The ElementsThe Six Aspects of Nature
Anyone at all familiar with modern Paganism, Ceremonial Magick, and many other spiritual/magical systems will have heard of the four Elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. They form the basis and backbone of many essential practices in Wicca: they are how we cast the Circle, how many of us work spells, how we categorize and come to understand the natural world. Almost every task, desire, or part of life can be related to one or more Elements, and those correspondences are drummed into the head of every initiate. They are also included as a space-filling appendix in nearly every book on Wicca or magic written in the last fifteen years. The Elements are a guiding metaphor for Wiccan spirituality that tie in to another important metaphor, the Wheel of the Year. A journey through the Wheel is also a journey through the Elements (see my essay on the Wheel for more on that), each blending into the other as the days and months turn slowly around the Sun. We also seek Elemental balance within the self and in our lives: the body, mind, will, and emotions must all work in harmony in order for us to live as whole and self-actualized agents of Deity. Although most Pagans agree on the basic functions of the Elements and many of their traditional associations, like everything else in Paganism there are divergent viewpoints. One of the most debated areas is, well, one of area--which Element matches which direction on the compass. The typical approach is to assign Earth to the North, Air to the East, Fire to the South, and Water to the West; I would say that a good 70% of Wiccan covens and practitioners go with these associations, either because they have never considered another arrangement, or because, like me, they can't come up with one they like better. A mistake many people make, in my opinion, is that they think of the Elements purely in the abstract, as mystical concepts and energies alone. This is missing what I feel is the most important reason to work with the Elements in the first place: they help connect our spiritual lives to the physical world. Wicca is supposed to be a religion of nature, of god as manifest through the world instead of only beyond it--it is a religion that should involve getting our hands dirty. When I call to Earth while casting Circle, I am not simply envisioning the color green, a variety of bears and wolves, and some mountain that exists only in my imagination. I feel the ground beneath my feet, the bones within my skin. I sense the presence of the trees where I live, the soil. Earth is as real and present to me as my own body. It isn't just an idea, it's reality, and it's all around us. Thinking of the Elements this way it's a good idea to reconsider the directions they are based in. If you live to the north of a huge body of water, perhaps Water should be associated with the South in your practice. You may life to the east of a desert, or just south of the polar regions where the cold Air is a primary factor in the environment. Think about the land you live on. Does the traditional Elemental compass fit? Of course, any directional assignment for the Elements is going to be arbitrary. After all, the Earth is underneath us at all times, and Air surrounds us; where I live there is land to the north and west, a Gulf to the southeast, and it's hot as hell pretty much all the time so Fire is everywhere. Since I link the compass with the Wheel of the Year as well as the Elements, and these connections are important to my tradition, I have chosen to stay with the traditional view--but not because "that's how it's always been done." Take the time to question, to consider all the facets of your spirituality, and if something doesn't sit right or make sense, ask why. Eclectic Wicca has a lot of space built in for your own way of doing things. Look for ways to add your own flavor to the traditional structures without losing the integrity of tradition--many practices have become traditional because they work. While we're
on the subject of different approaches…
The Elements of the EarthDance Tradition In my tradition, I work with more than the four standard Elements; I have over the years come to realize there were two more I felt were lacking in the Wicca I was "raised" in, and once I began incorporating them into my rituals I found a whole new kind of balance in my practice. In EarthDance we work with Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Darkness, and Light. To be accurate, however, Darkness and Light aren't so much Elements as they are aspects of the Elements--they both inform and alter the nature of the Elements themselves, but also exist as qualities in their own right. They are as much metaphysical concepts as they are physical realities. I suppose that the most accurate term for them is "Energies." They could also be thought of as Night and Day, but in my Circles I assign Light to Above and Darkness to Below, so Night/Day doesn't really work for me magically. One could argue pretty convincingly that Light is merely an outgrowth of Fire, but that has never satisfied me, because when we think of the ideas of "Fire" and "Light," they do not have the same connotations. Fire implies heat, burning, and passion; Light implies, well, light, visibility, discernment, and the somewhat New Agey idea of loving, positive energy. When someone talks about white light in magic they aren't generally talking about Fire, but about energy. Another distinction from the typical view of the two energies is that I don't see them as corresponding directly to good/evil or positive/negative. I think this is an oversimplification--while Darkness does often bring with it death, destruction, and chaos, whether these things are positive or negative depends largely on your perspective, and often great good can come out of things falling apart. The important thing is that Darkness has as much a place in the universe and in life as Light; one could not be understood or appreciated without the other. The Moon must wane in order to wax again. Nature depends on both growth and decay. Over the years I've had various teachers make these same points, emphasizing the need to balance not just the four major Elements within the self, but the two Energies as well. Yet I rarely see this addressed in rituals, or in books--many people enact rites with Dark Goddesses and Gods when seeking justice or transformation, or during the Dark half of the year, but unless these faces of Deity are needed for something they are generally ignored. My own patron deities made it clear from our first days together that They each had a Light and a Dark aspect, and that I was as likely to see one as the other. While we tend to fear and avoid Darker work, worrying that it will lead us to naughty things like black magic, I have found that the lessons of the Underworld have helped me the most in making positive changes to my life. I gain a new and greater understanding of what is sunlit in the world when I spend time in shadow. It's the kind of deep spiritual paradox that a great many Wiccans miss out on completely because they get too wrapped up in White Light and Sparkly Bunny Farts. Perhaps for the novice Wiccan delving into the Energies might be too advanced; playing in the Dark can be scary, and intense, and often in the first year or so of practice one has enough to learn already. Even so, I think it is a good idea to at least acknowledge and honor those two sides of Nature in Circle, though in-depth work with them might be best left until one has a solid grounding in the four standard Elements. Examining and understanding how the Big Four work together and how to work with them will prepare you for deeper work.
Magical Correspondences in EarthDance As I mentioned, there are correspondence charts and lists in practically every book, but far be it from me not to follow the herd. Hopefully, however, this will give you a better idea of how the Elements and Energies fit together in this particular tradition and inspire you to consider, and create, your own approach.
Earth Direction:
North Air Direction:
East Fire Direction:
South Water Direction:
West
The Two Energies Darkness Direction:
Below Light Direction:
Above
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2006 Dianne Sylvan. All rights reserved. |