As the core mission of Elementalism is to bring balance to the four elements within your life, we have to understand the states of imbalance elements. These two states are Deficit and Excess, meaning either too little, or too much. Each element can become either deficient or excessive, and when that happens to us, it represents itself in different ways in our lives and health. Addressing these two states is not quite as simple as just adding more or taking away the element in question. Sometimes, with minor issues, it can be that simple, but in most cases these elemental states are made by influxes of other elements inside the balance. An example of this is that an excess of fire can be caused by a deficiency in earth or water, as these are the elements that commonly “check” the balance of fire. This is because it is impossible for the other three elements to be “balanced” when one of them is in excess or deficit.
For this reason it is important to understand the full scope of elemental balance before trying to shift the weight of any one element. In the example above, if you simply take away some of the excess fire, you do not provide the deficient element (either water or earth) the right opportunity to flourish, and thus one excess will be filled with another. An easy to understand example of this would be a person who is consumed with their passions for creativity and divinity, so much so that it causes lack of intimacy in their relationship. (Excess fire, deficient water). If they simply slow their creative drive, or cut it in half, but do not do the work to nurture their relationship, they only create room for earth or air to move in and become the new excess. In this way they might stop their passionate creation, but then throw themselves into their work or duty, maintaining the same intimacy issues inside their relationship
This is why we have to realize that with every Excess in one element, there will be a deficit in another and vice versa. With this in mind, we can maintain the full perspective of the situation and provide an adequate plan of elemental balance that will nurture balanced growth. The example above is only one possibility of a real world manifestation of that specific imbalance (fire to water). That same imbalance will represent itself differently in everyone’s life as we are all different, and we all require different amounts of each element to be “balanced”. An excess in an element for one person may be considered a deficit for another because no two people are the same. An introvert may need far less water or air than a social butterfly, a very religious person may need far more fire than an anti-religious person. Elementalism does not exist to change a person into a different one entirely, but to allow changes to happen in that person’s life so that they may have a more happy and healthy life overall.
The next few articles to publish will be regarding identifying different deficiencies and excesses in our elements, focusing on one element at a time.
Leave a Reply