Episode 35 : Air element

In today’s episode we are continuing our series on the elements, these are fundamental building blocks of spell work and ritual work.

If you are new to the earbud coven… we started the series with Water Episode 29 and then earth episode 32

I wanted to focus on the elements this season with you and add my experience to your knowledge; so that you can expand your relationship with the elements. Then when you are calling the quarters and casting a circle it will feel like you are welcoming dear friends.  

Correspondences of air 

• wind
• feathers, birds and things that fly
  • flying dragons
  • angels
  • ferries 
• Sound
  • Singing 
  • Music
  • Sound waves
  • Podcasting 😊

• Throat chakra (in most systems I’ll chat about that below) 
• Breathwork 
• The mind and intellect
• Writing, books and learning
• Scents and smell 
• Incenses and smoke
• Logic
• Truth and justice 
• Astrology signs  
  • Gemini
  • Libra
  • Aquarius 

We cannot really see air, but we know it is there… in the movement of trees in the wind, the spiral of smoke from a fire, and the smells of spring that waft through the air. 

Air is unseen and all around us, forever present, it is the very breath of our life. It rules the thoughts and logic of our minds. The ever-present thinking part of us can give us our greatest inspiration but also can be the most difficult thing for us to master. It is the element of our minds that part of us that we know is there and cannot see. 

The spark of intellect and invention is ruled by air. The creativity of problem-solving is air energy, think about the word “brain storing” and how it means to collect the ideas of a group and think together to create solutions. 

Smoke and incense, like all things that show us the movement of air, correspond to this element. Sent and smell to me are also air things.  

When we talk about the Chakra system and the elements it can get a bit complicated, the 7 chakra system that Western cultures refer to (*cough appropriated) is most closely related to the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. Some information you find will put air elements in the throat chakra as it relates to sound and voice, and some assign air to the heart space as that is where our lungs and breath reside, it is not as clear as we are taught in new age circles. I encourage you to work with your own body and energy field and feel into where you feel most connected to air. 

Age of Air

We are in an air age right now, the way we communicate with each other with our devices and technology is all air. We are beaming information into literal space and back into our handhelds. The information we can access at any moment in almost any corner of our world is amazing and even magical. 

Our tech is ruled by air, our phones, laptops and devices are connected to each other via the air element. Yes of course it is human intellect and the spark of genius that has brought the information age to us. 

All of those things are ruled by air. 

Goddesses and Gods

associated with Air

It was difficult to find Goddesses that are associated with air, so I included a God this time

Hermes – Greek

Mercury – Roman 

This pair of Gods overlap as do so many in the Greek-Roman pantheons 

They appear mainly as the messenger of the gods and tricksters. They are associated with travellers, boundaries and crossroads.  

Hermes is a dream god, and the Greeks offered him the last libation before sleep. 

Being a messenger may be how he became the god of roads and doorways, because he could travel so easily and cross so many boundaries, Hermes took on a psychopomp role and helped to guide souls in the afterlife 

He is regarded as a ‘Divine Trickster.”  

Hermes was a patron of music in some takes and is the inventor of music.  

He was most often depicted in winged boots as the messenger of the Gods and holding the Kerykeion or herald’s staff a winged staff with snakes winding up it, that is today associated with physicians and the US Medical Corps.

Looking at the associations and lore around both Hermes and Mercury, it is easy to see why he is thought to be an Air God. It’s not just the wings on his feet or the swiftness of his messages, we can see it in the stories of being the originator of music and his associations with it. 

Athena 

The Goddess of the hunt is also a goddess of wisdom and is associated with air. She is swift and wise. 

White Buffalo Calf Woman

First seen as a cloud in the sky that became a woman. 

She brought wisdom to the people and taught them ceremonies. Including the sacred pipe ceremony. She is a symbol of peace and balance, she is a symbol of wisdom.

In our other element episodes, I have made you meditations and mailed them out in my monthly love letter. For air I didn’t do a meditation, I do have a ritual to give you though
It’s a little something you can use on full moons or that you can really incorporate into any releasing ritual you do. Instead of a burning ceremony, you can use bubbles! you can incorporate the idea of air into your release ceremony. You can watch what you are releasing float away in the bubbles you blow.