In Your Element
Once upon a time, long ago, the four nations lived in harmony…
No, this is not the beginning of an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This time I’ll remind you that the four nations lay within. Unfortunately, this might not give you the same powers as the Avatar, but you’ll start to think like one.
I hate to rain on your anti-astrology parade, but despite what your horoscope says: you’re connected to the stars. Not only are you connected to the stars, but you’re bound to all four elements of our planet. Yes— I mean all four. Fire, earth, air, and water, are not just physical matter that we grasp beneath our fingertips.
The elements are nested in every cell, our potent energy, aura, and soul. “As far as the elements go, it’s important to know what your constitution is. Whether you're using astrology, Ayurveda, Meyers Briggs, etc., it’s helpful to use a good language and vocabulary system to have a deeper knowledge of yourself to better understand the skills you have.” Using elements through multiple mediums such as Tantric philosophy and astrology, Mae, A.K.A. @moonmilkastro, can attest to this, having a wide plethora of knowledge when it comes to esoteric practices like astrology.
Outfit and glasses by PIPENCO Website/Instagram, Earrings and necklace by Miss Aries Fairy
“When it comes to my approach to astrology, I try to think of it as a personal development system. Astrology to me is not about aiming for your ‘highest self’ or ‘best self’. It’s a way of helping you figure out where you are now: where you are now is good enough, it’s great enough, and it’s where you’re meant to be.”
When asked what it means to be in your element astrologically, you must consider all components of your chart. Mae suggests, “To truly be in your element, you should seek knowledge beyond your sun sign. look no further than the exalted placements in your chart, or find your placements part of your dominant element to see what’s most prominent within you.”
Here’s a quick breakdown of the elements of astrology in the context of zodiac signs: apply all placements to understand the components of your natal chart.
(if you don’t have access to your chart, you can use this link).
Let’s get straight to the point. It’s time to set this fire ablaze!
Aries is the inception—the spark, the fuel, the motivation, and the initiation. Aries is the firework that’s quietly lit but burns into the brightest kaleidoscope in the skies above. While Aries ignites the flame, Leo is the everlasting ruler of it. As the Sun’s golden child, Leo’s radiance remains consistent. Leo’s campfire-like flame is what we circle near for warmth and entertainment, while Sagittarius is the torch that lights our journey to unimaginable heights. It represents the wildfire that grows with no boundaries, burning with flames of passion unleashed, past the need for self-consciousness.
Mae’s understanding of fire might help you put things into motion. “Fire is like the spark of life. It is creation, what comes from the ether or spirit. It goes from being nonexistent to existent. The essence of something coming into being? That’s fire.” It’s all-consuming, and when it burns, its heat is fervent and provides us with passion and momentum. Fire manifests our spirit. It’s the vibrant colors of a painting that inspire the eye, and the pride that crowns champions. Even the smallest flames can set an entire environment ablaze. The beauty of fire? It burns without restraint. All fire needs is a spark to burn eternally, and even if it's put out, the ash will leave an imprint that can’t be missed. 🔥
You rock, but it’s time to shake things up.
Capricorn is comparable to the peak of a mountain. It’s unreachable for some, but for others, it’s a destination that can be reached through persistence and dedication. Like a mountain’s peak, Capricorn shows us what it’s like to ground ourselves through goals and ambitions on an elevated level. As we tread down the mountain, we might run into a lush meadow and bump into a basking bull. The bull, A.K.A. Taurus, is representative of a tree’s trunk. Like the fixed nature it possesses, Taurus is a refined manifestation of Earth’s integrity, rooted in self-nourishment and sustenance. It’s rarely moved, and if it is— good luck changing the bull’s direction. While Taurus grounds us to the Earth’s core, Virgo serves as the branches of a tree that nourish the leaves attached to it. In the same way our nervous system communicates with our bodies, Virgo’s tree branches connect our intellect to our structure of existence, all while supporting us in a way that’s grounding and practical.
We all know about the grounding principles of Earth, but aside from the qualities of pragmatism and dedication, Earth is the foundation beneath us. “It is what we can touch, see, and experience. We are here to have an earthly experience, and earth signs have an incredible understanding of how to live in the matrix that is life on earth itself. They are equipped with knowledge and resources to optimize our experience in the physical,” Mae says. However, not every foundation is stable. It is how we use the foundation underneath us that stabilizes our growth. Earth allows us to form connections with ourselves and others by providing natural resources that ensure our success. You may associate the element with physical commodities like soil, grass, rocks, and leaves: I challenge you to think bigger and boulder. The rose quartz under your pillow and the pyrite in your purse are some of the best physical representations of Earth’s potential. Though not moving, the crystals deposited directly beneath us vibrate at a frequency that is more earth-shattering than an earthquake. The element vibrates at a frequency that cannot be seen or felt. Earth holds us, but it moves mountains and our minds. 🌱
Earrings, hair pin, pearl harness, and necklace by DOPL Website/Instagram, Earrings by Miss Aries Fairy
Blown away? Take a deep breath
Welcome to the whirlwind of Libra’s mind. Libra functions like the eye of a hurricane; the calm epicenter amidst the chaos of a storm. It is the balance between the polarities of life and the differences between all facets that inhibit it. It’s the breeze after turbulent winds, but the unpredictable commotion after. When warm, humid air collides with cold, dry air, we bump right into a tornado; in other words, Gemini. Steve Lacy was right… you can’t surprise a Gemini. When two forces collide, they are not to be reckoned with. The twins are considerably the most vigilant and stimulable of the zodiac, but how can we get through the storm alone? Aquarius is a brave traveler wearing a blindfold in a sandstorm. It loses sight of itself to trust the environment and intellect of life’s journey. It is the bearer that endures the experiences of its counterparts, unifying all walks of life to launch its breath forward. After all, Aquarius teaches us that we can’t experience the coolness of fresh air without taking a deep breath first.
It’s important to note that air is always around us. Air exists now. It pushes us to communicate and expand on our thoughts. Air reminds us that we must connect, create space, and intellectualize what can be done in the present moment to better ourselves. As a Libra sun, Mae’s understanding of air well supports these qualities of the element. “I think of air as invisible, as it represents what is in between people. It even has a magical, even whimsical component. It carries messages and understanding, and challenges us to use that socially and intellectually.” It constantly asks questions, and these questions often entail the improvement of society and our existence. This element is complex and constantly changing, drawing influences from everyday life and the mysteries that encompass it. There’s a sense of duality here: air is not only complex, but it is light and cool. Like a breeze on a sunny day or a sharp gust on a rainy one, air cannot be contained: it must be distributed, just like the information we receive and share daily. 🌬️
Cry me a river, but only if I can go for a swim!
Cancer is the container that holds the forceful currents of life. Crabs are notorious for grabbing things with their claws and storing them away later: if we’re on a beach, it’s the treasure buried under the sandbar, but it’s also the rip current that drags you under when you least expect it. This form of water grants us a sense of emotional familiarity– it creates a space to release the depths hidden within. Scorpio is the lagoon that contains life under it. A lagoon attracts life, storing the emotions of its inhabitants inside and providing them with resources that allow for transformation. Every movement ripples throughout the space, and similar to Scorpio’s calculative nature, you can’t miss a single move. It’s the depths of water seen on a surface level. It’s abrupt but powerful and can release you from the pain of drowning when you endure it relentlessly. Once you’re released from Scorpio’s alluring stream, Pisces reminds us that the ocean will embrace you no matter what— accepting you wholly. Pisces is the remaining territory of the sea that has yet to be discovered. It tells us that we can be enveloped, uncharted, and adapted to, through the conforming of water. It’s a fancier way to say that water talks through empathy.
There’s a unifying quality about the water signs. Think of all of the times you went swimming in a pool as a child and refused to get out when your parents instructed you to. Didn’t you feel unready and rushed? Notice how you’re still wet, and each droplet lingers for some time. Water has a certain ability to make us feel accepted and even yearned for. It is where we can exist in our most vulnerable form. Water touches us in ways we can’t always see, but feel; it touches us so deeply. “We are mostly made of water, so it’s hard to ignore the life force that lives directly inside of us. It is flow, creativity, sensuality, and intuiting, and cannot be contained”, Mae says. Despite your swimming abilities, we touch water every day, and in the same way, it touches us. All bodies of water meet in the sea. All forms seek unity but find themselves flowing naturally through the currents of life. In the same way, a current can be vicious and life-threatening, and a current can be soothing and serene. Water sees us deeply, and seeps beyond our senses.
Now that you know the fundamentals of your element, it’s time to figure out where you fit in so that you can be on your own. You may or may not be familiar with your opposite sign (A.K.A. sister sign); If you’re unaware of the qualities of your opposing sign, now is your time to take notes. The sister signs show us how we can balance our multidimensional energies. When we hear the word opposite, it’s easy for us to separate two ends of the same coin. In a society that’s used to yin and yang, black and white, masculine and feminine, positive and negative, etc., it’s predictable for us to ignore the gray area that lies in between every polarity. If we look deeper, astrology suggests that we must step away from our element to make ourselves home on our own. 💧
Let’s break it down:
“Just like we have night and day, light and dark, etc., we learn that one cannot coexist without the other,” according to Mae. Fire and air oppose each other, and so do water and earth. The fire-to-air axis can be seen through sister signs Aries and Libra, Leo and Aquarius, and Sagittarius to Gemini. Similarly, water is to earth, as is Capricorn to Cancer, Taurus to Scorpio, and Virgo to Pisces. Right off the bat, you may notice how different each element is; I challenge you to seek the similarities between each with a bit more attention than you normally would. Fire and air are considered masculine, yang, and extroverted signs. “Fire and air spark energy, get things moving, and can personify what is created.” Water and earth are depicted as feminine, yin, and more introverted. Mae suggests the two elements are representative of “what is created, and what is embodied”. She uses an interesting perspective when challenging the feminine and masculine connotations of the elements. “I prefer to use the word penetrative for fire and air. They create, initiate action, and contribute to their environment in a hands-on kind of way. “Earth and water draw you in. They are receptive rather than passive. It is a force that is receiving information from the environment they inhabit, all while allowing the physical and spiritual to gravitate towards them.”
In each element, there are three different modalities; cardinal, fixed, and mutable. You must understand the qualities of your modality to understand your sign and its opposite. Cardinal signs are the beginners, the seekers, and the initiators of the zodiac. If you’re an Aries, Libra, Capricorn, or Cancer, this may sound like you. It may be easier to categorize the qualities of the modalities by each time of the season. In this case, if cardinal signs are the initiators, you can think of them as the beginning of each season. If the Aries season begins during the Spring Equinox, then its opposite Libra begins its season at the start of the Autumn Equinox. Fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, are stable, secure, and committed. Think of when the sun burns hottest in the middle of summer, representing Leo’s undying fire. When Winter proves to be its coldest, Leo’s sister sign Aquarius makes its mark on the zodiac calendar. And when the seasons start to change, we end up in mutable signs’ territory. Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces teach us how to go with the flow, or in other words, create their own. Gemini season takes place between spring and summer, giving us a spring detox and summer makeover, while its opposite season in Sagittarius takes place between fall and winter. In true Sagittarius fashion, the weather during this time teases us: it’s hard to determine if you should wear a light sweater or a puffer jacket during this time, but the best way to figure it out is to adapt to it, just like mutable signs do.
Your signs tell you how you behave while your elements give you an idea of the energy being expressed. The modalities show us how this energy is harnessed, so it’s important to recognize how to express yourself in a way that’s productive to yourself and your placements. Taking what we know about the signs’ elements and modalities will allow us to see which ones in our chart need to be activated to better understand our present selves.
“If I only stay in the element I’m comfortable in, I can’t forget about the elements that attribute to me. Too much good can be bad, and vice versa. Staying in one lane can result in tunnel vision, preventing us from fully expressing ourselves as divine creative beings.” There’s no guidebook as to what it truly means to be in your element, besides the superpowers that lie within the library of knowledge in your head, and the intuition that derives directly from your heart. But, if you want a little guidance, feel free to book your natal chart reading or Astro-counseling with the lovely Mae. You can catch her on Instagram and her website.
To truly be in our element, we must learn how to step out of it. As Mae suggests, we are ‘divine creative beings’ who need to experience life to the fullest. Remember that you are not just one element, but a beholder of all four, regardless if they are present in your natal chart or not. The best way to stay in your element is to acknowledge that you are a multifaceted being with complex thoughts and emotions; the key to unlocking your element is to acknowledge the potential of each element that lies within you. 💌
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