A correspondent writes: Regarding your post on the meaning of the Japanese "breath" kanji, I recently encountered the expression 息が合う iki ga au.The dictionary translation was to (work, talk, etc.) together smoothly, but if I am reading the kanji right it really means “(our/their) breath meets"! Thank you so much for your input. 会う is actually to meet in the regular sense. 合う is pronounced the same but means more merge, come together, join together. A really interesting thing about this expression is how close it is to the Scriptural phrase (speaking of angels and maids) “breathe with them in their upward aspiration” (from the last chapter of The Mythos of God the Daughter). Of course aspire is another breath/spirit word, like spirit and respire, and the expression seems to mean to unite in spirit.