Water as elemental force is receptive. Water has no Will, it flows through the path of least resistance. Water comes into relation with everything it touches. It adapts to the environment and the environment begins to be modified by it. We see it in oceans, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, springs.
Why has water been associated with emotions? The ancients understood that our emotional body is like a body of water. And for those who are sensitive enough, the whole atmosphere is, in a way, an ocean through which all the emanations of what is alive travel.
As a receptive element, water collects information. This information does not go through our mind. It simply bathes our entire being. The intelligence of our emotional body is fundamental to understand what we receive from these exchanges. To develop it, we must first get rid of all social conditioning designed to direct or suppress emotions. Emotions are information. When we have emotional repressions, it does not mean that we are not feeling what we suppress. It only means that we suppress the awareness of what we feel. We can not avoid receiving the information that the emotional influx brings and we can not stop emanating it either. Water always flows. Even the lakes flow … when their water evaporates in the heat of the sun, it will precipitate like rain in another place.
The most important thing to understand about Water is that it does not have an intention. As I said earlier, water gathers information. It is our inner feedback what generates a cognition of what we are feeling, and the content of this cognition depends on our particular circumstances. This is why Water is key for self-awareness. When we let our emotions flow, every feeling that arises in us tells us about the meaning that we are giving to what we feel. This is why the Water element has been traditionally associated with memory, although memories are the result of experiences that left an imprint in our mind. As Water gathers information, our emotional receptivity can awake memories just by association. It would be more accurate to say that Water wakes up our unconscious, allowing us to make it conscious so we can give an update to these memories infusing them with our current awareness.
When our emotional system flows freely, without repressions or emotional blocks created by traumatic experiences, the emotional body becomes a living library and a very sophisticated sensor. Our relational capacity expands. The messages of our heart are clear and we connect with all living beings. The emotional world has been very little explored. In fact, it has been largely ignored, devalued and opressed since millennia. What little we know has more to do with the research to cure personality disorders. Little do we know about their capabilities. Over time, this will change as the human being expands his consciousness and leaves behind the belief systems that create mental and emotional prisons. Meanwhile, we must recognize our limitations. Humankind suffers from cognitive dissociation in many areas (especially with respect to animals that are used for consumption). We ignore the horror that these poor beings go through because we do not want to feel it. The emotional block we create every time we avoid feeling something we do not like cecomes breeding ground to mental illness. Water element creates relationship, not separation. As long as we control what we want to feel, our emotional system will continue under the tyranny of a belief system that is not compatible with our true nature, and will remain in an underdeveloped state. Working to cure cognitive dissociation requires a lot of effort, since we have to go through many fears, although most of them have been dragging on since childhood. But it is the only way to feel 100% alive.
Opening the floodgates of the emotional does not mean to stop having personal preferences. It is simply allowing yourself to feel. Feel creates consciousness. And it is through awareness that we can make decisions that produce progress.