Essentia Atom Summary

The Relationship of the Elements

The spread cloth is a two-dimensional version of the three-dimensional Essentia Atom, an octahedron with elements at each vertices and the Essentia element in the center.  The central Essentia element is where all of the elements are balanced, integrated and unified.

There are three complimentary pairs of elements located at opposite vertices; Cosmos/Potential, Self/Other and Emotion/Intellect.  Each element connects directly to all the other elements, except for the complimentary pairs, which have Essentia as an intermediary.  The Essentia element connects directly and equally to all other elements. 

Think of all the elements as separate, self- contained worlds integrating together into a complete whole, with the Essentia element being the unifying element.  Each element maintains its unique meaning, and it is relationship of the elements to each other that creates the meaning of the spread.  A card placed on an element should be interpreted entirely in the context of that element.  This contextual meaning is what you will use when comparing the relationships between cards placed on each of the elements of the spread cloth.  The meaning of a card on an element can give you insights, as can the overall card spread together.

The Essentia Atom you see in the spread cloth layout is the upper part of the complete Essentia Atom. The complete atom is a tetrahedron base with the octahedron top centered on the peak of the tetrahedron. More about this in the next update of the website.