Light
Breath Foundations of the All
Energy
Primal origins
Union of permanence and simplicity
Refinement Coalescing return Held in the
Rapture of your Embrace
Spirit is often referred to as the Fifth element. Spirit stands apart from the four physical elements. Air, Fire, Water and Earth form the foundation upon which manifest and un-manifest work is done. Spirit has no specific correspondences, easily defined boundaries or categorization as it is the flexible container that expands, contracts, opens and closes in response to everything that surrounds and contains it. Spirit manifests in everything and is everywhere. To say that everything contains Spirit is to try to articulate something that cannot be limited by words, analogies or truisms.
Spirit is often equated with the higher parts of our being. Those highly refined and spiritually attuned energies which each hold within. Just as we are part of and one in the same of the basic four elements, we are also part of the energies and elements that comprise Spirit.
If we use a bit of numerology, the four elements correspond to the numeric association of the number Four being the place of solid and equilateral foundation. The square (which is also the geometric shape we are creating when we call the energies of the quarters into sacred space) forms the container for which the energy of the magick can flow. If we add one more of something to this stable base of Four, we arrive at the number Five. Five causes disruption to the stability. It changes the pattern and shape of whatever that four-thing is. It can be likened to the agent of quickening; similar to yeast being added to the basic ingredients of bread dough to assure that it expands and grows. So, Five elements (or components) now provide the opportunity for growth, whether it is spiritual or manifest.
If we also hold that the place of Spirit is the highly refined element of our spiritual SELF. That part of our being which is part of the greater whole, the earth we inhabit and the greater cosmos; then as we draw ourselves as Spirit into the central place of influx from the four basic elements of air, water, fire and earth of which we are also composed, it would stand to reason that this is the alchemical equation for spiritual growth; awakening of magick and much more.
At the levels of consciousness our Spirit is that which is the pure essence of our Being in its formless and transcendent state. The Soul incarnates into the physical body as the animating essence to accomplish the specific work of a lifetime. At death it is reabsorbed back into the Spirit of our Being, bringing with it the cumulative knowledge of that lifetime’s experience and growth. The Spirit we relate to the five-fold nature of the elements is by default part of this scheme. And, in this way we are using its more manifest (I use this word loosely) form to hold together and inform the remaining four.
Excerpted from my book:
The Elemental Year:Aligning the Elements of Self
Chapter Three-Spirit
Robin Fennelly
The Magickal Pen 
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