Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ahhh the fun parts now!
So we have the five elements
Earth
Air
Fire
Water
and Spirit

Theres also Metal and Wood, if you follow more Eastern schools of thought.

The elements are all around us, whether we're out in the country or even in overly-urban settings. It comes from a classical Greek philosophy that everything has a little bit of each element contained within it. Therefor, everything essentially has a little bit of spirit in it (even in super condensed forms). Another way of looking at it is each element being composed of a certain energy (i.e. Earth energy being extremely present in say...a forest.)

The elements have certain traits, commonly called correspondences, that help us better relate to them. They can be applied in spells and rituals, and we can draw in their energies when in need. Of course these are just some ideas I use in a HUGE spectrum of correspondences out there.

Earth
Colors- Green, Brown, Black
Direction-North
Qualities-Heavy, rough, raw, cold, stagnant, passive, nurturing
Season-Winter
Time of Day-Midnight
Animals-Bull,Bear, Stag
Types of Spells-Fertility,stable love, prosperity and money, protection
Zodiac Signs-Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Spirit-Gnomes

Air
Colors-Yellow (didnt wanna write in yellow), light blue, white
Direction-East (where the sun rises)
Qualities-light, breezy, pushy, intellectual, cool
Season-Spring
Time of Day-Dawn
Animals- Hawk, birds of any kind
Types of Spells- Anything requiring thought, communication, clarity
Zodiac Signs-Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
Spirit-Sylphs (kinda like a type of faerie)

Fire
Colors-Red, orange, yellows
Direction-South
Qualities-Passionate, intense, lively, rage, active, hot
Season-Summer
Time of Day-Noon
Animals-Lion, dragons
Types of Spells- Protection, fiery love, offensive magick (not like...bad offensive.)
Zodiac Signs-Ares, Leo, Sagittarius
Spirit-Salamanders (Ancient myth, since they dwell in rotting logs, that when the logs were burned, the salamanders tried to get out, leading people to believe they were born from flames)


Water
Colors-Blues, aquamarine, greens
Direction-West
Qualities-Flowy, constant, artistic, changing, emotional
Season-Fall
Time of Day-Dusk
Animals-Dolphins, fish and other water dwellers
Types of Spells-Creation, Love, friendship, happiness, psychic
Zodiac Signs-Cancer, Scorpio, Pices
Spirit-Undines (Mermaids)

Wood tends to follow the same energies as Earth, as Metal is kind of a combination of Firey and Airy qualities. Spirit is a mix of all the elements, and is symbolized by the colors purple, white or black.

As everyone is born under a sun sign (Or if youre uber lucky like me, just as Scorpio was ending and Sagittarius was starting), we tend to have a lot of the qualities of the element it belongs to. That being said, its starting to be a more common thought that we have all of the elements inside of us, and a perfect balance of each is ideal. It also rarely happens. Sometimes life just sucks, you think too much and dont do anything (Air and Earth right there), or you get so emotional and rage out on everyone (Water and Fire).
That is when meditation comes in handy. You might be feeling a bit of dead weight on your shoulders, and so you meditate, say on a beach, and ask the water to take away that stagnant energy and promote more flow.

Erm...as far as this thread goes, If there are any further questions, I'll answer them. I hope that might inspire me to write a little more on this as I'm kinda having hungry writers block gonk .

Oh yes! The Sun and Moon lend a lot of their energies. Similar to Elements, there are also Planetary correspondences (Ill post them asap). The Sun and Moon can be seen as the physical embodiment of Spirit, where the other elements can readily be seen on earth.

In many cultures as well as traditions, The Sun and Moon were seen as two deities. The Sun was often the male half, as the Moon was often the female (due to the relation between the phases of the moon and the days in a menstrual cycle being like spot on), but Ive seen where the roles have been swapped.

The Sun can lend out amazing energy, both light and fiery and extremely active. In the tradition I follow, the Sun is Ra, God of overlooking things here on Earth. He's pretty distant, as his concerns are often a bit more greater than the smaller things in life. Feeling the suns rays though, in the middle of the day, reminds me that he's still there, protecting.

I'd say you are, many people who delve into Paganism find that is was there all along, you just needed to find it lol.

And Ra is from the Egyptian Pantheon. My tradition is kinda like mixing Wicca with the practices they had in Egypt, with some Gypsy traditions added in. Ra was the sun god who watched over the earth during the day, went into a death-like state at night and woke up again in the morning to do it all over again.

The Moon is often said to represent the Goddess - waxing, it's the Maiden, full, it's the Mother, and waning, it's the Crone. Maiden, Mother, and Crone are the three aspects of the Goddess.

The Sun is said to represent the God.

Gypsies, or more accurately the Romany, are travelers who roam anywhere they want to, work where they want to, live where they want. They travel in caravans (or used to ... probably some still do). They can be found in almost every part of the world, they don't have a set origin. They get the name "gypsy" from a long time ago, when someone thought they came from Egypt.

Some would associate gypsies with Tarot card and palm reading. Also some would associate the women in flaring skirts, mounds of coin jewelry, playing tambourines. A lot of gypsies had been wrongly stereotyped as thieves and liars.

Meri can tell you more about them.

I have a question, what's love, fire love, stable love, etc?