Tips for Living Wicca: Create an Altar to Air

In my trad, we're moving out of the 'season of Air' and into the 'season of Earth'. Some of the tips I've provided recently are related Air, as well as how you think and communicate-- qualities over which Air rules.

Before we totally leave this part of the Wheel of the Year, I urge you to continue to reflect on the meaning of the Element of Air in your life. Being aware of the Elements and their affect on you is the best way to learn how to strike that healthy balance between them all.

My Tip for You Today: Build and Elemental Altar to Air. You can go to it whenever you feel out of balance with this Element, or whenever you feel you need a particular boost of its influences.

Elemental altars don't have to be huge and elaborate... they don't need to have tools on them, nor do you have to perform major rites and rituals at them. It's simply a quite place to go and contemplate that Element in your life. 

Think about things like this:

• Where do you really feel the element of Air? If it's when a gust of wind bursts through your window, perhaps you can set up a small altar on your windowsill. Perhaps it's in your back yard, or where you go to study, or on the small table where you keep your telephone. 
• What symbols represent Air to you? Feathers? Birds? Paper and pencil? Books? A certain herb or crystal? Whatever they might be, place a couple of these items on this altar to remind you. It doesn't have to be elaborate-- it could be as simple as the right wind chime hanging outside your bedroom window that reminds you to stop and think of Air each time it tinkles. 

A perfect altar to Air, and no one would ever know:

• Is there a chant, a breath exercise, a prayer or song that strikes a chord within you, relating to the Element of Air? Something you find inspiring? 

Tell us about your altar to Air.

Tips for Living Wicca: Getting to Know Air

I often find myself trying to explain the concept of the Elements in Wicca to newbies. For example, right off, people assume 'Air' is the same thing as 'air' (oxygen, a gust of wind). While air is Air, Air is so much more than air.

Catch my drift? There is more to the Elements than just the scientific compounds for which they're named. I go more into all this in this article here. 

As a Wiccan, it's important to get in touch with the Elements-- all of them. It's important to get to know each of them intimately (not just their most obvious physical manifestations), and to find balance within each of them.

In my trad, the season from Samhain to Imbolc is associated with the Element of Air. Air is a gust of wind, but it's also the sense of smell. It's the first breath of life, and it's the dying gasp. It's wisdom, it's arrogance. Air is thinking, communicating, learning. Air is playing a flute, a bird in flight, your athame, taking a vacation. Air is Winter, the dead of night, the Northern mountains.

Have you acquainted yourself with Air yet?

My Tip for You Today: become better acquainted with the Element of Air.

Go someplace and meditate for a couple of minutes, and put your awareness in your sense of smell. What do you detect? 

Stand on a hilltop, or in a rushing breeze. What does it feel like?

Watch a bird or a butterfly in flight. What do you notice?

Have a conversation with someone, and be aware of the communication process-- the breath coming out of your mouths, the body language and gestures, the facial expressions. How do they convey thoughts? 

Challenge your brain to learn something new, memorize something, or do a puzzle-- what is it like when your 'wheels are turning' in that noggin of yours? 

Write all your experiences, thoughts, questions and feelings related to Air in your Book of Shadows or a journal. 

Tell us your experiences with or revelations about the Element of Air.