasha: disoriented but in a different way than with excess. Lack of orientation into the vastness of being, so the disorientation presents as rigidity, with blinders about the true nature of things, self centered, narrow.

Overall on the elements: each element contains all the other elements. The elements cannot be balanced in the larger way unless each one is balanced within itself. We will spend considerable time at the intensive experientially working with the balance of each element, to get to know how it feels when balanced, in oneself and in another person.