Earth elemental energy/influence

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 Earthy Magickal Law of Strength and Common Sense and the Magickal Principle of Effect are also statements of ‘the obvious’: all other influences being equal, the more dominant or stronger of two influences will have a stronger effect.

This Law is counter the dangerous naivety of the view that the higher or the nicer will always triumph. That may well be the case in the long term (i.e., millions of years), but to take that point of view is to risk the lackadaisical slackness of appeasement [2] that many people consider so key to Hitler’s rise and the resultant Second World War. Things are just as capable of getting ‘worse’ as they are getting ‘better’.

I consider that this is, basically, that rarest of commodities: common sense …

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 14^th September 1486 – 18^th 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:

• generative, and
• control.

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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