The Element of Water

To our senses, the elements are fourand have ever been, and will ever be
for they are the elements of life, of poetry, and of perception,

the four Great Ones, the Four Roots, the First Four

of Fire and the Wet, Earth and the wide Air of the World.

To find the other many elements, you must go to the laboratory

and hunt them down.

But the four we have always with us, they are our world.

Or rather, they have us with them. 

--D.H. Lawrence--

In Western astrology there are four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. These elements represent the four basic natures that were recognized by the early astrologers. Each sign of the Zodiac can be understood as an expression associated with one of these elements. Fire is creative; Earth, materialistic; Air, intellectual and abstract; and Water is emotional.  Therefore, people born under the water signs tend to rely more on their emotions than on their intellects. What I am talking about here are those primal impulses that direct our actions without giving our rational minds time to analyze the situation; it is those impulsive actions we take when we rely solely on feeling and emotions.  The water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.

Water teaches us acceptance. Let your emotions flow like water

--Mastr Pakku--

The element of water allows one to become aware of the inner flow of their feelings, needs, and fears, a flow of emotions that may be either comfortable or uncomfortable. Water qualities are flowing, surrendering, and harmonizing. Addressing the water element involves dealing with one's basic instincts.  It is also about our ability to move with the flow.  When there is too much water in the chart, one may be overly emotional. The individual with too little water may be cold and unfeeling. Have you noticed people are often categorized as deep or shallow?

The water element also contains our darker shadow emotions such as anger, fear, jealousy, resentment, and a sense of hopelessness. It may speak of our primal fears of the dark, the cold, and all those terrifying things hidden deep within the hidden recesses of our minds. Water can be agressive, like tidal waves or tsunamis, representing strong emotions, fears, and negative feelings. When one is feeling very strong emotions and feelings, he/she may say and do all sorts of things that will later be regretted. When water gets hot, it boils, steams, scalds, and then disappears. The Piscean may smash things and shout, but this is a mutable sign so this will blow over quickly.

The great sea

Has sent me adrift

It moves me

As the weed in a great river

Earth and the great weather

Moves me

Has carried me away

And moves my inward parts with joy.

-Uvavnuk, Eskimo shaman woman-

Water is also feminine, reflective, and impressionable.  It can go deep. The water element represents the subconscious, our dreams and emotions exerting their subtle influences on our conscious thoughts. It cools, soothes and heals.  Water is the element connected with our ability to sense unity through our inner worlds. (The outer manifestation of this quality is found in rivers, lakes, rain and the ocean). The water element represents the principle of universality, the sensory, emotional, psychic, and creative experience in life.  The soul is ruled by the Moon and the element water. It is the messenger, the holder of memory, the magnetic field and the Soul memory. Water is the universal medium. In representing the soul of the individual, it represents the soul also of the race.

The soul of man

Resembleth water:

From heaven it cometh,

To heaven it soareth.

And then again

To earth descendeth,

Changing ever.

Down from the lofty

Rocky wall

Streams the bright flood,

Then spreadeth gently

In cloudy billows

O'er the smooth rock,

And welcomed kindly,

Veiling, on roams it,

Soft murmuring,

Tow'rd the abyss.

Cliffs projecting

Oppose its progress,--

Angrily foams it

Down to the bottom,

Step by step.

Now, in flat channel,

Through the meadowland steals it,

And in the polish'd lake

Each constellation

Joyously peepeth.

Wind is the loving

Wooer of waters;

Wind blends together

Billows all-foaming.

Spirit of man,

Thou art like unto water!

Fortune of man,

Thou art like unto wind!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe