City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells and Shamanism - Christopher Penczak 2001

The Elements
Urban Magick

THE SPIRITS AROUND US ARE ABUNDANTLY clear now. They are in everything, all around us. Totems are making themselves apparent. The new gods are showing their faces, and the old ones are wearing new clothes. The shaman’s worlds come into view. The magician’s secrets are revealed-partially. The practice of the witches is clearer now. Through ritual, they all gather the energies around them. They enter their ecstatic trances and deep meditations to infuse a desire into the ceremonial energy. They release the intention to do its work.

For the woodland witches, natural representatives from the four elements are probably near. The powers of the land and sky are with them, inspired by their setting. The green living land is beneath their feet. The clear sky covers them like a canopy. Ponds and streams are fairly common. Fire from the candle flame or bonfire guides many workings. These magick workers use the forces already present with them. They work in partnership with their setting. Urban spell casters may not relate as easily. The green land is not always beneath their feet. Instead, there is concrete, but other powers are at work. Their magical partners are all around the city. They need only to be recognized.

The Elements

So much importance is given to these four forms: earth, air, fire, and water. Some practitioners have difficulty understanding them. Everything is made out of a combination of the four elements. Alchemists told us so in their quest for gold. It sounds silly to the modern mind. I may have water in my body, but I certainly don’t have soil or rocks there. My desk is made of wood. If it had fire in it, it would burn. Water would make it a bit soggy as a writing surface. Logically, it is only dry wood, nails, and some paint; and, logically, wood and paint are its physical makeup. This view fails to recognize that there are many realities co-existing. Nothing is what is appears to be.

The elements are not always physical forms, but sometimes concepts represented by these physical materials. Through these concepts, we have a greater understanding of how all things exist on many levels. Although everything is a combination of elements, not all combinations have all elements visible. I may not have rocks and soil in my body, but I have a physical representation of the earth element in my bones, and in the minerals and trace metals throughout my body.

Earth embodies the physical aspect of existence. Everything on this common playground we have co-created and called the third dimension is represented by earth. Earth is physical structure, affected by rules of space and time. The planet’s surface, along with all soil, rock, crystals, minerals, and metals represents this simple, resilient physical structure. Earth is physical form.

Water is the first step away from the physical. Water is elusive and nebulous, flowing wherever there is room for it to move. Water has structure, but it is not as solid in its framework as earth. Water represents the emotions. All the elusive emotional aspects obviously have some sort of order and structure to them, but our responses to them can be unpredictable. Their structure is less stable and more intuitive. Logic from the earth gives sway to feeling, the realm of water.

Water is intimately connected to the astral. You can effectively argue that only human beings have an emotional component to their being, but everything with physical form has an astral component. The astral dimension is the energetic blueprint for the physical. It provides some of the framework for the physical body. Everything has some form of astral body. Living beings with some training or talent have more control over their astral forms, and can move freely along the astral plane, beyond space and time, leaving the perceptions of their physical bodies for a time. There are beings with an astral form who do not have or want a physical body.

Feelings often take form in the astral realms and then manifest in our physical form, particularly as disease. If you are upset about something and hold it in, the emotional energy creates tension in your astral body or somewhere around you. This tension manifests as a physical malady, depending on how strongly and how often you feel it. It may start as a headache or a weakening of your immune system, precipitating a cold, or eventually manifesting as a tumor or some other serious disease.

As in the physical world, air is above water, but the two are bonded, mixing and mingling in clouds and bubbles. Air is the realm of the mind. All thoughts move like currents of air. One moment they are here, then, like a breeze, they move on, to be replaced by another thought. Through thought, all form comes into being. The mental aspect brings the geometry of reality together. Understanding how things fit together can make them a reality. You need a concept before you can start a project. Reality consists of the thoughts of the divine mind, god, goddess, or however you may view a higher power. Thought manifests into reality, first creating a template in the astral realm, the realm of water. Thoughts often trigger emotions. As bonded as the two are, emotions can likewise travel upward and inspire new thoughts. After an astral form is created, the physical world can react, bringing it about in the realm of earth.

Farthest from the physical world is fire. Fire itself isn’t even a physical representation of this concept. Fire is the transition state between matter and energy, which embodies this concept very well. Fire is the unseen energy animating all things. Fire is the life force, the will and spirit permeating all things on all levels. Fire is the passion and energy of creation, and of destruction. Reality starts as a spirit and the desire to change. From that energy, a thought is created on the mental level. The thought trickles down to the astral and emotional realms, taking form. The creation can then condense and manifest in the physical. Fire is the key to this chain of events. Without the connection and infusion of spirit and will, none of this occurs.