Yesod. Moon. Water.

This has been a very auspicious time.

My wife is having a baby any day now. (Tomorrow? My birthday? I hope so.) I follow the Mayan calendar a bit, and there’s a supercharged period going between Christmas Eve 2011 and Sunday, January 8, the next full moon.

I’m hoping my son is born sometime in this timeframe.

Last night, I made a fire in front of our house. We sat around, the entire family, watching the flames, and above us the bright, waxing moon looked down at us.

I feel great connections to the moon. Artemis is the patron of our House. She is also the goddess of childbirth, and as my son waxes full in his mother’s belly, I feel her protection covering us.

Moving into Yesod for this period has been especially comforting, because here, I can comfortably operate in the field of the unknown. Mysteries don’t scare me, because there is an odd strengthening of faith within the acceptance of the unknown.

Yesod, the moon, and the unknown, are watery elements. This is the element I have always felt least balanced with, and swimming in the pool on my mountain has been very helpful to soothe that imbalance.

Last night, after the fire, when everyone went to bed, I took a hot bath. Immediately I felt un-agitated, although I didn’t know that I was in a state of agitation before. This happens a lot with immersing myself in water, so I am going to do it more often.

There is a lot of water in the air here – it is a very humid place. During the rainy season (Sept-Nov) I was uncomfortable in my body a lot of the time, and cold, and I took lots of baths for relief.

I’m spending this time ruminating on the elemental correspondence of this sephirah, because I’m having realizations about my own elemental tendencies. I only realized it about a month ago, Air is where I feel most comfortable, and I didn’t expect that.

In my birth chart there is no Air.  Earth and water, through Capricorn, and plenty of Fire (moon in Sagittarius) but no Air.

However, it is a masculine element that deals with intelligence, and this is the personal skill that I am most confident in.

My body was weak before my twenties, and my emotions have always been unstable; my will, a forceful and stubborn thing, is only controlled by my rational mind. And my mind is incredible.

I aced the SATs. My IQ was off the charts in third grade. I never studied for tests before college, because I just…got it. I learn so fast, and I have so much enjoyment of learning, that my intelligence has always been my favorite cardinal skill.

So of course, Air, right?

But I never thought of that, during all my years of magical study. I never compared this element as my favored cardinal element, but it makes plenty of sense.

My business is all about communication. I spend all day on a laptop. I praise my children for their cleverness above their caring. (We have a house rule: if it’s really funny, you don’t get in trouble.)

Despite all of these obvious indications that Air is my element, I’m still surprised by it, maybe even a little abashed. I learned a lot about myself as an Earthy capricorn, and assumed that as an Earth sign, this must be the cardinal element that guides my steps.

But I was wrong. It’s always been Air, and short of brain damage, it will always be Air.

During the Elements class, I was so uncomfortable in Earth and Water, and the period of Air gave me so much relief and joy and energy that I was surprised by it. In retrospect, it was like coming home.

While watching the fire the other night, I became entranced by the smoke, watching it chaotically curl and churn. Air is fast, and follows patterns that are too complex to comprehend. That’s my world. That’s my speed. That’s my element.

I come to this realization within Yesod, in the realm of the unknown, except I come to it as the unexpected. As a tool for self-knowledge, the Tree is certainly providing itself as a fast way to learn.

I’m prepping for some thoughts on addictions, which is another essential signpost on the path through Yesod. More later.