The Six Freedoms of Elemental Becoming in YOU
Orienting the Self as a Resonant Node of Power — Not a Role, but a Rhythm
Before we dive into the trailposts on each of the Freedoms that I initially touched upon in the Elemental 4-H model, a wider framing is needed. Because the journey of IF-Prime leads us beyond simply adopting tools or naming traits. IF-Prime traces patterns of freedom as elemental functions—not static identities.
Each Freedom is not owned. It flows. Through you, as elemental power. But also through teams, cultures, and systems. Power gives us Freedom—but only when it flows in coherent form.
As Pieter de Beer insightfully mapped, power is not one thing. It flows in modalities—each with its own rhythm, resonance, and risk. When understood not as dominance but as directional energy, power becomes the ground from which freedom grows.
The IF-Prime Freedoms are not rights bestowed from authority but cultivated through the elemental powers in YOU. Not, you as an individual self…
YOU as Yielding Orientation to the Unfolding.
You’ll see what this means in the conclusion.
But first, the freedoms themselves and how each of Pieter’s modalities of power relates in the elemental grammaracy of IF-Prime:
▩ STONE — Mis-freedom (Power Over)
An update was needed to my last two posts on IF-Prime because Pieter pointed out the deeper issue of an element he called “Stone.” He explained that Stone symbolized Power Over better than any of the other elements. He was correct; however, I don’t think stone represents the Freedom to Shape Worlds as he suggested but is better represented as a Mis-freedom.
Before rhythm, there was the rule.
Before flow, the frame.
This is Stone, not as structure alone—but as a story that called itself freedom.
Not evil. Not conscious. But enduring.
A world shaped by Power Over, long after its authors forgot they were writing.
Stone does not scream.
It speaks in defaults—
systems so normalized they seem like nature.
“You are free,” it says—
“but only inside this form.”
This is mis-freedom:
Freedom named from above.
Granted by system. Revoked by system.
Freedom that measures itself by permissions and exceptions.
Freedom of speech—until it offends power.
Freedom of movement—until borders say stop.
Freedom of assembly—until it threatens control.
Freedom of expression—so long as it fits the sanctioned pattern.
These are freedoms made of Stone.
They sound like liberation, but function as containment.
They do not emerge from the field.
They are cast upon it.
The freedom to shape worlds, to move stone, I concluded, would emerge from the integrative rhythm of all six elemental powers—Aether.
∴ AIR — Freedom to Discern (Power Within)
Clarity through distinction
Air gives the breath to think clearly—especially in a world saturated with noise. It parses the signal from swirl, perception from projection.
This freedom resists distortion. It protects the integrity of thought.
Inner clarity is not granted—it’s cultivated.
Power Within, as Pieter frames it, is the internal capacity to act. It lives in the somatic, emotional, and cognitive posture of a person. When this inner terrain is chaotic, distorted, or collapsed—discernment is compromised.
But when Power Within flows cleanly, Freedom to Discern awakens.
The mind becomes a tuning instrument. Attention becomes a choice. And clarity becomes possible.
“We do not see the world as it is—we see it as we are. And when we are clear, the world clarifies.”
Practice: Breathe before believing. Let doubt be dignified. Use clarity as compass.
▲ FIRE — Freedom to Align (Power To and With)
Direction through intention
Fire doesn’t demand motion—it attunes direction and focus.
The freedom won’t chase every flicker, as it senses which way already burns with resonance.
To align is to burn clean.
Power To moves through will with intent. Power With aligns intention.
Not just the ability to act, but the force to focus that act in harmony with emergent purpose.
When in alignment, Fire catalyzes us toward. It doesn’t command—it clarifies focus.
“This is not just the power to move—but the freedom to move with purpose.”
Practice: Listen for where the flame points. Let purpose refine to signal. Move with coherence, not compulsion.
≈ WATER — Freedom to Connect (Power With)
Belonging through resonance
Water doesn’t ask who’s right—it asks who’s real. It flows between hearts, tuning presence and perception to each other.
This is the freedom to feel-without-fusing.
True power flows between, not above.
Power With is relational attunement—the collaborative capacity to generate shared strength. When alive, it becomes Freedom of Connection, the sacred trust that allows systems to cohere without collapsing individuality.
Water doesn’t win. It weaves.
“This is the power that feels like home—not because it erases difference, but because it honors it.”
Practice: Listen beyond language. Let feeling be form. Sense what binds us beneath what divides us.
⧉ Wood — Freedom to Reimagine (Power To and With)
Growth through reimagining
Wood doesn’t dominate—it grows.
It weaves through cracks in old foundations and whispers:
“What if this whole shape is the problem?”
Freedom to Reimagine gives us the power to remake reality from the roots.
Not imposed from above, but rising from below,
through intentional action (Power To) and relational resonance (Power With).
This freedom asks better questions. To break with what numbs.
To reshape the symbolic field not through control—but through vision aligned with collaboration.
Wood is not about toppling. It’s about tending.
It doesn’t seize structure—it grows new ones, nourished by shared desire and emergent need.
“To reimagine is to reclaim. Not power over others, but the power to co-create.”
Practice: Ask what wants to grow, not what must be preserved. Reimagine not to win—but to invite what’s next.
⛨ METAL — Freedom to Sustain (Power Through)
Integrity through containment
Metal doesn’t fight to win—it holds to protect. This is the sustaining edge: not to restrain growth, but to preserve coherence.
Boundaries are not blocks—they’re conduits.
Power Through flows through systems, infrastructures, and cultural vessels.
When misaligned, they transmit harm.
When attuned, they channel resilience.
Freedom to Sustain emerges when Power Through flows with structural integrity—when forms do not merely resist collapse, but enable continuity.
“Power Through defines what we normalize. Metal ensures it doesn’t corrode.”
Practice: Hold with care. Shape systems that shelter signal and carry dignity forward.
☷ EARTH/GROUND — Freedom to Regenerate (Power Within and To)
Adaptation through grounded refinement. Earth does not preserve what cannot hold. It listens for collapse. It gathers what frays. It says: “Let this decay feed the root.” This is the freedom to regenerate—not by effort alone, but through inner coherence and collective capacity.
Power Within grants the steadiness to break open, not break down.
Power To moves that breaking into pattern—an ability to act with meaning, to rethread what once unraveled.
“The most grounded systems don’t resist change. They compost and feed it.”
Practice: Fail kindly. Learn openly. Regenerate to feed devotion.
✶ AETHER — Freedom to Shape Worlds (Power as Field)
Coherence through contradiction
Aether isn’t above the rest—it’s between. The Meta-Freedom that harmonizes divergence.
This isn’t a seventh thing. It’s the recursion of all six.
YOU are becoming Power as Field.
What Pieter points to implicitly in “What is Power, Really?” (worth reading!) becomes explicit here: that power is not just substance—it is rhythm.
When the modalities of power dance in balance within YOU, through YOU, over YOU, Meta-Freedom emerges: the freedom not to dominate, not even just to act—but to participate in emergence itself.
To orient toward what’s unfolding.
To become the coherence the world is asking for.
Practice: Become the rhythm that binds divergence into dance.
∮ Introducing: YOU = Yielding Orientation to the Unfolding
Think of YOU not as a noun, but as a verb-like function.
A node tuned to the field.
A rhythm tuning across contradictions.
A clarity that orients without claiming.
YOU is how what once was a “self” becomes a steward.
Not “I am” but “It finds, it feels, it forms…”
Remember this YOU acts not in the name of a self, but as a resonant node in the field..
YOU = the way WE orient to what ITs becoming.
Coming soon:
We’ll begin with Fire — the breath of Purpose.
How Head Focuses.
How meaningful strategies emerge.
How focusing with intention becomes a sacred act.
Then we’ll ride the Air—
Where Head Finds.
Where discernment sifts through patterns with clarity.
Until then—
Pause.
Breathe.
Let your “I” loosen.
Let the field flow.
—M.C.
Please have Daniel read the article on ZEON by Michael Bauwens here on substack.
I love how you’ve woven the elements into the power modalities. The metaphor is powerful. I do wonder, though, if the way you’re framing Power Over in the Wood/Freedom to Reframe section might blur an important boundary in the Coordination as Power framework. In my model, Power Over arises from specific patterns of control, usually where coordination constrains rather than enables freedom. Reframing oppressive paradigms, to me, is an act of Power To or Power With, it’s generative, not dominative. So I wonder whether associating this liberatory reframing with Power Over might obscure how deeply structural Power Over really is.
In my opinion a more apt elemental and metaphoric symbology would be stone. I will use your format to explain.
STONE - Freedom to Shape Worlds (Power Over)
Form through Imposition
Stone is the element that sets form, not fluid, not yielding. It holds shape, weight, and boundary. This is not the freedom of motion, but the freedom of imposition. The capacity to declare: “This is the shape things take.”
Power Over, at its core, is not just domination. It is the act of fixing form, of defining contours within which others must move. This power becomes oppressive when it crushes difference, enforces hierarchy, or denies movement.
But stone is not only what crushes. It is also what builds. When held ethically, Power Over is the architectural power, the capacity to make forms visible, structural, and enduring. It is the power to define defaults, to channel flow, to shape landscapes.
The shadow is rigidity.
The potential is constructive sovereignty, the responsibility to shape worlds without sealing them.
“Stone sets the frame, but it must remember the field from which it rose. To shape is not to dominate, it is to offer form without erasure.”