Directions:

Air: North
Fire: South
Earth: East
Water: West
 

AIR

ATTRIBUTES
Intellect
Communication
Knowledge
Concentration
Understanding
Secrets of the Dead
Angels
Telepathy
Wisdom
Prophecy
Movement
Karma
Speed
Memory

ANIMALS/TOTEMS
Hawk
Raven
Eagle
 
 

FIRE

ATTRIBUTES
Energy
Purifacation
Courage
Daring
Creativity
Higher Self
Success
Refinement
Arts
Transformation
Loyalty
Force
Material Abundance

ANIMALS/TOTEMS
Lion
Phoenix
Dragon
 
 

EARTH

ATTRIBUTES
Mystery
Growth
Fertility
Birth
Healing
Business
Industry
Conservation
Nature
Possessions
Forces/Bounty of Nature

ANIMALS/TOTEMS
Bear
Stag
Wolf
 
 

WATER

ATTRIBUTES
Intuition
Emotions
Inner Self
Flowing Movements
Power to Cleanse
Sympathy
Sympathy Love
Reflection
Dreams
Dreamtime
Currents and the Tides of Life

ANIMALS/TOTEMS
Dolphin
Swan
Crab
 
***************************************************************************
 

POSITIONS OF THE ELEMENTS UPON THE PENTACLE

EARTH: (lower left hand corner) represents stability and physical endurance.
FIRE: (lower right hand corner) represents courage and daring.
WATER: (upper right hand corner) represents emotions and intuition.
AIR: (upper left hand corner) represents intelligence and the arts.
SPIRIT: (at the topmost point) represents the All and the Divine.
 

***************************************************************************
 

RE-THINKING THE WATCHTOWERS
                     or
   13 Reasons Air should be in the North
  =======================================
              by Mike Nichols
      copyright 1989 by Mike Nichols
   (fondly dedicated to Kathy Whitworth)
    (WhiteHawk wholeheartedly agrees with this one, as it coincides with his Shamanistic past)
 
 INTRODUCTION
 
  It all started 20 years ago.  I was 16 years old then, and a
 recent initiate to the religion of Wicca.  Like most neophytes,
 I was eager to begin work on my Book of Shadows, the traditional
 manuscript liturgical book kept by most practicing Witches.  I
 copied down rituals, spells, recipes, poems, and tables of
 correspondences from every source I could lay hands on.  Those
 generally fell into two broad categories: published works, such
 as the many books available on Witchcraft and magic; and
 unpublished works, mainly other Witches' Books of Shadows.
 
      Twenty years ago, most of us were "traditional" enough to
 copy everything by hand.  (Today, photocopying and even computer
 modem transfers are becoming de rigueur.)  Always, we were
 admonished to copy "every dot and comma", making an exact
 transcription of the original, since any variation in the
 ceremony might cause major problems for the magician.  Seldom,
 if ever, did anyone pause to consider where these rituals came
 from in the first place, or who composed them.  Most of us,
 alas, did not know and did not care.  It was enough just to
 follow the rubrics and do the rituals as prescribed.
 
      But something brought me to an abrupt halt in my copying
 frenzy.  I had dutifully copied rituals from different sources,
 and suddenly realized they contained conflicting elements.  I
 found myself comparing the two versions, wondering which one was
 "right", "correct", "authentic", "original", "older", etc.  This
 gave rise to the more general questions about where a ritual
 came from in the first place.  Who created it?  Was it created
 by one person or many?  Was it ever altered in transmission?  If
 so, was it by accident or intent?  Do we know?  Is there ever
 any way to find out?  How did a particular ritual get into a
 Coven's Book of Shadows?  From another, older, Book of Shadows?
 Or from a published source?  If so, where did the author of the
 published work get it?
 
      I had barely scratched the surface, and yet I could already
 see that the questions being raised were very complex.  (Now,
 all these years later, I am more convinced than ever of the
 daunting complexity of Neo-Pagan liturgical history.  And I am
 equally convinced of the great importance of this topic for a
 thorough understanding of modern Witchcraft.  It may well be a
 mare's nest, but imagine the value it will have to future Craft
 historians.  And you are unconditionally guaranteed to see me
 fly into a passionate tirade whenever I'm confronted with such
 banal over-simplifications as "Crowley is the REAL author of the
 Third Degree initiation," or "Everyone KNOWS Gardner INVENTED
 modern Witchcraft.")
 
 
 CONFLICTING TRADITIONS
 
      The first time I noticed conflicting ritual elements was
 when I was invited as a guest to attend another Coven's esbat
 celebration.  When the time came to "invoke the Watchtowers" (a
 ritual salutation to the four directions), I was amazed to learn
 that this group associated the element of Earth with the North.
 My own Coven equated North with Air.  How odd, I thought.
 Where'd they get that?  The High Priestess told me it had been
 copied out of a number of published sources.  Further, she said
 she had never seen it listed any other way.  I raced home and
 began tearing books from my own library shelves.  And sure
 enough!  Practically every book I consulted gave the following
 associations as standard: North = Earth, East = Air, South =
 Fire, West = Water.
 
      Then where the heck did I get the idea that Air belonged in
 the North?  After much thought, I remembered having copied my
 own elemental/directional associations from another Witch's Book
 of Shadows, her Book representing (so she claimed) an old Welsh
 tradition.  Perhaps I'd copied it down wrong?  A quick
 long-distance phone call put my mind at ease on that score.
 (When I asked her where she'd gotten it, she said she THOUGHT it
 was from an even older Book of Shadows, but she wasn't certain.)
 
      By now, I felt miffed that my own tradition seemed to be at
 variance with most published sources.  Still, my own rituals
 didn't seem to be adversely affected.  Nor were those of my
 fellow Coven members, all of whom put Air in the North.
 Further, over the years I had amassed lots of associations and
 correspondences that seemed to REQUIRE Air to be in the North.
 The very thought of Air in the East offended both my sense of
 reason and my gut-level mythic sensibilities.  There are good
 REASONS to place Air in the North.  And the whole mythological
 superstructure would collapse if Air were in the East, instead.
 If this is so, then why do most published sources place Earth in
 the North and Air in the East?

 
 RITUAL TAMPERING
 
      Suddenly, I felt sure I knew the reason!  Somewhere along
 the line, someone had deliberately tampered with the
 information!  Such tampering is a long and venerable practice
 within certain branches of magic.  In Western culture, it is
 most typically seen among Hermetic, Cabalistic and "ceremonial"
 magic lodges.  It is common among such groups that, when
 publishing their rituals for public consumption, they will
 publish versions that are INCOMPLETE and/or deliberately ALTERED
 in some way from the authentic practice.  This prevents someone
 who is NOT a member of the group from simply buying a book, and
 performing the rituals, without benefit of formal training.  It
 is only when you are initiated into the lodge that you will be
 given the COMPLETE and/or CORRECTED versions of their rituals.
 This is how such groups guard their secrets.  (And it is a
 telling postscript that many scholars now believe modern
 Witchcraft to have "borrowed" its directional/elemental
 correspondences from ceremonial magic sources!  What a laugh if
 this was Crowley's last best joke on his friend Gerald Gardner!)
 
      I remember the first time I became aware of such deliberate
 ritual tampering.  A friend of mine had been making a study of
 the so-called "planetary squares", talismans that look like
 magic squares consisting of a grid of numbers in some cryptic
 order.  There are seven such squares -- one for each of the
 "old" planets.  While making this study, he began coloring the
 grids (more for his own pleasure than anything else), making
 colorful mini-mosaics, using first two colors, then three, then
 four, and on up to the total number of squares in the grid.  Six
 of the planetary squares yielded pleasing patterns of color.
 Then there was the Sun square!  Against all expectation, the
 colors were a random jumble, with no patterns emerging.  Thus,
 he began his quest for the CORRECTED Sun square.  And I became
 convinced of the reality of ritual tampering.
 
 THE WATCHTOWERS
 
      All that remains, then, is for me to assemble all the
 arguments in favor of the Air-in-the-North model, which I have
 now come to believe is the CORRECTED system of correspondences.
 The remainder of this article will be devoted to those
 arguments, each with its own name and number:
 
      1. AIRTS: This is perhaps the strongest argument.  In
 Celtic countries, the four elemental/directional associations
 are referred to as the "four airts".  And it is a known fact that
 this tradition associates Air with North.  While it is true that
 some writers, familiar with ceremonial magic (like William Sharp
 and Doreen Valiente), have given "tampered" versions of the
 airts, it is a telling point that folklorists working directly
 with native oral traditions (like Alexander Carmichael and F.
 Marian McNeill) invariably report the Air/North connection.

 
      2. PARALLEL CULTURES: Although arguing from parallel
 cultures may not be as convincing, it is still instructive to
 examine other magical aboriginal cultures in the Western
 hemisphere.  For example, the vast majority of Native American
 tribes (themselves no slouches in the area of magic!) place Air
 in the North, which they symbolize by the Eagle.  (Aboriginal
 cultures lying south of the equator typically have different
 associations, for reasons I will discuss next.)
 
      3. GEOPHYSICAL: If one accepts the insular British origins
 of elemental directions, then one must imagine living in the
 British Isles.  To the West is the vast expanse of the Atlantic
 Ocean (i.e.  water).  To the East, the bulk of the European land
 mass (earth).  South has always been the direction of fire
 because, as one travels south (toward the equator), it gets
 warmer.  Which leaves North as the region of air, home of the
 icy winds of winter.  (These last two associations would be
 reversed for cultures in the southern hemisphere, for whom north
 is the direction of the warm equatorial region, and south is the
 land of ice.)
 
      4. HYPERBOREAN: In fact, an ancient name for the British
 Isles was "Hyperboria", which literally means "behind the north
 wind", thus associating north and wind (air) once more.  The
 inhabitants were themselves called "Hyperborians", and the
 phrase "at the back of the north wind" (the title of one of
 George MacDonald's faery romances) is still current.  Of all the
 winds of the compass, it is unquestionably the north wind
 (Boreas), bringer of winter, which is perceived as the strongest
 and most influential (cf.  Robert Grave's goddess fantasy "Watch
 the North Wind Rise").  You don't hear too much about the other
 three cardinal winds.
 
      5. SEASONAL: Many occultists associate the four seasons
 with the four cardinal points, as well.  Hence, winter = north,
 spring = east, summer = south, and autumn = west.  (To be
 precise, it is the solstice and equinox points which align with
 the cardinal points.)  Again, in most folklore, winter is
 associated with air and wind, as the icy blasts that usher in
 the season.  In spring, it is the earth which arrests our
 attention, with its sudden riot of blooms and greenery.  Again,
 south relates to summer, the hottest season (fire), and west
 relates to autumn.
 
      6. DIURNAL: Occultists also often associate the cardinal
 points of a single day to the four compass points.  Thus,
 midnight = north, sunrise = east, noon = south, and sunset =
 west.  (Please note that we are talking about TRUE midnight and
 TRUE noon here, the points halfway between sunset and sunrise,
 and between sunrise and sunset, respectively.)  These associate
 nicely with the seasonal attributes just discussed.  It is easy
 to see why sunrise should equate to east, and sunset to west.
 And, once again, from the perspective of the British Isles, the
 sun rises over land (earth) and sets over the ocean (water).
 South is related to noon because it is the moment of greatest
 heat (fire).  Leaving the "invisible" element of air to be
 associated with the sun's invisibility, at midnight.
 
 
    7. MYTHOLOGICAL: In Celtic mythology, north is invariably
 associated with air.  The pre-Christian Irish gods and
 goddesses, the Tuatha De Danann, were "airy" faeries (later
 versions came equipped with wings, relating them to sylphs).  The
 Book of Conquests states their original home was in the north,
 "at the back of the north wind".  And when they came to Ireland,
 they came in ships, THROUGH THE UPPER AIR (!), settling on the
 mountain tops.  (It has always struck me as odd that some modern
 writers see mountains as a symbol of earth.  The crucial
 symbolism of the mountain is its height, rising into the air,
 touching the sky.  Virtually all Eastern traditions associate
 mountains, favorite abodes of gurus, with air.  A CAVE would be
 a better symbol of earth than a mountain.)  In Welsh mythology,
 too, Math the Ancient, chief god of Gwynedd (or NORTH Wales), is
 specifically associated with wind, which can carry people's
 thoughts to him.
 
      8. YIN/YANG: Many occultists believe that the four elements
 have yin/yang connections.  Both air and fire are seen as
 masculine, while earth and water are seen as feminine.  If air
 is associated with the north point of the magic circle, and
 earth is east, then one achieves a yin/yang alternation as one
 circumambulates the circle.  As one passes the cardinal points
 of east, south, west, and north, one passes feminine, masculine,
 feminine, masculine energies.  This alternating flux of
 plus/minus, push/pull, masculine/feminine, is the very pulse of
 the universe, considered of great importance by most occultists.
 That it was equally important to our ancestors is evidenced by
 standing stones in the British Isles.  At sites like the Kennet
 Avenue of Braga, the tall, slender, masculine, phallic stones
 alternate precisely with the shorter, diamond-shaped yoni
 stones.
 
      9. GENERATOR: This argument flows out of the previous one.
 Practicing magicians often think of the magic circle as a kind
 of psychic generator.  Witches in particular like to perform
 circle dances to "raise the cone of power".  Hand in hand, and
 alternating man and woman, they dance clockwise (deosil) around
 the circle, moving faster and faster until the power is
 released.  This model has an uncanny resemblance to an
 electrical generator, as man and woman alternately pass each of
 the four "poles" of the magic circle.  These poles themselves
 MUST alternate between plus and minus if power is to be raised.
 This means that if the masculine fire is in the south, then the
 masculine air MUST be in the north.  If the feminine water is in
 the west, then the feminine earth MUST be in the east.  If any
 adjacent pair were switched, the generator would stop dead.
 

      10. MASCULINE/FEMININE AXIS: When you look at a typical
 map, north (the cardinal direction) is at the top.  Any
 north-south road is a vertical line, and any east-west road is a
 horizontal line.  Likewise, a "map" of a magic circle makes the
 vertical north-south axis masculine (with air and fire), while
 the horizontal east-west axis is feminine (earth and water).
 This makes logical sense.  When we look at the horizon of the
 earth, we see a horizontal line.  Water also seeks a horizontal
 plane.  Feminine elements, considered "passive", have a natural
 tendency to "lay down".  Fire, on the other hand, always assumes
 an erect or vertical position.  Air, too, can rise upward, as
 earth and water cannot.  Masculine elements, being "active",
 have a natural tendency to "stand up".
 
      11. ALTAR TOOLS: In modern Witchcraft, there are four
 principal altar tools, the same four tools shown on the Tarot
 card, the Magician.  They also correspond to the four Tarot
 suits, the four ancient treasures of Ireland, and the four
 "hallows" of Arthurian legend.  And, like the four elements, two
 of them are feminine and two of them are masculine.  The
 pentacle is a shallow dish inscribed with a pentagram,
 representing earth, and is here placed in the east.  The
 womb-shaped chalice, symbolizing water, is placed in the west.
 They form the horizontal feminine axis.  The phallic-shaped
 wand, representing fire, is placed in the south.  And the
 equally phallic-shaped athame is placed in the north.  They form
 the vertical masculine axis.  (The gender associations of cup
 and blade are especially emphasized in the ritual blessing of
 wine.)
 
      12. AXIS SYMBOLISM: In nearly every culture, the vertical
 line is a symbol of yang, or masculine energy.  The horizontal
 line is yin, feminine energy.  When the vertical masculine line
 penetrates the horizontal feminine line, forming the ancient
 Pagan symbol of the equal-armed cross, it becomes a symbol of
 life, and life-force.  Place a circle around it or on it, and
 you have a circle-cross or "Celtic" cross, symbol of everlasting
 life.  (Please note the importance of the EQUAL-armed cross.  If
 one arm is longer or shorter, then the four elements are out of
 balance.  The Christian or "Roman" cross, for example, has an
 extended southern arm.  And many historians have commented on
 Christianity's excess of "fire" or zeal.  Some versions actually
 show a shortened northern arm, indicating a dearth of "air" or
 intellectual qualities.)

 
      13. ASTROLOGICAL: The astrological year is divided into
 four equal quadrants, each beginning at a solstice or equinox.
 And each quadrant is governed by one of the four elements.
 Which element can be discovered by examining the exact MID-POINT
 of the quadrant.  For example, the first quadrant, beginning at
 the winter solstice (north) is governed by air, which rules 15
 degrees Aquarius, symbolized by the Man or Spirit.  The second
 quadrant, beginning at the spring equinox (east) is governed by
 earth, which rules 15 degrees Taurus, the Bull.  The third
 quadrant, beginning at the summer solstice (south) is governed
 by fire, which rules 15 degrees Leo, the Lion.  And the fourth
 quadrant, beginning at the fall equinox (west) is governed by
 water, which rules 15 degrees Scorpio, here symbolized by the
 Eagle.  Thus, north, east, south and west correspond to air,
 earth, fire, and water, and to man, bull, lion, and eagle,
 respectively.  If the last four symbols seem familiar, it is
 because they represent the four elemental power points of the
 astrological year, and their symbols appear in the four corners
 of the Tarot cards, the World and the Wheel of Fortune.  (The
 same figures were later adopted by Christians as symbols of the
 four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.)
 
       If those are the arguments in favor of Air-in-the-North,
 where are the counter-arguments in favor of Earth-in-the-North?
 Surprisingly, I've heard very few.  The most common by far is
 "But we've always done it this way." Not too convincing.
 However, no matter HOW persuasive my arguments may be, many have
 countered that magic doesn't lend itself to rational arguments.
 It's what FEELS right that counts.  True.  And there's no
 denying that many practitioners do just fine with earth in the
 north.  Granted.  Still, if they've never tried it the other
 way, how would they really know?
 
      My challenge to my fellow practitioners then is this: give
 Air-in-the-North a shot.  Just try it on for size.  See what it
 feels like.  And not for just a single ritual.  It'll take
 several tries just to overcome your habitual ritual mindset.
 And nothing is as habitual as ritual!  So in order to give this
 a fair shake, you'll have to do a whole series of rituals with
 air in the north.  And go into it with an open mind.  Like all
 magic, if you decide ahead of time it won't work, it won't.
 Then, once you've tried it, compare it to your old method.  Ask
 yourself what's different, if it worked any better, and why or
 why not.  And let me know.  I'd enjoy hearing about your
 experiences.