Episode 2: Elements and Cardinal Directions

The Barnstar is a show exploring esoteric knowledge, religion, the occult, and the supernatural. The host, Spencer, discusses the significance of symbols in early human culture and their connection to the universe. In this episode, he focuses on the cardinal points (north, south, east, and west) and the elemental forces (earth, air, fire, water, and ether). He explains the correspondences between these principles and how they shape our understanding of the world. Spencer emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary understanding and encourages viewers to develop their own perspectives. He provides a basic overview of each principle, starting with earth representing the north, which symbolizes stability and grounding. He also briefly mentions astrology and the zodiac signs associated with each element. Spencer acknowledges that he can't cover every aspect in one episode and plans to explore these concepts in more detail in the future. Welcome to the Barnstar. I'm Spencer, your guide through the mystical world of esoteric knowledge, religion, the occult, and the supernatural. Join me as we explore the enigmatic tapestry of culture and engage in thought-provoking discussion. Whether you're a seasoned seeker or a curious newcomer, you'll find a comfortable space here to unravel the mysteries that lie beyond the edges of reason. So, let's embark on this journey together and delve into the depths of the unexplained. I'm Spencer, and this is the Barnstar, where the familiar meets the mysterious. Let us go to that meeting place together. Let us all converge at the Barnstar. Surrounded by the awe-inspiring majesty of nature and the enigmatic allure of the cosmos, early humanity found itself immersed in a world filled with symbols that held profound significance to the very survival of man and the very heart of our belief. The elemental forces, cardinal directions, and other simple yet powerful emblems have always been front and foremost in our continuing search of truth within nature and within ourselves. These grand designs and heavenly happenings have always awed and inspired humanity in their simple truths, shaping our understanding of the universe and serving as the starting points of all esoteric knowledge. It is no wonder that these symbols became the focal points of contemplation, reverence, and inquiry, as they were inseparable from the fabric of human existence. For early man, the natural world was an ever-present tableau of symbols, each carrying within it the mysteries of creation, cycles of life and death, and their interconnectedness of all things. The rising sun, the flowing waters, the towering mountains, and the whispering winds all spoke a language of symbolism that beckoned humanity to ponder the hidden depths of their meaning, and thus find that piece of sacred truth reflected in self. In the face of such majesty, it was inevitable that early man would seek to unravel the enigma of these symbols, delving into their hidden truths and seeking to fathom the mysteries of their existence, just as we strive to do here today. Particularly when it comes to the classification and understanding of these two behemoth principles, the cardinal points north, south, east, and west, and the elemental forces fire, air, earth, water, and ether, we have the distinct opportunity to refer to episode one in our discussion on the Hermetic Law of Correspondence. What we find in this exercise of understanding is that the two principles of cardinality and elementality are so enmeshed that it is hard to separate them from each other. That being said, I thought that it would be logical to start by recognizing the specific correspondences first and give a basic overview of each. A Quote by Manley P. Hall Pythagoras said that the universal creator had formed two things in his own image. The first was the cosmic system, with its myriads of suns, moons, and planets. The second was man, in whose nature the entire universe existed in miniature. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Barn Star. I'm Spencer, your host, and I am thrilled to be here today with you. Today, on this beautiful early spring day, we are going to be discussing the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west, and the elemental forces, water, air, earth, and fire, and ether, to a certain extent, but I was thinking ether is something that is a little bit more mercurial in its explanation, so we'll touch on it today, but I'm thinking that maybe that might need its own episode in the future, but we'll definitely lay the groundwork for that as we cover the more physical manifestations of these principles. So, as I said in the intro, when I was studying all this and I was trying to organize the way that I would express it to you guys, what I realized was that it seems a little bit redundant to approach each of these concepts, the cardinal points, and the elements individually because they are so ingrained into each other, so I thought I'd start off by going through each specific correspondence of cardinality and elementality, and give you a basic overview of what these concepts really stand for, specifically. So, that being said, let's start with, and this is just a basic overview. We'll be getting into these more deeply as the episode goes on, but we've got to have a logical starting point, and I think that's here. So, let's start with North. North is represented by Earth. So, in the intro, once again, I was talking about this concept of correspondence and how this whole episode can kind of be viewed through correspondence, correspondence being the way that things are mirrored in each other as a pattern. So, I think it might be helpful to approach the episode with the general idea that when you think of North, you think of Earth, and so on and so forth as we go on, and, you know, this is going to help develop that sense of understanding across multiple principles, multiple disciplines. This is how we are going to develop our creative mind and our intellectual framework of reality and understanding. When we're coming towards things like religion, philosophy, the occult, magic, all that, the better picture that we can create, the better we can imagine the things that we desire. So, I think that's a really important we can imagine the things that we desire, and really, you know, when you're looking at things like the elements and the cardinal directions, what we're seeing is man here is trying to see himself in these grand happenings, and, you know, because the happenings on the large scale is a reflection of the happening on the small scale. So, everything we learn about nature, we can inherently learn about ourselves if we have those eyes to see, and today's episode is hopefully going to help develop that faculty, that faculty of seeing, that faculty of sort of cross-principle understanding, and, you know, help develop a rationalization kind of metric for each of us in our own way. So, once again, I thought it might be smart and right to kind of start this episode by saying that I'm not here on this show to tell anyone what to believe. The long and short of it is I've spent 15 years trying to figure out, you know, what this reality is about, who am I, what's going on in all of this, and along the way, I have spent a lot of time studying and a lot of time thinking, and, you know, I'll always be happy and proud to share my opinion, and that's just that. It's my opinion. I don't know the truth any more than anyone else, and I think it's important for all of us to remember that. Ultimately, we cannot know what God is. We cannot know the order of things. We can only know ourselves and hopefully cultivate the personality or the voice that is successful in sharing pieces of that whenever possible. So, once again, just wanted to start by saying, hey, listen, whatever you believe, I respect you. I love you, and hopefully what we'll find is that we're really not that far apart from each other, and, you know, that's kind of the point of this show is to start breaking down those boundaries and come to the realization that all of us are kind of getting in different vehicles going to the same place. So, let's get into the basic overview of north, south, east, and west, earth, air, fire, and water, and some bullet points on what the basic core principles of each are. Sorry, I went on a tangent. That's kind of my M.O., but we're going to try and see if we can stay organized. Try and see if we can stay organized. So, once again, earth is represented by north, and north is all about this sense of stability, of grounding, of earthly happenings. Things that are found in the north are things that are related to our physical health, our physical wealth, our work, and, you know, just our overall stability here on this earth. Other things that we might think about when we're thinking about earth or the cardinal point of north are things like fertility, grounding rituals, fertility charms, anything to do with the way that we are rooted in this reality and we actualize that in ourselves. The north is a very sort of motherly, feminine presence, and yeah, that's what we're kind of looking at with north on like a 1,000-yard view. So, yeah, everything that is north is earth, and everything that is earth is about our physical reality here in this place that we call earth. All right, moving on. Oh, just a quick correspondence on north. In astrology, we have our earth signs represented by Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, and that's going to be the zodiacal signs that are kind of typified by the spirit of earth. We're going to be doing episodes later on astrology. You know, when you're talking about concepts like this, it's really easy to think that you have to say everything about everything. So, that's why my logic was kind of, let's start with the big ideas, you know, so episode one, seven hermetic principles, sort of like the groundwork of philosophical rationalization, and then moving on, episode two, big ideas like cardinal directions and elemental forces, things that are kind of at the beginning. So, you know, some of you might feel that I'm not giving every aspect of this conversation the time that it deserves, but that's not really what this is about. What we're trying to do is discuss specifically the cardinal forces and the elemental forces, and, you know, we're introducing this now so that we might become roughly familiarized with some of these concepts and then go into detail in the future. Moving on, east is represented by the elemental force air, and in the east, we have everything that is of the intellect, everything that is of communication, everything that is of inspiration, divination, travel, intellectual pursuits, things that come to you, things that travel. That's what air is really about, is this idea of traveling, of movement, of ascension, of a resurrection, of carrying conceptual things to your mind. So, east and air are very introspective, very individual, and are very rooted in the idea of, hey, where did that come from, and where did I receive that from? So, we're going to be talking about these concepts. They float on the breeze to us, and they stick to us like pollen, and we do what we do with that information, whatever that is. So, back to where astrology comes into all of this, with the concept of east or air. Our air signs are going to be very, very mysterious. And, you know, what we see in that are people who are intellectual, good communicators, and people who really dwell in the realm of thoughts and ideas. Once again, air and east kind of embodying the qualities of inspiration, clarity, power of the mind to shape perception All right, moving right along. We have fire associated with the south, and fire is going to be transformative. It's going to be our passions, our sparks of creativity. If air is bringing us the idea, fire is the thing that gets things going. And that's why it really embodies the energy of willpower, and of courage, and of the drive to initiate change. You really, like, put yourself in the place of manifesting desires, taking control, and really asserting yourself in the world. Our fire signs are going to be Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. And, yeah, so that's fire. Once again, guys, we're only given short things to start so that, you know, we have a basic understanding as we get deeper. Finally, we have west, which is going to be represented by the element of water. And when we're dealing with west, and we're dealing with water, what we're dealing with is really, like, our emotions, our emotions about things, our healing about things, our reflections, our psychic, you know, happenings, our psychic abilities, adaptability, fluidity, and the way that we kind of navigate the deep currents of the psyche and the spiritual insight. Our water signs are going to be Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Those signs are really going to typify the movement of water. These people are going to be very emotional, very rooted in feeling, and once again, you're kind of seeing a lot of times people who are water signs are going to have those psychic abilities. So we're looking at water, and this is the emotional and intuitive place on the cardinal wheel. So now that we've got our kind of basic description of all of these ideas, what I'm hoping we're beginning to see is that in these traditions, these concepts of cardinal points and elements, they're often used to explain the structure of metaphysical and physical reality. These elements and directions are thought to represent fundamental forces and principles that underlie the fabric of our reality and of this universe, and we're really seeing and kind of developing a way that we can see how they shape both the tangible and intangible aspects of our existence. So that's the esoteric and the exoteric, the internal and the external, the emotional, mental, and the physical, and these are, you know, all of these things are often utilized and invoked in our rituals throughout history, in our ceremonies, and in these magical practices of the past, and what they're trying to do is attune with and harness these corresponding energies, and they're trying to harmonize with the natural forces of the universe and manifest the desired outcome by becoming enmeshed in the spirit of these ideas. These things are seen as kind of like the building blocks of this reality, and they're really embodying the interconnectedness of the tangible and intangible aspects of our reality, and by aligning with these, you know, elemental forces and these cardinal points, we as practitioners, we really seek to gain the insights into the deeper mysteries of the universe and connect with those spiritual energies, harmonize them in our own beings, and really get right with the fundamental forces that shape the fabric of our reality. So now that we've kind of laid the foundational groundwork of understanding for these concepts, I thought what we would do I thought what we would do is go into a little bit of a history and a spoken, more in-depth explanation of where all these ideas come from and what they really mean to us, and I thought that a quote, and this is a quote by Robert Boyle from the Skeptical Chemist, originally published in 1661, kind of was a great way to illustrate how these ideas are deeper than their surface level. So here is that quote by Robert Boyle. If you but consider a piece of green wood burning in a chimney, you will readily discern in the disbanded parts of it the four elements of which we teach it and other mixed bodies to be composed. The fire discovers itself in the flame. The smoke, by ascending to the top of the chimney and there readily vanishing into the air, manifests to what element it belongs and gladly returns. The water, boiling and hissing at the ends of the burning wood, betrays itself, and the ashes, by their weight, their fieriness, and their dryness, put it past doubt that they belong to the element of earth. And so actually, you know, it's really interesting. I stumbled upon this quote as I was building this episode and developing this research, and it is amazing because, you know, I started studying alchemy a while ago, and I was actually thinking about this very concept of this tree being a pseudo battery of the sun and a battery of the elements, because in the cultivation of that plant, you have, obviously, you have the earth it grows in, you have the air that it breathes, and the air that it creates for us, you have the water that makes up the life force that moves through this thing, and, well, obviously, you have the fire and the sun. And all of these things, when you burn that wood, are being returned back to the place that they belong. And that's, you know, when we're talking about the elements, and we're talking about the history, and we'll be getting deeper into this coming up, but I'm just excited to talk about this idea of alchemy, this idea of separating things into their purest parts, understanding them, refining them, and then putting them back together, better together as the parts were individually. And that's our, that should be everyone's goal to filter, process, enhance, and then reconstruct ideas in a holistic way. So yeah, that was a quote, and I thought that it was really fitting and beautiful. And yeah, so let's get into some history here. We're talking about the elements here. We see that really the first use, or the first kind of conceptualization of the principle, and the foundational thought that is elements, we see that first with the Sicilian Greek philosopher Empedocles. And he was really the first to kind of compartmentalize reality into a set of core roots, as he calls them. And this was the proposition that our reality was built up of four core roots, fire, air, earth, and water. And like I said, he's the first, seemingly, to coin the term element, or in ancient Greek, and you'll have to bear with me because I'm probably going to butcher this, but stoikion, from stoikio, to line up. And what we see that he's doing here is he's trying to line up and describe the principles of air, fire, water, and earth, and kind of organize our reality by its smallest divisions. And, you know, later on, these philosophical constructs were used by Hippocrates in his description of the human body, with the four humors. Aristotle, in his treatise On the Heavens, so the name of it is On the Heavens, he displays his theories on the movements and workings of both the celestial and terrestrial bodies. And within this ancient text, Aristotle defines elements thusly. An element, we take it, is a body into which other bodies may be analyzed, present in them, potentially or in actuality, and not itself divisible into bodies different in form. That, or something like that, is what all men, in every case, mean by element. And what he's saying here is that this is kind of like the least common multiple, or like the most reducible factor of reality. He is saying that in order to understand reality, we need to basically pick things that all things about reality relate to, in their most reducible sense. Aristotle later continues in his On Generation and Corruption, he related each of these four elements to two of the four sensible qualities. And this is the way that he was kind of classifying what something is by its nature or its quality. So what we see in this Aristotelian kind of approach to elemental philosophy is this idea of hot, dry, cold, and wet. So with fire, we have both hot and dry. And with air, we have both hot and wet, for it's like a vapor. And water, obviously, is both cold and wet, and earth is both cold and dry. And we see this in the classical, he created a diagram. And what it is, it's like one square is kind of inscribed on the other in a star pattern, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being these qualities or properties. And each opposite corner is the opposite of these properties, hot and cold and wet and dry. Now, I said we were going to talk about it, and we will. But this is kind of, sorry, my dog is, you know, I'm a real person. This is my real life. I don't have a studio somewhere that I can be perfectly isolated, nor would I want to. So when you're listening to this guide, you're going to hear chickens, you're going to hear my dogs every once in a while. And, you know, that's just kind of building the aesthetic of this audio experience here. So like I said, we were going to briefly approach this concept of ether as the fifth element, because we really need to, if we're talking about the elements, but we could do an entire episode on ether. And what you'll see is that ether kind of has its place multiculturally when we're looking at these philosophical ideas. Whereas fire, earth, and air are these earthly, corruptible, and sort of reducible factors, we needed to have a way in which we could describe and typify these heavenly regions, these places that seem to happen without time, and what is the construct that they operate under. So he needed to come up with a certain unchangeable and heavenly substance. It was believed by Empedocles that ether applied, and Aristotle for that matter, it really applied to the material of heavenly bodies. It was a form of fire. So yeah, what we kind of are looking at with ether is the non-physical, the non-corporeal representation of the ballast at which our reality is kind of laid over, the electrical spirit, the unseen life force of the physical world. So that's us touching on ether, and we'll continue to do so as we come into contact with cultures that, as well as the Hellenistic philosophies, have incorporated ether into their elemental construct. We talk about the development of the idea of the element in ancient Greece, and where that leads us is Hermeticism. And, you know, we're pretty familiar. If you have not, you should go back and listen to my first episode, because this is going to be instrumental in kind of understanding the concepts of Hermeticism, and we did a whole episode on the Hermetic principle. So go back, listen to that if you haven't, and you might understand Hermeticism a little bit deeper. So, Hermeticism. So here we have a text called Kore Cosmu, or Virgin of the World, and this text is ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, once again, episode one. We might even do a whole episode on Hermes Trismegistus. He's an enigmatic figure. There's a lot to kind of talk about with him, sort of this syncretic mixture of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian deity Thoth. So in this book called Kore Cosmu, Virgin of the World, written by Hermes Trismegistus, he names the four elements fire, water, air, earth, and Isis answer made, of living things, my son, some are made friends with fire, and some with water, some with air, and some with earth, and some with two or three of these, and some with all. And on the contrary, again, some are made enemies of fire, and some of water, and some of earth, and some of air, and some of two of them, and some of three, and some of all. For instance, the locust and all flies flee fire, the eagle and the hawk and all high flying birds flee water, fish flee the air and earth, the snakes avoid the open air. Whereas snakes and all creeping things love earth, all swimming things love water, winged things air, and of which they are the citizens, while those that fly still higher love the fire and have the habitat near it. Not that some of the animals as well do not love fire, for instance, salamanders, for they even have their own homes in it. It is because one or another of the elements doth form their bodies outer envelope. Each soul accordingly, while it is in its own body, is weighted and constructed by these four. Now when we're reading these ancient texts, they can be a little bit confusing, but I'm going to do my best to kind of represent what I think is being said here. When you approach anything, it has its natural inclinations. The Vedic studies and Vedic medicine, that's what really this is all about. Everything has its own nature, everything has the things that are antagonistic and the things that are beneficial to it. And what the text here is trying to say is that things are going to be where they belong, and that is kind of rooted in their own elementality. So yeah, that's kind of the hermetic slash alchemical view of elementality. When we're talking about alchemy, what we're talking about is the breaking down, the deconstruction of a thing's parts, the purification of those parts, and the reconstruction of the purified body. And the elements play a role in each of those alchemical steps. We'll do a whole episode on alchemy. Once again, we're not going to get bogged down with the full details of all of these. This is kind of an overarching thing, a place to start. Continuing on, I had mentioned ancient Indian philosophy in relation to the elements, and we'll start here with Hinduism and the Vedas. And so they have, once again, sorry if I butcher this, but they have what they call the Pancha Mahabhuta, or the five great elements, and those would be Bhumi, or earth, Apas, or water, Agni, or fire, Vayu, or air, and Akasa, or Akasha. So we're kind of getting a reference to the Akashic record, and that would be their representation of that fifth element, ether, or what they might call the void. They're suggesting that all creation, including the human body, is made of these five essential elements, and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these five elements of nature, and it's kind of returning to a place of balance, your physical self in the cycle of nature. These are also associated with the five senses in Vedic texts, and they act as kind of the medium for the experience of sensations, with the basis element earth created using all the other elements, and these can all be perceived by the five senses, hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. The next higher element, which to them was water, it has no odor, but it can be heard, it can be felt, seen, and tasted. Next comes fire, which can be heard, felt, and seen, and then air can be heard and felt. So what we kind of see is this hierarchical representation within the Hindu representation of elements, with the baser most being earth, and the higher most of the physical being air, and then what we have is sort of this representation of ether, or akasha, as they say, and they're saying that's beyond the senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch, and it's accessible only to the sense of hearing, and they're basically purporting here that the elements represent the hierarchical representation of purity, based on how many of the earthly senses they engage with prospectively. Moving on, we got Buddhism, and they kind of have a variety of thoughts about the five elements, and their existence, their relevance, and a lot of these are continuing to today. These are very old belief systems, and you know, this is why we're starting with the elements, because this goes back to the beginning. So the Buddhists believed in the Mahabhuta, once again, or these great elements. They also called them the katu-dhatu, or the four elements, and to them, these are earth, water, fire, and air. In early Buddhism, these were kind of described as the basis for understanding suffering, and for liberating oneself from that suffering. Once again, suffering being the things that we experience here on earth, and sort of engaging with the spirits of the elements in the proper way is going to afford a liberation from the suffering itself. They are, in their representation, in the Hindu representation, or I mean, the Buddhist representation of these sort of four primary materials, or prima materia, as the Greek might say, where they are describing the kind of natures of solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility, characterized as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively. So basically, Buddhist teachings, these four elements are to be understood as the base of all observable real sensation, rather than as a philosophy. These four properties of real sensation, as they describe it, are cohesion, solidity, or inertia. So cohesion being water, the way that something clings, solidity or inertia being earth, expansion or vibration being air, and heat or energy content being fire. So yeah, that's sort of the Buddhist representation. Let's see. The Buddhists basically believe that these elements, and this is kind of central to the idea of Buddhist theology, the teachings of Tantra, and their astrological texts, they really spoke about these elements making up the environment of the human body, and these kind of being the most subtle or reducible levels or parts of existence of the thought and mind. Getting back, we started with hermeticism, now we've got alchemy. I had touched on it briefly before. So the alchemists further the understanding of the elements by bringing in this new theory called the sulfur-mercury theory of metals, which is basically based on two elements, sulfur, and sulfur kind of characterizes this principle of combustibility, and then you have mercury, and mercury characterizes the principles of metallic properties. And these were kind of two ways in which early alchemists expressed the ideas of irreducible components. That being said, when we're looking at the sulfur-mercury theory, what they're really talking about is not operative alchemy, but more of a philosophical alchemy. So alchemy is breaking these elements into these three metallic principles. Sulfur, which is flammability or combustion, mercury, which is volatility and stability, and salt, which is solidity. And these became the triaprima of the famous Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. And what Paracelsus was saying was that he reasoned that Aristotle's four elements appeared as three principles, and he saw these principles as fundamental, and he kind of justified them by recourse to the description of how wood burns in fire. Mercury included the cohesive principle so that when it left in the smoke, the wood fell apart. Smoke described the volatility or the burnability, the mercurial principle. The heat giving flames described flammability, which was the sulfur, and the remnant ash described the solidity or the salt. So stepping away from alchemy, we're stepping into a set of belief systems that really do complete the marriage of the elements and the cardinal directions. And so when we're looking at this, I think that a good place to start would be Central African and Japanese belief systems. Once again, we're kind of folding into our concepts of elementality that cardinality that we're trying to bridge the gap today. Central African, the Congo religion, we have these four elements that are incorporated into what they call the Congo Cosmogram. And this sacred symbol, it depicts the physical world. And, you know, I'm going to try and make these pronunciations properly, but I'm not, I don't speak the language, so bear with me. So they are saying this cosmogram symbol, and it depicts the physical world, what they call Nseke, and the spiritual world of the ancestors, Mpemba. And they have what's called the Kalunga line that runs between these two worlds, the sacred river Mabungi, that begins, that began as a circle void, that began as a circle void and forms a circle around the two worlds. So this all-encompassing principle that encompasses both the physical and the non-physical, and they're also kind of equating this to the path of the sun. So in their tradition, each element correlates to a period in the life cycle. And when we're getting into this, we're focusing on this cardinality, and and also the seasons, you know, we could do a whole episode on the seasons. So let's get into what they say, what their cosmology believes, and they believe that all living things go through this cycle. So first we have water, once again represented by the south. They're calling this Musoni, and this is the period of conception that takes place during spring. And this is place during spring. So once again, we have this idea of water. We're getting back to that maternal. We are floating in the womb. We're surrounded by the fluids. We're safe. We're in that place of creation. So that is their representation of water, which is south, Musoni. Moving on, we have their representation of fire, which is east, and they're calling this Kala, and this is the period of birth that takes place during summer. Once again, we're seeing a lot of these correspondences. If water is the place we develop the idea, fire is the place where that idea becomes actualized. Moving on, we have air in the north, and that represents what they are calling Tukula, and this is the period of maturity that takes place during the fall. So this would be the midlife. And then earth, which is west, it represents the Luvumba, and this is the period of death that takes place during the winter. Now this is their representation. I just thought that it was really apt, and they also have a representation of ether, and they're calling this Mabungi, and this, getting back to what I was saying about the circle, this symbol that kind of typifies the movement of the sun in their belief system, in their belief, in their belief, this Mabungi is the circular void that begot the universe, so we're kind of getting back to some creationism here, some creation philosophy. So that was a Bakongo religion, and that was a central African discipline and religious system. And moving on, let's talk about Japan and its Godai, or Japanese philosophy. So talking about Godai, or Japanese philosophy, we see a set of elements that they're calling Godai, which literally means the five great, and these five are earth, water, fire, wind, or air, and void. And you see some distinct reflections from the Buddhist philosophies here. So in the Godai tradition, earth is representing rocks and stability, water is represented by fluidity and adaptability, fire is represented by life and the life force energy, wind is movement and expansion, and void, or sky or heaven, or as we discussed earlier, ether is representing the spirit or the creative energy of reality. So once again, definitely seeing some correspondence between the Buddhist teachings and these Japanese philosophies. Similarly, what we see in Native American tradition is, and I think, obviously, I haven't studied everything, but one of the things I do see is that the closer you get to sort of these native belief systems, they all sort of share similarities as well. And, you know, the closer you get, it seems to these native traditions is also the closer you get to sort of magic or these sort of natural representations, these sort of occult forces. So let's get into the Native American tradition here. So they have what's called the medicine wheel, and it's sacred across many indigenous cultures, and it signifies our boundaries here on earth and all the knowledge of the universe. In it, it's depicting these four cardinal directions, the path of the sun, and the four seasons, the four sacred medicines, and they also, and you know, getting back to how these native traditions often reflect things in the occult or the magic traditions, they are also bringing a color for each of these concepts, and these colors to them signify the four races of humans. So to them, the Native American traditions, we have earth, which is, once again, south, and it represents this youth cycle, the summer. It represents the indigenous race to them and the medicine of cedar. Moving on, we have fire, which is east. It represents birth cycle, spring, any of the Asian race, and the medicine of tobacco. Winter air in the Native American tradition is north. It represents the elder cycles, the winter, also any of the European races, and the medicine of sweetgrass. And finally, water or west. It represents the adulthood, the autumn, or the African race, and the medicine of sage. This is a modern invention dating to approximately 1970s, and these descriptions and associations have been a later addition to their structure. These aren't, these associations with the classical elements aren't necessarily grounded in traditional indigenous teachings, and it hasn't, this isn't a blanket statement, these things have not been adopted by all indigenous American nations. Okay, it's important to bring up the fact that, really, when we're talking about the classical elements, this is the beginning of medicine, of science, and ultimately, you know, the long path that has brought us to things like chemistry and physics. So, we are also talking about things that we know in modernity that are related to this. So, yeah, these, so the Aristotelian tradition and the alchemy eventually gives rise to modern chemistry, these new taxonomies, and these new scientific theories, and you're seeing this expansion. So, by the time of Antoine Lavoisier, for example, a list of elements would no longer refer to classical elements. Some of these modern scientists, they do see a parallel between the classical elements and the four states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, and weakly ionized plasma, but what we see is sort of the roots of science in some of these ancient classical philosophical constructs. So, moving on, let's take a look at esoteric Christianity and how these things kind of relate accordingly. So, in the context of esoteric Christianity, the concept of these elemental forces and cardinal points can be interpreted in symbolic and spiritual terms, and these are going to be aligning with mystical traditions, allegorical interpretations found within Christian esotericism. The cardinal points and elements, elemental forces, these can be seen as representing deeper spiritual principles, symbolic aspects of the Christian faith, rather than literal physical directions and material elements. In esoteric Christian thought, these concepts are often used to convey spiritual truths and the inner journey of the soul. So, let's get into what this means to Christian belief, esoteric Christianity, and those philosophies. So, we've got Earth associated with the North, and this can be interpreted as representing these foundational aspects of faith, grounding in the teachings of the Word, stability of divine truth, the importance of things being rooted in the Word of God, and the enduring nature of these spiritual principles. Air, we have an association with the East, and this can be understood as symbolizing the illumination of the spiritual understanding. So, you have the Holy Spirit, the transformative power of divine revelation, represents the clarity of insight and the awakening of our spiritual consciousness. Fire, we have associated with the South, and this can be interpreted as representing the fervor of spiritual passion, the purifying flame of divine love, the zeal for righteousness. This embodies the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and the fervent dedication to living out one's faith. I think it's important that we give each of these disciplines the time and focus that it deserves, because it's not really about what we agree with. What we're trying to find is the sacred truth that lies within all belief structures. We're not here to tell anyone what's right or wrong. So, finally, in this Christian belief, we see water, and it's associated with the West, and it can be symbolizing these depths of spiritual mystery that we're swimming around in, this purification, this cleaning energy, this purification of the soul, the nourishing grace that is divine compassion, these things that nourish the spirit, these things that cleanse us. It represents, obviously, the baptismal waters of rebirth, deep currents of spiritual insights and intuitions that we encounter and move within when we are building faith. So, once again, these are symbolic tools for inner contemplation, meditation, and spiritual growth. They can be employed to guide an individual on their inward journey towards union with the divine, and these are all going to be helping us find the realization of our own deeper spiritual truths. Esoteric Christianity also incorporates the symbolic use of these points within rituals, sacred geometry, spiritual practices, and as a means of attuning with the divine energy and seeking that spiritual transformation. So, really, across all of these belief structures, what we're seeing is, once again, the way that the big is a representation of the small, the way that the outside world is a representation of the inside world. So, the better we can become intimate and knowing of these principles, these cardinal points, these elemental forces, the better we can know ourselves, the better we can know God, the better we can know truth, or whatever it is that we're all seeking here on our paths of spirituality and internal righteousness, let's say. Finally, let's give a touch on magic and the occult and what these things mean here. So, with magic, and we're kind of getting back to episode one, once again, haven't listened, go check it out. We discussed this idea of manifestation and this idea of the all is mine, so mentalism, correspondence, all of that. So, let's discuss what this means in relation to elemental forces and to cardinal directions. So, these practitioners, whatever your magical or occulted practice might pertain to, what we're basically doing in that world is we're using these cardinal points and elements in a more, as a psychological framework and as symbols to focus our intent and to manipulate our subjective reality. Once again, everything is about imagination. So, the better we can classify our reality, the better we can contextualize, and the better we can sort of intellectualize our space here and build the life and the self that we desire. So, these correspondences are broad, and they all vary within each tradition. Obviously, something like chaos magic, you've got someone who's deciding, this is what's right for me, I don't necessarily believe in all of everything, in occultism, so I'm going to build a very specific thing for myself based on what I think is right, kind of a take what you want and leave the rest perspective. But this is all based on, you know, it's not just the occult and it's not just religion. These are all based on personal beliefs, where are we from, who are our ancestors, and what is it we're trying to get out of this experience of belief. So, once again, with the occult, we're having these cardinal points and the elemental forces. These are rooted in various spiritual and religious and magical traditions. And here's just some examples that we're looking at here. In Wiccan paganism, each cardinal point is often associated with a watchtower or a guardian in ritual circle casting. So, when you are approaching something, let's say that you're looking to enhance your physical wealth, maybe you would approach the watchtower of the north, maybe you would approach the watchtower of this earthly plane that you're asking for things from. But maybe if you're looking for things from a sense of inspiration or divine, sort of the muse, east, because you're looking for the air to carry those ideas to you, you're looking for them, for the movement of the air. We talked about the Native American spirituality, the sanctity at which they hold these cardinal points, and they're associating them with different spiritual beings, different totem animals, different colors, and invoking ceremonies like the medicine wheel. We similarly see in the Chinese tradition, we have feng shui, and this is a Chinese metaphysical system. And these, in feng shui, the cardinal points are used to align the energy of the space for optimal flow and for the balance of that space. Each of these directions are kind of corresponding to different life aspects, to different colors, to different elements. So, based on who you are and what we know, it might not be a good idea to sleep with your head going a certain direction. These are things, I mean, I believe in, like, if you're looking at architecture and the way these things kind of bleed into the culture, there was a tradition of these temple builders and these ancient cathedrals where, for example, the rising sun is in the east, the son of God, the rising son of God, that rising Christ-like force within us, so they would make the entrances to these cathedrals and to these grand structures facing east. These are ways in which the culture and our spiritual beliefs and our certain occulted acts, because occult just means hidden, guys. It doesn't mean bad, it doesn't mean of the devil, it doesn't mean scary. Everything that you don't know exists within the realm of the occult. And in the occult, what we're talking about in all of this is sort of these foundational building blocks of esoteric understanding of our own reality. So, finally, as we're talking about esoteric building blocks and such, I think it's important that we at least briefly touch on astrology and the role that cardinality and elementality play in the perception of that mystical science. So, let's give astrology just a little bit more of a comprehensive look and see what they have to say. So, first off, we've got fire, and in astrology, we have the same elements as for triangles. So, fire is an upward-facing triangle, and its representation is red. Air is an upward-facing triangle with a line through it, and its representation is blue. Water, we have a downward-facing blue triangle with no line. Oh, no, sorry, that was air. Air, we have a downward-facing blue triangle with no line. And water, we have a downward-facing triangle with a... Oh, man, I just messed it all up. Okay, coming back. Fire, upward-facing triangle, red. Air, upward-facing triangle with a line going through it, and that is yellow. Water is a downward-facing triangle, and that is blue. And earth is a downward-facing triangle with a line going through it, and that is earth, and it is green. So, in Western astrology, we're using these four classical elements in connection with these astrological charts and horoscopes. These 12 signs of the zodiac are divided into four equal elements, fire signs being Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, earth signs being Taurus, air signs being Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, and finally, water signs being Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. So, we have, once again, this compartmentalization and this classification of philosophical constructs, and that's the goal here with this episode, is to take a step back, let's look at the fundamentality and cardinality, and what we're seeing, and what I've seen, and what I hope to convey is that these are big-picture concepts that kind of form the foundational construction of these elaborate belief systems that we inhabit, and is really just helping us compartmentalize and rationalize our existence. I thought that, since we're on the occult, I thought that it might be interesting to read some excerpts of what the occult has to say about the elements and the cardinal points, and this is from the Grand Grimoire, or the Imperial Ritual of Magic, and this is something that could be found on the Library of Congress website. I think I've bought a physical copy of this book off Amazon, so let's get into a few closing quotes that are going to put a nice pin on occultism, and cardinality, and elementality, and kind of what the occultists and the magicians have to say about why this is important. Okay, so let's get into some excerpts. The first one I will be reading I just think is really beautiful, and this is going to be on page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53. Okay, so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Okay, so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Okay, so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Okay, so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Okay, so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Okay, so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Once again, you can find this at the Library of Congress. I've bought physical copies off Amazon, and so this is page 53 of Imperial Ritual of Magic. Find what it is we seek. These are tools. Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be. Affirmations, and especially audible ones, give the faith and self-confidence necessary to accomplish your desires. Persisted in, this self-treatment produces a buoyancy that amounts to positive knowledge and then, no matter what the external conditions are at the time, you know that it is yours. You are full of divine attraction, a magnet drawing abundant supply. It literally turns out that when you ask for one thing, a dozen other things come with it to prove that creative energy is ready to burst into bloom the moment we make continuous connections with it. The success a man achieves simply represents his expectations of himself. His environment is the material reflection of his mental picture. The power he uses is nothing more than trained, persistent thought aimed in the direction of the great purpose he has decided to accomplish. There is no law by which you can achieve success in anything without expecting it, demanding it, and assuming it. Faith is the secret of occult power. It will open the door to every desire. It makes possible the seeming impossible. Your wants are impressed on the divine mind only by your faith. Fear or doubt cuts that connection. So, once again, this is kind of affirming this idea that the better we understand the reality, the better we can engage with whatever we know God to be and speak in the language of his creation. This is true in a material sense, just the same as in a spiritual sense. Man is an exact counterpart of the universe and every part of him is connected therewith, and when he once knows where and how he is so connected, he is able to draw from the forces of nature just exactly what he wants. All occult work is based upon the concentration of the mind. By use of willpower, we draw to ourselves just what we may demand through the understanding of the laws governing these things. The result of this method is determined by the amount of knowledge we possess by which our faith becomes great, for then the supply will be in accordance with the demand. The law of correspondence applied to concentration by demand reveals our relationship to the four great centers, North, South, East, and West. The North represents the mineral world, the center or kingdom from which we draw all material wealth, money, success, and prosperity. Its nature, like the mineral kingdom, is cold, unfeeling, devoid of warmth and life, but holds in its grasp that material which most of us are constantly toiling for, that we may supply the physical needs. We are related to this center by our bone and muscular systems, for the mineral kingdom is to the physical construct of the earth what our bone system is to the physical body. Thus the law of correspondence gives us the relation or wires of connection to this special kingdom, and when we recognize the real self and its power, we have but to face the center which represents this kingdom and demand our own. Development at this center is acquisition of wealth, mineral, psychometry. The color is red and represents the force and strength on a dense material plane. Make all your demands between the new moon and full moon. By following the above advice, you will find that you will obtain much better results for the reason that when it is on the increase, we all receive the benefit of its vibrations, and it is directly contrary when it is on the decrease. By consulting your Bible, you will find that Moses and all the Jewish priests who came after him were close observers of the various phases of the moon and governed themselves thereby. The South Center. Imperial Ritual of Magic, page 81, lesson 6. This center corresponds to the vegetable world or kingdom of life and vigorous health. We are related to it by the vascular system, our cores and ligaments. We face the center and while recognizing the power of the sun, we draw into our bodies the breath, the thought, the element of life that builds up our bodies and makes them fit temples for the soul. The psychic developments gained at this center are physical clairvoyance and vegetable psychometry and clairvoyance. Yellow is the color which symbolizes this center. It represents the life of the tropics, fruits and flowers and is an emblem of sunshine. The East Center. Imperial Ritual of Magic, page 83. The East represents the mental kingdom upon which depends the spirituality of the race. Its color is blue and signifies the spirit and intellect on this plane. Development at the East Center is spiritual clairvoyance.