The ancients believed the World to be composed of 4 basic elements – Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. These were considered the critical energy forces that sustained life. All of these elements are integral parts of matter or the physical universe, and the human body is a physical creation existing in the material realm. Therefore, the human beings were seen to be made of and governed by the four elements. Maintaining a balance between these elements was advocated to ensure physical as well as psychological well-being.
Everything in the physical World was observed to have a combination of four principal qualities – hot, cold, dry and moist. A combination of hot and dry produced Fire, hot and wet resulted in Air, cold and dry gave Earth, and cold and wet combined to produce Water. Furthermore, these four elements combined to create life, but only together with the quintessential fifth element, the life force, the ‘spirit’.
Air is associated with the breath of life and attributed to cleansing power. Air symbolizes communication, intelligence, perception, knowledge, learning, thinking, imagination, creativity, harmony, and travel. This source of life can also, at times, become a force of terrible destruction. Air is associated with the Spring season and its corresponding direction is East. The Air symbol is an upright triangle with a horizontal line going through it.