Soil needs water to hold it down or it would simply blow away in the wind. The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s seems to have migrated to this town. In fact, in the town where I am living, the smell of dirt is in the very air. The relentless wind blows it in through the crevices, filling the window sills with an inch or more of silt in only a few months’ time. Soil depletion and degradation has been occurring all over the planet for decades. Of course, too much water can wash top soil away completely, depositing it into rivers miles away, when there are no plants to hold it in place.
When did we decide that tilling up the earth and leaving vast numbers of acres exposed, was a smart thing to do? Nature does not disturb the soil where she intends to grow. She allows the leaves to fall and to lay upon the soil surface where the worms, the ants, and other decomposers can do their job of breaking them down into nutrients. The nutrients, with the help of underground mycelium colonies, are later taken up by plant roots. It is a complex, perfectly designed symbiotic relationship between the soil and the microbial life contained within it, the plants, and the indispensable water.
People born under the influence of earth signs are generally compatible with water signs. In a harmonious relationship, earth signs can provide grounding and stability to the sometimes emotional water signs. Perhaps a lasting relationship is similar to the harmony that exists between earth and water. Two people have managed to work out a system of mutual support whereby each person is simply there to share in the experience of the other.
Soil and water could probably not exist without each other. An average soil can hold an average of 10% to 45% water. The water aids in moving minerals through the soil so that they are available to the billions of microorganisms living underground. Without these organisms, the soil dies and it can no longer support the plant life that we attempt to grow in it. We can feed plants with chemically derived fertilizers in an attempt to simulate what the soil would do, if it could – if we had not killed it. We can produce food that is nice to look at, but lacks the life giving nutrients upon which we depend.
A good relationship requires harmony and balance. Like soil and water, the individuals must nourish each other, if the relationship is to survive. The earth provides the space needed by the water, which in turn brings nourishment, so that both can thrive.
