The Planetary and Elemental Work - Epilogue

In putting together my Planetary and Elemental Work series, various questions have come up on the different posts. Rather than requiring people to go back through those posts and the corresponding discussion points, this week I will be doing my best to summarize my answers to those questions, along with providing some addition information on them. As such, this article covers a lot of disparate points and jumps around quite a bit. But hopefully, in the end, it will all make sense as part of a whole.

The Kamea of the Moon is used for the elemental sigils because in Qabalah, the Moon is Yesod, the Foundation. It corresponds to personal realm below the Veil of Paroketh and is the ruler of the elemental realm, just as the Sun is the ruler of the planetary realm. There is thus no need to assemble a "Malkuth Kamea" for them based a 10 x 10 square, or anything like that. You can also use other traditional sigils for the elemental kings if you so desire. The Kamea method is just one way to generate their sigils, not the only way. They are intelligent spirits that will recognize your call according to any of the traditional techniques. This is also true with regard to the planetary angels.

The pentagram is a microcosmic figure, and the hexagram is a macrocosmic figure, but the elements have macrocosmic aspects just as the planet have microcosmic ones. The idea of using microcosmic aspects to influence macrocosmic aspects by employing some sort of resonance between the internal and external is pretty much how all practical magick works, and also the basic idea behind the operant model. So it would not be correct to argue that elemental operations are by necessity psychological, or that planetary operations are by necessity practical. Both classes of rituals can be used both ways, which is especially evident in initiatory work.

With regard to the Lesser, Greater, and Supreme classes of ritual as laid out in the modern Golden Dawn magical system, I dislike the nomenclature because there isn't really a progression from one to the next, or a hierarchy on which they all have places. They are different kinds of rituals that do different things, not steps on a ladder or positions in a hierarchy. Therefore, the idea that one is better than another doesn't really make sense. I have wondered over the years if the idea might have originated as a sort of marketing idea for beginning initiates. You learn the "lesser" forms with the promise of eventually getting your hands on the "greater" forms.

But essentially, Lesser means general and Greater means specific. Based on the example of the Supreme Pentagram, it looks as if Supreme might mean sephirothic, since the Supreme Pentagram is basically a Greater Ritual of the Pentagram for Malkuth employing all four elements. But that doesn't really fit either, unless you decide that the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram is just for paths, and when it is used for sephiroth it becomes a "Supreme Ritual of the Hexagram." And even if that were the case, I strongly believe that there really should not be a hierarchy set up between magick (paths) and mysticism (sephiroth) if we really want our terminology to be accurate.

The Elemental Work - Fire

This article is Part Four of a series. Part One can be found here, Part Two can be found here, and Part Three can be found here.

This article is the fourth entry in my Elemental Work series, covering the element of Fire. The basic symbol set of the Western Magical Tradition consists of the elements, planets, and signs of the zodiac, and realistically an effective magician should be familiar with how to work with all of them. This is the final entry of the series, wrapping it up with the element of Fire. As an aside, it seems appropriate to be posting this on Independence Day, which is celebrated with fireworks here in the United States.

The elemental schema used in the Thelemic and Golden Dawn systems involves five elements, adding Spirit to the classical arrangement. I will probably put together a ritual for Spirit at some point, but as there are only four traditional elemental Kings, the ritual will be significantly different in a number of respects from these four traditional operations. In effect, it will constitute its own ritual form, rather than partaking of the one used here.

If you've already read through the last three posts, you will probably find parts of this one repetitive. That's intentional, as I want each of these posts to be able to stand on its own without reference to the others. Incidentally, this has been one of the biggest challenges for me with respect to my Enochian books. I want each book to stand on its own, but at the same time I want to make sure that I re-hash as little as I can get away with.

According to the ancient Greek system, each element arises from the interaction of the Powers, which many modern magicians do not work with or even know about. The four powers are Warm/Cool and Moist/Dry. The Warm power separates things, while the Cool power merges them together. The Moist power breaks down structure, while the Dry power reinforces it.

I will not be going into a full discourse on the Powers and how they relate to the elements, but if you would like to delve deeper into the symbolism I recommend that you check out The Ancient Greek Esoteric Doctrine of the Elements by John Opsopaus. The links from that main page will allow you to explore these aspects of the classical elements, along with a lot of other related symbolism.

The Elemental Work - Air

This article is Part Three of a series. Part One can be found here, Part Two can be found here, and Part Four can be found here.

This article is the third in my Elemental Work series, covering the element of Air. The basic symbol set of the Western Magical Tradition consists of the elements, planets, and signs of the zodiac, and realistically an effective magician should be familiar with how to work with all of them. These basic conjuration rituals for each of the classical elements will be my "Magick Monday" posts for this week and next week, when I'll be wrapping up the series with the element of Fire.

The elemental schema used in the Thelemic and Golden Dawn systems involves five elements, adding Spirit to the classical arrangement. I will probably put together a ritual for Spirit at some point, but as there are only four traditional elemental Kings, the ritual will be significantly different in a number of respects. There also is the issue of Active versus Passive Spirit, and it might make more sense to do two separate Spirit rituals. But I haven't worked out what I want to do there yet.

If you've already read through my last two posts, you will probably find parts of this one repetitive. That's intentional, as I want each of these posts to be able to stand on its own without reference to the others. Incidentally, this has been one of the biggest challenges for me with respect to my Enochian books. I want each book to stand on its own, but at the same time I want to make sure that I re-hash as little as I can get away with.

According to the ancient Greek system, each element arises from the interaction of the Powers, which many modern magicians do not work with or even know about. The four powers are Warm/Cool and Moist/Dry. The Warm power separates things, while the Cool power merges them together. The Moist power breaks down structure, while the Dry power reinforces it.

I will not be going into a full discourse on the Powers and how they relate to the elements, but if you would like to delve deeper into the symbolism I recommend that you check out The Ancient Greek Esoteric Doctrine of the Elements by John Opsopaus. The links from that main page will allow you to explore these aspects of the classical elements, along with a lot of other related symbolism.

The Elemental Work - Water

This article is Part Two of a series. Part One can be found here, Part Three can be found here, and Part Four can be found here.

This article is the second in my Elemental Work series, covering the element of Water. The basic symbol set of the Western Magical Tradition consists of the elements, planets, and signs of the zodiac, and realistically an effective magician should be familiar with how to work with all of them. These basic conjuration rituals for each of the classical elements will be my "Magick Monday" posts for the next couple of weeks.

If you've already read through my Earth post, you will probably find parts of this one repetitive. That's intentional, as I want each of these posts to be able to stand on its own without reference to the others. Incidentally, this has been one of the biggest challenges for me with respect to my Enochian books. I want each book to stand on its own, but at the same time I want to make sure that I re-hash as little as I can get away with.

So why Water? The traditional order used in the Golden Dawn system when working the elements is Earth - Air - Water - Fire, inverting the elemental formula of YHVH. However, a number of practitioners have noted that when working through the series, the transition from Air to Water is especially difficult. When my magical working group did our first elemental series, we used that order and ran into the same problem. Earth and Air were smooth, but people started having all sorts of problems as soon as we hit Water.

When we decided to do a second series awhile later, we changed the order to Earth - Water - Air - Fire, going in density order rather than following the inverse YHVH formula. That one change seemed to fix the entire process, and it's quite logical if you think about it. If each element you work forms the foundation of the next, from a physical standpoint Air is a lousy foundation for Water. If this is reflected in the metaphysical realm, it suggests that the relative densities might be the source of the problem.

Based on that, we went ahead and adapted our rituals to use the Earth - Water - Air - Fire order rather than the inverse of YHVH. You'll even see it in our pathworking induction - it is the order in which the four layers of the aura are activated when preparing to manifest the body of light. If you use inverse YHVH and it works well for you, that's fine. You can work through Water after you work through Air, but if you want to use one of these rituals you will have to wait until next week.

The Elemental Work - Earth

This article is Part One of a series. Part Two can be found here, Part Three can be found here, and Part Four can be found here.

Years ago I posted a series of planetary operations designed to produce various practical effects. As the way I work magick has changed over the years, those rituals are similar to, but not identical with, how I would work the same operations today. So I was thinking at first that I might put together a series for "Magick Mondays" that would revisit the planetary work.

But then it occurred to me that one of things I have never posted here is a series of elemental operations constructed along the same lines as the planetary ones. The basic symbol set of the Western Magical Tradition consists of the elements, planets, and signs of the zodiac, and realistically an effective magician should be familiar with how to work with all of them. So the idea is to post a basic conjuration ritual for each of the classical elements as my "Magick Monday" posts for the next few weeks.

It should be obvious that the classical elements do not refer to "the elements" as applied in chemistry. Alchemists are sometimes ridiculed by modern chemists for having only four or five elements when we know today that there are over a hundred. But the classical elements refer not to the atomic composition of matter, but rather to the state of that matter.

So, for example, water in its liquid form is represented by elemental Water, but ice is represented by elemental Earth. Earth corresponds to solid, Water to liquid, Air to gas, Fire to plasma, and Spirit to energy. As another example, lava may be composed of molten rock, but as long as it is flowing it corresponds to Water. It then transitions back to Earth when it hardens.

In addition to equating Spirit with energy in general, you can also think of "Active Spirit" as energy in its pure form and "Passive Spirit" as matter in its pure form, with the ratio between the two represented by the famous physics formula E=MC^2. The other elements, then, could be thought of as mixtures of matter and energy in various proportions that manifest as the other four states.

Therefore, the classical elements are not necessarily quite as archaic as some scientists will lead you to believe. The issue is more one of terminology than of symbolism. It is true that the magical system has less to do with the composition of particular materials than the modern system of chemistry aside from particular metals and stones, but the states of matter represented by the classical elements are the same as those in modern chemistry.