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Elements - Blog Posts
Light as Air: One of my original creations from a few years back. The inspiration came from a mixture of the elements light and air.
sometimes when I'm bored, I go through the list of recent bad faith Wikipedia edits that have since been reverted. a lot of them are politically contentious/offensive topics that attract crazies and trolls in general, but sometimes there are completely innocent inoffensive articles that people attack for no reason. some guy yesterday vandalized the article on the chemical element francium
The Elements and their correspondences
E A R T H
Earth represents strength, grounding, prosperity, the material, wealth, success, foundations, death and rebirth. Focus on this element if the goal of your spell is about fertility, prosperity, business or stability. Earth spells may take longer to work, but they’re also more firm and are good if you’re looking for long-term solutions.
GENDER: Feminine SEASON: Winter DIRECTION: North HOUR: Night
COLOURS: Green, Brown, Black ANIMALS: Bears, Deers, Wolves, Badgers HERBS/PLANTS: Ivy, Ash, Vetiver, Wheats, Oats INSTRUMENTS: Drums (Percussion instruments)
STAR SIGNS: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn STONES/GEMS: Jade, Onyx, Emerald, Salt RITUAL TOOLS: Stones, Dirt, Bones, Pentacle, Salt, Crystals RITUAL FORMS: Burying, Planting, Imprinting to soil or sand TAROT SUIT: Pentacles
A I R
Air represents intellect and the mind, wisdom, knowledge; logic as well as abstract thought, intuition and higher consciousness. If you’re seeking freedom, travels, or to enhance your memory and focus - focus on Air spells! Air is whimsical and amiable, personally I haven’t found it useful for more serious spells, but it does wonders for my studies.
GENDER: Masculine SEASON: Spring DIRECTION: East HOUR: Dawn
COLOURS: Yellow, White, Sky Blue, Pastels ANIMALS: Birds, Spiders, Butterflies HERBS/PLANTS: Lavender, Birch, Vervain, Dill, Aspen INSTRUMENTS: Flute (Wind instruments)
STAR SIGNS: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius STONES/GEMS: Amethyst, Opal, Alexandrite, Beryl RITUAL TOOLS: Incense, Wand RITUAL FORMS: Fanning, Tossing into air, Suspending in a high place TAROT SUIT: Swords
F I R E
Fire represents energy, passion, purification, love, inspiration, desire, will, courage, power, leadership, sexuality. In spellcraft, focusing on Fire is good for purification, healing and love spells; it’s the best element for quick, strong spells. Although, Fire is fierce in essence, and Fire spells are susceptible - they should be well thought out.
GENDER: Masculine SEASON: Summer DIRECTION: South HOUR: Noon
COLOURS: Red, Orange, Gold ANIMALS: Snakes, Lions, Horses HERBS/PLANTS: Cacti, Cinnamon, Pepper, Basil INSTRUMENTS: Guitar (Stringed instruments)
STAR SIGNS: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius STONES/GEMS: Amber, Citrine, Ruby, Tiger’s Eye RITUAL TOOLS: Athame, Candles RITUAL FORMS: Burning, Smouldering, Heating TAROT SUIT: Wands
W A T E R
Water represents purification as well; though it’s focused more on the soul and the subconscious rather than the physical, material world. Water stands for emotion, intuition, wisdom, eternal movement, reflection, lunar energy. Focusing on the Water element is good for psychic abilities, getting in tune with your inner self, mysteries, friendships, love, dreams and sleep.
GENDER: Feminine SEASON: Autumn DIRECTION: West HOUR: Dusk
COLOURS: Blue, Indigo, Silver ANIMALS: Otters, Fish, Sea Mammals, Frogs HERBS/PLANTS: Lotus, Water Lilies, Aloe, Gardenia INSTRUMENTS: Cymbal, Bell (Resonant instruments)
STAR SIGNS: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces STONES/GEMS: Moonstone, Aquamarine, Pearl RITUAL TOOLS: Cauldrons, Chalices, Seashells RITUAL FORMS: Diluting, Placing into water, washing away, bathing TAROT SUIT: Cups
Wanted to practice on my lines and more design details, what do you think?
And we have XKCD about this 😅
I understand why alchemists invented, and modern fiction writers use, systems with a few understandable Elements like Earth / Fire / Air / Water / Light / Dark.
I understand why even most nerds don't bother to study the Elements in real life. There's too many of them, and they don't neatly correspond to meaningful aspects of macro-level existence.
But just once I'd like to read a worked magical system where the author has looked up the properties of the real Elements, has put in all the work to build up a system of plausible-sounding correspondences, and the protagonist is a rare dual-element Tellurium-Iodine wizard.
To the Stars who listen and the Dreams that are answered...
I was listening to Luminary by Joel Sunny when writing this. And saw the quote from ACOMAF.
-- I have always felt connected to the elements, each one in its own different way. But as the days go by, its switches from time to time. I think you feel most connected to the element that you needed at that time. Maybe not the one that you felt like you were. As there are always checks and balances, whether you believe that or not is up to you. But it's what I always have believed.
While I never felt fire as much, it came with the burning passion. The desire to protect those I love, to be fully of fury and love. Contrasting but complementing the watery movement, the fire would stay strong to its path and burn anyone that got in its way, but it also gave off the homey vibes. The warmth on a cold autumn night. The laughter of fire and comfort, a light inside of the darkness, a spark of hope that something was still alive.
Ice has always been tricky. I could feel it in my veins when fear and panic come through. When I am so cold I just want to sleep. But it has its own creative side. Where each snowflake is so beautiful but different from the rest. Where the fun of playing in something so soft and while it might feel like a hundred miles away, imagine a little shop full of elves making toys. Of Jack Frost nipping at your nose, the Guardian of Fun. Of Santa and all of his wonders. Of the amazing designs that frost or snow can create.
Even then, I feel that jolt of lightning come through me at times. When I would touch an object and feel the electricity spark onto me. Where I would imagine it hopping from line to line, filling me with the energy to take part in the activities around me. Seeing that spark of mischievous talent lying in wait. For the right person or moment to set it off. For it to get people excited. To get them moving.
But even then I was never drawn to those elements as much as I thought. They would tickle the back of my mind, letting me know they were there, but not as much as the others did.
At first I thought it was earth, strong and steadfast. Willing to be stand the test of time without ever moving an inch. The leader of the group and the one everyone uses as a pillar of support.
Then I thought it was Water. Constantly moving, shifting and flowing. Blue as the sky and the waves it creates. Powerful but calm, the common sayings of "the calm before the storm" or "There is strength beneath the sea." It was healing and allowed me to follow my own path, and conform to whatever I needed to be at the time. Be a force to be reckoned with.
Next was Air or Wind, whichever people see fit to call it, but I see them as one in the same. I see wind as a presence that gives life to everything. That it's a moving force that cannot be seen, but everyone knows that it is there. That it can be as strong as a hurricane, or spinning as fast a tornado, be as light a breeze and warm or cold when it needs to be. That there is nothing it is attached to, but everything is attached to it. That it is free to do how it pleases, but never once asks for more.
And then comes the Stars, the space between our world and the next. It has drawn me to it in the past while. Lending both mystery and wonder. Darkness and light. Curiosity and adventure. It has this appeal to it that I can't quite explain. As if it has everything that the elements are, but nothing that they are at the same time. For stars can burn as hot as fire, flare and flow like water, turn ice cold when they die. They are steadfast rocks, constant in our sky, lighting up the world with their glow. And even though they are deep in space, their light acts as if it is being blown in the wind, and imaginary force. The stars are peace, they are hope, they are in the darkness and have decided to reflect the light. People wish upon those stars. They send their love and hopes and dreams, in the prayer that they are not ruined. They look up to the stars with stories from old, of brave men and women that represent the constellations above. Who we can learn from their triumphs and their failures.
All of the elements have a place in my heart. In my body. And while it might be hard for people to understand, each element is connected in its own way. Just like each and everyone of us is connected. We just can't see it yet.
Look at me! I’m the strongest in the sea. My lungs take in the water like it’s air and send it out with great flair. Look at me! I’m humble like the earth, my arms stretch out to hug the masses as my heart burns what’s left of ashes. Look at me! I’m fluid like the air, moving about without a care, letting those who wrong me pass me by until I’m left alone to die. Look at me. I’m alone like fire. Don’t get too close, I’m a broken wire, threatening to burn and combust into nothing. Look at me. My humble trying and desperate crying did nothing to appease those demons. My heart was burned and left to nothing as I sit here in solemn quiet. Look at me.
Look at what I’ve done
Avatar the last airbender One of my favorite shows. (Of course i own all the seasons) To be honest my favorite characters are Zuko an toff. But ty lee was babe But out of all the elements I would be earth or fire. 🌍🔥
@anime-and-sometimes-other-stuff for more animation/cinema content.
So I go bored over spring break and made some element ladies or whatever. Some of them are… less than anatomically correct, but it was just for fun so that’s okay right? 😅
Different Types of Supernovae are the Primary Origins of Different Classes of Chemical_Elements.
You Are Made of Stardust
Though the billions of people on Earth may come from different areas, we share a common heritage: we are all made of stardust! From the carbon in our DNA to the calcium in our bones, nearly all of the elements in our bodies were forged in the fiery hearts and death throes of stars.
The building blocks for humans, and even our planet, wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for stars. If we could rewind the universe back almost to the very beginning, we would just see a sea of hydrogen, helium, and a tiny bit of lithium.
The first generation of stars formed from this material. There’s so much heat and pressure in a star’s core that they can fuse atoms together, forming new elements. Our DNA is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. All those elements (except hydrogen, which has existed since shortly after the big bang) are made by stars and released into the cosmos when the stars die.
Each star comes with a limited fuel supply. When a medium-mass star runs out of fuel, it will swell up and shrug off its outer layers. Only a small, hot core called a white dwarf is left behind. The star’s cast-off debris includes elements like carbon and nitrogen. It expands out into the cosmos, possibly destined to be recycled into later generations of stars and planets. New life may be born from the ashes of stars.
Massive stars are doomed to a more violent fate. For most of their lives, stars are balanced between the outward pressure created by nuclear fusion and the inward pull of gravity. When a massive star runs out of fuel and its nuclear processes die down, it completely throws the star out of balance. The result? An explosion!
Supernova explosions create such intense conditions that even more elements can form. The oxygen we breathe and essential minerals like magnesium and potassium are flung into space by these supernovas.
Supernovas can also occur another way in binary, or double-star, systems. When a white dwarf steals material from its companion, it can throw everything off balance too and lead to another kind of cataclysmic supernova. Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study these stellar explosions to figure out what’s speeding up the universe’s expansion.
This kind of explosion creates calcium – the mineral we need most in our bodies – and trace minerals that we only need a little of, like zinc and manganese. It also produces iron, which is found in our blood and also makes up the bulk of our planet’s mass!
A supernova will either leave behind a black hole or a neutron star – the superdense core of an exploded star. When two neutron stars collide, it showers the cosmos in elements like silver, gold, iodine, uranium, and plutonium.
Some elements only come from stars indirectly. Cosmic rays are nuclei (the central parts of atoms) that have been boosted to high speed by the most energetic events in the universe. When they collide with atoms, the impact can break them apart, forming simpler elements. That’s how we get boron and beryllium – from breaking star-made atoms into smaller ones.
Half a dozen other elements are created by radioactive decay. Some elements are radioactive, which means their nuclei are unstable. They naturally break down to form simpler elements by emitting radiation and particles. That’s how we get elements like radium. The rest are made by humans in labs by slamming atoms of lighter elements together at super high speeds to form heavier ones. We can fuse together elements made by stars to create exotic, short-lived elements like seaborgium and einsteinium.
From some of the most cataclysmic events in the cosmos comes all of the beauty we see here on Earth. Life, and even our planet, wouldn’t have formed without them! But we still have lots of questions about these stellar factories.
In 2006, our Stardust spacecraft returned to Earth containing tiny particles of interstellar dust that originated in distant stars, light-years away – the first star dust to ever be collected from space and returned for study. You can help us identify and study the composition of these tiny, elusive particles through our Stardust@Home Citizen Science project.
Our upcoming Roman Space Telescope will help us learn more about how elements were created and distributed throughout galaxies, all while exploring many other cosmic questions. Learn more about the exciting science this mission will investigate on Twitter and Facebook.
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All at once! The entire Organisation 13 and their fourteen members. The most overrated and badly lead villainous organisation in the history of video games. But still one of the most charming if you forget that Lexaeus is a member.
“With a smile on my face I’ll kiss you goodbye”
AU where Jennie is a queen of waterbending who is fighting to prove herself; and no she is not weak. She is beauty she is grace, she will punch you in the face.
Radioactivity, beautifully visualized
You’re looking at the tracks of radioactivity – mostly alpha rays, I think – emitted from a chunk of uranium ore placed in a cloud chamber. Alpha particles, and also beta particles, strip away electrons when they collide with atoms in the air inside the cloud chamber, leaving those atoms positively charged, or ionized. Alcohol vapor condenses on the ions, leaving a vapor trail that marks the path of the alpha ray.
An outfit calling itself Cloudy Labs put the video up on YouTube a while back.
My First Opening My Shop!! Go check it out!! :D, The Flow Yin Yang Element Sticker is here!! & pins & more! https://www.redbubble.com/people/AngelicIris/shop —————————————————————– ———- https://www.instagram.com/p/CRxijEGim6Q/?utm_medium=tumblr
The Special Ingredients…of Earth!
With its blue skies, puffy white clouds, warm beaches and abundant life, planet Earth is a pretty special place. A quick survey of the solar system reveals nothing else like it. But how special is Earth, really?
One way to find out is to look for other worlds like ours elsewhere in the galaxy. Astronomers using our Kepler Space Telescope and other observatories have been doing just that!
In recent years they’ve been finding other planets increasingly similar to Earth, but still none that appear as hospitable as our home world. For those researchers, the search goes on.
Another group of researchers have taken on an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for Earth-like planets, they’ve been looking for Earth-like ingredients. Consider the following:
Our planet is rich in elements such as carbon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur…the stuff of rocks, air, oceans and life. Are these elements widespread elsewhere in the universe?
To find out, a team of astronomers led by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), with our participation, used Suzaku. This Japanese X-ray satellite was used to survey a cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation Virgo.
The Virgo cluster is a massive swarm of more than 2,000 galaxies, many similar in appearance to our own Milky Way, located about 54 million light years away. The space between the member galaxies is filled with a diffuse gas, so hot that it glows in X-rays. Instruments onboard Suzaku were able to look at that gas and determine which elements it’s made of.
Reporting their findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, they reported findings of iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur throughout the Virgo galaxy cluster. The elemental ratios are constant throughout the entire volume of the cluster, and roughly consistent with the composition of the sun and most of the stars in our own galaxy.
When the Universe was born in the Big Bang 13.8 billon years ago, elements heavier than carbon were rare. These elements are present today, mainly because of supernova explosions.
Massive stars cook elements such as, carbon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur in their hot cores and then spew them far and wide when the stars explode.
According to the observations of Suzaku, the ingredients for making sun-like stars and Earth-like planets have been scattered far and wide by these explosions. Indeed, they appear to be widespread in the cosmos. The elements so important to life on Earth are available on average and in similar relative proportions throughout the bulk of the universe. In other words, the chemical requirements for life are common.
Earth is still special, but according to Suzaku, there might be other special places too. Suzaku recently completed its highly successful mission.
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Art Commission made for a follower on Twitter, her mighty Dwarf shaman from World of Warcraft! We hope you like!
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