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Chapter 5 -- Elements and Forces

[This paragraph repeated from previous chapter for review purposes.]
The Ancients divided the world into four basic principles or *elements* -- earth, water, fire, and air. That viewpoint has mostly changed with advances of science, but the four elements are still accepted in magick, for they are more closely linked with emotions, the human psyche, and with nature than are modern explanations of the world. These *magical elements* are also of some importance in astrology. Many occultists think of the magical elements as forces, or as *qualities* of energy; especially within the astral world. Each element has a symbol and color. (Common symbols are -- fire: a triangle pointing up; air: a triangle pointing up and with a horizontal line through the middle of it; water: a triangle pointing down; earth: a triangle pointing down and with a horizontal line through the middle of it.) Colors of the elements are -- earth: brown and green; water: blue; fire: red; air: yellow. (The Eastern tattvic system uses different symbols and colors.) The elements are often used in magick ritual.

Astrological Signs

Pick up almost any pupular newspaper or magazine, and you will find an astrology column in it. Of course, you probably already know that popular astrology colums such as that are not very accurate. The idea behind astrology is that the planets are somehow connected to people and events here on earth. Astrologers, the predicessors of modern day astronomers, spent centuries charting planetary positions, and comparing those positions to human behavior and events. However, what passes for astrology in a popular magazine or newspaper is very generalized. For one thing, astrology is much more complex than a newspaper column would suggest.

There are twelve astrological signs. Each sign covers about 30 days, but the astrological signs do not line up with the months of the calender. Rather they go from about the 22nd of the month to about the 22nd of the following month. The exact start and stop days for a sign may vary slightly from year to year. As a general rule, by learning the astrological names and their numeric order, you can know their approximate dates. For technical reasons the first sign occurs in March. Here they are listed, with their numbers and approximate dates on the callendar.

     1.  Aries         (Mar. 21-Apr. 20)
     2.  Taurus        (Apr. 21-May  21)
     3.  Gemini        (May  22-June 21)
     4.  Cancer        (June 22-July 23)
     5.  Leo           (July 24-Aug. 23)
     6.  Virgo         (Aug. 24-Sep. 23)
     7.  Libra         (Sep. 24-Oct. 23)
     8.  Scorpio       (Oct. 24-Nov. 22)
     9.  Sagittarius   (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
     10. Capricorn     (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
     11. Aquarius      (Jan. 21-Feb. 19)
     12. Pisces        (Feb. 20-Mar. 20)

Those newspaper astrology columns only consider your sun sign. You actually have signs for the other astrological planets as well as the sun. Thus, real astrolgoy is much more complicated than what you get in the newspaper, or when someone asks, "What is your sign?"

It used to be that drawing up an astrological chart, or horroscope, required a lot of calculations. It is much easier now, though, because there are computer programs which do all the tedious work. The horroscope is a map of the sky for a given moment, and shows the position of the planets within the astrological signs. Diagramaticaly, a horoscope is a circle divided into twelve pie shaped parts. Each part is called a house, and contains 30 degrees (the total degrees in a circle being 360).

The Planets

Astrological planets are the planets of solar system, excluding the earth, and including the sun, and the moon. It may seem kind of odd to refer to the sun and the moon as planets, but that is how it is. We will refer to these astrological planets the same way in our other discussions on magick.

Thus, these astrological planets are: the sun, the moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, saturn, neptune, uranus, and pluto. The outer planets (neptune, uranus, and pluto) move slowley, and are were not known by the earlier astrologers, since they are a fairly recent discovery. These outer planets are therefore not as important in astrology and magick as the others.

After the astrologer has drawn up a horroscope, probably with his computer, or possibly by hand, he must then read and interpret it. This is an area where machines cannot replace human intuition. The human element in chart interpretation is essential, and a good astrologer draws on his psychic abilities to interpret a chart.

Correspondences

In magick we like to see relationships between things. If two things are related to one another, such as a color with an object, we say they 'correspond'. In the magical sense, things which correspond may be thought of as equal to one another. Tables of these relationships, called 'Correspondence Tables', are available (an important one is Crowley's '777'). Thus, one thing or symbol can be used to suggest another. This is important in magick, for the magician may surround himself with as many appropriate correspondences as he can to vividly affect the senses; making his magical contact with the inner planes more lucid. Many of the qualities of things we will discuss in this course are correespondences.

Planetary Correspondences

Here is a typical entry from a correspondence table which shows the planets, their corresponding metal, and attribute. Notice the number 'key' in the first column. Some correspondence tables may contain many columns of correspondences, but there is always a number key which may be used as a guide.

     Key   Planet       Metal        Attribute

     3     Saturn       lead         home
     4     Jupiter      tin          luck, wealth
     5     Mars         iron         anger, war-like
     6     Sun          gold         vitality
     7     Venus        copper       love
     8     Mercury      mercury      knowledge
     9     Moon         silver       emotions, travel

Days of the Week

The planets also correspond with days of the week. Monday, moon; ...

[To be continued...]

Magick sees relationships between things. These relationships are called 'correspondences'. Although magical correspondences are not literally equal to one another, you can think of them that way (such as gold equals sun). Tables of these relationships, called 'Correspondence Tables', are available (an important one is Crowley's '777'). Thus one thing or symbol can be used to suggest another. This is important in magick, for the magician may surround himself with as many appropriate correspondences as he can to vividly affect the senses; thus making his magical contact with the inner planes more lucid.

The magical elements have correspondences with the tarrot cards as the four suits. The four quarters (directions of the universe as used in magick ritual) and the Archangels also correspond with these same elements --

Element         Suit            Quarter         Archangel
=======         ====            =======         =========

earth           pentacles       north           Uriel
water           cups            west            Gabriel
fire            wands           south           Michael
air             swords          east            Raphael

Astrological signs also correspond with the elements. Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are earth signs. Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces are water signs. Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are fire signs. Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are air signs.

Elementals

The magical elements are said to be peopled by spirits and mythological entities called elementals or nature spirits. These are grouped into four main categories --

Gnome (earth)   Undine (water)  Salamander (fire)  Sylph (air)
=============   ==============  =================  ===========

dwarfs          nymphs          jin (genies)       fairies
elves           tritons                            storm angels
brownies        mermaids
hobgoblins      mermen
lepricauns      sirens
                harpies

Elementals are usually only visible to those with clairvoyant sight and are more likely to be seen at night in the mountains or country away from cities -- especially if you are tired or sleepy. Although elementals exist naturally, it is also possible to create one which will exist for a limited time -- no elemental has immortality. A created elemental is called an 'artificial elemental'.

To the Ancients, elementals were the physical explanation of the universe. However, some contemporary occultists see them only as symbols for forces and otherwise not 'real' at all. Another word sometimes used for elemental is 'familiar' (usually in medieval witchcraft); the term is ambiguous, as it might merely be an ordinary household pet such as a dog or cat.

Yin Yang

Chinese philosophy and acupuncture talk of yin yang. This is the idea of polarity, or opposite pairs, as shown --

        YIN                     YANG
        ===                     ====

        water                   fire
        contraction             expansion
        cold                    hot
        feminine                masculine
        moon                    sun
        negative                positive
        passive                 active
        ebb                     flow
        wane                    wax

The list could go on. In Chinese literature it is quite long. Some occultists suggest everything can be similarly arranged into related opposite pairs.

Simple Magick

Here is a simple magical technique you may wish to try. It is a variation of affirmation, which was discussed in an earlier lesson...To help you to achieve your goal (magical or otherwise), find a word or short phase which sums up what it is that you want to accomplish. Write the word (or phrase) down 10 times each day until you achieve success.

Review Questions

1) List the four elements.
2) What is an elemental?
3) What are correspondences?

Book List

William Britten, Art Magic (long out of print, but in some libraries).
Pete Carrol, Liber Null.
Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy.
Manly Hall, Unseen Forces.
Lynne McTaggart, The Intention Experiment.

Phil Hansford, 12/2007
Mysteria
http://www.mysteria.com
Box 234
Sierra Madre, CA 91025 USA

Please email comments and suggestions to:

phil@mysteria.com