The Four Elements for Everyone

I think I first got interested in the elements out of laziness.

When I began studying Wicca and the occult, there was so much to learn. I think, for a beginner, it can all be a bit overwhelming, but this was especially true back in the 1980s. There were few books on the market then, and those that were available were often not exactly on point. We were reading hundred-year-old books on demonology in order to glean a few paragraphs of genuinely useful information. There was no Internet. Needless to say, it really was
the dark ages.

My teacher, Susan, was an astrologer, and astrological knowledge figured heavily in the witchcraft we studied. I was decidedly not an astrologer, although I was interested. She was also interested—although not expert—in Thelema, the magical-religious system of Aleister Crowley, as well as lodge magic generally. The magical systems she studied heavily emphasized a knowledge of astrology, the planets, and Kabbalah. I was a twenty-one-year-old beginner with my head spinning and my mouth hanging open. Susan also taught me Tarot. She like using Crowley’s Toth deck, which has planetary and astrological information on every card.

It was a lot to learn, and I was falling behind. I also didn’t really want to become an astrologer or a Thelemite (although I did fall in love with Tarot, a love that remains with me today).

But the four elements tied it all together. Air, Fire, Water, and Earth are crucial to astrology. I may not know a lot about charts or asteroids or what “void of course” means, but I know I’m an Earth sign, and I know what that means.

The elements are also integral to Tarot, where four suits correspond to the four elements. And they’re there again in Kabbalah, where each sephirah (sphere) exists in four emanations or worlds, each of which corresponds to an element.

The elements also permeate Wiccan ritual, which has four elements on the altar: burning incense for Air and Fire, a dish of water for Water, and a dish of salt for Earth. The elements are used when casting the circle, and then the quarters are called, each direction having a ruling element: Air in the East, Fire in the South, Water in the West, and Earth in the North.

So, as lazy me, I realized studying the elements was a way of getting a little bit of everything and getting a leg up on all the other areas of study I had yet to take on.

That knowledge helped me, and as I moved on and became a teacher myself, it helped mystudents. Starting with a grounding in the four elements was a way of making whole areas of occultism more accessible.

I love the simplicity of four, and I love viewing the world through that lens. Writing The Way of Four was a way of expressing that passion, and of deeply exploring the ways in which Air, Fire, Water, and Earth permeate our lives. By creating elemental exercises that anyone can do, and by rooting the elements in ordinary, day-to-day life, I was able to take the mysteries of the occult and bring them to any reader from any point of view. I called my book the “Way” of
Four because it is a pathway. You could almost call it a lifestyle, walking life’s road while finding the elements everywhere on it.