Understanding the Primal Elements in Practice

This episode of Pagan Coffee Talk dives deep into the primal elemental forces—Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit—and explores how they function far beyond colors, correspondences, or aesthetic symbolism. We discuss the elements as fundamental forces of the universe, each carrying distinct behaviors, patterns, and personality traits that show up in nature, in people, and in everyday life. From Earth’s stability and logic, Water’s cohesion and wisdom, Air’s movement and communication, and Fire’s intensity and transformation, the conversation breaks down how these energies shape our experiences and emotional landscapes.

Listeners are guided through how Life Temple and Seminary teaches elemental work as a practical, evolving relationship rather than a fixed identity. We emphasize observing elemental behaviors, meditating with physical representations, and engaging with the elements through real-world activities like gardening, cooking, breathwork, and exercise. We also explore how elemental resonance shifts over a lifetime and how understanding these patterns can improve self-awareness, relationships, and magical practice.

Whether you’re new to elemental work or refining your craft, this discussion offers grounded insights into building authentic relationships with the elements, recognizing their influence in yourself and others, and using these primal forces as powerful tools for personal growth and spiritual development.

Join us on
Discord:  https://discord.gg/MdcMwqUjPZ
Facebook: (7) Life Temple and Seminary | Facebook

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Support Request

Elements As Primal Forces

Speaker 1 0:15

Welcome Welcome to Pagan Coffee Talk. If you enjoy our content, please consider donating and following our socials. Let's talk about the elements.

Speaker 4 0:29

Yay!

Speaker 1 0:30

Let's go beyond the aesthetics. All right. I was gonna say this may be one of those episodes. It's a little short, but that's okay.

Speaker 4 0:41

Okay, which ones are we talking about? Are we talking about the the Asian ones where it's metal? The ones we were talking about. Oh, those, okay. So earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Yes. Okay.

Speaker 1 0:58

You know, just making sure there, you know, some people Yeah, I mean, some people do follow the you know, the the Asian elements, and that's fine. But we're gonna talk about the ones we know, the ones we use on a daily basis, right? Yeah. And so I guess what we really want to emphasize is that it goes beyond just colors and correspondences.

Speaker 4 1:22

No, I the belief here is that these are primal forces of the universe. Right. All right. When we when we talk about wind or fire, are we actually talking about the element itself? No. We're talking about what it represents. Right. And that it represents these primal forces in the universe that's created everything or helped create.

Speaker 1 1:50

Right. So your colors, your correspondences, your crystals, all that stuff, they can be a good gateway into learning how to work with and um communicate with communicate with the elements. But they are not the only destination, they are not the destination. There's more to it than this.

Speaker 4 2:09

Right.

Speaker 1 2:11

So let me ask you I tell the people how does Life Temple and Seminary view the elements? What what is it? What do we teach?

Speaker 4 2:24

Well, we actually teach that again, these are primal forces of the universe. All right. They help create things. They they have personalities, but I don't want to say they're personages like we think of. Right. So but again, yeah, they're they're they're primal forces of the universe. And that we just represent those primal forces with these four elements. All right. Now again, you oh go ahead. Go ahead. I was just gonna say, and we have the fifth element, which is all the other ones combined together.

Speaker 1 3:04

Right. And what we do is we we get you to look at um, they help describe behaviors.

Speaker 5 3:14

Yes.

Speaker 1 3:15

Um, not just behaviors, personal behaviors, but behaviors in the earth, behaviors in you know, wind patterns and whatever else.

Speaker 4 3:26

These help you again, right it's the same patterns we see over and over, which we see inside ourselves, inside nature.

Speaker 1 3:33

Yes.

Speaker 4 3:34

And they they tend to resonate even into the personalities of people.

Speaker 5 3:40

Right.

Speaker 4 3:41

Someone, for example, someone considered to have a lot of air energy, we might consider it attention deficit disorder. Might, yeah. All right, because again, it it carries air tends to carry that, you know, it blows one way, then the other way, and it changes its mind halfway through it. I mean, again, anybody's ever watched that bag, you know, float across the street or something, you know what I'm talking about, you know. This is and so this is where we get the idea of these them having personalities, or those personalities we can see in other people. Right. So again, here's where in the world you get, oh, this person's got a lot of air energy in them, or oh, they got a lot of fire energy, or they got a lot of earth energy, or they got a lot of water energy. This is sort of what we're talking about here. They they a person showing those typical behaviors of what we refer to as that element, right? Did I just go to my elbow to get to my butt?

Speaker 1 4:45

I'm just probably, but it worked. It's not the first time. It's probably not gonna be the last.

Earth Water Air Fire Behaviors

Speaker 4 4:55

All right. What what else? What's next? Where you want to go next?

Speaker 1 5:02

Um, well, let's delve a little bit into each one of his behaviors. Okay. Right. So Earth, Earth is like um stability, yes, boundaries, rationale, right, logic. Yes.

Speaker 4 5:19

All right. I often refer to this, this is the Vulcan of our elementals. Very little emotions, a lot of logic and reasoning. Yes, a very cold-hearted or anything like that, but very strong and determined at the same time. Right. Absolutely. All right. So a little weird thing there. Again, when you think of Earth, what do you think about? You know, it mountains can be quite stubborn. They don't like getting out of the way. Really? No, I would have never thought.

Speaker 5 5:53

I'm just saying.

Speaker 1 5:56

All right. Water. Water is flowing, right? Bonding, we cohesion, it well, it's community.

Speaker 4 6:09

Yes. All right, it's wisdom. It's that being able to go with the flow of things. Well, understanding strength that sometimes compassion is better. Right. I mean, don't get me wrong, water has its things about it. Water people who have a lot of water energy tend to be very uh methodical in the stuff that they do. Uh like they will always have the same lunch. They they they like the routines. Anything outside that routine is a little discombobulating to them.

Speaker 1 6:47

Well, that can be said about a lot of people, but yes.

Speaker 4 6:50

I didn't especially the older you get, the more it's set in your ways you get. So again, I think that's an age thing. But again, it it's still the same structure there when we're talking about water happened to be that liking patterns and stuff like that. Right. You know, but this is also the wisdom of the ages element. So is that you you come with knowledge and experience there.

Speaker 1 7:20

Right, right. So then we've got air. We've already talked about air, you know, movement, communication, communication, intelligence.

Speaker 4 7:30

There's nowhere air don't get to. Right. Yeah. At some point. At some point, yeah. Yeah, it's everywhere, it's nowhere. And so again, it's knowledgeable. Can it be a little temperamental? Can it be a little bit OCD and or not OCD, or I should say, uh a little flaky? Just a little, yeah. Just a little, all right. But then I guess I oh go on.

Speaker 1 8:01

Go ahead.

Speaker 4 8:01

I was gonna say, I guess this leaves us with fire, right? Yep, leaves us with fire. Fire. Fire is fire's wheel. Fire is emotion for emotion's sake. It is anger for being angry. It is it is just all 100% intense.

Speaker 1 8:20

I was gonna say one word, intensity.

Speaker 4 8:23

Intensity. All right, it's also transformation. Yeah, it is, but it's those high emotional times in our lives.

Speaker 1 8:35

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 4 8:37

All right, it's being excited about everything, is the vitality of youth, it's that wonderment that you see in kids' eyes the first time they see all the decorations up during Christmas. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is what fire is, all right. A little hard to tame and a little hard to keep under control, but if you work with it enough, you sort of can learn how to do that.

Speaker 1 9:03

Right.

Speaker 4 9:04

But there it is still always on the edge there.

Speaker 1 9:07

Just a little bit.

Speaker 4 9:09

Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:10

Okay, a lot.

Speaker 4 9:11

A lot.

Spirit Energy And What It Teaches

Speaker 1 9:12

And no, I wouldn't know anything about that because fire is my element. So then we have last, but certainly not least, spirit.

Speaker 4 9:25

Spirit is spirit's just life. Right? It's life force. If everything that is alive has spirit energy in them.

Speaker 1 9:38

Right. It's like it's like the animating principle of everything.

Speaker 4 9:46

Everything. Right. It's it it it is the force that makes the cells split and divide and all of that. That's what spirit is. It is that force of nature.

Speaker 1 9:58

Right. And it represents it represents the integration of everything into everything one.

Why Perfect Balance Stops Motion

Speaker 4 10:04

One thing. That takes all four of these elements to create life in itself to some extent. Right. All right. And that is our connection to the gods. Absolutely. All right. And it's so it is. As far as spirit or personalities go, it's a very mellow type of personality. Right. It is that it is that quote unquote guru on the mountain that finally learned inner enlightenment and just is completely at ease with everything. Right. No matter what in the world you do, you can no longer irritate this person as much as you try. Right. Because everything's taken in stride. This is that what spirit sort of teaches us. Absolutely. So again, it it's a little odd because it's sort of everything molded together, everything in balance with one another. Right. Now we'll sit here and say we don't look at this as a perfect balance type thing. No. All right, because perfect balance in our beliefs um has a very special meaning. And it's more of stillness. Right. Because in perfect balance, nothing can move because it's there, nothing can change.

Speaker 3 11:36

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 11:38

So perfect balance is this stopping force in and of itself. It's not something you it's not something you would want to achieve for a long period of time. No. If you're wanting to grow and advance more, you you you want things to be a little off-kilter at times. Of course you do. To some extent. If not, things don't move forward.

Speaker 1 12:02

No. And the the nice thing about learning to work with all of this is you can kind of rotate that wheel a little bit.

Speaker 4 12:10

Yep.

Speaker 1 12:11

So if you see you're at a certain point in your life and you need a little bit more of a certain type of energy, you can sort of sit down and meditate and work with that element until you get that element back.

Speaker 4 12:25

And dial it back down when it's not needed. Absolutely. Well, if for us to assume that we always have you have these people out there, and they're like, okay, you got fire energy or anything back when in your 20s does not mean you have the same energy on you in your 40s. No. All right. We do change over the years. So I sort of believe our resonance with one element over the other can change throughout our lifetime.

Speaker 1 12:56

Well, and I think I think that's why we kind of start, we we kind of steer from the whole, you know, well, labeling yourselves. I know I jokingly said fire was my element. But but again, you were sort of joking about it's not right. Because I mean, while I I do feel like I have a lot of fire energy, I've learned to counteract some of that with more of the other energies.

Speaker 4 13:27

Right.

Speaker 1 13:28

And I think it's more about it's I think the real elemental work is more about understanding yourself and understanding the world around you more than it is, well, I'm a fire child or I'm an air child or you know.

Speaker 4 13:44

Well uh well again, it's back to learning what parts of your personalities are part of which elemental.

Speaker 1 13:52

Right.

Speaker 4 13:52

Because again, we are all still a mixture of all four elements put together. We are, yeah. So again, in some variation or sequence, not everybody's the same. To me, to sit there and think that that once you're born that way, that's it, isn't the way this works. I think it changes as you change over the years. Absolutely. Because again, I I do believe the older you get, the more water energy you tend to pick up, and that's where these habits of older people come from. I just it's it's just an overtime thing that this stuff starts to happen.

Speaker 1 14:34

Well, and well, and see that's that's where we kind of differ a little bit on that. I think I think Earth is more it's more of the structure for me anyway. Earth represents more of the structure, and that's that's where we get our routines from. That's where we get our stability in our daily life, especially as we get older. Water, yeah, water to me is more just going with the flow.

Speaker 4 15:00

Well, water to me is also that because for a river to change its course, it it happens over a long period of time.

Speaker 1 15:08

Sure it does, yeah.

Speaker 4 15:09

So so water to me, when I say it's in a rut, I'm talking about Ted, who always has the tuna fish for lunch. No matter what, never changes. Every time he goes in, has the same thing for lunch, as regular as anybody else. Right. All right, not necessarily a routine about brushing your teeth and all this. I just that person that always makes those same choices over and over again.

Speaker 1 15:38

Kind of kind of like that, you know, that person who has all the same clothes in the closet, so they don't have to choose.

Speaker 4 15:46

They don't have to choose.

Speaker 1 15:47

You know, it's not a terrible idea.

Speaker 4 15:51

It's not a terrible idea. You know, jeans and a white t-shirt makes out a lot of good days. Right. I mean, come on, y'all. But then on the other hand, we're getting older. I think we're picking up more water energy. So we're we're getting more of that water earth energy, so we like that, you know. Right. But again, there's the point of learning this is to sort of learn yourself. And these are we're we're joking about these, but these are sort of like the base part of personalities.

Speaker 1 16:28

Right.

Speaker 4 16:29

You know, it's not the whole personality, it's just the underlying basic premise on how some people operate, how most people operate.

Speaker 1 16:38

Yeah, absolutely. I mean once you once you get to that point, um, it's easier to understand like why why people do certain things or why weather patterns or whatever behave in certain ways.

Speaker 4 16:53

Well, see, I look at it the same way you you probably do with the uh astrology. And you being an Aquarius or whatever, and they have those books where it's and it just explains the personality of Aquarius. Same same basic concept here, except that it's four elementals and not twelve.

Speaker 1 17:13

Right. But we're not we're not we're not encouraging the quizzes, the quote unquote quizzes. No, not saying which element is yours.

Speaker 4 17:23

No, because again, like I said, that it changed, I think it changes over time, and and you you might have fire energy for a while, then it may move to some air energy later, then earth energy for a while. It as you change, it does.

Speaker 1 17:40

Right.

Speaker 4 17:41

So again, it's not it's not fixed like it is in astrology.

Speaker 1 17:46

Right. Right.

Speaker 4 17:48

No, it's it's a little more fluid, it's a little bit more fluid concept here that we're talking about.

Building Real Elemental Relationships

Speaker 1 17:54

So well, since we've covered all of that, let's talk a little bit about how people can start to build those relationships.

Speaker 4 18:05

Well, I would tell people meditate with a rock to start with. Meditate while staring into a candle. Meditate while while staring at a pool of water out in the sunlight. All right. I'm sorry, that's hypnotic as how get out. All right. Great way to get there. So that means, yeah, you would probably want to be somewhere that's a little bit breezy or have a fan or something to blow on you just slightly why in the world you're meditating on air. Or have some incense or something going in the background. Right. I mean, that's where we would actually start, is with the actual element.

Speaker 1 18:47

Yeah. Well, I was gonna say another good way, I think, is to um just observe. Yes, observe the elements and see see how they behave. You know, yeah. Ask your questions. You know, what does it do? How does it move? Does it resist anything?

Speaker 4 19:07

Funny thing here, but if you really want to learn how this works, think about it like this, especially if you do tarot readings. All right, pentacles are earth energy. Yes, they are. Swords are air energy, wands are fire energy, cups are water energy. When you start to think about the base personalities of this, and when these cards come up, they're clues based on the personality of the person. Right.

Speaker 1 19:41

Try that, see what happens and also working with the elements, you know, goes beyond ritual space or it goes beyond meditation. It's actually working with them. So do your gardening if you want to get in touch with your hands in the dirt, right? For water, it could be anything from bathing rituals to cooking, even because you cook with water. Air could be focus on your breathing, reading, all of the debating other people, all of these things deal with air. Fire could be your exercises if you go to the gym. Hey, great. Think about fire while you're doing all of this. It's intense, right? Or what is that? Hot yoga? Hot yoga, yeah.

Speaker 4 20:39

Yeah, I mean, seriously.

Speaker 1 20:42

I mean, actual build physical relationships with the elements.

Using Elements For Insight And Healing

Speaker 4 20:47

With I mean, literally, that's all we're talking about. Yeah. When you start to, and again, when you start to see these things everywhere, and you start to develop that relationship with them and realize their personalities and how they actually are, you start seeing those traits in other people too. Absolutely. And you start seeing it in yourself. So that way, you you start to learn how to adjust yourself based on what's going on. If you're always having a problem with your boss, could it just be that your element and their elements are just completely opposite of each other? Could be. And you need to kind of tap yours down to better work with your boss.

Speaker 1 21:28

Well, and you know, it also it also goes beyond all of that because even even Lady Keegan, in her line of work as an apothecary, she will tell you, you know, once you go through all the information, she'll be like, Oh, well, you have a lot of water energy. Right. These herbs are gonna what are gonna be what helps you best, right? Because they balance out the water energy. So that's something to think about if you're Thinking about a lot of work because right.

Speaker 4 22:03

I mean, again, it's we're we're talking about something that's being used to help us diagnose and to work with things around us. Yep. These are this these are wonderful things to learn and these personalities and the traits that we're talking about and the behaviors and connected with them. It is one of the best tools that we have in craft.

Speaker 1 22:30

Right. Once you start working with them, and especially if you've been doing it for a while, you're definitely going to get a clearer understanding of yourself, your habits, your emotions.

Speaker 4 22:42

I I I find it harder not to see the connections now. Right. You know, it's hard not to sit there going, okay, you know, you you could use the little air energy, you know. You know, he he here, hold this rock, please. Just just just sit there and hold that rock for a little bit. Well, I'm holding this rock, just do it. Right. Just do it. Just please trust me. Please, trust me.

Speaker 1 23:13

But yeah, so I mean, it's kind of like those Buddhist monks, you know, they're just always calm, they're always collected. Think of it more as you'll be a better grounded person.

Speaker 5 23:27

Yes.

Speaker 1 23:28

Because you will have the understanding of all the elements and their behaviors, their emotional states. You know, it just helps you be a better person.

Speaker 4 23:38

And again, I I will remind you, we are talking about, especially when you're meditating and stuff like this, these are primal forces. Yes, they are. All right. So again, be aware when when when they finally decide to teach you something, you you're going to be taught something.

Speaker 1 23:56

Right. I mean, how many it's I don't know how many times we've had students come back and say, I just got slapped in the face by water or fire or whichever element they were working with. It's like, oh my God, I had no idea.

Speaker 4 24:13

My stars and goddess. Really? Tell me it's not so. I hear back is you ask. Right. I guess you mean go back and meditate and do it again.

Speaker 3 24:31

Yeah.

Speaker 4 24:32

Thank you very much. Goodbye, Click.

Speaker 1 24:36

Keep at it. You got something to learn. You got something to learn.

Speaker 4 24:42

So, but I think that's all that emotional support.

Closing And Where To Find Us

Speaker 1 24:48

What emotion. You know, I'm earth. What emotion? I'm solid. So, but yeah, just ready for coffee. Yes, let's get some coffee. Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another episode. Pegan Coffee Talk is brought to you by Life Temple and Seminary. Please visit us at life templeseminary.org for more information, as well as links to our social media. Facebook, Discord, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit.

Speaker 25:20

We travel down this trodden path, the maze of stone and mire. Just hold my hand as we pass by a steel blazing pyro. And so it is the end of our days, to walk with me till morning breaks. And so it is the end of our days. So walk with me till morning break.