Base Elements: Water

Water to the alchemist represents the fluidity of spirit and consciousness. Water in its physical aspect can be liquid, vapor, and ice.

Our planet is made up of 71 percent water, and our brain and heart are made of 73 percent water. This gives credence to the hermetic principle “as above so below.”

The nature of water is to give, nurture, and to adapt to one’s environment. This is why it morphs and transforms. When water is too hot it becomes vapor, too cold, it becomes ice. This is why the ancients taught that water was birthed out of fire. To explain, fire has the quality of temperature, which in turn dictates the physical, mental, and spiritual principles of water.

Water is also feminine and is seen in the life-giving waters of our mother’s womb, which brings us into physical existence. It is this same sexual energy that gives life to our thoughts and intuition.

To harness the element of water, we must learn to be flexible in our lives. We must learn to adapt and to trust the path given to us by the divine, just as a river trusts the twists and turns of it banks on its way to the ocean.