Post by STORMDANCER on Jun 3, 2011 23:52:13 GMT
I thought that today I would write a bit about finding your elemental directions within magic. One thing I found when I started my practice yrs ago was that each book that I read said pretty much the same thing:
Air was in the East
Fire was in the South
Water was in the West
Earth was in the North
I always took this as fact until later on in my practice I was reading about something, it was an article about Air being in the North.. It was an argument about why Air should be in the North and not Earth. This really made me think deeply about the elements and directions and I realized that it just didn't feel right to me , to my inner self, to have Air being in the east and Earth being in the North...but for some reason within me Air just didn't feel right in the East.
This made me start to wonder about other pagans and what they do out there , so I went to my local pagan book shop and spent about two hours looking through all the pagan books and I found that most of the books that I looked in put Air as East and Earth as North...West Water and South Fire.
As I started to get into much more advanced higher magic in my studies I found that they were all over the place...There were just so many combinations of which element goes in which direction. I think that is because when new pagans are learning they need to be guided and as you develop you can start to change things from within your self so they ring true to you.. and so will work better for you.
I would strongly encourage all of you out there who are on the path of conscious creation and a magical path to find YOUR direction. You can either just do this intuitively by just thinking about it and asking yourself what naturally feels right to you....Where in your practice and your life...where do they go? Does it ring true more to the North for a certain element or to the South, to the West or to the East? Think about this with all the elements.
I always have this combination because it is just what is right for me and it works.
Air in the North
Earth in the South
Fire in the West
Water in the East
This is just how I feel naturally right in myself and that is how I do my directions for my elements. So I would strongly encourage you all to find where your elements lie as far as which direction.
A few ways that came to me about how you can do this are firstly intuition, but if you just can't think about it maybe go out into the elements and into nature, see how they feel, submerge yourself in them...Take time to get close to them...feel the earth in your hands, place your hands in a running stream, feel the wind on your face, light a candle...feel the energy that comes from them and the essence of the element within them...maybe ask the elements...'where are you in my practice?'...'what direction are you in within my practice?'...and this way when you do ritual it will have much more meaning because you know, for your practice and for your path, your life path and your spiritual path that that's where they are supposed to be for 'you'.
I have a few friends who's directions are completely different to mine as far as where each element is, so yes I would strongly encourage all of you to double check your elements, and the directions that they are in and see if that is what really rings true for you in your practice.
I really think this is something that will make your practice that much stronger no matter how long you have been practicing. I think it's just good to keep seeing if our path rings true because I know a lot of things I have done have changed a great deal over the years...They have changed sometimes completely and sometimes they change just a bit or just stay the same, but it's good to go over things and look inside to make sure that they still feel and ring true to you and where your practice is now. This is the beauty of being pagan etc and that is because it is a very changing, a very fluid practice for everyone, everyday, every year and every life time.
Storm xxx
Air was in the East
Fire was in the South
Water was in the West
Earth was in the North
I always took this as fact until later on in my practice I was reading about something, it was an article about Air being in the North.. It was an argument about why Air should be in the North and not Earth. This really made me think deeply about the elements and directions and I realized that it just didn't feel right to me , to my inner self, to have Air being in the east and Earth being in the North...but for some reason within me Air just didn't feel right in the East.
This made me start to wonder about other pagans and what they do out there , so I went to my local pagan book shop and spent about two hours looking through all the pagan books and I found that most of the books that I looked in put Air as East and Earth as North...West Water and South Fire.
As I started to get into much more advanced higher magic in my studies I found that they were all over the place...There were just so many combinations of which element goes in which direction. I think that is because when new pagans are learning they need to be guided and as you develop you can start to change things from within your self so they ring true to you.. and so will work better for you.
I would strongly encourage all of you out there who are on the path of conscious creation and a magical path to find YOUR direction. You can either just do this intuitively by just thinking about it and asking yourself what naturally feels right to you....Where in your practice and your life...where do they go? Does it ring true more to the North for a certain element or to the South, to the West or to the East? Think about this with all the elements.
I always have this combination because it is just what is right for me and it works.
Air in the North
Earth in the South
Fire in the West
Water in the East
This is just how I feel naturally right in myself and that is how I do my directions for my elements. So I would strongly encourage you all to find where your elements lie as far as which direction.
A few ways that came to me about how you can do this are firstly intuition, but if you just can't think about it maybe go out into the elements and into nature, see how they feel, submerge yourself in them...Take time to get close to them...feel the earth in your hands, place your hands in a running stream, feel the wind on your face, light a candle...feel the energy that comes from them and the essence of the element within them...maybe ask the elements...'where are you in my practice?'...'what direction are you in within my practice?'...and this way when you do ritual it will have much more meaning because you know, for your practice and for your path, your life path and your spiritual path that that's where they are supposed to be for 'you'.
I have a few friends who's directions are completely different to mine as far as where each element is, so yes I would strongly encourage all of you to double check your elements, and the directions that they are in and see if that is what really rings true for you in your practice.
I really think this is something that will make your practice that much stronger no matter how long you have been practicing. I think it's just good to keep seeing if our path rings true because I know a lot of things I have done have changed a great deal over the years...They have changed sometimes completely and sometimes they change just a bit or just stay the same, but it's good to go over things and look inside to make sure that they still feel and ring true to you and where your practice is now. This is the beauty of being pagan etc and that is because it is a very changing, a very fluid practice for everyone, everyday, every year and every life time.
Storm xxx
