Earth, Air, Fire, Water

Using the Four Natural Elements in Your Magickal Practice

Each of the four natural elements - earth, air, fire, water - have their own energetic signatures that permeate everything in our physical plane (at least on this planet). Everything has one or more of these elemental energies that corresponds with it, and this page will help get you started in using that knowledge to empower your magickal practice.

Starting with Earth, below you will find the basic energies of each of the four natural elements and some common correspondences. (A 'correspondence' is something that shares a connection or similarity with something else.)

Earth

The energy of Earth can be described in many ways. Here are a few of them:

• Cool
• Dense
• Feminine
• Grounding
• Healing
• Heavy
• Permanence
• Receptive
• Slow
• Solid
• Stabilizing
• Strength

So when you come across anything that shares some of those same energies, we say that it belongs to Earth, or that it has Earth-like qualities. Using Earth in your magick might look like this:

Say you have a very busy schedule - hectic and overwhelming - and you would like to slow it down a bit. You might then do some candle or sigil magick to help make that happen and you would include something that corresponds to the element of Earth such as a simple rock, or some herbs that share the same energies as Earth. Using the correspondences below, you can get a better idea of how you might incorporate Earth into your magick.

Earth Correspondences

Here are some common correspondences that belong to the Earth element:

• Zodiac Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
• Planets: Earth, Venus, and Saturn
• Tarot Suit: Pentacles
• Colors: Greens, Browns, Black
• Compass Direction: North
• Resources (sometimes money)
• Altar Tool: Pentacle
• Season: Winter
• Part of the Daylight Cycle: Midnight
• Manifestation
• The Physical Realm
• Fertility
• Protection
• Reliability
• Endurance
• Discipline
• Nature in general
• Healing
• Salt
• Dirt
• Wood
• Mountains
• Food in general but some foods correlate with other elements as well.
• Regular rocks and stones. Gemstones may have earth qualities, but many of them are attributed to different elements.
• Plants in general, but many of them also have additional energies and may belong to other elements.
• Mammals in general, but again, may have other elements associated with them.
• Percussion Instruments

Now that you get the gist of it, you can use the information on the remaining three natural elements in the same way. Keep scrolling to see them.

Air

Here are some of the energies that belong to the element of Air:

• Chaotic 
• Energizing 
• Fast
• Invisible 
• Lightweight 
• Masculine 
• Projective
• Temporary

Air Correspondences

Here are some common correspondences that belong to the Air element:

• Zodiac Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
• Planet: Mercury
• Tarot Suit: Swords
• Colors: Yellow, White, Clear, Light Blue
• Compass Direction: East
• Money, as in Currencies and Digital numbers in your bank account, or Digital currencies
• Altar Tool: Athame or Sword
• Season: Spring
• Part of the Daylight Cycle: Dawn
• The Intellect
• Knowledge
• Truth
• Books and Paper
• Libraries
• Schools
• Learning
• Communication and devices that communicate such as phones and computers
• The Sky
• Inspiration
• Invisibility
• Travel
  
• Birds and their Feathers in general, but may have other elements associated with different species.
• The Voice and Self-Expression

Fire

Here are some of the energies that belong to the element of Fire:

• Active 
• Bright
• Destructive 
• Fast 
• Hot 
• Lightweight
• Masculine
• Projective

Fire Correspondences

Here are some common correspondences that belong to the Fire element:

• Zodiac Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
• Planets: Sun, Mars, Pluto
• Tarot Suit: Wands
• Colors: Red, Orange, White
• Compass Direction: South
• Gold (The metal)
• Altar Tool: Wand
• Season: Summer
• Part of the Daylight Cycle: Noon
• Passion
• Creativity
• Lust
• Candles
• Taking Action
• Surgery and things related to blood and cutting
• War
• Purification
• Volcanoes
• Leadership
• Will Power
• Courage
• Confidence
• Anger, Rage
• Lions, Desert Animals, Komodo Dragon

Water

Here are some of the energies that belong to the element of Water:

• Cleansing
• Cold
• Erosive
• Feminine
• Flowing
• Peaceful
• Receptive
• Responsive

Water Correspondences

Here are some common correspondences that belong to the Water element:

• Zodiac Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
• Planets: Moon, Jupiter, Neptune
• Tarot Suit: Cups
• Colors: Blues, Purples
• Compass Direction: West
• Silver (The metal)
• Altar Tool: Chalice, Cauldron
• Season: Autumn
• Part of the Daylight Cycle: Dusk
• Psychic Abilities
• Intuition
• Secrets
• Hidden Enemies
• Healing
• Giving Birth (either to babies or new endeavors)
• Peace
• Cleansing
• All Bodies of Water
• Going with the Flow
• Emotions in General, Sadness and Depression especially
• Empathy
• Unconditional Love
• Compassion
• Subconscious
• All Water Animals, but some species may have additional elements associated with them.

Taking It a Step Further

Once you understand the basic energies and correspondences of each element, there is a deeper understanding of the elements that combines their attributes in order to tune into the activity of the element itself. This was introduced by the Golden Dawn to further describe the energies of the Court Cards in Tarot, but it can be applied to anything once you understand it.

Everything has a base element. Then we can apply another element to it (including doubling up on the base element) in order to describe how that base element is acting upon the physical plane. If we take the element of Fire for example, not all Fire expresses itself as a raging forest fire (Fire of Fire), but can also express itself in other ways such as Lava (Water of Fire), Floating Embers (Air of Fire), or a comforting Campfire or Hearth Fire (Earth of Fire).

Using the same principle for all of the elements, you are left with different energetic expressions of each of them - fine tuning the energies of what it is you're describing.

All of the Herbs and Gemstones I list on their relative pages will have these energetic expressions ascribed to them. By playing with the herbs and gemstones in question, and learning each of their magickal and energetic properties, you can get a feel for these different kinds of elemental expressions.

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Some research for this site was conducted with the assistance of ChatGPT. All information was checked for accuracy by the owner of SigilArtandMagick.com.

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