Elements
What kind of elements are you talking about?
The spiral part in a stove? No!We are talking about the elements that are
recognized by many groups around the world.
There are 5 of them:Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit
The four elements (not including Sprit) have a great deal of symbolism attached to them Individually, they are often represented by shapes or other symbols. These symbols are often used in place of the element names when writing a ritual. When writing in a runic alphabet without capital letters, or writing in a second language like Latin, French of Gaelic, this can make it much easier to distinguish between a fire (light a fire) and Fire (light a candle to represent fire)
Sprit, the fifth element, is usually not symbolized. This could be because it is not part of the boundary of the circle or because many traditions don't consider Spirit as something invoked by a person casting a circle. It is a more ethereal element, brought to the circle by the practitioner and symbolized by the altar. Spirit acts to both unify and transcend the lower elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water.) Some view spirit as the seed necessary for the manifestation of the elements. In this sense, Spirit is information perceived as distinct from its medium. For example, if you could somehow remove all of the physical characteristics of an object without removing the object itself, the spirit of the object would be all that remains.
Viewed as Akasha, Spirit is synonymous with the sky, space, or ether. It is the substance upon which reality is impressed, just as an image is impressed upon film.
I have organized all the correspondences and symbolism of each of the elements onto its own page:
Want to learn more about the elements? Great!
Ethereal - 1 a : of or relating to the regions beyond the earth
b : CELESTIAL, HEAVENLY c : UNWORLDLY, SPIRITUALThe information on this page was compiled from my personal
BOS, The Magician's Companion by Bill Whitcomb and Practical Magic by Marian Green. However you should find that the correspondances for the elements are the same or at least similar no matter where you look because each element has those particular correspondances for a reason.
Background, bar and home graphics were made by me. They are for this
site only. © 2003 Kathleen Garber. Unless otherwise stated, the material
contained in this site is mine. That is © 1997 Kathleen Garber. You may use the material
from this site authored by me for personal use (e.g. BOS) but you may NOT
sell copies or post this on your webpage. If you are unsure if you can use something
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