Further to my post “elements” https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2015/09/elements.html , the following is predominantly from my post “Post No. 562 - A Rethinking of the ‘Laws’ of Magick” https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2014/06/post-no-562-rethinking-of-laws-of-magick.html It is likely to change further over time.
The Airy Magickal Law of Distance
and the Magickal
Principle of Magickal Distance are statements of ‘the obvious’:
distance weakens an effect. In the physical, as an example, as one moves
location further away from a sound source, and stops to listen, the sound will
gradually become fainter, as the sound waves are spread over a larger area (and lose energy along the way for a range of
reasons). In magickal workings, distance is not physical, it is related to
nonphysical closeness or the lack thereof, as I wrote here:
if you are emotionally close to someone (e.g.,
you love them), you will find their nonphysical distance is low. If you
don’t ‘get’ someone (have no sense of
connection), the magickal distance will be larger, and any magickal working
would therefore require more effort.
Connection can also be related to thinking, so I’ve put this Law under
Air, but it could easily fit just as well elsewhere.
To place the above in context, the following
summarises all the laws and principles I proposed and use (and others
may use others that are valid for them):
The five Magickal ‘Laws’ are:
- the Etheric Law of Existence;
- the Fiery Magickal Law of the Taijitu;
- the Watery Magickal Law of Frequency;
- the Airy Magickal Law
of Distance (I would like to have used yellow as
the colour for this ‘Law’, but it doesn’t show up well enough);
- the Earthy Magickal Law of Strength and Common Sense.
The Etheric
Law of Existence contains the
following Magickal Principles:
- 1.
the Magickal Principle of Nonphysicality;
- 2.
the Magickal Principle of Energy;
The Fiery Magickal Law of the Taijitu contains the following Magickal Principles:
- 3.
the Magickal Principle of Dynamism;
- 4. the
Magickal Principle
of Opposites and Dynamic Balance;
- 5.
the Magickal Principle of the Opposite Seed Within.
The Watery Magickal Law of Frequency contains the following Magickal Principles:
- 6.
the Magickal Principle of Harmony;
- 7.
the Magickal Principle of Octaves and Cycles.
The Airy Magickal
Law of Distance contains the following Magickal Principles:
- 8.
the Magickal Principle
of Magickal Distance.
The Earthy Magickal Law of Strength and Common Sense
contains the following Magickal Principles:
- 9.
the Magickal Principle of Effect.
And from “Post No. 690 - More on Magickal Elements” https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2015/04/post-no-690-more-on-magickal-elements.html
... in
Agrippa’s Philosophy of Natural Magic: Complete Work on Natural Magic, White
& Black Magic, published in 1559 and being the first volume of his De
occulta philosophia libri tres. (Heinrich
Cornelius Agrippa lived 14th September 1486 – 18th February
1535, and was a German magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and
alchemist; I got my copy from the Ordo Aurum Solis’ on-line
public library, but modern versions have been published as well.)
In that, Mr. Agrippa states that each element has two properties, which
are various combinations of heat-cold and dry-moist. One property is referred
to as “proper”, and the other as “mean”. I haven’t explored that description
far enough as yet, but I suspect it means “higher octave/frequency expression”
and “lower octave/frequency octave expression”, in the sense of levels
- or frequencies - of reality.
Probably the clearest way for me to present that is in a (corrected) table:
Agrippa’s explanation is that the elements are in a sequence, where the
“mean” property of one becomes the “proper” property of the next.
Furthermore, the order that he has the elements listed in is the order
I use, if I travel around the outside of the pentagram in a clockwise
direction. This brought to mind what I had been taught about elements when studying
“Touch
for Health” back in the 80s, which was arranging the (Eastern) elements
into a pentagram, and viewing the interactions between them in two ways:
The generative cycle goes around the outside of the pentagram, in a
clockwise direction.
The control cycle is internal, and uses the sequence I use when drawing
a pentagram to invoke (top to lower
right, lower right to upper left, etc – and I am aware that some do that in a
different order, but I don’t consider this related to the direction of the sun:
more on that some other time). For an illustration of that, see here,
which is from here.
So, in this system (and, strictly
speaking, if I use Mr Agrippa’s system ӕther should perhaps be drawn either in the
centre, or encompassing all on the outside, rather than using a pentagram - but
when I have ever just stuck to using what I’ve been told? :) ), the “dryness”
of fire generates the “dryness” of earth, the “coldness” of earth generates
the “coldness” of water, etc, which could also be viewed as a category of what
I term the Magickal Principle of Harmony, or
what others term “like unto like”.
Also, if one had, say, an excess of stolidity (i.e., earth), one would
use ӕther to control it. If one was being distracted (an excess of air), use
earth to control it, and so on.
Now, in Touch For Health, when strengthening, one finishes by using the
control cycle to stop the effect continuing until it becomes unbalanced. So,
continuing with this exercise, possible uses of this way of viewing the
elements (and this no doubt has parallels with the old idea of humours, which
has – in the sense of physical medicine – been well and truly superceded) could
include:
- emotionally:
earth could steady (control) the mental flightiness of an excess of air, and
possibly the passion of fire could control some emotions, such as some forms of
depression, which may be an excess of water (depression
has many forms and causes, and ALWAYS
should be treated under competent medical supervision),
whereas
if one had a lack of emotion, one may need to use earth to stimulate that (e.g., if feeling numb and overwhelmed from
modern life, get out into nature); - physically (these examples are dreadful, I admit, but I’m tiring, now, after
several hours of this):
if a runny nose is due to an excess of water, it would be controlled by fire –
dry heat (and a visit to the chemist),
whereas
if one’s temperature is high due to an excess of fire, and application of air
would control it – so stand in front of a fan, in a sense; -
magickally:
an excess of water manifesting as flitting from one thing to another could be
controlled by a dose of fire – perhaps as passion for something,
whereas
being too passionate about something could be controlled by the inspired
thought of air.
I am going to have a go at adding this to my weekly psychic weather
reports, although many of those situations – as with all life – are more a case
of the blend
of elements. So a
situation may be, for instance, 50% earth, 20% air, 15% water, 10% fire
and 5% ӕther,
whereas it should, perhaps be 30% earth, 20% air, 15% water, 10% fire
and 25% ӕther. I'll be nominating an element to increase or to control
an influence, and another to finish to stop things becoming unbalanced.
To summarise this, I’m going to present a revised diagram (and corrected, for the initial error of properties) which summarises
what I have been talking about above, and includes a speculation that ӕther
includes all four “properties”. This also shows my association of sigils with
the elements – includes those of the (in
the Hermetic sense) kings of each element, which is something that must be
used with great caution (and is something I started exploring after reading Katherine Kerr's Deverry series).
I am also missing the sigil for ӕther. I don’t know what it should be …
so I will keep searching, and trying to earn the right to know.
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