The 4 elements and magical work

[anagogy]

So I've been thinking about elements in a magical sense and correlating them with the rays.

We have: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire

Another way we can think of them is as: Solids, Liquids, Gases, and Plasma (I find looking at them as the 4 states of matter helpful in divining their magical characteristics)

Earth is associated with stability and rigidness and holding to what you know with almost a stubborn surety, it is also strength of character, and the physical body.
Water is associated with emotion, and sensitivity to feeling, and the fluid change from one feeling to another and represents a cooling and contracting force, moving water erodes and contours earth.
Air is associated with the lightness of mind and "free flowing" thought and communication and is both the fuel for fire as well as the agent of directing the movement of the waves of water.
Fire is associated with creativity and is the force of heating things up and expanding them, it is also the "purifier", it controls air, and is representative of spirit.

This is just a very generalized and small list of the myriad of metaphysical correspondences. Of course there is WAY more to them.

I correlate them as such to the rays:

Red = Earth
Orange = The transformation or movement between Earth and Water
Yellow = Water
Green = The transformation or movement between Water and Air
Blue = Air
Indigo = The transformation or movement between Air and Fire
Violet = Fire

Earth element represents the malkuth (physical) world
Water element represents the astral (emotional) world
Air element represents the devachanic (mental) world
Fire element represents the buddhic (spiritual) world

Between the elements you have mixtures of elements and hence mixture of subtle worlds, so for example the orange ray layer is a mixture of earth and water, or physical and astral, thus, you have the lower astral, or lower emotional complex (you could think of it as "mud" which is the mixture of earth and water). Green is the mixture of water and air and is the higher astral (sort of like frothy or carbonated water). Indigo is the mixture of air and fire and represents the causal plane (hot air rising rapidly).

The main thing to grasp about the elements is that they have tangible and intangible characteristics which are both reflections of one another: physical/metaphysical

If one knows how, one can draw upon the magical or metaphysical characteristics of these elements and use them for energizing some quality or another. For example, red ray as the "earth energy" is great for energizing your physical body. It is the energy that "vitalizes" or "strengthens" the realm of malkuth. Similarly, invoking the thought form of fire can "purify" your mind by "burning away" or "evaporating" unnecessary water/emotional residue. These are just very small examples intended to make you think. Understanding the interlocking thoughtforms at the root of the cosmic and archetypical mind is a complex pursuit, but it is the gateway to understanding magic.

As Ra said "The principle behind any ritual of the white magical nature is to so configure the stimuli which reach down into the trunk of mind that this arrangement causes the generation of disciplined and purified emotion or love which then may be both protection and the key to the gateway to intelligent infinity."

While it is true you can just spend time visualizing your goals ala law of attraction, sometimes drawing on metaphysical imagery that is more in line with the archetypal reality can more effectively get at the thoughtforms which are binding us.

I'll just cement this understanding by leaving you with one last Ra quote: "[...] there is no need for the blunt instrument when the scalpel is available."

[Aion]

So what do you think of the idea of a fifth element then? Usually considered to be Spirit or Akasha.

[Night Owl]

What about ether?

[anagogy]

I'm familiar with the idea as it is portrayed in magical literature. I have no particular objection to it (nor attraction to it). The four elements arise out of being, which is commonly considered by many practitioners to be the fifth element (especially in relation to the formation of the pentagram). My philosophy is: if it is functional and useful to you in your rituals, visualization, and magical practices and you are getting good results from them, there is no reason to exclude it. I can certainly see the logic of it, and honestly it's interesting you brought that up because the "fifth element" as been on my mind a lot as of late, which is usually an indication to me that there is something there to be "decoded" about it that is being confused in popular literature. I'm just not entirely sure what yet. More research is needed. What are your thoughts in regards to it?

[Aion]

What about ether?

Same as Akasha/Spirit, it's the Fifth Element.

[anagogy]

One thing that is of interest to note in regards to a fifth element is that in regards to astrology, while there are earth signs, fire signs, air signs, and water signs, there are no "akasha signs".

So I'm not in any way saying it is of no use, but we might want to ask why that is? Possibly because the fifth element is not a "manifest" attribute. It is more like the "background" or environment they interact within. So it is sort of like a different kind of element from the other four. Not more or less important, just different.

[Aion]

I'm familiar with the idea as it is portrayed in magical literature. I have no particular objection to it (nor attraction to it). The four elements arise out of being, which is commonly considered by many practitioners to be the fifth element (especially in relation to the formation of the pentagram). My philosophy is: if it is functional and useful to you in your rituals, visualization, and magical practices and you are getting good results from them, there is no reason to exclude it. I can certainly see the logic of it, and honestly it's interesting you brought that up because the "fifth element" as been on my mind a lot as of late, which is usually an indication to me that there is something there to be "decoded" about it that is being confused in popular literature. I'm just not entirely sure what yet. More research is needed. What are your thoughts in regards to it?

Well, I have considered this quite a bit and I've seen the elements laid over the centers in all sorts of ways. At first I was in to this idea and the ideas that different levels would correspond with different elements, but the numbers have been continuously elusive. As I'm sure you have surmised there is no really easy way to fit them in without some creative license (such as you combining the elements for 'transitional' centers) and that is something I can get behind, but like you I still have this lingering sense that things are not quite understood and the story isn't quite complete.

I would say that the easiest way for me to approach it is from a 12 center system, a full octave, rather than a system of 7 in which case the elements would actually be associated with the major movements in the octave. For example:

Root - Red-Ray
Root to Sacral - Earth
Sacral - Orange-Ray
Sacral to Solar Plexus - Water
Solar Plexus - Yellow-Ray
Solar Plexus to Heart - Fire
Heart - Green-Ray
Throat - Blue-Ray
Throat to Third Eye - Air
Third Eye - Indigo-Ray
Third Eye to Crown - Spirit
Crown - Violet-Ray

As you can see, I've followed the note structure of C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B.

Thus, as you can see, in my conception the elements are more a mixture of light which occurs between rays, rather than being correlated with the rays themselves.

[Aion]

One thing that is of interest to note in regards to a fifth element is that in regards to astrology, while there are earth signs, fire signs, air signs, and water signs, there are no "akasha signs".

So I'm not in any way saying it is of no use, but we might want to ask why that is? Possibly because the fifth element is not a "manifest" attribute. It is more like the "background" or environment they interact within. So it is sort of like a different kind of element from the other four. Not more or less important, just different.

Ah, well to that we have to look at culture. The concept of Akasha comes from Hindu Tantrism. The four elements of traditional Western magic have come from many works but I think they are most likely rooted in witchcraft and druidry or hermeticism and Pythagorean type thought. The fifth elements is sometimes seen, sometimes not. However in Chinese lore there are five elements which are Water, Earth, Fire, Wood and Metal - so interestingly they have no air element.

So maybe we need to look farther as to this inconsistency across culture?

[Night Owl]

In your analogy, I think akasha would be like the song played by this octave of light.

[Aion]

In your analogy, I think akasha would be like the song played by this octave of light.

I would actually view it the opposite, Akasha is the raw elements of sound and vibration and the 'music' is all the elements and displays that come from it. However, if you look at my structure, I have placed Akasha as being between the Third Eye and the Crown, correlating with the Form-maker body and thus actually the basis for all other forms.

[Aion]

I think my structure is much easier to read and understand if you don't view it as a linear "top to bottom, bottom to top" but more of like a schematic of relationships.

[anagogy]

Ah, well to that we have to look at culture. The concept of Akasha comes from Hindu Tantrism. The four elements of traditional Western magic  have come from many works but I think they are most likely rooted in witchcraft and druidry or hermeticism and Pythagorean type thought. The fifth elements is sometimes seen, sometimes not. However in Chinese lore there are five elements which are Water, Earth, Fire, Wood and Metal - so interestingly they have no air element.

So maybe we need to look farther as to this inconsistency across culture?

In the chinese system of elements, as I understand it, wood is essentially analogous to spirit, and metal is analogous to the air (if you put them on pentagram). But personally, I think the chinese version makes no sense, but that's probably because that is not my culture.

It is also interesting to note that Ra never mentioned the 5th element in regards to the elements of 1st density. Again, not saying it isn't a thing, just that it is of some interesting consideration. I would consider spirit to be the combination of the other 4. It doesn't mean that it has no place in certain magical practices, because 5 is an important number in magic it would seem. It just plays a different role than the other four.

[Aion]

Yeah, Ra never really talks about it much however they do refer to the red-ray as the "elemental body without form", however they then refer to the "ectoplasm" of the green-ray body, not sure what that would correspond with, and then they refer to the "etheric" vehicle many times, yet never define ether or etheric in any way.

I think my thoughts are still the other way, that the elements emerge out of Spirit, but I don't think you can combine the elements to make Spirit. Again, sound is probably the best analogy for me. I would see Spirit as silence, with the elements being all the tones and sounds that emerge from the silence.

Of course, "elements" as a word just refers to "parts", so how they are used is always going to be the subjective issue.

[anagogy]

What I think most all of these systems are is simply a breaking down of an infinite spectrum into more finite and workable bite sized chunks. For example, you can define an infinite range of frequency of light or sound or thought, but it is a lot for the mind to deal with. So we have a rainbow of seven basic colors to concentrate on which makes it a bit more manageable and comprehensible. Same goes for the system of elements, it is just a breaking down of an infinite continuum into some core metaphysical ideas and concepts. Perhaps similar to the idea of "primary colors" by which by understanding the interaction of such can produce the other colors.

So is any analogy necessarily wrong? No, there are various advantages and disadvantages to any conceptualization no matter how well thought out. It is like a metaphysical system of math (which is less specifically defined than real math), by which you can roughly deduce or calculate another implied manifestation given a certain interaction. This is my understanding of the tarot, astrology, and tree of life.  
I think this topic is of a similar nature.

[Aion]

What I think most all of these systems are is simply a breaking down of an infinite spectrum into more finite and workable bite sized chunks. For example, you can define an infinite range of frequency of light or sound or thought, but it is a lot for the mind to deal with. So we have a rainbow of seven basic colors to concentrate on which makes it a bit more manageable and comprehensible. Same goes for the system of elements, it is just a breaking down of an infinite continuum into some core metaphysical ideas and concepts. Perhaps similar to the idea of "primary colors" by which by understanding the interaction of such can produce the other colors.

So is any analogy necessarily wrong? No, there are various advantages and disadvantages to any conceptualization no matter how well thought out. It is like a metaphysical system of math (which is less specifically defined than real math), by which you can roughly deduce or calculate another implied manifestation given a certain interaction. This is my understanding of the tarot, astrology, and tree of life.  
I think this topic is of a similar nature.

Pretty close to my own thoughts although I would actually argue it can be MORE specific than 'real math' since it can venture in to qualities more easily than regular mathematics.

My analogy would be that of chemistry. The elements are the elements and can be mixed in many ways. Some will find they come to the same results but maybe through a different process or maybe someone creates an 'isotope' or modified version of what is almost the same but a little different. I think the whole process of creating magical 'formulae' is to mix and match all the elements of the self together in order to achieve or realize certain balances between them and thereby allow them to grow. Just like in chemistry, however, I think that if you hit certain combinations they are "non-reversable" and these are the acts of initiation that magic, meditation and prayer work towards realizing. So, just finding the right formula for yourself is a process of self-refinement because you are the formula.

As the alchemists would say, 'the greatest experiment is the alchemist themselves'.