What's your element?

[Klaw]

Sounds interesting, I might have to read up on the Chinese elements.

You might want to check out the 9 floating star system for Feng Shui. It has a lot of focus on the Chinese elements and ideas for representations of each element including colors.

[Ashmire]

You might want to check out the 9 floating star system for Feng Shui. It has a lot of focus on the Chinese elements and ideas for representations of each element including colors.

Benebell Wen is a pretty good resource for getting started with Chinese practices also.

[Sefiru]

It's not a classical element (unless you think of it in terms of water and air), but I consider my element to be storms. A crack of lightning, a rumble of thunder, and a warm deluge bring me to life like little else.

I am a scorpio/gemini ascendant, so water and air fit me, but if I was going to choose a personal motif, it'd be storms.

I don't work much with classical element systems, but there is a pop-culture system I identify quite strongly with - the Flames from the manga Katekyou Hitman Reborn. There are seven, corresponding to personality types and named after types of weather - I see myself as a Cloud, which is an independent introvert type.

[Darkhawk]

So water is top of my list of the elements - if I could swim daily I would, and the water is one of the most relaxing of sounds to me; whether it be a babbling stream, bubbling fountain, the ocean swell, or rainfall.  Petrichor is my all time favourite smell (thank you Ashmire et all, I believe, for assisting with putting a name to it in recent discussions).

Do you have a particular element that you'd identify as your element?  And if so, are you able to articulate why this is the case?

I wanna back this up a bit.

First ya gotta define your framework.  The Greek/ceremonial elemental system is pretty popular and influential in paganism, but it's certainly not the only magical system out there, and it's not the only magical system that gets called elements out there.

So we've got, off the top of my head, Greek:  Earth, Air, Fire, Water, sometimes Ether/Quintessence.

Chinese:  Earth - Metal - Water - Wood - Fire

My personal take on the Ogdoad (Egyptiana) is the elements and their inversions are formlessness / shape, imperceptibility/secrets / knowability, darkness/light, and unboundedness / finitude.  The names associated with 'formlessness' and 'secrets' have some water and air affiliations buuuuut.

Or a seven element system that starts with the four Greek and adds three which I cannot actually articulate coherently (I will handwave at 'transcendence', 'erotic power', and 'paradoxical interconnectivity' but enh).

A pop cultural pagan might go for Fire - Ice - Lightning - Earth - Wind - Water - Holy ... etc.

What system of elements you use matters too, if you affiliate with the concept at all.  All of these things are part of the structure of a worldview, and worth interrogating to see if the system actually does what you want it to.

Anyway, in short, I wanna see more "nature-oriented" pagans affiliating themselves with carbon.

[Altair]

Anyway, in short, I wanna see more "nature-oriented" pagans affiliating themselves with carbon.

Heh!

I took the original post to refer to the classical Western elements. You're right that it's not the only system, but you're also right that in paganism circles, it heavily predominates...though as we've seen from some of the responses even aside from yours, DH, plenty of folks have their own take.

For me, the classical system works wonderfully...though I've also elaborated on it a bit, taking 4 quarters + center and expanding the center/spirit into a three-dimensional axis that encompasses down (dark/ancestors/chthonic) and up (light/descendants/heavenly).

[Donal2018]

I particularly identify with the element of water - it's the element that I 'crave' the most.

And I love the earth:  trees, green spaces, immersing myself in nature - so earth's probably my second 'favourite' element.

I like a fire just fine, meditating before a candle flame is good, woodsmoke's quite a nice smell and all (if not too full in the face, that is).

Air is obviously just as crucial to life as any element, but I don't feel a need to surround myself with it more than I automatically am surrounded by it (obviously) - I don't crave mountaintop views or love the wind or need an open window at all times, or whatever.

So water is top of my list of the elements - if I could swim daily I would, and the water is one of the most relaxing of sounds to me; whether it be a babbling stream, bubbling fountain, the ocean swell, or rainfall.  Petrichor is my all time favourite smell (thank you Ashmire et all, I believe, for assisting with putting a name to it in recent discussions).

Do you have a particular element that you'd identify as your element?  And if so, are you able to articulate why this is the case?

I strongly associate with Air. I use the classic Western elements- Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and sometimes Quintessence/Spirit. I learned a lot about the Elements from the Tarot and other forms of Western Esoterica.

Air is my main element as it represents thought, spirit, mind. I also have had a life-long affinity with storms, lightning, thunder. Also Storm Gods like Taranis. As far as Earth, Water, and Fire go, I have no particular affinity or order for them.

[Klaw]

Air is my main element as it represents thought, spirit, mind. I also have had a life-long affinity with storms, lightning, thunder. Also Storm Gods like Taranis. As far as Earth, Water, and Fire go, I have no particular affinity or order for them.

Just thinking, but couldn't storms also include Water from rain and Fire from lightening. If tornadoes are also apart of your storms Earth could be included as well. Which to me would say you are very well balanced with your storms.

[PerditaPickle]

I wanna back this up a bit.

Good point.

It's pretty self-evident that I was thinking of the Greek four elements when I made the thread.

But now that you mention if, I can think of a few other examples too.

In Neo-Druidry, we have earth, sea and sky which could perhaps be thought of as a set of three elements, depending on how you look at it.

And as you said, a pop culture pagan could have loads to chose from - I'm thinking of nature, arcane, light, void, & etc (from World of Warcraft, magic/damage types).

One could come up with one's own - off the top of my head, something like:  lava, soil, leaf, cloud, sun/moon/starlight.

Anyway, in short, I wanna see more "nature-oriented" pagans affiliating themselves with carbon.

But wouldn't we want to be affiliated with whatever's the opposite of carbon?

[PerditaPickle]

In Neo-Druidry, we have earth, sea and sky which could perhaps be thought of as a set of three elements, depending on how you look at it.

And put like this, my top pick would actually be a bit different, as out of the three it'd actually be earth.  Much as I have that aforementioned strong connection with water, it's not specifically the sea I feel the affinity for, whereas the earth is a thing worthy of reverence and protection.

[Klaw]

But wouldn't we want to be affiliated with whatever's the opposite of carbon?

It could be argued that diamond is the opposite of carbon. They are both made of carbon, but a diamond and a piece of coal or graphite have completely opposite properties.

If referring to an opposite to a carbon life form maybe silicon?

[Darkhawk]

But wouldn't we want to be affiliated with whatever's the opposite of carbon?

I mean, if you want to affiliate with the opposite of "that element upon whose chemical properties all life depends" have fun?

[Donal2018]

I mean, if you want to affiliate with the opposite of "that element upon whose chemical properties all life depends" have fun?

I think I would call carbon a specific example of an Earth element. Sort of a universal substance that life is made out of- plant, animal, microbes. Water is essential for life also. Air oxygenates for animals and provides CO2 for plants. Fire represents energy/metabolism. I am just spit balling here. I can imagine other interpretations. 

[Donal2018]

Just thinking, but couldn't storms also include Water from rain and Fire from lightening. If tornadoes are also apart of your storms Earth could be included as well. Which to me would say you are very well balanced with your storms.

Yeah, I can imagine that interpretation. "Well balanced with your storms" is an appealing phrase. Personally, I associate water with rivers, lakes, sea. Storms are air based, but do also provide water, rain.

Maybe I can imagine a Storm God who has a Rain Daughter. Life bringing rain. Sort of a creative interpretation, not anything that I have seen in actual mythology. I think that maybe I will Google "Rain Goddess" and see if anything turns up.

[Altair]

I think I would call carbon a specific example of an Earth element. Sort of a universal substance that life is made out of- plant, animal, microbes. Water is essential for life also. Air oxygenates for animals and provides CO2 for plants. Fire represents energy/metabolism. I am just spit balling here. I can imagine other interpretations.

I often ponder how the four elements come together in the plants we're familiar with: Air and fire (sunlight), the "masculine" elements, from above, and earth and water, the "feminine" elements, from below...all required to sustain our green and growing things.

[Altair]

In Neo-Druidry, we have earth, sea and sky which could perhaps be thought of as a set of three elements, depending on how you look at it.

Which dovetails with science, in that it recognizes the Earth's dynamic systems as the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. (Except that science also throws in the biosphere--all the living things on the earth. Is there an element for that?)

I can sort of see that division in the Greek mythos: Of the three sons of Cronus, Hades got the underworld (earth), Poseidon the seas, and Zeus the prime position from atop Mt. Olympus (sky).