The 4 Elements

In general, magic assumes that there are four basic elements, though sometimes a fifth element is also included. These correspond with the Platonic elements, and are earth, air, fire, and water. Over and over again in magick, you’ll see the theme of four elements, four points, four directions.

For example, the four suits in tarot correspond with the four elements, and are identified with them. The four directions – north, south, east, and west – are each identified with a specific element. Even the twelve signs of the zodiac are divided among the elements, three in each section.

• Fire – a universal element considered both hot and dry, and associated Platonically with the tetrahedron. Fire, more than any other element, is associated with the power of being human; in legend after legend, a semidivine person steals fire from the gods to bring its blessings to humanity and set them apart from the animals. It is associated with the South, summer, and the color red; occasionally, the athame (ritual dagger) is associate with fire, though usually it’s associated with air. It represents energy, passion, and masculinity. It is associated with the Sun. Leo, Gemini, and Capricorn are fire signs.

• Earth – considered cold and dry, and associated Platonically with the cube. It is also associated with the East (or the North, depending on how Air is treated). Winter, the color green (or sometimes brown or yellow), and femininity are all part of Earth. It symbolizes and invokes strength, abundance, and stability. In Tarot, it’s associated with the pentacle, a powerful magickal symbol. Virgo, Taurus, and Aries are air signs.

• Water – a universal element considered cold and wet, and associated with the icosahedron, the direction West, the color blue, and autumn. It represents femininity, the soul, wisdom, and emotions, and is often invoked by pouring water over objects; pouring libation to the spirits, an ancient tradition, is a way to release their wisdom. Water is associated astrologically with the signs Scorpio, Cancer, and Pisces.

• Air – a universal power fundamentally important to life, as in “inspire”, “expire”, and the breath of life. Plato associated it with the octahedron, and it holds the qualities of hot and wet. The Chinese element wood is often associated with air, though in Tarot wood is associated with fire. Anaximenes, a Greek philosopher, taught that warm air condensed into water, then earth and rock. Diogenes (another Greek) associated air with intelligence and the soul, not surprising when one considers breath. It is also associated with the humor blood (sanguine), the spring, hermaphrodites, and (by the Greeks and native Americans) the direction North (though Golden Dawn associates it with the East). The dagger, or athame, represents the element of air in magickal workings, as does the color yellow. Air’s archangel is Raphael, angel is Chassan, ruler is Ariel, king is Paralda, and air elementals are called sylphs; it is the upper left point on the pentagram. Aquarius, Libra, and Sagittarius.

• The Fifth Element: Spirit or Will, sometimes associated with aether or quintessence, filled the universe above the terrestrial sphere, according to the Greeks. You can associate it instead with the power of focused thought. Quintessence cannot be changed, and thus belongs to the unalterable world of the Forms. It has no qualities and is associated with the circle. This, more than any other element, enables you to use magick and correspond with the godhead beyond ourselves. It is because of this last element that the pentagram is not shaped like a box. Rather, it has five corners. These corners identify with each of the four elements, with the addition of quintessence. This is the critical element for the casting of magic. Will shapes the other four elements, allowing the magic user to alter their reality to shape his or her needs. Without it, the other four elements are meaningless in magic. In many belief systems, it’s the single item that binds all other things together in oneness.

Every magic user deals in a different manner with the elements, but in every case you’ll find each element present in any magic spell that does not specifically exclude them for some reason. When trying to bend your will to achieve some end, have some physical representation of each of the four elements, even if it’s just the representative color; this will help you focus your power in the fifth element, where your working must go.