My Reference Guide for the Elements
I’ve made another post about how I don’t really use the elemental system for invoking the quarters, but wanted to take a little time to explore each individual element for this week’s @2019grimoirecchallenge prompts, so without further ado...
Fire:
What does it represent? Fire represents the passionate and volatile emotions: anger, lust, excitement, etc. It is energy, and motivation: the heat of the sun that warms the earth, the promise of summer and the freedom it gives us. It is change, metamorphosis, chemistry: the way a phoenix is reborn, the way one transmutes lead into gold. It’s the craftsman’s forge that makes raw material into something refined and useful. Fire is inspiration: a spark of life, or insight. It is the fire of the hearth: a warmth and a comfort, a gathering place for friends and family, the heat that cooks out food.
Deities or myths associated with it in my practice? I have a couple of deities I work with who are associated with Fire; they feel closest to Brighid and Gofannon the Smith, but I’m still feeling out my relationship with them.
How do I connect with this element? I connect to this element by lighting candles and watching their flames, by sitting beside a campfire with friends, by tracing the patterns of constellations in the night sky, by soaking up the warmth of the sun.
How do I use this element in my practice? I use a lot of candles in my practice. For me, candle magic is the easiest method of spells, because I just carve sigils into colored candles and light them to carry my intent. I keep fire lit on my altar: in a hearth-like piece and in the lantern devoted to my patron goddess.
What kinds of magic can be done with this element? Almost any kind of spellwork can use candles. I also give offerings to the fire to transform them from physical form to energy that is given to my gods. I light fire as guiding light. I offer myself into the metaphorical fires to be reforged and renewed (this would be like visualization work).
Air:
What does it represent? Air represents the realms of the mind: thought, communication, logic. It is clarity, truth, justice. It is the realm of the abstract and our capacity to think in the abstract. It deals with dreams, memories, prophecy.
Deities or myths associated with it in my practice? I can’t think outright of any deities I personally work with whom I associate with this element, though my lantern goddess and The Hunt both make themselves known with birds, clouds, and wind.
How do I connect with this element? My favorite method of connecting with this element is being up somewhere sort of high on a gusty day and letting the wind whip around me. Cloud gazing/scrying, and observing the night sky are also ways that I connect with this element.
How do I use this element in my practice? The element of air seems to be used mostly for omens and messages. I hear birds on the wind, see the riders in the storm clouds rolling in, feel the rush of the Hunt in a blustering. It lets me know that magic is afoot and that something is happening.
What kinds of magic can be done with this element? I like cloud scrying a lot: making note of what I see in the clouds and trying to interpret the images. I sometimes shout my worries to the wind to let them be carried far away from me.
Water:
What does it represent? Water is the realm of emotions, wisdom, peace, healing, depth. Water connects us to the ways between our own world and the other realms. It is the life blood of our planet, and so echoed in our own blood. It is the womb of the universe that gave forth all life. It connects us to the unseen, the mysterious, the realms of those gone before. It activates our intuition. It is ever-changing, ever ebbing and flowing. Where it brings peace, it may also smother the unprepared in its crushing depth and gravity. Water cleanses and heals.
Deities or myths associated with it in my practice? I associate my patron goddess with the water. I also associate water with The Oran Mor, and the primordial seas from which all life began. I also work with now and again with Manannan MacLir, whom is associated with the sea.
How do I connect with this element? My entire life has been spent around water: I grew up in freshwater marshes on the banks of a river, and alongside one of the largest lakes in the world. I’ve held a deep fascination with boats, sailing, and all things associated therewith forever. I connect to this element by standing barefoot in the rain, or wading through the cool muddy puddles that collect in my parents’ yard. I sit beside the river or marsh and write, draw, read tarot.
How do I use this element in my practice? Water for me has most been used for cleansing in my practice. I often stand out in a storm if I’m feeling overwhelmed or will use water to cleanse myself if a storm is not coming anytime soon. I sometimes float in a pool or a lake and let myself release all the tensions, worries, and negativity that I’ve been carrying around- this is also easy enough to do in a shower.
What kinds of magic can be done with this element? Healing, cleansing/purifying rituals can be done with water. I also like to scry with water, and will use water in my visualizations of moving between our own world and the realms where my spirit guides/gods dwell.
Earth:
What does it represent? Earth represents groundedness, stability, prosperity. It’s the realm of all the things we need on a physical and mundane level to survive: money, health, our food, shelter, etc. etc. It’s the foundation block we need to keep us steady and able to reach towards other things.
Deities or myths associated with it in my practice? I heavily associate my patron god/leader of the Hunt with the element of earth.
How do I connect with this element? I like to walk barefoot in the grass, sit beneath and talk to trees, work with clay, and meditate with crystals when it comes to connecting with earth.
How do I use this element in my practice? How don’t I use this element in my practice? I think at this point, my connection with the natural world has become so intuitive and so integral to my practice, that I don’t necessarily think about it often. But: I speak to and make friends with tree spirits, try to clean up local wild spaces, and go somewhere natural and green when I need to ground and find my center again.
What kinds of magic can be done with this element? You can use earth for things like: health, money, the home, care for your pets. Bury things in the dirt. Sculpt poppets or figures for offerings out of clay. Use crystals to focus your intent towards a certain energy. The possibilities are endless.
Spirit:
Truth be told, I don’t really use this element now that I’ve moved away from Wicca. For a long time I understood it as the culmination of the other four elements: where they merged and blended they created life energy. Spirit wove connections between the elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.
In my current vocabulary, “Spirit” would be replaced by Nwyfre. It is vital force that flows through all things. It is the energy latent in every aspect of our universe. It is the humming melody of the Oran Mor, if you’re able to hear it. It’s not something that is outright used and accessed as the other four elements because it is inherent in literally everything. For me, it is more an element that is understood, in the sense that I acknowledge its presence in the world around me, and know that its intricate webs of song and energy weave between myself and all things.
