Earth, air, fire and water are the oldest map of the world that Europe possesses. Wicca inherited it, and sets it out afresh on the floor each time a circle is cast.
The doctrine of the four elements was set out by the Greek philosopher Empedocles in the fifth century before the common era, and for two thousand years it was the ordinary science of Europe. Everything that exists, it held, is made of earth, air, fire and water in varying proportion. Medicine, astrology and alchemy were all built upon it, and so was ceremonial magic, from which it passed into the Craft.
No witch supposes that the elements are a rival to the periodic table. They are a way of sorting experience: a set of four qualities, found in the world and in ourselves, which between them leave very little out.
The four, and the fifth
| Element | Quarter | In nature | In ourselves | Time and season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | East | Wind, breath, the sky, birds | Thought, speech, learning | Dawn and spring |
| Fire | South | Flame, the sun, lightning | Will, courage, desire | Noon and summer |
| Water | West | Sea, rain, rivers, wells | Feeling, intuition, memory | Dusk and autumn |
| Earth | North | Soil, stone, forest, bone | The body, patience, craft | Midnight and winter |
To these is added a fifth, spirit, which is not a substance beside the others but that which unites them and gives them life. The pentagram, the five-pointed star that is the emblem of the Craft, is commonly read in this way: four points for the elements and the uppermost for spirit.
The quarters of the circle
When a circle is cast, the four elements are given their places at the four cardinal points, called the quarters. A candle stands at each. The arrangement in the table above, with air in the east and earth in the north, is the one that the Craft inherited from the magical orders of the nineteenth century, and it suits the British Isles well enough: the sun rises in the east, stands in the south at noon, and sets over the western sea.
At each quarter the guardians of that direction are called upon to witness the rite and to guard the circle. In the published rites they are called the Mighty Ones, or the Lords of the Watchtowers, a title that goes back to the ceremonial magic of Elizabethan England. They are summoned at the beginning of every circle and thanked and bidden farewell at the end.
The north has a particular standing. It is the one quarter of the sky in which the sun is never seen from these islands, and it has always been thought of as the place of mystery and of power. In many Gardnerian covens the altar stands in the north or faces it.
The elements and the tools
Each of the principal working tools is linked to an element. The pentacle belongs to earth and the cup to water, and on that everyone is agreed. The wand and the blade are another matter. Some covens give the wand to air and the athame to fire, and others the reverse, and the argument has been going on in a friendly way since the 1950s. On the altar, salt stands for earth, a bowl of water for water, the burning incense for air, and a candle flame for fire, so that all four are present and are used to consecrate the circle.
Working with the elements
A good part of a witch's early training is spent in making the elements more than a table to be memorised. A seeker in our outer court is asked to give a season to each. In the season of air they are set to study, to watch the weather and to attend to their breathing. In that of fire they work with candle flame and are asked what they actually want. In that of water they keep a record of their dreams and visit a spring, a river and the sea. In that of earth they walk the same path every week, learn the trees along it in their winter shapes, and practise being still.
The purpose is balance. Most people are strong in one or two elements and weak in the others: all thought and no feeling, or all fire and no patience. The old teaching is that a magician must possess all four in proportion, and the ideal is summed up in four verbs, each belonging to an element: to know, to will, to dare and to keep silent.
South of the equator
The correspondences given here were worked out in northern Europe, and witches elsewhere have had to consider how far they hold. In Australia and New Zealand the sun stands in the north at noon and the cold comes from the south. Many witches there accordingly place fire in the north and earth in the south, cast the circle in the direction of their own sun, and keep the Sabbats six months apart from ours. The principle is the one on which the Craft has always worked: the rite should fit the land on which it is performed.