Instagram Challenge: ELEMENT

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Today’s Witch With Me prompt (over on our Instagram) is: 𝔼𝕃𝔼𝕄𝔼ℕ𝕋

They are all so important in my practice, in most of your practices I’m sure. I don’t call quarters (or corners or whatever you personally call it – if you call it at all *haha*) in rituals usually but I am always recognizing them & their importance in our lives. Without north we don’t have earth; without east we don’t have air; without south we don’t have fire; without west we don’t have water; most importantly, without all of these directional elements – we don’t have spirit – the most 𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓁 element. It’s like the super important lesson I learned from one of my favorite childhood cartoons: you can have earth, fire, wind & water – but without heart, you don’t get CAPTAIN PLANET. MAN, was that show pagan as f**k or what?

There are many schools of thought as far as the alchemical structures of these elements, especially in witchcraft. Some place spirit in the center of the other four elements (this is what I do personally), some put spirit at the top of a pentacle with the rest of the elements descending in order from most spiritual to most material (in this case it would be fire, then air, water & finally earth – being the most “material”) to me this is a very subjective view of the elements because – as you’ll see later in this post – I put the most spiritual significance into ＥＡＲＴＨ. Another way to order them is with a pentaGRAM (different than a pentacle, a very important distinction – maybe WWM will let me write a blog post about this at a later date *wink*) with the pentagram form, the spirit is at the bottom point, while all four elements reside above it. So, in these different forms: the pentacle symbolizes spirit ruling over the four physical elements & the pentagram symbolizes spirit being subsumed by or descending into matter.

I use all five of these elements in my ‘Freyja’s Full Seiðr directional candle & associated elements magical ritual kit.’ Here are some correspondences that I use & other general correspondences:

Air / east / yellow / citrine / yellow rose petals
To represent, use: feather, incense, or the breath from your lungs
Waxing moon, spring, sunrise

Fire / south / red / jasper / red rose petals
To represent, use: matches, candle, a flame, or the fire of your spirit
Full moon, summer, noon

Water / west / blue / moonstone / blue rose petals
To represent use: any kind of water, or the blood coursing through your veins
Waning moon, autumn, sunset

Earth / north / green /amazonite / green leaves from a rose
To represent use: sand, dirt, salt, or something from your body – fingernails, hair, etc.
New moon, winter, midnight

Spirit / center / white / amethyst & clear quartz / white rose petals
To represent use: your intention, thoughts, magic, voice & everything within your spirit

Since SPIRIT isn’t an average element, its correspondences are a little different, harder to pin down. As always, you should go with what feels right to YOU. Your practice is your own & you are what makes anything in a ritual magical, not your tools or following a super specific set of instructions. Feel it out, what does spirit feel like to you?

That said, here are a few more correspondences for spirit:

Direction: Above, Below, Within // Colors: Violet, Orange, White (one of the reasons I use amethyst & clear quartz in my elemental candle representing spirit)

“𝔄𝔰 𝔞𝔟𝔬𝔳𝔢, 𝔰𝔬 𝔟𝔢𝔩𝔬𝔴, 𝔞𝔰 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫, 𝔰𝔬 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔲𝔱, 𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔲𝔫𝔦𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔢, 𝔰𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔬𝔲𝔩…”
― ℌ𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔢𝔰 𝔗𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔪𝔢𝔤𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔲𝔰

So, with ALL of those general correspondences taken care of – I wanted to take a moment to touch on my favorite element: ＥＡＲＴＨ. Earth is my element. Always, with my hands in the dirt, fingering the leaves of my herb garden every time I pass by, just to say hello – I love you. Always taking care to watch them grow, die, be reborn in spring & do it all over again the next cycle. Every time I make moon water, I make some special for my babies. My plant babies. I ask their permission before taking even one snip for my own “personal” purposes. My plants understand that my use of their bodies helps not only me, but others as well. The amount of 𝙼𝙰𝙶𝙸𝙲 that plants hold is immeasurable. What else in this physical world can die & come back to life like a plant?

Bundling herbs for my smudges & smidges – that’s where I am in – 𝕄𝕐 𝔼𝕃𝔼𝕄𝔼ℕ𝕋 – Drying herbs for incense, to add to moon salt, to carefully choose, pick, dry & drop inside spell bottles & jars. The element of earth will forever be special to me for all of these reasons & more. If you all haven’t checked out my feature on Witch Swap – head over, check it out & you’ll quickly see how & why earth became my favorite element. I owe these plants my life & they give me life every day they live. Even when they wither for a season, they give me so much power because I know – 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺 – to accept this as a fact of life. My OCD, my perfectionism, often makes me feel inadequate when a flower isn’t blooming to the size of a watermelon, when a mint leaf is half the size of my neighbors, when my basil all but up & dies (I’m looking at you Tracey…). My plants remind me that it’s ＯＫＡＹ to let things be as they are. They teach me that it’s unfair to compare them to the next bush. They tell me they are individuals, each with a personality of their own; some like to be watered less often than others, some need to be pruned regularly, while yet others need to grow & grow to reach their fullest potential. They remind me when I see the air blowing through their leaves, that we are all connected.