Our Nature
According to the mystical view, our physical body is made up of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. However, these elements should not be compared to scientific concepts, but rather understood in a mystical sense. The five elements provide sustenance for our body, while also purifying it.
The quality of the Earth provides stability and grounding in our work, relationships, and lives.
Water is associated with feeling; it is the emotional quality of our being. It also symbolizes the flexibility and mobility of our being.
Fire feeds our willpower, supports us in our striving towards a goal, and fills our body, thoughts, words and actions with this dynamic energy which makes us go out and change something in the world. Fire burns away what is stale, rigid, old, or obsolete.
The air element represents freedom, and in terms of our personality, it is the freedom from all the things we hang on to for the security of our ego: our fixed self-image, the attempt to keep up a positive self-image.
