The Tibetan tradition teaches that forms manifest from the formless realm through the elements in a specific order: that as consciousness arises from the pure wisdom realm it creates movement or wind (air), this gives rise to heat (fire), which condenses into water and finally creates earth.

So the elements are considered the most basic foundation of our experienced reality. 

Also in the Tibetan tradition, the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and space [consciousness/awareness]) are associated with five 'disturbing emotions' AND 'five wisdoms'. The point being that the elements can take on either a positive or negative expression as they manifest into form, depending upon our consciousness and because they are arising from (and are directly connected to) consciousness itself, we can use the power of our own conscious awareness to influence their expression.

In his book "Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen", Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche describes the qualities of the five elements in great detail, including how to recognize where you have an excess or deficiency, the 'wisdom' associated with each element, and which exercises you can do to balance your elements.

Here is a brief overview of the qualities of each element, according to Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche:

Earth: heavy, solid, connected, secure, gravity.
Water: comfort, fluid, contentment, cohesion.
Fire: creativity, intuition, enthusiasm, joy.
Air: change, curiosity, learning, intellect.
Space: tolerance, spaciousness, awareness, clarity.

When we become really good at self-observation we can see when we have imbalances of the elements within ourselves... and can even correct the imbalance at an energetic level before this leads to problems manifesting in our everyday reality. Clearly this takes some skill and expertise, so I can't emphasise enough how important self-observation is so that you become familiar with the dynamics of your own energy field.

Identifying Imbalances in Your Elements

This takes skill and practice but to begin with, make sure you are familiar with the qualities of each element as described above. Make sure you can recognise the solidity of earth, the soothing feeling of water, the enthusiasm of fire, the movement of air and the clarity of space in your own body. Set some time aside and meditate upon each one so that you can clearly recognise and connect to them as real energies within you.

To support you in this I highly recommend you read Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's books, "Healing with Form, Energy and Light", and "Awakening The Sacred Body" (and my own book "Learn To Meditate: A quick start guide to meditation for beginners")

For this knowledge to be helpful to you in your spiritual journey it is essential that you have practical, real, experience and that this is not just an intellectual exercise. So practice the exercises mentioned above, and in Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's books, to make sure that you have a real, felt, experience of the elements. This in turn develops your somatic awareness (felt-sense in the body), your sensing capacity, and your capacity to perceive and detect more subtle spiritual energies.

Once you are familiar with how the elements feel when they are balanced, you can call upon them to correct imbalances. The following are some notes I made while reading "Healing With Form, Energy And Light". There is much more detail in the book. I have been experimenting with this myself and invite you to do the same to really become familiar with the energy of the elements within yourself...

Imbalances of Air
When your air element is off balance you can feel anxious. You may feel jittery, fidgety, and unable to concentrate. You may talk too much and/or feel unsettled. You can correct this by connecting to Earth. Feeling grounded, solid, and stable. Now you may think that fire would have been the solution - but if your air is imbalanced - fire feeds air, and this may lead to agitation! Experiment with this for yourself and see what works.

Imbalances of Fire
When your fire is off balance you can feel agitated. You may feel hot, flustered, and irritable, frustrated or angry. You can correct this with the soothing effect of water, allowing yourself to feel calmed, soothed, 'cooled' and comforted. Literally 'taking the heat' out of a situation. Again you are invited to experiment with this and see what works for you.

Imbalances of Water
When your water is off balance you can feel stuck, confused, lack direction, weepy, emotional, tired, depressed and/or bogged down in self-pity. You can correct this with the warmth of fire. Connecting with the warmth and joy of the Sun for example, supports the nurturing, comforting quality of balanced water.

Imbalances of Earth
When your Earth is off balance you can feel "dull, lazy, and dim. Too solid. Unable to move" (Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche). You can correct this with the movement of air. Connect with new thoughts and ideas, or connect and communicate with people, and this will get your energy circulating again.

This is only a very brief introduction. To really integrate the elements into your spiritual practice (and to learn about imbalances of the fifth element - space) you are recommended to read "Healing With Form, Energy And Light" and thoroughly familiarise yourself with how the elements play out in your own energy field.

Observe Yourself
Just as Pythagoras and many spiritual masters before him advised: observe yourself. This means (if you don’t do so already) taking up some form of meditative or mindfulness practices whereby you learn to go within. You learn to observe your thoughts, feelings, motivations and actions as you go through your day. Notice what moves you. Notice what motivates you. Notice what energies drive your behavior, and your day. Start noticing (at first) which element they relate to.

When you’re driving a car, you have to keep your eyes on the road, no matter what else is happening. You might be talking to passengers, and/or thinking about where you are going and what you need to do when you get there, but nevertheless you can’t take your attention and your eyes off the road, not even for a second.

Your Soul is on a fantastic journey through each of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It is a journey of self-exploration, self-discovery, self-knowledge, self-understanding and adventure. Most of all, it is a fantastic journey of light! Ultimately you are on a journey of discovering your own true nature as a being of love and light, in physical form. In its deepest sense Soul Astrology is the study of love and light, expressed as you.

are ultimately the fundamental realities of life 

that are being analyzed with astrology”

On your Soul’s journey you pass through the many different terrains of the elements in the expression of your personality signs:

• You understand the element of water by experiencing the highs and lows of emotions, from deserts to waves of tsunamis and to great bliss. This is the path of awakening awareness through mastery of emotions, which leads to the highest experience of compassion.

• You understand the element of fire through the experiences of your heart, from the deep fires of passion to the clarity of intuition. This is the path of awakening awareness through mastery of action, creativity, and passion, which leads to the highest experience of heart-centeredness, love and intuition.

• You understand the element of air through the experiences of your mind, from navigating the dense, fear-based, labyrinth of lower thought to the infinite vastness, wisdom and clarity of Universal Mind. This is the path of awareness through mastery of mind, which leads to the highest experience of wisdom.

• You understand the element of earth through the experiences of physical form, from meeting the everyday needs of the physical body to deep somatic awareness (body awareness). This is the path of awareness through mastery of physical form, which leads to the highest realization of ‘emptiness’, meaning that all forms are not solid but are also expressions light.

As your Soul continues through many physical incarnations, you get to experience all of the elements in their various forms of expression. Most of us are a blend of two or three elements, which dominate our personality experience in this lifetime. Some people have an equal balance of all four while others may only have one or two, which indicates a specific focus on those elements in this lifetime.

Eventually you will experience every element, which will contribute to your wisdom and your Soul's awakening.

On your Soul's journey, through which you reach your full potential as a human being, you will pass through the stage of ego. This stage of your process has been described by many spiritual traditions in different ways. For example, the Indian mystic OSHO spoke of ‘doors’ in childhood development where your ‘ego’ becomes established. So as usual it is important to take a look at what we mean by ego or ego-personality.

Ego is not some terrible disease that you need to be rid of, but is rather a natural ‘illusion’ (a bit like an optical illusion) in which you become identified with your mind, while losing sight of your spiritual and energetic reality. This ‘ego-illusion’ arises naturally as part of your normal healthy intellectual development and, as you grow in your Soul awareness, you reach a point where you release identification with the illusion, and re-align with your essence. In psychological terms we might think of ego as your ‘personality’ (ego-personality).



In a previous newsletter we explored personality (ego) as a collection of drives, traits, talents and impulses, that result from our conditioning in this and past lives. It is very possible that character traits and behaviors which appear at an early age, like Mozart playing the piano when he was two, are skills that have been learned in past lives and are still held as memory in our energy field. Many of our fear-based reactions could have been established in the same way. In astrology, we use our natal chart as a two-dimensional symbol of our pre-existing energy field, our personal ‘mandala’. Learned behavior from past lives will show up in a natal chart as character traits and predispositions, largely indicated by our most personal planets: the Sun and the Moon.

Astrology is a vast topic, yet you can begin very simply if you know which element your Sun and Moon are in. Once you know this, by observing your thoughts, words and actions closely, you can relate those qualities to your own life. The elements are the foundation of astrological understanding. Before scientists discovered physics, chemistry and created the ‘periodic table’, ancient people understood the world by thinking of everything in it (including us) as a combination of four or five ‘elements’. Western astrology uses four elements: fire, earth, air and water, while eastern astrologies such as Tibetan Astrology include space or ether as a fifth element.

A basic understanding of the dominant elements of your chart can give you a simplified 'snapshot' of your own ego-personality. For example, generally speaking:

• Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius), think their way through life;
  
• Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) feel their way forward;
  
• Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) focus on energy/action and
  
• Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) approach life practically, organising physical resources and putting infrastructures in place.
  

Few of us will be dominated by one element (although some people are). Most of us will be a mixture. We can already see the combinations of ego-personality types that are possible. For example if our Sun is Gemini and Moon is Cancer, we will basically be a thinking-feeling type. The combinations are many depending upon the various Sun-Moon signs, such as thinking-thinking; thinking-feeling; feeling-action; action/practical and so forth.


Similar to OSHO, we might also think of the four elements as ‘doors’ through which our ego-personality becomes established and is maintained. In this series we’ll look at the elements at a fundamental level, relating the elemental qualities to our own personal development, and see how they can assist us in understanding and transcending our own individual ego-personality.

In astrology the element of fire is the one most associated with ego-personality, yet interestingly it is also closely associated with spirit which indicates that ego itself has an important function in the journey of spirit into matter. Ego forms an essential foundation for the individuation process in this current stage of the evolution of human consciousness.

According to Esoteric Astrology we are collectively passing from instinct, through intellect, to intuition. Within the intellectual or ‘mental’ stage, that which we call ego is actually the arising of a mental concept of ‘me’ or ‘I’. Animals don’t think of ‘me’ or ‘mine’! This is a capacity of human intellect.

Our ego-mind creates this illusion of a false self, through an ongoing process of identification which is evident in our continuous ‘story of me’, ‘myself’, ‘I’ and ‘mine’. We have an innate ability to experience life through our five senses. As soon as we open our eyes, seeing happens. We don’t have to do anything in order to see, it happens anyway. Yet our ego-mind immediately takes the credit by thinking “I see”. There is an assumption that there is an “I” which is ‘doing’ the seeing, but if we look closely we cannot find this “I” or “me” anywhere, other than in our thoughts.




In our everyday lives we can become identified with many things including thoughts, feelings, actions/roles, possessions, which all contribute to our sense of self. So if we feel sad we may identify with being ‘a sad person’ or if we have a role in society we may become identified with our position. When circumstances fit our idea of ourselves we may think “this is really me”, and when they don’t we may think “this isn’t me” or even “I’m just not myself”.

One of the functions of mindfulness is to observe how this idea of ‘I’ arises in our daily lives. This requires observing those thoughts, feelings and activities that generate a strong sense of ‘I’. If we have personal planets in any of the fire signs we may notice a strong sense of ‘me’ or ‘I’ arises in association with action - when we are doing something. This can include a role or career, for example if we are a Mother or a Manager our sense of self can be so interwoven with that identity that if we lose the role we feel we are no longer ‘ourselves’.

Twelve Archetypes, Twelve Ego's

The twelve signs of the Zodiac are human archetypes, which means they can also be thought of as twelve types of ego-mind, in other words twelve “stories of me”! 

Each sign has a key phrase that sums up it’s dominant ‘ego-story’ in the form of an “I” statement, which we will transcend as we align with our higher consciousness. For example, in terms of the fire signs: for Aries this key phrase is “I am”, for Leo “I will”, and for Sagittarius “I seek”. 

Few of us are dominated by one element. Most of us are a mix of at least two or three which makes life interesting! As you go through your day, notice where your attachment to your ‘story’ is strongest, and how it relates to the elements of your personality signs. With practice you can drop your story and allow your energy to flow freely and naturally. It gives new meaning to getting out of your own way!

If you have a predominance of earth in your personal planets you might find your sense of ‘me’ connected to the practical, tangible, physical world. Your status or worldly position, your home base, your income and possessions, and even your physical body. You may derive your identity, your sense of ‘who I really am’, and especially your sense of value and self-worth from these things. Ego arises with the mental concept that if there are possessions, there must be a ‘possessor’ of these objects.

The Air Ego: I Am My Thoughts

If you have a predominance of air in your chart you may find your sense of ‘me’ attached to thinking. This concept is encapsulated in the famous quote by the French philosopher René Descartes “I think therefore I am”, as though your ability to think is evidence of your existence. Yet there is so much more to you than your ability to think. When you delve a little deeper into your being you realize there is also awareness. Awareness of thinking. Ego arises with a mental concept that if thinking is present, there must also be a thinker. Yet if you look closely you will never find any evidence of this thinker, beyond an idea of it’s existence. What you find is awareness.




The Water Ego: I Am My Feelings

If you have a predominance of water in your charts you may find your sense of ‘me’ attached to your feelings and emotional experience. This is encapsulated in phrases such as “I feel great!” or “I don’t feel like myself today”. Your sense of self is affected and influenced by your moods and feelings. Your sense of ‘who I really am’ is attached to a feeling state. Ego arises with a mental concept that if there are feelings there must be a ‘feeler’, there must be a person inside who is experiencing the feelings. Yet again, if you look really closely, you will find no such experiencer beyond an idea of it’s existence.

Think of a tree. The first green shoot that fights it's way purposefully through the rocks and the earth towards the light of day, is driven by cardinal energy: the energy of creation, evolution and new beginnings. Cardinal energy is a driving force that pushes life onwards and upwards.

Now think of the trunk of the tree. That is fixed energy: the energy of a placeholder, containing and holding the energy within a fixed form or structure. It will stabilize the tree within a structure for the duration of it's life so it can fulfil it's purpose. Fixed energy is a stabilizing force that supports and sustains life.

Now think of the end of the life cycle when the tree dies. The leaves die and drop off, the trunk will eventually break down, and the matter will decompose and transform into compost. This breaking down, changing and dissolving of form is mutable energy. The energy can then be re-used (in the form of cardinal energy) once again for the beginning of a new life-cycle. Mutable energy is a destructive force that allows continuity of life through death and rebirth.

FIRE:
Aries is the cardinal fire sign.
Leo is the fixed fire sign.
Sagittarius is the mutable fire sign.

EARTH:
Taurus is the fixed earth sign.
Virgo is the mutable earth sign.
Capricorn is the cardinal earth sign.

AIR:
Gemini is the mutable air sign.
Libra is the cardinal air sign.
Aquarius is the fixed air sign.

WATER:
Cancer is the cardinal water sign.
Scorpio is the fixed water sign.
Pisces is the mutable water sign.