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on Witchcraft and magic; and unpublished works, mainly other Witches'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.