Elements and Direction

[Ula]

Watching the Buckland videos I was wondering if anyone else has choose different directions for their elements or 4 quarters to match their local landscape. I use North for air as it's where our weather comes in from. East for fire as the sun rises. South is earth and West is water as the river is in that direction. I was uneasy with the ones I was given and got very comfortable after the change. Has anyone else done this in their practice?

[aquafeeta]

I use the norm ones that everyone else seems to use but would LOVE to here opinions on this

[Symandinome]

I think this is a very interesting concept. Even though the traditional and commonly accepted of north=earth and east=air is widely used I think what you did was rised to the occasion and made this truely your own. I think its great that you changed their direction to match what is visibly accurate to your local area. I think that it in itself adds to the power of it.

It could be argued that despite what direction your wind comes from the energies of air are vibrational equal to that of the east and so on and so forth but I certainly cant say that you are wrong for doing this. I think ultimately these energies "just are" and whether you call upon them from north or south east or west is immaterial as you are speaking directly to the energy anyway. It knows where it comes from and it knows where to go it doesnt need us to direct it.

Who is to say that when our ancestors called upon the powers of these elements that they werent facing the directions you are choosing to face. There isnt any "book" or "text" dating back to paleolithic times saying that THIS IS THE WAY IT IS.

I think it is quite logical to assume in fact that our pagan ancestors would have done exactly what you are doing. If their wind came from the North then obviously they would have associated that direction with the wind and so on.

I think you are on to something very valuable here for you and your magickal life. You have caused me to stop and reflect on this and its possibilities and I applaud you for it. Dont stop questioning things, keep challenging them and finding your own truths.

[FireQueen]

Ula, you are awesome! I was just starting to examine the edges of this type of question myself this evening in relation to the northern hemisphere/southern hemisphere Moon phases and light directions (long story....), and you've just handed me the answer. Thank you!

Thank you too Symandinome! Together with Ula, you have helped me achieve a big ah ha! moment.

Brightest blessings.

[Symandinome]

I found this a very intriguing concept and I am going to sit myself down and really consider if I should change the way I do things as well. When I lived in Florida North for earth was perfect for me because the moutains and earthly things were to my north and the sun of course rises in the east and the equator was to my south but more importantly i was on the west coast of florida where the gulf of mexico is which is water ...Now that I am in the Netherlands its a whole new ball game. The weather here and everything else is very different including the relation of the elements to directions of where i am. I am so glad that Ula posed this question.

[Ula]

Wow! I am glad this has been helpful and interesting. I really felt awkward when I first started with the elements. Then one day when setting up I just started thinking and rearranging. There is an Adena burial mound south of my home and I kept thinking, that should be Earth and it snowballed. I was immediately more comfortable. I tell myself if it works it's not wrong but sometimes it's nice to have someone say it ok to do it that way. Thanks.

[Ula]

So the Adena mound I told you about is in the same town I work in. I want to put a rock from the mound on my alter to represent Earth on a local level. I am going at lunch tomorrow and making a small offering at the top of the mound. I will try to get some pics.

[Symandinome]

please do get pics id love to see it

[Ula]

please do get pics id love to see it

I still haven't got to do this yet. I will post pics when I can.

[Starwitch]

Sym left, so she may not see your photos, although I'd love to see them too if you post any. But I agree with you on the directions/elements. I was reading a review for the book The Simple Sabbat the other day and the reviewer mentioned how the author used different directions than what was typical for Wiccans. She didn't say how the author used them, only that it was different from North=earth. It occurred to me to wonder why we don't use South for Earth? and North for Air? The sky is up/north (though weather systems come in from West, so that could make sense too). The Earth is clearly SOUTH, right under our feet. And like you mentioned the Sun rises in the East, which makes sense to use East for fire, leaving West for water and since I'm surrounded by different bodies of water I'm sure I could find one in the West. I really think you're onto something here. It makes much more sense to use your local landscape and/or personal preferences when correlating the directions with the elements. After all, I'm fairly certain that the whole directions/elements thing was just made up at some point (by someone named Empedocles, whose writings have since been lost). If he can make up his own correlations, so can we. It would certainly make things simpler for beginners if the associations were changed to North/Air, South/Earth, East/Fire, West/Water. Thanks for bringing up this idea, Ula. I think it's a really good one. I've never been much for following other people's rules anyway.