The Elements in Astrology Series: Air

Part 2

Aug 01, 2024

I don't know if it is the official dog days of summer, but I am feeling the urge to just enjoy the time outdoors (we live for this time of year up north!), therefore the next few installments will be on the short side while I soak up the sun's rays!

Air is the only element we cannot see, yet the one we cannot go more than a few minutes without. In a sense, it requires the greatest amount of trust or perhaps taking for granted that it will always be there. Its agenda is by nature somewhat secretive (who can name the exact composition of the air we breathe or how it regenerates itself) while being literally transparent.

Air is the sponsor of Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. In a teasing manner, I say Libra has the tough job of balancing between the childlike and the quirky of its sister signs. They are signs of perception and connection. Gemini connecting information, Libra connecting two individuals, and Aquarius connecting like-minded people into a group. Air is associated with the heart chakra, and in the context of astrology I can see how the heart chakra’s role in connection, balance, and affinity has its parallel in the three air signs.

In a real way, it connects our mind to the external world and to memory via taste and scent. When I had Covid-19 about a month ago, I lost my sense of smell overnight. Suddenly, the spearmint I picked each morning for my smoothie couldn’t greet me and bring on anticipation of my upcoming breakfast. I couldn’t smell my dog’s backyard and dried seawater scent as I kissed her head goodnight like I have for the last 4 years. What if there is a fire and I can’t smell the smoke? I thought.

Strange how something we rarely think about ties us to people, places, things we love, and to life itself. Together with the other three elements, air helps us understand the universe and our place in it.

I love how astrologer Steven Forrest sets up Gemini in The Book of Air The Art of Paying Attention. He raises the point that the more unexpected something is, the more interesting we find it. And that drive to find something interesting is Gemini’s curiosity. Many liken Gemini to the student and Sagittarius to the professor, but maybe because our school system doesn’t truly encourage students to ask questions, I don’t feel that to be true. Forrest also says that Mercury’s expression of listening is Virgo, while its expression of questioning is Gemini.

[If you want to learn more about Mercury, you can listen to episode 3 of the podcast.]

I like to think of the two signs ruled by Mercury as working in tandem often. Gemini runs around collecting and communicating all the bits of information that are interesting, and hands them off to Virgo for categorizing most efficiently in order for the information to be useful. At the Gemini end, it is not considering what is necessarily useful, rather what is interesting.

Gemini’s affinity is to the third house, where short trips, neighborhoods, and siblings exist, a manifestation of Mercury’s messenger or go-between function. Where Gemini is in your chart is where you may be most inquisitive and communicative. If you have planets in this sign, they may have sort of a twin energy, causing that component of your baseline energy to be tough to pin down as a single manner of exhibiting that planet’s main function.

Speaking of pinning down, we arrive at Libra, the 7th sign of the zodiac, next. Librans are somewhat famous for being indecisive. But I think they often know what they want, they would rather not say it for fear of upsetting the other person(s). They love harmony, but they are typically not the ones to push everyone to clear the air (pun intended) to get to that stage. To understand Libra energy, we look to its ruler, Venus, as well as the energy of the 7th house of interpersonal relationships.

Venus’ function is to attract. Attract people, resources, muses for art making. Being contrary is not considered attractive or pleasing in our culture unless you are a litigator getting paid to yell “I object, your honor!” or you are the villain on a reality TV show. And even in those cases, it is not so much considered attractive, as much as expected. Thus, Libra energy may drive toward a harmonious interaction as opposed at the expense of a sense of harmony inside their own heart. I know the heartbreak of carrying this energy well! My two older children are Libra risings, my youngest is a Libra Sun, and I have a stellium of planets in Libra.

However, once we decondition ourselves from the put up and shut up societal conditioning, the inner artist comes out with imaginative works of music (in the case of my sons), art (in the case of my daughter), or in my own Venus in Libra late bloomer’s case, arranging cut flowers from my garden.

Finally, we get to Aquarius, the 11th sign of the zodiac, ruled traditionally by Saturn, and in a modern perspective, Uranus. This energy is often puzzling to people, so it is often categorized as plain weird or eccentric. The way I see it is that they seek to be different from the crowd in a way that has some cache, some cool factor, but it is also authentic to itself.

So, they want to impress the status quo group while at the same time rejecting it by being too cool for some component of the mainstream. You can see why this is somewhat puzzling! And it also continues the theme of dualities in air signs: the twins, the scales, the water carrier which must be balanced.

It is because of this drive for separation from the status quo that leads to finding like minded people in order to form a fringe group. But you always have to stay one step ahead to prevent fringe from becoming the boring normal… hence the tie to groups, innovation, and the future that comes with Aquarius energy. It is interesting to note the Saturnian influence of time and boundaries being played with differently than in Saturn’s other sign, Capricorn.

Strangely, while groups are such a thing for Aquarians, they sometimes don’t like the human part of humanity and can talk at their audience instead of engaging in the way their air counterparts can. Amazingly innovative thinkers who want to move humanity forward, though.

Also, I am talking about pure 100% Aquarian energy with these attributes. Of course, no one is 100% of any sign because we have all twelve signs in our charts, but when people lean into their Aquarian energy, you may note some of these things being pronounced. Or you may notice that where Aquarius sits by house or angle in your chart is where you tend to feel compelled to buck the norm, to stick up for the underdogs and tell the consensus leaders to shove it, or experience brilliant innovation!

I hope this has been a helpful perspective and that you are now empowered to be consciously curious about the element of air in astrology.