If you haven’t followed this series so far, please consider reading It’s easy because it’s complicated for the orienting context. You may also enjoy Get Grounded for its treatment of the Earth element and Go With the Flow for Water.
Air-I-ness
Air is most directly related to the powers of the intellect, which functions across the spectrum of ego, from very self-oriented to very transcendent levels. Intellect is not intelligence; instead, it is our skill at asking questions, reasoning, knowing, and creating the constructs that define our lives. Air relates to our capacity to articulate ourselves clearly.
Air is associated with the act of knowing, functionality, pragmatism, reason, and objectivity. It is insubstantial and easily changeable as it is influenced by the size and shape of its container and the energy applied (or removed) from it. Air’s instability is both a great asset and a challenge. Where Earth brings endurance and Water resilience, Air brings the power of penetration — the ability to get through the smallest of cracks.
Intellect
Harmonized Air brings a powerful sense of curiosity and inquiry, where the pursuit of knowledge is held at a higher value than the collection or acquisition of knowledge. When facing the mundane challenges of life, Air brings us a tireless capacity for investigating the best possible solutions. It goes, “What about…?” and “Why can’t we…?” In matters more spiritual, Air provides us with the yearning to connect with something more profound and to bring that deeper Truth into our lives. It cuts through anything deemed unnecessary; while potentially “harsh,” it is also beneficial.
Imbalanced Air becomes an inability to stay on one topic long enough to make significant progress toward understanding. It can also mean that curiosity overrides purpose; we may hear “a little less conversation, a little more action. Please!” come our way. The Air-y intellect can also take on rumination, leading to detrimental thought loops and mistaken beliefs. Further, its love for rationality, clarity, and impartiality can leave it lacking compassion, empathy, and grace for self and other.
Body
Harmonized Air in the body manifests as a capacity to adapt quickly, changing priorities with the first indication of new circumstances. There is a lightness and grace in movement and an interest in new sensory experiences. Air in the body takes the form of eagerness for activity, especially somewhat chaotic, intense, or skill-oriented actions.
Imbalanced Air shows up as a need to fidget, carelessness, and clumsiness. It can present both as persistent distractibility and procrastination, as well as a rigidity and stubbornness to make something work exactly how one thinks it should. Air in the body can lead to excessive business, leading to exhaustion.
Emotion
Harmonized Air gives a sense of competence and clarity. There is an expansive quality to the certainty of knowing — not the knowing of facts, but the knowing of personal Truth. Air in the emotional body brings the capacity to articulate our interior experience and to hold multiple emotions simultaneously.
Imbalanced Air is characterized by a feeling of being scattered or anxious, flighty, and having difficulty focusing when in excess. When Air is lacking, stubbornness, rigidity, frustration, and “banging one’s head on the wall” are more likely to manifest. There can be a sense of paranoia or fear.
Will
Harmonized Air is the leadership capacity, either self-authored or among a group. It creates a sense of rulership, clarity, decision-making, and certainty. At its best, Air in the Will brings Truth, justice, fairness, and peaceful resolution to situations. This is where we find characteristics like charisma and charm.
Imbalanced Air can hold a personal Truth rigidly and seek to impose it on the world. The sword that cuts through to clarity and charismatically persuades can also be turned for purposes of psycho-emotional manipulation. There can also be a sense of so many things to do that identifying the most critical thing seems impossible.
Touching Air
Feeling into the Air element means attuning our capacity to bring ideas to life through experience. Spending time in curiosity, exploring new perspectives, experimenting with how best to do something, and exercising our skills are all keys to sensitizing ourselves to Air in the four worlds. Here are some ideas that might support your inquiry into Air — which is a very Air thing to do!
Dress in refined, simple clothing of solid colors of white, off-white, pale yellow, and pale blue.
Get curious! Spend some time learning something new, listening to an unfamiliar style of music, or reading a new type of book.
Spend time exploring a topic with someone; ask questions, share your perspective, and see what emerges from the “what ifs” as you create a more profound understanding.
Try to play some basketball, tennis, ping pong, pickleball, catch, frisbee, or other faster-paced, reaction- and skill-oriented games.
Do something that you’re good at. See if you can find someone to teach that skill to or lead a joint effort in that endeavor.
Increasing Air
One of the most direct ways to increase Air in our systems is to exercise our capacity to become subject-matter experts. Truly doing this is, of course, a life-long endeavor. However, taking a particular topic and researching it thoroughly exercises this faculty.
Identify something that interests you and you want to know more about.
For example: What is lightning? What causes it? What are its effects on the Earth? In the atmosphere? What is it comprised of? How does it produce thunder?
Get on Google and start searching that topic.
Read several different resources and follow the further readings recommended in them.
Write something down about what you learned and the process by which you learned it.
Tell someone all about the thing you learned and feel the joy and confidence in your competency, clear-sightedness, and capacity.
Balancing Air
As always, balancing elements is a function of feeling into their appropriate harmony and indirectly creating balance by adding more of this or that. Earth most directly negates Air, so head over to:
Up Next
We explore the Fire element through the gateway of the Will in Play with Fire (Available after 5:30 PM Eastern on Nov 6, 2023)