Faeries & Elementals for Beginners: Learn About & Communicate With Nature Spirits (12 page)

“Hail salamanders, elementals of fire, kindling the will of God in all passions and desires. I send my greetings to you in your realms. I offer you my respect and mindfulness.

Blessed be!”

Water

Salute the west by kissing your dominant hand and holding

your palm to the west. In your mind’s eye, recall the most beautiful water scene you can remember, such as a quiet

moment by a stream, or a snorkeling trip in a tropical pool.

Keep the peaceful visualization going while you say:

“Hail undines, elementals of water, boldly evoking

the feelings of God within all people who dare. I send my

greetings to you in your realms. I offer you my respect and mindfulness. Blessed be!”

Cautionary Rules of Thumb with Elementals

As mentioned before, it is widely believed that elementals are mischievous tricksters at best and untamable wild dangers at worst. As a result, particular rules have developed
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in Western magical systems that aim to prevent elemental

energies from affecting you at times and in ways you do not want.

Be Polite

The first rule of thumb is to always give elementals the

courtesy of freedom. There are differing schools of thought on whether an elemental should be commanded or asked

for help or participation. Many magical traditions include the practice of ordering elementals around or even threatening them. Using an authoritative voice with elemen-

tals is not necessarily wrong, but for now consider using

phrases that sound more like polite requests. Pretend that the elementals are newly met family members you are just

getting to know. In time, you may easily be able to call out demands and the elementals will know that you respect and

care about them. But if a newly introduced stranger barks

out the same command, an elemental may be tempted to

react like an unruly child.

Another practice that beginners should avoid is impris-

oning elementals within any sort of fetter like a statue,

stone, or piece of jewelry. Although some people keep ele-

mentals in a physical form for rituals, it is a tremendous responsibility, far greater than for any pet.

A good friend of mine was once involved in magical

practices that led him to imprison elementals. He grew

toward a more peaceful live-and-let-live spirituality with age, but he still kept his elemental fetters. At one point, he showed them to me. One was a glittering amethyst crystal,

the other he claimed to actually be a part of a human jaw-

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bone. Both objects left me squirming uncomfortably; I felt what seemed like a powerful force of rage emanating from

them. Even though the crystal was beautiful, I wanted nothing more than to leave its presence and beat a hasty retreat from my friend’s home.

Keeping those elementals required great energy and

attention, all provided by my friend. After my visit, the

events that followed in his life were related to his affront to the earth elementals, I believe. He was unable to hold down his place of living or his job. He ended up having severe

issues with his friendships (yes, including the friendship he shared with me), and he ended up leaving his social circle and spiritual practice behind. I can only hope that he has released the elementals and moved on with his life. Holding any entity against its will can also have consequences if it were to break free and do mischief or take revenge on your home or upon a loved one. Again, allow elementals

the courtesy of freedom.

Give Offerings

Of course, giving a gift to an honored guest is part of being polite. However, more than just being a courtesy to the elementals, giving them an offering helps them to do their

work. Think of it as a physical law of exchange, in which

what you put into the working is exactly what you get

out of it. Putting time and thought into what you might

offer to an elemental will help you receive greater blessings from that elemental in exchange. Traditional offerings have included food and drink, or symbolic representations of

Communicating with Elementals to Understand and Help Your Life • 93

the elemental. You can always add herbs as an offering to

any ritual in order to increase its power.

Although herbs are mostly assigned to the earth ele-

mental realm, herbs contain the magic of all of the ele-

ments of nature. Air is represented by the fragrance of the herbs. Fire is within each plant’s ability to affect the body and the source of the fire energy comes from the sun which fueled its growth. Water is in the plant’s juices, but even in dried herbs remains present in the residual energy from

the plant’s growth and ability to nourish. Earth, of course, is represented by the herb’s physical manifestation, in the roots, berries, nuts, stems, fruits and all other parts you can see and touch.

Add Your Energy to the Work

It would be kind of neat to have amazing creatures on hand to do your bidding while you sit back and enjoy the labor

of your minions. I will admit that as a teenager I had hopes that I would be able to send a swarm of salamanders to

burn down the home of my enemy while I cackled and rev-

eled at my accomplishment. Instead, I ended up with my

own coffee table set on fire and was forced to face my own fears (as well as my parents’ ire) at my irresponsibility with candles.

If you want a creature to do all the work for you, con-

sider getting yourself a horse. Elementals are the very definition of wild, and they will not simply obey the command

of anyone who asks. Not only will you need to gain their

alliance, but you will have to add your own energy to the

exercise by both raising elemental energy from within

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through actions like dance or chanting, and by working

toward your goals in the everyday mundane sense of mak-

ing things more likely to happen.

Cast a Circle

It is a good idea to always cast a circle before summoning elementals. A circle is a magical boundary created in order to keep positive energies in, and often, negative energies out. You will notice that in the elemental honoring example on page 88, the elementals were greeted where they were

but not called to approach the practitioner or do anything.

For making requests, a circle is warranted to let the positive aspects of elementals reach you harmlessly, while creating a barrier against elemental intentions you may not

want. Note that you are still allowing the elementals their freedom, as the goal of the circle is not to trap elementals inside, but to be a healthy boundary for yourself.

Dismiss Elementals

If you do summon elementals into your presence, be sure

to politely thank them and tell them that it is okay to return to their realms and business as usual after your ritual. Stories abound in magical communities of instances where

dismissals were forgotten. For example, a forgotten water

elemental may cause flooding in your home, and a fire ele-

mental left without a dismissal may be the cause of several kitchen or electrical fires. If you forget a dismissal, or you feel you messed up and did it wrong somehow, go back

and do the dismissal all over again, even if you are halfway
Communicating with Elementals to Understand and Help Your Life • 95

through it or if you have moved on to something else. More about dismissals will be included later in ritual instructions.

Start with Earth

If you are feeling nervous about working directly with elementals, start with earth elementals. In many ceremonial

magical traditions, the first path of study is of earth. The reason is that the earth is constant, and earth elementals are known for their stability and relatively temperate personality when compared to other elementals. Begin by building

an earth altar and hailing the earth elementals daily, as earlier. You can also meditate on the earth element as will be described later. Only when you feel ready to reach out to all four elements should you start invoking them in a circle.

Seek balance

People tend to gravitate towards their favorite elemental. I’ll admit that I love fire. Fire is warm, shiny, exciting, and just dangerous enough to hold my interest. As for the other elements, air is invisible and ubiquitous enough to be boring, I’m a terrible gardener and find no joy in tilling the soil, and I can’t even swim in water. If I followed my tendencies, all of my rituals might be heavy on the fire magic without properly honoring the other elementals. Cultivating an elemental imbalance in your ritual space or in yourself can be troublesome.

When I was younger, I took my fascination with fire to

a magical extreme, and nearly all of my rituals had fire as their focus. I would spend hours gazing into candle flames, trying to make the flame dance with my mind. Soon I was

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delighted to find some success in making the flame die

down or pop back up again. I showed off to everyone who

would come and watch me put out the candles and then

grow the flame back again from the red smoldering wick.

My success made me focus more on fire elementals.

Pretty soon, I found myself less able to control the elemental I thought I had made to do my bidding. Instead of lighting a candle, some papers on my table would catch fire. Or candles would light while I was sleeping, which of course is very dangerous. I started developing some blisters almost

like burns on my palms. It happens that during a centering meditation, the palms should be the fire and water energy

vortices, but it became obvious that I was tremendously out of balance. I became scared about my lack of control over

the situation. I ended up solving the problem by learning to properly ground energy, and by never again going to such

ridiculous lengths to perfect those silly fire tricks.

Your magic can become less effective without equal

parts of all the universal elemental building blocks. You

may also begin to overwhelm yourself with an elemental’s

nature so that you start to have trouble with that element in your ritual space or your body such as burst pipes from water elementals or accidental fires from the salamanders.

Try to include other elementals in your ritual, at least in the circle casting, which will be discussed further below. If you love to do ritual work, try to alternate the elemental focus of each ritual you do.

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Bless with representatives of the elementals

Blessing an object, space, or person can be done by intro-

ducing the thing to be blessed to symbolic representations of the elementals. The most common example is to burn

incense, which represents both fire and air, and to sprin-

kle holy water, which is salted water to represent both earth and water. Any object can become a magical charm by

simply sprinkling and censing it, and any person or place

can receive the blessings of the elementals in the same way.

By bringing the elementals to meet your person, place, or

thing, you draw their attention and show them that you

desire their presence and good will. Even if asking for the blessings of a deity or some other entity, it is best to also sprinkle and cense to acknowledge the elementals.

Elementals in a ritual context

Elementals are used, at least indirectly, in nearly every Western magical tradition, especially when casting a circle. The reason for the use of elementals in any circle is because the four elements together represent all the ingredients of the universe. When a circle is cast, it functions as another world between the worlds. As a microcosm, any circle casting

should include all four elementals. The number four itself represents a stable foundation in numerology. Stability is needed before you can achieve any sort of growth, transformation, or magic.

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Seeing Elementals

Through the process of meditation or ritual invocation,

many will be able to see visions of elementals either in

the context of the magic circle, or in the mind’s eye. Others may not naturally be visual people, or may have a hard time catching sight of particular elementals. More about

connecting with the separate elementals is in the following chapters. You can try scrying, the practice of gazing into a ritual tool in order to see magical sights. To see air elementals, try scrying in incense smoke. For fire elementals, gaze into a bed of hot coals or the flame of a candle. For earth elementals, scry in a bowl of very dark earth. For water elementals, a dark bowl filled with water will do the trick. See the chapter on undines for more detailed instructions on

how to scry.

General Elemental Circle Casting

Step 1: Clearing the space

Before rituals, the space that is to be made sacred should be physically and energetically clean. Some choose to take a bath before the ritual. Sweeping the circle counterclockwise with a broom used only for ritual purposes can help cleanse the space energetically. Visualize any negativity or energies that are out of place being swept harmlessly away to dissipate into the earth.

Step 2: Grounding and centering

Now that you’ve cleansed your body and your space, your

mind and your inner energies may need to be relaxed and

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centered so that you can properly concentrate. If you need a reminder about technique, see the instructions under the meditation for inspiration earlier in this chapter.