Earth (East) (Represents
Emotion and Possessions) The Mother Goddess, the Earth is the organism
that is life. And to us, Life is a miracle, an anomoly in a lifeless
universe. The Earth is living. It feeds us, gives us
materials, beauty, terrible destruction and a place to hold us underneath the
sky. We are part of the cycle of living, our own bodies designed to
deteriorate into the earth once more. Perhaps there is resurrection in
the sense that molecules of air and earth and water continue to move.
Maybe a molecule in you was once a molecule in (name your favorite historical,
dead, figure.) The seasons affect the earth, and we watch, helpless to
the weather and its demands. Rain, rain, rain. Summertime's fecundity,
a thousand shades of green. Autumn cracks open with vibrant reds and
other tungsten colors as the plants die. The Wheel of the Year turns,
cycling towards death and rebirth. The Earth sustains those cycles for
us. The Earth is abundant.
Air (West) (Represents
the Intellect) The West Winds, the air is the magical component we need
for life's animation to occur. Without the link between air and Earth,
all life would die. The air moves in breezes and storms and it feeds the
flame. It holds and releases water. It allows the snow.
Incense smoke carries a prayer through the air to the heavens. The sky is
in itself an abstraction we live beneath. Where does it end?
Fire (South) (Represents
Creative Energies) The Fire, the essence of the God, Power, has to be
controlled, sometimes cannot be controlled. Fire rises from friction, and
so it is associated with more warlike, Horned-God power. It lights
balefire, incense, sage, and candles. We must extinguish flame and create
it. It transforms earth substances such as frankincense into air
substances.
Water (North)
(Represents Psychic Energies) The Water Goddess, the other sustainer of
life, aquatic life. Another universe of creatures, just as we on earth,
live in the element of water. The water sustains our bodies, our bodies
are almost entirely made up of water. Water falls upon us as rain or
snow, it feeds the earth which needs its drink just as we do.
Akasha is the fifth element, or Spirit.
This leads us to the questions of natural science versus the essence of
philosophical thought. This is the element of the heart and mind.
But, what is the heart? What is the mind?
