Elements of the East, Guardians of the Air, I call and invoke you . . .

 Greetings everyone,

 What a lovely day I had today harvesting and cutting plants in my garden.  Today I worked in my elemental garden and was giving much thought to this discussion.  We last talked about the elements of the Northern realms, guardians of the earth.  While harvesting garden sage this afternoon, I thought about how best to dry and preserve it, for use throughout my winter.

I found a simple wreath wire circle in the garage and with some gold cording and some clippers I fashioned the wreath in just about 15 minutes.  I posted a picture of it in the left bar next to this article.  This is the time of year I like harvesting the most, I like to think its the spirit of the squirrel in me, wanting to put all good things away for use this winter. I try to harvest and dry my magickal herbs, and I always leave some to winter over.   Many a Thanksgiving day has found me running outside, usually barefooted!  that last Thursday in November to grab a bit of oregano, lovage or mint that I know I left in my early winter garden to add a bit of nature to our feast. .  

  Now let's discuss a bit of the next element on the wheel, turning towards the east. The color commonly used to denote east is yellow and it is an element of air. Whereas earth was an element that syncs up with the feminine,  receptive, cool and comforting, Air is an element that is masculine in its character. Projective, exciting, and invigorating, the element of air governs truth, intellect, justice, communication and critical thinking.  Clarity of mind and insight are qualities of this element.

My elemental garden,, this is a small garden appx 12 feet by 20 feet surrounded on all sides by a garden wooden walkway and a stone block retaining wall.  The garden is in a Southern exposure but I have all sides planted with plants that work with each element.  For instance in the north I have lambs ears and vinca vine, whereas in the east I have sundrops and tansy.  The sundrops have early spring to summer yellow blossoms and the tansy blooms bright yellow caps in the late summer.  What's nice about the sundrops is their foliage turns bright red in the fall, honoring the spirit of the South, element of Fire. We'll talk about that element in our next discussion.

Let me share some other concepts you can use to bring the element of Air to your garden and your life,  

Bells: the ringing tones float on the air bringing wishes to you and I always feel that when I ring a bell, that somewhere, happy nature spirits pause and send their blessings.

Incense, a personal favorite of mine. I burn incense indoors and out.  Just a hint of incense smoke floating on the air, creates a special atmosphere nothing else quite achieves.

I prefer real, hand rolled Indian crafted incense, as most hand dipped incense is considered toxic, up to 90 % petroleum based solvents and have been proven to cause and irritate asthma, allergies and sensitivities.  Spend a bit more and avoid hand dipped 'punks' and purchase instead hand rolled incense. This method ustilizes real aromatic herbs, woods, essential oils and resins, hand rolled in an ancient manner that burns longer and more steady, and is far less harmful. Many people I have spoken with that cannot tolerate incense, find they can use and enjoy with no reactions hand rolled incense products.

Images and figures like dragon flies, and birds.  Any winged and flying creature, including spiders, as spiders hang from their webs using air as a tool for their survival.

Astrological signs, glyphs also can be used in design or other imagery. Gemini, Libra both air signs, but many people get a bit confused when discussing the third air associated astrological sign of Aquarius.  Aquarius is the sign of the water-bearer, its glyph is double-waves, but its an air sign!  I couldn't possibly explain why!  But you can use the imagery in working with the element of air.

Feathers, and branches from trees, wands (which are made from branches) and fairies and unicorns (yes, unicorns are creatures of air).  I place fairies under both elements of earth and air, the winged images attest to the air aspect, but the ancient race of little people from Ireland and Scotland known as the Tuatha de Danaan, the legendary fairy race of magickal people who are said to be the Goddess Danu's children. Tuatha means people, earth, and North in ancient Gaelic from Northern Scotland.They are said to live in fairy mounds deep inside the earth.

The specific Scottish Gaelic words for North or earth is tuath,  East or air, aiet,  South or fire, deas and West or water iar. 

This is a recipe for  a spell mix to burn. It's a nice way to honor the spirit of air. First thing is to dry various herbs and plants, or purchase them already dried,  then mix them together and grind into a powder, and burn for an incense type of smoke that many use to cleanse and bless a room or building.  I like this recipe I put together recently:

Ms. Faith's Air Incense for Truth and Intellect, Clarity and Insight


This will aide you in your day to day life, to help you focus, study and retain information.  Helpful for those who need to study and prepare for tests or other mental, intellectual challenges.  

4 parts benzoin, 2 parts gum mastic or gum arabic, 1 part sage, 1 part peppermint, a drop or two of lavender oil and lemongrass oil.  Crush all dry ingredients in a functional mortar and pestle. (When I say functional, make sure the inside of bowl or mortar is rough or unglazed. The end of the hand held part, the pestle needs to be unglazed and have a tooth, or rougher surface. These are used to grind down the dried ingredients. Unfortunately many mortar & pestle sets are sold for decorative purposes and are smooth and made of materials not conducive to the work required.)

After the dried ingredients are ground down to a soft, fine powder, add drop by drop the oils. Then make sure the oil is mixed well, by rubbing the powder with a wooden spoon to work the oil completely through the dried powder. When properly incorporated you won't be able to tell oil was added, so don't put too much!  The purpose is to bless, not fumigate your home!!  

While mixing together think of your purpose, your magickal goal. To bless your home and bring peace and blow away unwanted energies, remember we're working with qualities of air. Physical aspects like blowing and movement are also imagery you can use.

When you have ground, mixed and visualized then take a charcoal briquette, one designed to be burned safety indoors, place on sand in a fire proof container, and light. These little charcoal tablets are available at all fine witch shoppes,  are pure charcoal treated with a safe amount of sparking agent so that with just a touch of a lighter, it starts to burn. After a few minutes, it will start to ash over. Then take a small pinch of the incense and sprinkle on top of the burning coal.  The spell mix will start to smoke, soft, fragrant clouds of smoke censing your home and helping to invoke the clean, pure energies of the air element. 

These are just a few things to help you get to know the element of Air, and perhaps invite some of these energies into your life.  




© 2010 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com


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