Damnata
@Damnata
15 Years25,000+ PostsVirgo
Comments: 252 · Posts: 36418 · Topics: 473
Air
In fact, the air signs are so civilized that the only inanimate object in zodiacal symbolism - the Balance - belongs to Libra, an air sign. I think, therefore I am human, and no longer animal. Air is the most human element, the quality which has enabled men to create societies, rules for living together, codes for ethics, writing, learning, and the vast and awesome array of gifts and curses which fall under the umbrella of modern technology. Air has made man master of his planet: or so he thinks.
Now what do you notice about a person who is predominantly airy in temperament? The old medieval word for an airy temperament was sanguine, and a sanguine person was always optimistic, never ruffled, never upset, always positive. First and foremost, the airy temperament is reasonable. He is less likely to go hysterical when things do not fall his way, because he has developed the knack of seeing viewpoints other than his own. He is objective enough to recognize that the world is larger than just him; so he is prepared to cope with disappointments and vicissitudes in a rather philosophical way. Even when angry, he will try to reason with his opponent, and he is a great adherent to the ethical code of integrity and honesty in all human dealings. He is usually prepared to consider society as an organism which is built for the benefit of those who belong to it, so that he will deliberately fight what he considers selfish or irrational behaviour. It just isn't fair, from his point of view. And because he is often well-educated, and at least self-educated, he has a wide variety of sources to draw for his attitudes and his beliefs. Air is rarely narrow-minded. He may be horribly narrow in other ways, but his mind is always open to ideas.
The airy person will, because of his constant propensity for reflection, rarely react spontaneously. He will assess a social situation carefully, rather than feel his way into it. He is logical, and must have explanation and names for the things which come into his field of awareness. They need not be tangible, but they must be explainable. He is sometimes so logical that he can make you scream, when he asks you to explain feeling states or moods or nonrational intuitions which in a million years do not lend themselves to the careful scrutiny of his analytical brain. He can make you feel as though you have teamed up with a cross between a computer and a refrigerator. Naturally those sterling virtues would have to be balanced with some pretty sterling problems. And air's greatest problem is what appears as coldness in ordinary human relationships.
Yes, air people can give the impression of being exceedingly cold. Not, mind you, in the ordinary social sense. There is no element so adept at the graces of group interchange: ordinary chit-chat about a wide variety of interesting topics, objective and intelligent discussion, stimulating conversation, genuine tolerance of others' viewpoints.
Now what do you notice about a person who is predominantly airy in temperament? The old medieval word for an airy temperament was sanguine, and a sanguine person was always optimistic, never ruffled, never upset, always positive. First and foremost, the airy temperament is reasonable. He is less likely to go hysterical when things do not fall his way, because he has developed the knack of seeing viewpoints other than his own. He is objective enough to recognize that the world is larger than just him; so he is prepared to cope with disappointments and vicissitudes in a rather philosophical way. Even when angry, he will try to reason with his opponent, and he is a great adherent to the ethical code of integrity and honesty in all human dealings. He is usually prepared to consider society as an organism which is built for the benefit of those who belong to it, so that he will deliberately fight what he considers selfish or irrational behaviour. It just isn't fair, from his point of view. And because he is often well-educated, and at least self-educated, he has a wide variety of sources to draw for his attitudes and his beliefs. Air is rarely narrow-minded. He may be horribly narrow in other ways, but his mind is always open to ideas.
The airy person will, because of his constant propensity for reflection, rarely react spontaneously. He will assess a social situation carefully, rather than feel his way into it. He is logical, and must have explanation and names for the things which come into his field of awareness. They need not be tangible, but they must be explainable. He is sometimes so logical that he can make you scream, when he asks you to explain feeling states or moods or nonrational intuitions which in a million years do not lend themselves to the careful scrutiny of his analytical brain. He can make you feel as though you have teamed up with a cross between a computer and a refrigerator. Naturally those sterling virtues would have to be balanced with some pretty sterling problems. And air's greatest problem is what appears as coldness in ordinary human relationships.
Yes, air people can give the impression of being exceedingly cold. Not, mind you, in the ordinary social sense. There is no element so adept at the graces of group interchange: ordinary chit-chat about a wide variety of interesting topics, objective and intelligent discussion, stimulating conversation, genuine tolerance of others' viewpoints.
But the arctic breeze brushes you sometimes when you are alone with him and you want to talk about how you feel, and he does a lot of thinking about how he feels, and some more thinking about how you feel, and then a lot about how he thinks he thinks he feels, and by the time he has got around to working it out to his satisfaction - structured, named, analysed, evaluated and slotted into the grid which to him offers the final differentiation of his values in life, the moment - as they say - has passed.
Having already said that there is no such thing as total objectivity, it should be said that the air signs as a group try harder than anybody else to achieve it. And they do come close; they have the priceless gift of being willing to consider people, events and ideas outside their own personal range of experience as equally valuable and deserving of attention and energy as those things that touch their personal lives. In fact, it's sometimes weighted so heavily on the larger picture that the smaller picture - particularly that of personal relationships - often recedes into the misty distance and you are left feeling peculiarly unimportant and ashamed of your own demandingness. Well, nobody's perfect. Without the element of air, we would still be hitting woolly mammoths on the head with rocks, and there never would have been a wheel; it is the element of air which gives us the ability for abstract thought.
Another way of getting some understanding of the airy temperament is to watch the way an air type strives to understand things. He will perpetually ask why, in contrast to his fellows who will either react with a simple 'I like it' or 'It's horrible', and leave lofty speculations about the nature of man and the cosmos to the philosophers. Questioning the structures behind the manifest world comes as naturally to him as breathing. Even on a prosaic level, the scientific minds of air will be at work ferreting out the secrets of the economic structure of a business, the composition of fertilizer, the organization and systemization of farmland, the tensions and pressures and laws at work within social groups. One key word for air is reason. Another is logic. And a third, equally important, is system. Air is the element of systems. Everything must have a coherent pattern. If it doesn't fit into the pattern, either the airy type will make up a new pattern - often called philosophy, psychology or religion - or he will refuse to recognize that thing is a reality. Things that don't fit into patterns are extremely inexplicable patterns of behaviour, unwonted emotions and moods that do not fit into the schema, unusually charismatic or strangely magnetic personalities, and actions that do not stem from any obvious cause.
Having already said that there is no such thing as total objectivity, it should be said that the air signs as a group try harder than anybody else to achieve it. And they do come close; they have the priceless gift of being willing to consider people, events and ideas outside their own personal range of experience as equally valuable and deserving of attention and energy as those things that touch their personal lives. In fact, it's sometimes weighted so heavily on the larger picture that the smaller picture - particularly that of personal relationships - often recedes into the misty distance and you are left feeling peculiarly unimportant and ashamed of your own demandingness. Well, nobody's perfect. Without the element of air, we would still be hitting woolly mammoths on the head with rocks, and there never would have been a wheel; it is the element of air which gives us the ability for abstract thought.
Another way of getting some understanding of the airy temperament is to watch the way an air type strives to understand things. He will perpetually ask why, in contrast to his fellows who will either react with a simple 'I like it' or 'It's horrible', and leave lofty speculations about the nature of man and the cosmos to the philosophers. Questioning the structures behind the manifest world comes as naturally to him as breathing. Even on a prosaic level, the scientific minds of air will be at work ferreting out the secrets of the economic structure of a business, the composition of fertilizer, the organization and systemization of farmland, the tensions and pressures and laws at work within social groups. One key word for air is reason. Another is logic. And a third, equally important, is system. Air is the element of systems. Everything must have a coherent pattern. If it doesn't fit into the pattern, either the airy type will make up a new pattern - often called philosophy, psychology or religion - or he will refuse to recognize that thing is a reality. Things that don't fit into patterns are extremely inexplicable patterns of behaviour, unwonted emotions and moods that do not fit into the schema, unusually charismatic or strangely magnetic personalities, and actions that do not stem from any obvious cause.
Watch the air signs when something like this, some denizen of the oceanic depths of the nonrational side of life, smacks him in the face like a mermaid's tail flicked out of the water. You can virtually see his brow furrow as he begins the long chain back to what might possibly explain this phenomenon, so that he can understand it. Expecting him to accept something without understanding it is hopeless. He must understand everything. His whole picture of the universe rests on his capacity for comprehension. Take it away and you will see a very frightened individual.
A long time ago, I noticed that the field of psychology was full of air signs. At first this struck me as odd; after all, apart from the odd pastimes of chasing rats in the laboratory which go under the misnomer of academic psychology, the field itself deals with the 'soul' of man (the word means the study of the soul), and thus concerns itself with inner states, mainly emotional. I expected lots of Scorpio and Cancer and Pisces. Instead I found an overwhelming number of Aquarians, large groups of Geminis, hordes of Librans. Eventually it began to come clear. The air signs, because they must understand everything, must make systems to describe the phenomena they encounter in life. The one phenomenon they perpetually encounter and find perpetually difficult to comprehend is the human being. Hence psychology: for air it is a way of understanding that which intrinsically cannot be explained, let alone defined. But as we said, air tries harder.
I suspect air signs gravitate toward astrology too, for the same reason. You find most of them working on the research side, attempting to systemize the cosmos itself. God, to the air signs, is alive and well and hiding in systems. Very well. It doesn't do to knock it, when for the element of air this is where reality lies.
We must, of course, talk a little about the dark side of air. It is, after all, such a light element by nature - sanguine. You might have guessed the dark side is pretty dark. And you can guess as well that the side of life which defies systematization most consistently, which refuses analysis and structure, which cannot be explained verbally or conceptually, is both the most annoying thing in the world to air and also the most fascinating. Emotion.
Air, as we said, can give the appearance of being rather cold. In fact, airy people are often afraid of this quality in themselves, and try particularly hard to show sentiment at the appropriate moment, lest they get the reputation of being heartless. The sense of being cut off is a common experience for those living with airy people. It is as though the person is there one minute and then gone, leaving his body sitting in the chair talking.
A long time ago, I noticed that the field of psychology was full of air signs. At first this struck me as odd; after all, apart from the odd pastimes of chasing rats in the laboratory which go under the misnomer of academic psychology, the field itself deals with the 'soul' of man (the word means the study of the soul), and thus concerns itself with inner states, mainly emotional. I expected lots of Scorpio and Cancer and Pisces. Instead I found an overwhelming number of Aquarians, large groups of Geminis, hordes of Librans. Eventually it began to come clear. The air signs, because they must understand everything, must make systems to describe the phenomena they encounter in life. The one phenomenon they perpetually encounter and find perpetually difficult to comprehend is the human being. Hence psychology: for air it is a way of understanding that which intrinsically cannot be explained, let alone defined. But as we said, air tries harder.
I suspect air signs gravitate toward astrology too, for the same reason. You find most of them working on the research side, attempting to systemize the cosmos itself. God, to the air signs, is alive and well and hiding in systems. Very well. It doesn't do to knock it, when for the element of air this is where reality lies.
We must, of course, talk a little about the dark side of air. It is, after all, such a light element by nature - sanguine. You might have guessed the dark side is pretty dark. And you can guess as well that the side of life which defies systematization most consistently, which refuses analysis and structure, which cannot be explained verbally or conceptually, is both the most annoying thing in the world to air and also the most fascinating. Emotion.
Air, as we said, can give the appearance of being rather cold. In fact, airy people are often afraid of this quality in themselves, and try particularly hard to show sentiment at the appropriate moment, lest they get the reputation of being heartless. The sense of being cut off is a common experience for those living with airy people. It is as though the person is there one minute and then gone, leaving his body sitting in the chair talking.
But there is a distinct impression that the room is empty, that you are alone in it. It is a highly amusing experience if you aren't involved, since you can see the flick of the light switch as the air sign abruptly pushes his emotional responses into the unconscious and the machine registers nil. It is exceedingly hurtful if you are in love, since it's like somebody cut the cord and left you utterly alone. But there it is. Air represses emotions he cannot deal with. By repress we don't mean control, either. That too. But it's much more serious than that. He just blanks them out. He's no more aware of them than you are. They vanish into the vault, and the surface reveals a smooth, glassy consistency. Angry? Of course he's not angry. Hurt? Don't be ridiculous. Jealous? Why, he never feels jealousy. You begin to feel distinctly crude and irrational and bloody-minded in the face of all that non-reactiveness. Don't let it fool you. You should recognize what he doesn't know about himself. The element of air masks an intensely emotional nature, which positively terrifies the pants off him. If he's lucky, it will remain unconscious for a long time. Or maybe I should say, if he's unlucky, for the longer he blocks off his feeling responses, the worse the inevitable explosion will be. Yes, inevitable. Nothing dies that isn't lived out. Psychic energy doesn't vanish because you don't like it. It just goes underground and then surfaces when your back is turned some dark night.
Beneath the sanguinity is a lot of sensitivity, an acute sensitivity that allows the airy person to be much more easily hurt than others and much more deeply wounded. It also causes him to be more inclined toward emotional dependence, and a profound need for tenderness and sympathy which he cannot for the life of him ask for in any straightforward way. The other elements, when they feel weak, frightened, needful, jealous, hurt, angry or rejected, or wildly in love, will tell you so. Earth will buy you flowers, maybe, and fire will write you a flamboyant poem. Water will positively inundate you with emotion. But air? Why, air will discuss the weather. What did you expect? Or the political situation in Iran. Or the state of the labour unions. And if you're a telepath or know something about astrology, you can learn to pick up the body language, the dilation of the pupils of the eyes, the movements of the hands, the feeling tone, the intangible communication of an emotional fact that - if he faced it - would embarrass him immensely. Be patient. Nobody blushes like an air sign.
Emotionally, in short, the air signs - most sophisticated of all in the realm of thought and understanding - are children. They have the entire spectrum of a child's nature too, both the dark and the light. On the one hand, their naïveté is touching and beautiful, and every emotional experience has a depth and meaning which the more jaded types quite miss.
Beneath the sanguinity is a lot of sensitivity, an acute sensitivity that allows the airy person to be much more easily hurt than others and much more deeply wounded. It also causes him to be more inclined toward emotional dependence, and a profound need for tenderness and sympathy which he cannot for the life of him ask for in any straightforward way. The other elements, when they feel weak, frightened, needful, jealous, hurt, angry or rejected, or wildly in love, will tell you so. Earth will buy you flowers, maybe, and fire will write you a flamboyant poem. Water will positively inundate you with emotion. But air? Why, air will discuss the weather. What did you expect? Or the political situation in Iran. Or the state of the labour unions. And if you're a telepath or know something about astrology, you can learn to pick up the body language, the dilation of the pupils of the eyes, the movements of the hands, the feeling tone, the intangible communication of an emotional fact that - if he faced it - would embarrass him immensely. Be patient. Nobody blushes like an air sign.
Emotionally, in short, the air signs - most sophisticated of all in the realm of thought and understanding - are children. They have the entire spectrum of a child's nature too, both the dark and the light. On the one hand, their naïveté is touching and beautiful, and every emotional experience has a depth and meaning which the more jaded types quite miss.
Air can really be enchanted, because on this level he is childlike, and children still respond to wonder. He can also be touchingly trusting, in a way which makes you always want to show your best face and treat him with integrity. The idealism inherent in his feelings is a powerful pull toward living up to the ideal. There is a purity of emotion, a lack of worldliness, which he may find embarrassing, but which is a rare and precious gift if you happen to be the recipient.
He also has the egocentricity, dependency, crankiness, clinginess and oversensitivity of the child. Remember the tantrums that children throw when you neglect them? Well, you may never see a real tantrum. More likely you'll see a sulk, or a very subtle coolness which makes its point loud and clear. You rejected me. Now I'm going to reject you. So there. This kind of sulkiness and unconscious moodiness is very difficult to endure if you don't understand it. Especially when you try to tell him about it. The dialogue runs something like this:
'What's the matter, dear? You seem to be in a bad mood.'
(Translation: You've gone cold. What have I done?)
'Nothing's the matter. I'm not in a bad mood. I'm perfectly all right.'
(Smirk of secret satisfaction that you've been rebuffed and noticed.)
(Translation: I never have moods. It's you that's emotional and moody.)
'But I know something's wrong.'
'Look, just leave me alone, will you? I keep telling you nothing's wrong. Don't be so damned demanding.'
This is a classic scenario. And the annoying part of it is that the air person isn't lying. He's telling you the truth as he understands it. He always tells the truth, which is one of his great failings. (Like when you look terrible, or he announces to you that he isn't sure if he loves you today.) He really doesn't know. And for him to ferret out what has happened means he must become aware of his own emotions. Which means the hurt he imagines you dealt him, the neglect, the jealousy, the whatever that is the last thing in the world he wishes to admit he is experiencing. It just isn't civilized.
No question about it. Of all the elements, this strange animal is the most difficult of all in love affairs. That is, if you aren't an emotional telepath. If you are, then you're all right, for the glory and the tragedy both of the airy people is that when they really give their hearts, like children, they give them forever. The trouble is that they can give it and not know it, and leave the relationship (or be left) and discover it thirty years later, when it's much too late. One of the paradoxes of human nature displays itself in glowing colours here. Each element of the zodiac is related to a sphere of life, and each has a special gift for expressing in that sphere of life.
He also has the egocentricity, dependency, crankiness, clinginess and oversensitivity of the child. Remember the tantrums that children throw when you neglect them? Well, you may never see a real tantrum. More likely you'll see a sulk, or a very subtle coolness which makes its point loud and clear. You rejected me. Now I'm going to reject you. So there. This kind of sulkiness and unconscious moodiness is very difficult to endure if you don't understand it. Especially when you try to tell him about it. The dialogue runs something like this:
'What's the matter, dear? You seem to be in a bad mood.'
(Translation: You've gone cold. What have I done?)
'Nothing's the matter. I'm not in a bad mood. I'm perfectly all right.'
(Smirk of secret satisfaction that you've been rebuffed and noticed.)
(Translation: I never have moods. It's you that's emotional and moody.)
'But I know something's wrong.'
'Look, just leave me alone, will you? I keep telling you nothing's wrong. Don't be so damned demanding.'
This is a classic scenario. And the annoying part of it is that the air person isn't lying. He's telling you the truth as he understands it. He always tells the truth, which is one of his great failings. (Like when you look terrible, or he announces to you that he isn't sure if he loves you today.) He really doesn't know. And for him to ferret out what has happened means he must become aware of his own emotions. Which means the hurt he imagines you dealt him, the neglect, the jealousy, the whatever that is the last thing in the world he wishes to admit he is experiencing. It just isn't civilized.
No question about it. Of all the elements, this strange animal is the most difficult of all in love affairs. That is, if you aren't an emotional telepath. If you are, then you're all right, for the glory and the tragedy both of the airy people is that when they really give their hearts, like children, they give them forever. The trouble is that they can give it and not know it, and leave the relationship (or be left) and discover it thirty years later, when it's much too late. One of the paradoxes of human nature displays itself in glowing colours here. Each element of the zodiac is related to a sphere of life, and each has a special gift for expressing in that sphere of life.
But each element also has a secret underside which is just the opposite, like the undertow of a tide as it's coming in. In behavioural terms, air is a somewhat chilly element. But if you really pierce the layer on the surface, and get past that constant analyzing and rational structuring that goes on habitually in the airy mind, you will find that the airy person's feelings run deep and strong - so deep and so strong, in fact, that they terrify him. Emotionally, air is a child. A child's feeling nature is naïve, intense and not very flexible. In feeling matters, air simply isn't very sophisticated, although you'd think from all that polished charm and the ease of which he flirts and chats and makes clever innuendoes that relationships are an easy matter for him. Not so. What you have, really, is all the vulnerability, sensitivity and needfulness of a child's feelings in an adult's body. And a good piece of advice to anyone involved in a relationship with a strongly airy temperament is: handle with care, for the person usually isn't aware himself or herself of the depth to which the emotions can reach. Airy people can often be infuriating because of their lack of warmth in close relationships. You get the feeling they are treating you the same as everybody else: fairly, with polite interest, but nothing special. But if you can understand this side of air's nature, and coax it into expression gently (airy people often come near to paralysis when confronted with violently expressed emotional demands), then you're rewarded with all the delicacy and depth of this naïve but powerful love. Beneath the cool wit, air is an incurable romantic in emotional realms, and is truly incapable of using feeling for diplomacy or manipulation. Children, after all, are the only true honest souls among us.
http://songsdomain.tripod.com/air/index.html
http://songsdomain.tripod.com/air/index.html
Posted by xyIrisingRead the whole thing... you missed the inevitable meltdown. 🙂
The air signs are, to sum it up in a word, civilized. No bestial behaviour for them. They think. Therefore they have a chance to think about morals, values, principles, concepts, systems, right and wrong behaviour, social rules, and anything else that can be processed into means for evaluating experience.
My mind doesn't seem to agree with the above
Yet air signs especially Libras are considered weak and fake. Lol lol whatever..cool thread
Posted by MooninLeooThanks, lolPosted by lovinglibraYup, air signs are weak and fake
Yet air signs especially Libras are considered weak and fake. Lol lol whatever..cool threadclick to expand
Where do you find this stuff? It's good shit
Posted by The_eleventh_sign_11Sometimes I get lucky with sites, sometimes books.
Where do you find this stuff? It's good shit
http://songsdomain.tripod.com/myths/index.html
http://songsdomain.tripod.com/shadows/index.html
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'I think,' wrote Descartes, 'therefore I am.' This famous quotation ushered in the Age of Reason, from which we have not yet recovered. The society in which we live continues to uphold Descartes' maxim not only as the underpinning of its educational methods and philosophy, but also as the underpinning for what is considered ability or quality in an individual. We live in an age of tests of the intellect. It is the smart child who passes the IQ test with glowing ease who is considered the one to watch, the one to help, the one who will some day in adulthood, contribute most to the world he lives in.
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