The Eight Focus Sources

These eight elemental and existential forces—Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Pestilence, Famine, War, and Birth & Death—represent fundamental influences in both the physical and metaphysical realms. Each source embodies dynamic energies that impact both our external environment and internal emotional landscapes, serving as mirrors of human experience and growth.

• Fire
  Symbolizes both physical and emotional extremes. It encompasses natural events such as forest and prairie fires, volcanic eruptions, and drought, as well as powerful emotions like anger, rage, and deep-seated resentment.
• Wind
  Represents movement and mental turbulence. Manifesting as hurricanes, tornadoes, and chaotic mental states (like a restless or “monkey mind”), Wind reflects scatter-brained confusion and feelings of chaotic overwhelm.
• Water
  The essence of emotion and flow, Water manifests as floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes, as well as the emotional tides that accompany extreme feelings. Water appears in all forms—gas, liquid, solid—mirroring emotional intensity and adaptability.
• Earth
  Embodies strength, resilience, and resistance. Earth includes physical events like earthquakes and volcanic activity and reflects psychological states of stoicism, immovability, and extreme resistance.
• Pestilence
  Linked to decay and vulnerability, Pestilence represents sickness, apathy, and despair. It can evoke depressive states, helplessness, and a sense of emotional or physical vulnerability, echoing the spread of unprocessed or stagnant energies.
• Famine
  Symbolizes deprivation and lack. Famine includes physical starvation and poverty and can reflect an inability to receive, extreme scarcity, and feelings of emptiness and unfulfilled needs.
• War
  Reflects conflict, destruction, and power struggles. War manifests as violence, aggression, abuse, and greed, embodying the forceful assertion of will and the dark side of ambition and control.
• Birth & Death
  Represents the cycles of beginning and end, the transitions of existence. This source encompasses both the terror and wonder associated with birth and the devastation, fear, and awe that accompany death, symbolizing the transformative power of life’s natural cycles.