The Psychology of the Four Elements and the Planet Earth

 

The Psychology of the Four Elements and the Planet Earth 

(From The Four Elements at 

https://www.falconbookspublishing.com/)

Fire, earth, water, and air—the presence of these elements define the uniqueness of our planet as compared to those among other stars. The wealth of these elements of nature are also reflected in ourselves—in the qualities that characterize our civilizations and in the traits that define our personalities and shape our motivations.

  The earth element, like rocks and mountains, is enduring. Metals and materials are useful for building and producing things. In the human personality, the earth element manifests as the desire to make things of value that enrich the world.

  With the earth element, we have an inner silence and a quiet ecstasy as we work, for in work we feel close to those things we care most about. And yet, for all its endurance and solidity, material things in time disappear, are worn down, pulverized, erode, and age. Glorious civilizations in the past and in the far future shall arise, thrive, and then cease like dreams that fade as we wake up from sleep.  
   The water element is being in the moment—flowing, absorbing and releasing, purifying, giving, and renewing. It brings forth and nurtures life. Those with the water element strong in their personalities are highly empathic and loving.

  The water element unites us with nature and with the greater universe. Water flows around us. We drink it. It nourishes and cleanses us.  At the extreme, it gives the feeling that others are ourselves in another form and that we are all joined as one.
  The air element is in the open expanse of the sky. It gives a sense of freedom of movement and clarity of mind. It is both detached and hypersensitive to high and low pressure, hot and cold, wet and dry, and electric and magnetic. Those with strong air element in their personalities have the artist’s sensitivity to the nuances of sensory perception.

   As in an appreciation of music, they enjoy artistic expressions that take tension and conflict and produces harmony. And they have the open-mindedness, detachment, and curiosity that makes for good scientists.

  The air element represents the pursuit of knowledge. In the end of our journeys and after many experiences, we shall finally understand our difficulties, how to surmount them, and how to attain freedom.

  The fire element, as in nature, is hot, dynamic, expansive, intense, explosive, demanding, commanding, and consuming. It is charismatic and electrifying. Leaders and generals find such power within themselves. They make things happen sooner rather than later.

  In fire is integrity, leadership, and relentless pursuit of one’s goals, like a CEO of a global corporation. With fire, every problem is a challenge and every limitation is something to surmount and to overcome.  
  In fire are the will and energy necessary to change any fate and to fulfill any mission you wish to undertake. All the same, though sometimes supportive and accommodating, fire is often destructive to the other elements.

  In fact, fires, volcanoes, and super volcanoes as well as tsunamis and floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, and earthquakes—these dynamic expressions in nature operate independent of each other.  

  In a similar way, the four elements are not integrated in human nature or in society. In fairy tales and lore, each element has intelligent spirits residing within it. We can say that the mermaids do not sit down and talk to the air spirits, the sylphs. The fire spirits, the salamanders, do not hold conversations with the gnomes. These different kingdoms within nature each have their own awareness, purposes, and evolutionary path. 

   Similarly, our scientists (the air element) may pursue with professional detachment their theories and experiments. But they lack the love of the water element and the harmony of their own air element. Often when funded by governments and corporations, scientists will invent some new technology that has military applications. Then almost immediately this technology falls into the hands of the worst people on earth—the dictators and those corporations that are devoid of conscience.   

  Our leaders and corporate CEOs (the fire element) often do not pursue long terms goals (the earth element), producing things of value that endure through time. Obsessed with and rewarded for short term gain, they take excessive risks and produce products that destroy rather than conserve and protect. And politicians wait for a crisis or a disaster before they change their methods to protect people and nature.
  The creative powers within us, the elements that constitute our nature, are extremely dynamic. But, like I say, they are not coordinated with each other. The elements in nature and in the human personality are like a central station with airplanes, ships, trains, and buses whose schedules are never coordinated and that lead to different destinations.  

  You might pursue goals like learning genuine wisdom or establishing justice on earth. You go to the ticket counter and the agent says to you as the agent once said to me in Bolivia, “Oh. Your flight has been rescheduled. There is only one plane flying out today—the one on the runway taking off. When it gets to its destination, they will refuel it and send it back. At that time, your flight will be available.”   

  Fire as will, air as knowledge, earth as producing things of value, and water as love and feeling—they are endless in their wealth. But a person who is a scientist, artist, leader, and empathic healer? Uniting these opposites harmoniously within us is almost a superhuman task.  

 Akasha of the Planet Earth

 We have the physical world and our physical body. We have our feelings, our soul, and the astral plane. We have ideas, thinking, analysis, theories, plans of action, and the mental plane where they take place.  

 Yet overseeing these three planes is the akashic plane. Akasha has been described in many texts such as the Heart Sutra from the Prajnaparamita, the Bhagavad Gita, and even the 90^th Psalm. I know Zen masters who slip into akasha as easily as they tie their shoes. Some Tibetan Buddhists I know configure their magical circles to express an akashic state of trance.

 Think of conscience. Its warnings and promptings serve to protect and keep us focused on what is important. Conscience says in effect, “Experience life to whatever extent you can. Discover what makes you happy and gives you satisfaction. Find some things worth doing that are right for you and totally captivating. But also discover your deepest lessons and then take the time and make the effort to learn them.”

  Akasha is completely detached and it is also eidetic—perfect in empathy, you can relive any moment from the past as if it is happening right now. And if you can do this with the past, then future outcomes can also be imagined and experienced as if they are completely real.

  We have the ability to review in advance the consequences of our actions and the results of our decisions before they happen. With akasha you learn to appreciate each moment of time as something unique and special. You see each moment as part of the fabric of everything that has occurred on earth.

  Akasha, then, is awareness penetrating through space and time. Beings who dwell here do not need a material body in order to exist. They do not need to use thoughts in order to think or to communicate. They do not need an astral body or the four elements on the astral plane in order to feel. They are highly intuitive and can, on their own initiative, interact freely with the mental, astral, or physical planes.      

   Just as we have conscience through which akasha is active in guiding our lives, we can also access an akashic awareness overseeing all events on earth. As with the individual, akasha supervises, inspires, sets limits, insisting we maximize our ability to learn rather than being forced to make changes due to pain and suffering.            

   Higher spirits in the earthzone are all oriented toward making what they envision into something real. They take the spiritual world, wrapping it in form and matter, to produce works of enduring value that enrich life on earth.  

  To align yourself with this akashic awareness, think in terms of changing yourself, your situation, the environment, or the world. This requires concentration, study, commitment, and acquiring experience and mastery in some area. If you work at something and employ a high learning curve, you master your area of specialty and then with ease you accomplish your objectives.

  A conversation with one of these spirits is like responding to certain questions: “Are you perfectly clear about what you want? Are you willing to do the work required to accomplish your objective? Do you embody an absolute commitment, for we are ever vigilant and tireless. We take nothing for granted and so there is no end to our love when it comes to protecting, sheltering, nurturing, and perfecting life on earth.”

 Akasha and the Magician 

 Akasha: A formless state of awareness penetrating through and also outside of space and time. All things arise from it. And it supervises and oversees the unfolding of each life, of history, evolution, and the greater universe. 

You will know when you have found akasha in yourself. You will feel total freedom and detachment and also profound compassion, caring, and commitment. You will feel you have the energy you need and the means to accomplish your purposes and also you will feel an immense gratitude for the love that flows through you to enrich other’s lives. 

  You will feel as if you have finally come home and yet also that each moment is new as if your nervous system has never felt these sensations running through it. 

  Akasha is a love which embraces all of life and holds the universe within its heart.

 The Four Elements of Conscience

 From the hermetic point of view, conscience is expressed most clearly through the fifth element of akasha. Akasha creates and oversees the development of the other four elements. Akasha is the still, quiet voice within us.

  In the development of conscience, we often find ourselves being tutored by some sort of authority figure—our parents, our school teachers and professors, religious authorities, etc. Even the judicial system acts as a conscience for many people, for the only reason they avoid certain behaviors that harm others is they are afraid of being caught and punished.   

   Some individuals will need to join a group so that they can shape their behavior to conform with the behavior of others. And so we have the advantages and disadvantages of peer group influence. The results depend on the quality of the group you we in.

  But if we look at conscience in hermetic terms, conscience only operates at its best when all four elements are equally developed and positive. The water element contributes the empathy and love. If you feel what other’s feel, then you want them to be happy along with yourself.

  If you have the air element present, you see others more clearly and understand how their minds work—why they think the way they do. If you have the earth element, you perceive immediately the other’s physical situation and notice if their basic needs are being met; and also you are concerned about whether they have access to the kind of work they are best suited for.  

  And with the fire element, you are keenly aware of unique opportunities as they appear in life. You understand the importance of choice, the amount of energy and will power, the resolve and commitment that are necessary to seize those opportunities so that your life and the world are vastly enriched.

  As I mentioned in the previous section, the four elements in nature on this planet do not talk to each other. And similarly, the four elements in society are not in harmony. 

  A major player in finance, Warren Buffett (representing the earth element), is oriented toward making money in a consistent manner over decades. But he is not involved in politics. He has not the faintest awareness of issues that threaten the survival of our species. Though he deserves the title, “The Oracle of Omaha,” his conscience is not fully operational.

   Very sensitive individuals who are highly empathic (representing the water element) may easily misread what motivates other people. They lack the detachment and telepathic sensitivity of the air element that notices such things as despair and anguish which are more of the mind than of the astral body.

  The water people never say to me ever—“I want to understand you better.” And they never say to me—“This world is wrong. What can I do to change this world to make it better?” Those questions are the air element and the fire element. Consequently, the conscience in individuals with strong water in their auras is not fully operational.

  The “life review” that takes place after an individual has died enables the departed soul to relive every moment of his life. In particular, he now feels what other people felt as he interacted with them.

   This life review is strong on the water element of empathy and the air element of clarity. But it totally lacks the earth and fire elements that are concerned where and when the individual might have acted in a dynamic way to change the world and make it a better place. Certainly, loving individuals want the world to be a better place. But they lack the will and the power to accomplish such goals.      

  In the Zen Meditation of Love I describe, you enter a state of mind of perfect detachment and perfect empathy. It greatly clarifies and enhances a feeling of inner connection to others. But if we add in the fire element we would also be seeking to fulfill the individual’s life in every conceivable way. 

  If we add the earth element, we would have more of what the Venus spirit Hagiel means when she says, “In regard to love, you would not be getting your money’s worth, would you, unless you feel you are within your lover living her life as if it is your own?”

  The earth element greatly enhances a direct energy connection to another individual so that the life within one person is part of the life within the other. It is a far denser vibration than that of water or air. The goal is not feeling. The goal is right here in this world where two people link together dense aspects of their energies.      

  If you talk to a psychologist, her training may lead her to going back into the past in order to understand the problems you currently have. A life coach or a mediator in conflict resolution is far more concerned about focusing on the future—how to turn failure into success so you end up where you want to be. That is more will power than air and water.

  Consequently, the quality of the advice of any teacher or counselor will depend on the degree of balance the individual has with the four elements within his soul. Sometimes we will need someone who feels what we feel. Being fully loved is the only state in which you can let go of who you are and become transformed without knowing what you are becoming.

  Sometimes we will need someone who understands us better than we understand ourselves. As Arjuna said to Krishna who brought inner clarity to his soul—“My doubts are now dispersed.”

  Sometimes we will need someone to give us a job to do ore work to accomplish. And sometimes we will need that athletic coach or commanding officer who speaks with a voice that burns and explodes inside of us, “Focus only on your goal. You will need all your will power to succeed.”