The final pair of overarching elements is Earth and Spirit. In Merle's original Novastar, he equated Earth directly with the God and Spirit with the Goddess (a belief in male and female divinities is at the root of basically all modern pagan religions). However, I take issue with this perspective, as the principles of Earth have always seemed at least as consistent with femininity as with masculinity, and the Spirit principles also make sense for both genders. Therefore, I will simply speak of them in terms of the Elements themselves, and avoid anthropomorphising them as deities.

The element of Earth incarnates pragmatism and self-focus; a person who is motivated primarily by Earth thinks about their needs and avoids meddling in the affairs of others. Sometimes this is pure, predatory selfishness; other times it is simply the belief in one's own limits, that says to look out for yourself or you won't be able to look out for others. Nature operates on Earth prinicples; the lion feels no guilt at murdering the ox for his dinner, nor does the ox feel any guilt at goring the lion in order to remain alive. Each does only what its role in the world necessitates; they care about themselves, and about the offspring they create to perpetuate their genetic lineage, and about anyone whom circumstance necessitates that they include in their own welfare, but they don't go looking for excuses to give their power and resources away for complete strangers' benefit, nor do they try to dictate terms to other creatures whose zone of influence doesn't intersect their own. The same principle applies in the society of human beings; Earth people are people who just want to live their own life and not be bothered about starving children in other countries or lectured at for failing to embrace the "one true" religion when told their soul depends on it. Indeed, Earth has little use for concepts like the soul, preferring to focus on the immediate and tangible reality of the body; Earth lends itself to sensualism when one has the luxury of it, while in more desperate straits it simply does what is necessary to survive.

Spirit is the element which represents an interest in others above oneself; a person who follows Spirit's ideal believes in the need for one to abase one's ego and sacrifice of oneself, at least in small ways, for the benefit of everyone else. Sometimes this is charity or good friendship; other times it can become a need to control others and force them to conform to one's own standards, even if oneself does not. The Spirit principle has long outgrown the limitations of Nature; once, human animals cared for one another as survival necessitated, forming tribal communities to better ensure their prosperity, but this has grown beyond an instinct into a compulsion. Measures once instituted only to tie the community together, such as stories about where the world and the People came from, religious rituals of thanksgiving and forgiveness for perceived misdeeds, etc., have become institutions in themselves, long divorced from their onetime meaning but treated as if they are tangible realities. This has continued into the modern day, where not only families and religions but governments and even corporations are treated as entities despite not having a corporeal substance. All such institutions dictate terms to all of the actual human individuals which comprise them, forcing those persons to put the needs of the group above their own. In the name of society, God, obligation to one's elders, or a dozen other reasons, which may or may not be reasonable depending on one's point of view, individuals allied to a group try to influence or control the behavior of others to serve the needs of that group, whether or not the people being harangued in this way feel any such membership or obligation. Belief in something greater than oneself is one thing, but forcing others to believe in it too is a more dubious application of Spirit's principles; as with all things, whether this is a good or evil action is largely a matter of proportion, how vigorously you pursue your agenda and how you react when someone declines.

The complex dance between the tangible fact of one's own senses and the vast encompassing presence of larger systems in which one is only a part is the essential fact of Earth's interaction with Spirit; each person chooses where to stand on this continuum. The inclination to one or the other side informs the nature of all one's other elements; a person who is Lightning (honesty) and Earth, for instance, holds himself to a strict personal code of honesty, while a Lightning/Spirit person castigates others for their untruths. A Water (emotion) person will be concerned with supporting the emotional health of her friends if she is Spirit, while if she is Earth she will more likely be emotionally needy herself. The tendency for Spirit philosophy to indicate the existence of non-obvious things such as God or ghosts, while Earth denies that anything it can't sense is meaningful to it, is another aspect of the duality, as is the distinction between Earth's predatory, Darwinian nature and Spirit's demand to perform acts of devotion for society's benefit whether you believe in it or not (this includes not only religion and familial obligation, but also things like paying your taxes even if you don't use any of the civil services they fund; an Earth person chafes at the idea of such a drain on their resources, while a Spirit person feels and upholds their responsibility to society even at a personal cost). This also shows why I don't consider either element male or female; many a woman has busied herself with the pragmatic necessities of running a household while her man frittered his time away in some flight of fancy that was devoid of tangible short-term benefit, though it certainly works in reverse as well. John Gray's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" summarizes certain overarching tendencies in the genders which support the male-Earth, female-Spirit idea: men, he says, are frustrated when women meddle in their affairs, and women are frustrated when their men don't allow them to help, because the man takes the Earth perspective that it's his problem to deal with while the woman takes the Spirit perspective that she's responsible for his problems. But this is an oversimplification, and in truth only reflects one aspect each of Earth and Spirit, which are far more complex than that even before they intersect with the complexities of gender. It is just as likely that a woman will display Earth tendencies by staying home from church one week because she doesn't feel like getting up that morning (Spirit says she has a responsibility to put God's commands above her own feelings), or that a man will be Spiritish and will go door to door advocating political reform (an Earth response would be to deal with the situation as best one can without asking for help from others, though this is a bit of a gray area since Earth does recognize that it can benefit from using others as resources toward its own ends). As always, humanity's miraculous complexity far transcends the ability of the Elements to define us.

The elements of Fire, Water, Darkness and Spirit are said to form the "soft" tetrad and are sometimes spoken of as "feminine", the other elements other than Void being labelled "hard" or "masculine", but this is inaccurate; the complexities
of the genders far outstrip the relatively straightforward behavioral and motivational templates of the elements. There are no shortage of Fiery or Dark men in the world, nor is it rare for a woman to fit the stereotypes of Earth and Crystal. But Air and Water represent a pair of methods for understanding and relating to the world which cleave fairly closely to the traditional assumptions regarding male and female psychology,
so while exceptions always exist, overall they are infrequent enough in this field to justify speaking of Air as the most
masculine element in character, and Water the most feminine.

Water is the element of harmony, emotion, unification, and gentleness. Those sound good, but it can also be associated with negative aspects such as brainwashing, smother-mothering, and even consumption. All are only aspects of the single fact of water, which is its determination to bring all things together. Water understands something by empathizing with it, becoming more like it, or even combining with it completely (such as by eating it to learn whether it's good to eat). Water is the element of love, and never wants anyone to hate; it is the element of healing, and never wants anyone to suffer; it is the element of community, and never wants to witness strife tear people apart. These are noble principles in moderation, but can be taken to the level of psychosis just as any other ideal can be perverted when taken to a sufficiently ridiculous extreme. Water is the most nearly feminine of the elements because it corresponds to a woman's empathic nature, the fact that she is ruled by her own emotions and that she interacts with others primarily in response to theirs; this is not to say that women can't be logical, of course, simply that they seldom readily neglect the emotional context of their actions. Many women are caregivers who genuinely try to make others around them happy, content and comfortable; many others are meddlers in others' affairs, believing they know what's best for someone better than that someone does and acting accordingly; many others still are withdrawn, soulful individuals who have trouble expressing themselves verbally and long for someone to understand them; many others yet are mother-figures who dote on their children until they become spoiled and reluctant to take care of themselves. All of these and many more are aspects of Water, and are trends not unheard-of in men but far more prevalent in women.

Air is the element of separation, contention, reductionism, and harshness. Those sound bad, but it can also be associated with positive aspects such as logical analysis, distinction for the sake of uniqueness, and realism. All are only aspects of the single fact of air, which is its determination to take things apart down to the smallest level. Air understands something by dissecting it, examining it a piece at a time, and studying how things separate from itself are affecting it. Air is the element of knowledge, and never shies away from painful truths; it is the element of methodical and meticulous work, and never lets anyone take the easy way out because they don't feel like working hard; it is the element of friction, and never allows issues to fester beneath the surface becuse exposing them would risk conflict. These are noble principles in moderation, but can be taken to the level of psychosis just as any other ideal can be perverted when taken to a sufficiently ridiculous extreme. Air is the most nearly masculine of the elements because it corresponds to a man's pragmatic, isolationist nature, the fact that he trains himself to deal with his own problems rather than risk relying on others that may let him down; this is not to say that men can't work together, of course, simply that they see dependency as a weakness and prefer to reduce a problem to pieces that they can either work on one at a time themselves or give to others to work on before putting the whole thing back together. Many men are analytical thinkers who apply reason to their circumstances and try to look beyond the obvious in search of hard-to-see truths; many others are critics, passing judgement on the objective works of others without concern for whether the creator's feelings get hurt; many others still are self-involved, caring only about what happens in their own sphere of influence and avoiding burdening themselves with the problems of others; many others yet are fatherly mentors who teach their dependents discipline in order to make them tough enough to survive in a tough world. All of these and many more are aspects of Air, and are trends not unheard-of in women but far more prevalent in men.

Since Air and Water are the Elements most directly connected to gender, they are arguably the most relevant ones to consider here; however, to forestall the inevitable tide of angry emails, let me re-emphasize that I am generalizing the living hell out of the genders for the purpose of this article. People are individuals first and foremost, and the nine elements I describe are about 1991 fewer than would be required to even begin to explain the complexity of the human mind; take what you will from my descriptions of these grand and vague cosmic forces, and what doesn't apply to you may be safely ignored.

Darkness is probably the least well-understood of the Elements; this is no accident, for if an omnipresent elemental force of the cosmos can be said to have intent, then Darkness is a power that does not *want* to be understood. Incredibly complex and nebulous in nature, Darkness is the element of patterns, cycles, vibrations and resonance. In addition to representing physical manifestations such as shadow and sound, Darkness stands for the purpose of Manipulation, and as such rules over forms of expression such as music and storytelling; while art can be created for the sake of beauty, instruction, inspiration or simply an urge to create from one's heart, these forms of artistry lend themselves especially well to the imparting of a message, the moral of the story or the tone of the song. And just as stories as a whole are morally neutral, just as it is equally easy to tell a tale of Good's triumph over Evil or one of Evil's triumph over Good, so Darkness, as the element which fabricates all stories, denies that Good and Evil are anything but temporary constructs needed for the story, devoid of concrete meaning in themselves. Darkness maintains that truth is relative, subjective, that to change perception is the same as to change reality. While no element is truly good or bad, Darkness lends itself most easily to the sense that good and evil are meaningless artificial concepts and that whatever oneself chooses to do is correct insofar as one judges it so, such judgement being the only meaningful axis; therefore individuals who are strong in Darkness tend to be not moral or immoral, but amoral. Their general unwillingness to believe in absolutes tends to give them the sense that it is right and reasonable to manipulate others into seeing things their way, or to delude themselves into believing what they would prefer to instead of what is empirically obvious. Additionally, as a sound wave can set a tuning fork to resonating and re-generating the same sound from itself, or as a person hearing or remembering their favorite song may hum or sing it aloud and thus transmit it to anyone in earshot of them, Darkness is an element of contaigon, its influence naturally influencing others; again, while this power can be used for good or ill, it contributes to the generally sinister and worrisome semblance which the element projects.

Lightning, by contrast, is a relatively simple and straightforward element. It represents simply Energy, the positive, constantly-moving lifeblood of the universe, including manifestations such as light and electricity, from which it takes its name. As light is the fastest-traveling quality in the universe, Lightning is representative of Speed, Motion, and all forms of drive and motivation. It tends to see things fairly simply, as black or white, positive or negative, the presence or absence of light, sharply contrasting with Darkness's moral relativism. Lightning can be a healing light, a positive energy which reconstructs and empowers that which is failing, or it can just as easily be a blindingly quick strike of destructive power; so too can its psychological aspect represent either heroic virtue and courage or a tyrannical urge to "purify" anything one sees as unworthy of existence.

There is much more to be said, but I am not feeling loquacious at this time. More to come.

Let's now look at the first pair of elements that the test can parse you between. On the one side, we have Fire; on the other side, we have the element of cold, which I call Crystal to distinguish that it doesn't just apply to frozen water. The ancients thought that crystals such as quartz were ice that had frozen so cold that it never thawed again, no matter how hot it got; the word "crystal" comes from the Greek word "kryos", meaning cold, for this reason. Therefore, quartz crystals stand for Cold just as much as ice crystals do, and are more sensible to talk about being that Water is a completely different element. (So is Earth, but the divide between soil and quartz is a lot more obvious than that between water and ice.)

What do these elements stand for? As usual, the single truth of each one has many different facets, and we have names for the facets but not an easy name for the whole. The closest single name for what Fire represents is Chaos, and the closest single name for what Crystal represents is Order, but they don't quite make sense in those terms. Let's look a bit at how they break down.

Fire represents Freedom; Crystal represents Authority. Those who are close to Crystal want either to rule or be ruled; they support laws, social systems, personal codes of behavior, and so forth. Fire types are more anarchistic, preferring to trust to their own judgement and change with the times rather than following rigid directives.

Fire represents Change; Crystal represents Stasis. Fire creates, transforms and destroys, constantly changing the state of the world's componenets. A forest fire reduces ancient trees to ash, yet the ash fertilizes the soil so new growth sprouts quickly; some species of plants actually can't reproduce except when the parent plant has died in a fire, with their seeds being fire-resistant and not germinating until they receive minerals from the ashes of their predecessor. Crystal stands for preservation and inflexibility; it wants things to remain as they are forever. It also stands for Perfection, which it believes it can create, and that's why it wants to be able to preserve things forever, since those things are at least part of the way to being perfect. Absolute and complete Crystal would be a single unchanging perfection; for now, Crystal permits the existence of a small amount of change which it uses to unmake imperfect things and remake them into more perfect versions. But ultimately, it would prefer to forbid change entirely, lest its perfections be changed into something by definition less perfect.

Fire represents Individuality; Crystal represents Conformity. Exactly how this plays out depends on other elements, notably Earth and Spirit; a Crystal/Spirit person tends to try to make others more like himself, while an Earth/Crystal person tends to try to make herself more like others. (Each happens in examples of both genders, of course.) Fire says that we're all different and all should be different; Crystal discourages variation, since it means some things being less perfect than others and also erodes authority systems.

Fire represents Instability; Crystal represents Security. Most of us don't want to think about the possibility of being gunned down by enemy forces in the street; Security is something we want a certain amount of in our lives. Yet Security is obtained by making laws that forbid destructive activities, and Fire doesn't like laws, no matter how well-intentioned. A Fire person usually likes to think of himself as good, but his definition of "good" is largely based on his own standards, and others may not agree. (As a quick example, I in my Fiery fashion don't feel bad about swearing whenever the f*** I want; I cling to my freedom of speech and feel I should be completely free to express myself however I please, but those who find such words offensive want to have Security from the hearing of them, so they set up laws forbidding them.) Crystal is the System, and Fire is the Revolution against the system; which is good and which is bad depends partly on your point of view and partly on the proportions (ie how oppressive the Empire is or how murderous the Rebels are). When neither side is obviously evil, the division between them increasingly becomes unfortunate; many countries in our world are torn by such conflicts.

Fire represents Variety; Crystal represents Purity. Fire's creative and transformative tendencies ensure a wide variety of experiences; the world is the rich and vibrant place it is because of Fire, filled with a smorgasbord of wonders and delights, but it also possesses myriad dangers and horrors which Fire has also created. Crystal wants to simplify the world by purging unnecessary alternatives from it; it will scrub out the filth and wickedness, but is likely to throw some of Fire's babies out with the bathwater as well. If you prefer a world where everyone wears a gray suit, works in a white office, and comes home to a beige house, you're a Crystal person; Fire encourages you to shake things up, but if you're not a fan of seeing folks prancing around in orange leotards and polka-dot parkas with bolts through their noses, you don't want Fire to have a completely free hand either.

Fire represents Proliferation, Crystal represents Scarcity. By filling existence with a limitless abundance of patterns, many of them mercurial but with their demise leaving more raw materials that can be shaped into new creations in addition to other new creations coming from whole cloth, Fire causes the overall material wealth of existence to increase. We see this process at work in our minds constantly, as we steadily manufacture new ideas, dreams and visions as well as refining old thoughts into new and improved ones. However, such a population boom in human minds (and human lives, for that matter) is not matched by the resources of the world we live in; the external world seems dominated by Crystal, in that all things come in limited quantities; should we choose to consume them recklessly, they will be expended. Crystal does this to enforce its rules by ensuring that actions have consequences, and because it wants things to have their uniqueness preserved. I have a strong personal feeling that the paucity of material wealth in our world is the cause of most of our miseries, yet examination proves that too much prosperity could also be a bad thing. In a world where everything was limitlessly bountiful, nothing in particular would have any real value or "specialness", which I consider an acceptible price to pay but which many people would not. Much as cultures which develop in warm climates tend to luxuriate in the abundant resources of tropical climes, and often even grow wasteful due to their excessive wealth (the Roman empire provides an extreme example, of course), while cultures that rise in cold climates tend to focus more on economy and adaptiveness, making do with less rather than wishing they had more.

There's more to it than that, of course, but this is a good start. Discuss.

....................Spirit......................
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......Lightning..................Crystal........
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Air.................Void...................Water
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.......Fire......................Darkness.......
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....................Earth.......................

The actual diagram of the Novastar is a three-dimensional shape known as a "stellated octahedron" (you can find some nice pictures on Wikipedia), and is beyond my ability to reproduce here. But the above chart (if you imagine four straight lines running through it, one each horizontally, vertically, and on each diagonal, all crossing in the middle) at least shows you how the elements oppose each other. It's impossible on the SPE test to get high ratings in both Earth and Spirit, for instance, because they're respectively the low and high points of a signle variable. In actuality, it's not only possible but likely to have strong attributions in both directions, but ultimately OKCupid's software can only do so much, so I had to simplify. The Void score approximates how much you vary; the more Void you have, the more likely you are to exceed the parameters of any single Element.

As to the Elements themselves, here is a very simplistic accounting of what they mean, which I will expand upon when I have time.

SPIRIT - Represents all things beyond the physical world - the mind, the soul, ghosts, animistic spirits, dreams, Destiny, inner truths, illusions. Connects to the idea of possibilities beyond the physical, including the idea that we are subject to divine oversight or that we have a responsibility to the future, and necessitates that we interact with one another. Generally, whatever the profile of your other elements, Spirit suggests that you apply those standards to others as much as or more than you do to yourself.

LIGHTNNG - Represents positive energy - light, electricity, speed, directness, purity, being "energetic". Easily misunderstood as being "good", but can also stand for intolerance, impatience, and other destructive tendencies. Generally implies a belief that honesty and straightforward action are virtuous and noble.

CRYSTAL - Represents order - structure, stability, security, cold, rigidity, inflexibility, control, permanence, hierarchy, law, tradition, social protocol. Generally suggests a belief in certain absolutes and a willingness to either lead or follow in some sort of authority framework.

AIR - Represents fatherhood - intellect, aloofness, separatism, harshness, friction, clear definitions of things like identity and independence. Stereotypically suggests a certain callousness or even cruelty designed to toughen up the recipient (oneself or others, depending on Earth/Spirit) to be able to cope with hostile aspects of the world.

VOID - The "meta-element", omnipresent yet invisible, underlying the other eight. Where Void is strong, the effects of the other elements weaken and become less absolute. Void has few tendencies of its own, instead representing compromise, diversity, polarization, paradox, and other forms of interrelationship between the other elements. In the diagram above, Void is not only the word Void, but also the periods holding the words in their places, designed to be almost invisible yet necessarily holding places that show the relationships of the other elements.

WATER - Represents motherhood - emotion, nurturing, togetherness, kindness, fecundity, dissolution, blurring and breaking down of boundaries. Stereotypically suggests a need to rely on others for aid and to coddle feelings (one's own or those of others, depending on Earth/Spirit), even if they prove to be sources of weakness.

FIRE - Represents chaos - freedom, creativity, destruction, transformation, randomness, individuality, situational responses, reflexive hostility when challenged. Generally suggests a hatred of absolutes and a belief in the variability of everything, even truth or identity.

DARKNESS - Represents negative energy - darkness, sound, music, cyclical patterns, entropy, manipulation, circularity, expression, deceit. Easily misunderstood as being "evil", but can represent artistic expression, charisma, the ability to coax others into exceeding self-imposed limits, and other beneficial tendencies. Generally implies a belief that honesty and straightforward action are simplistic and often inadequate.

EARTH - Represents all things of and inherent to the physical world - matter, animals and plants and the natural life processes thereof, evolution, practicality, self-interest (enlightened or otherwise). Tends to assume that the ideals and illusions of Spirit are a waste of time and that only concrete facts and immediate realities matter. Generally, whatever the profile of your other elements, Earth suggests that this is true of yourself, not necessarily of your reactions to others.

So, my Spiritual Personality Elements test seems to be fairly popular; how the heck did that happen. Well, I'm no expert in psychology, but I'm glad people do seem to be enjoying my test.

I've decided that I will use this journal page to answer the questions of those who have taken the test and then asked for more explanation of the elements themselves. After all, while my test will tell you (assuming it's accurate) that your personality is Fire/Lightning/Air/Earth or whatever, it won't tell you what Fire is and what Lightning is and so forth, so you won't know what's really going on.

The process of describing these elements will take time, and will never be exhaustive. This isn't science, this is speculation; what Fire or Lightning means as an element is not a factual study that can be probed through experiment, it is a process of decision and definition. I am still in the process of figuring the various elements out myself, so I certainly can't give you a perfect understanding, only tell you something of what I have so far concluded.

The elements used in my test are part of a philosophical system I created, based on an earlier system known as the Novastar which was "discovered" by one Merle Moss, a Nevada pagan I have met only online, through our shared interest in fantasy roleplaying games. These elements are an outgrowth of the Kaballah, the four-element system of the Greeks, and various bits included in roleplaying game fiction, along with his own experiences, and he then described the elements to me and I have extrapolated on his definition. Ultimately, one of you may be the next step in this process; my understanding of the elements is imperfect, as I have said, and perhaps you will come up with something I have been too blind to see.

(You are welcome to message me with such conclusions, but keep in mind that I may disagree vehemently with your interpretation, just as Merle disagreed with some of mine. For instance, the element which I have called Darkness is officially named Tone in his system, though he refers to it as the power of darkness, so I figured I would simply use the more iconic name. If you decide you'd rather call it Blackweave or whatever, that's your right, just don't expect me to change my version unless you make a very persuasive argument.)

So, in upcoming posts, I will explicate further upon the nature of the Novastar and its Elements, and eventually link the test to this journal so those who want to know what the elements mean can find out for themselves here.