“I never knew this side of you!” shouts the heroine, in utter repulsion. I think the areas in which zodiac signs have the worst reputations are really the qualities we tend to resent the most in ourselves, and poor Gemini is a perpetual victim of that unjust slander. In one of my favorite films, Paprika, a supporting character reveals himself as a villain, splitting into twin heads, his seam rupturing with cerulean butterflies.

So we have a baby, naïve variation on air in Gemini an adolescent who wants to try it all in Libra and a cranky, old soul in Aquarius. For now, let’s think of each of them as each representing a different stage of emotional and spiritual growth - of the three, Gemini comes first on the zodiac calendar, and Aquarius comes last, making it the most mature. The three air signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. They love theory over practice, and can get caught in endlessly thinking or talking something out, instead of doing it. Air signs are unlimited by space, and can drift everywhere, from places to people as such, they’re vulnerable to overindulging in absolute fantasy. On a Wiccan altar, the Air signifies the East, and can be represented by everything from a feather to incense because there is no concrete material form, even in worship, the Air is untouchable and immaterial.Īs air is formless, lacking a concrete body, air signs are especially vulnerable to their own personal projections. Air doesn’t exist on the Chinese zodiac as a classical element, but instead, it becomes qi, the ultimate force that resides in everything. The air element is our breath, the most necessary and invisible function of our human body. They are experts in the ephemeral, the things of this world that lack physical form, and this is especially true of language and information. Air signs are intellectual and communicative. The woman who first introduced me to this clever approach was, of course, an air sign. Earth and water get along, fire and air get along, water snuffs fire, air floats above the earth … It’s like a cosmic game of Pokémon or Rock, Paper, Scissors. Even compatibility, which we’ll get to later, becomes simpler. From there, imagining the planets in every sign becomes (kind of) easy. Doing so will put the entire wheel of the zodiac at your fingertips. Each has its own traits and associations the three signs an element rules incorporate those properties in different ways.īy understanding the elements, you’ll have a good grasp of every sign. In Western astrology, the 12 zodiac signs are divided into four different elements: air, water, fire, and earth. That romantic desperation was one of the touchstones of my present astrological expertise.īut if I could start over, I would begin with the elements, the most basic basics. When I was 10, I was desperate to find ways in which Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, and I could finally make it work. I’ve done it with myself, my crushes, and my celebrity crushes. The most obvious option is through the lens of your own birth chart, learning about planets, aspects, and houses based off your own narcissistic explorations.

There are a few different prisms through which you can initiate yourself into zodiacal wisdom. Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha Photos: Getty Images

Zodiac sign libra element