Magic of Elements - Path of Magus

Magic of Elements is involved in studying objects and their energy in their pure forms. When we look at an object, we can describe it as a whole; or in its components. In Magic Tradition, Elements are the parts of the natural world; they were chosen/written down in a very simplistic form before science was developed. However, for purposes of the Magi, it's a handy way to parametrize the world and study its properties.

Traditionally, there are four Classical Elements: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.
Air represents a shift of consciousness to the Future time, the system's entropy, and the amount of uncertainty. Earth is related to the structure of matter, systems, information, and electric forces. Fire is related to kinetic energy in the present time (here and now) and the temperature of matter. Water is associated with an object's inertia and history, shift to the Past on the time dimension. Sometimes there's a discussion of the 5th and 6th Elements of Aether, and the opposite of it, Death. The Aether and Death is a combination of the four Classical Elements.

In other systems, for example, in Wuxing, there are five agents, but they are not the same as Classical Elements and are used differently to describe change and influence in a system.

A Magus is ready to study Elements after initial training is complete. Initial training involves a lot of steps that last for years, such as Meditation training, building a strong base of body energy, and lower ethereal and astral energies. It requires Third Eye activation and knowledge of Large Mysteries or Major Arcana.

We learn Elements through Small Mysteries of the Tarot Deck or the Minor Arcana cards. Each suit represents an element, and there are 14 cards in each suit. The higher the card number, the higher the energy level described.

• Wands represent Air
• Pentacles represent Earth
• Swords represent Fire
• Cups represent Water

The further the consciousness shifts toward a particular element, the higher the strength and the level of a Magus for a specific Element, and the more influence a Magus can exert on the world. We can compare it to increasing potential difference between two points in space: If a Magus has a strong Fire element, he can transfer more potential in the neutral world. Similarly, when a high electric potential develops between parts of the clouds, a lightning discharge occurs.

It's a life choice of a Magus to select a particular Element that becomes the Primary Element. Usually, it has to do with a person's natural talents, tendencies, and affinity to a certain element. A secondary element can also be practiced, but it cannot be the opposite Element of the Primary. For example, if Fire Element is the main one, the Air or Earth could be the secondary, but not Water. It's not possible to get to the same degree in the opposite direction.

The Magic of Air is one of the four Elements found in nature. Air is linked with chaos and uncertainty in this world. The uncertainty originates from the inability to determine an object's state. The uncertainty exists until the measurements of the state are made, in the future time until the present. Schrodinger's cat either exists or not until the moment of opening the box and looking into it (taking measurements). The uncertainty disappears in the present time when a particular event from being future becomes current and actual. Thus, Air Magic is the Magic of the coming time; the work is carried out in a world of uncertainty.

There is a certain degree of chaos in this world called Primary chaos, which is not related to the events or objects in this world. When the physical world is viewed as a product of the Primary Realms, the Primary chaos is inherited. It's an uncertainty of a world that is perceived as an illusion in the Primary Realms.

Human nature is to seek certainty, something predictable, steady, and genuine. People want a meaningful and stable life, stable income, dependable friends, stable government, etc. All this refers to the Earth Element, which represents the material, physical side of the world, the echo of the Primary Realm. The Air Element is the exact opposite of that.

But it is also in human nature to be inclined to chaos, the entropy growth. For example, in the human organism, aging exists from the very moment of birth. Any process within the body is carried out with a certain degree of error, an error in cell reproduction, nerve signals, incomplete chemical reactions, and so on. Excessive chaos in the body leads to premature aging and death. Air element increases the time of events or processes for the outside world, so it leads to "living faster." Human conduct is also sizably chaotic; they are inclined to break the rules, make a mess, be lazy, and daydream.

People with Air in their consciousness tend to fall into fantasies, thoughts of the future, new ideas, and plans. Planning and modeling future events or objects are examples of work done with the Air element, and it's inherently chaotic because of the chaotic nature of the thought process and the uncertainty of whether thoughts should come into reality. Modeling reality is not reality itself but rather a changed image in the lower energy density.

When modeling, a human mind becomes dissonant with the natural world and deepens into the created reality. In theory, anything is possible, any event has some nonzero degree of probability, and that is the connection with the real world that exists in the "here and now." Chaos in the conscious leads to distraction, absentmindedness, and lack of concentration. Thus, socially these Airy people are in the least favorable position because, to people, it's the actual work that has value, not the imaginary.

With modern innovations of the internet and easy access to any kind of information, chaos has grown in the consciousness of many people. People are constantly bombarded with bits of information from websites, social networks, mass media, and other sources. When people have to deal with low-quality information, human attention is defocused, and so is the productivity of people. This phenomenon balances the positive benefits of internet technologies, as the world has become interconnected, with more bonds and links. The earth element is balanced with Air, as everything in existence strives for balance and a low energy state.

The starting point to Magic of Air is a state of feeling lost, absentminded, and lacking focus. Magi of Air are engaged in various manipulations of future events. They are fully immersed in future events with their sea of consciousness. Any object has some Future. It may be specific or not so certain. With some errors, it's possible to predict the future state or even change it. If there's a successful businessman in the present time, one can make quite an accurate assumption that he will continue being successful tomorrow. But if it's a 10-year forecast, there is high uncertainty in the answer; his business may become irrelevant and obsolete in the first five years. So the further point of prediction is from the present, the harder it is to make a prediction, and it requires greater mastery of the Air element. On the other hand, it is easier to change an object's distant future than the near future because of the object's inertia. For example, it's impossible to boil a kettle of water 10 seconds from the start because water cannot instantly absorb energy; some time must pass.

Anyhow, Air Mages are not specialists in probability theory but practicing clairvoyants and making adjustments to the future. An ordinary person can make a prediction based on analysis, historical data, and logic; however, in the future, the reasoning is very limited by probability theory that says, "it's either this or this," which is a meaningless answer.

Mages use their clairvoyance, energy vision abilities, and intuition to obtain valuable results. Remember that intuition is the animal way of thinking; they use it far better than humans. For example, animals flee or enter a dormant state before cataclysmic events. Then there are many financial gurus working with a futures market and Forex. They make their forecasts about the economy with clever looks on their faces, and they constantly change their estimates with the same regard. Or it's the meteorologists with their complicated math who make useless monthly forecasts.

There are many ways to predict the future, like divination using a Tarot deck, fortune telling with coffee, crystal gazing, Wu Xing, dice rolling, and so on. These are just visualization systems for the conscious; the first requirement is to have a developed and fluid mind that may exist in chaotic conditions. It's a difficult task, as few individuals' minds can survive the chaos. It's like putting a wooden house into a tornado only to see it pulverized. If you isolate a person entirely, then deprived of the external world's mental pressure, their sea consciousness will expand, and most will lose their minds. Using Air is contraindicated for persons with mental disorders and socially-oriented individuals dependent on the opinions of their peers.

Earth Magic is the most complicated Elemental Magic to learn. The Earth element represents matter, the densest state of matter, and the Elder Reality.
   
The Elder or True Reality is the energy of the world that has created this universe. There is an idea that the reality we see is Brahma's dream, and while Brahma dreams, the world exists and develops. The Earth element is the energy of "that" Brahma, and the universe is based on that energy. Similarly, when a person visualizes an object or landscape in his mind, consciously or in a dream, it's a process of creation. The visions and the created world are based on the person's consciousness energy. The imaginary world is an illusion in the real world, but the real world is an illusion of the Elder reality. It's like video games, where the characters are preprogrammed and have no notion of the world that's created them. In our world, people search for "God," but he doesn't exist here, just like a computer scientist does not exist in his program.

Earth element deals with world structure manipulation, and the main difficulty is the fact that the energy density of an illusion is much lower than that of the real world. With the process of creation, one can only recreate simple models of his reality; it cannot be more complex than the original reality. The consciousness of people and even Mages are more illusionary than that of Elder reality creatures. Because of this, it's impossible to change physical reality directly with consciousness. The consciousness of a Mage must be as dense as one of the Elder reality. The consciousness density is the information density and level of intellect. To work with the earth element, one must acquire superintelligence. A scientist or an engineer may note that any mathematical description of the physical world is limited and is based on models and simplifications. Superintelligence is the ability to describe (recreate) the world as accurately as possible.

Therefore, Earth Magic works with information, which represents natural objects. Mages of Earth are Kabbalists and Alchemists. Any object may be described as a set of characters, and so it happens in the mental world, where each object has a Kabbalistic name, and if the name is changed, the object is modified. Information is the irregular energy distribution in the time-space; each difference creates a uniqueness, value, and meaning. For example, there are 11 slots of space, and some are with energy (yang) while some are not (yin). Different configurations will have different meanings and, therefore, are information. In the binary code, it looks like a set of zeroes and ones, where a 10101010001 is different from 10101010011. We can check any information sources against the Earth Element. We can take two books of 400 pages on the same topic. One may accurately, orderly, and fully describe the subject (a lot of Earth), and the other can be somewhat off-topic and have useless, low-quality, or chaotic content (little Earth). The more information a sea of consciousness has, the more connected to the world it is and the more stable and massive it is. The Earth element is more potent than any other element because of the Elder energies. Other elements manipulate the energy already present in the universe, while the Earth uses higher-order powers. The higher-order energies allow the creation and materialization of natural matter from the Elder energy; only the Mages of Earth can achieve it. They can create reality, and events, while others only change the existing.

Magi of Earth study various structures, networks, and systems. Those structures can be of any level; physical substances are structures made of atoms and molecules. Mages learn about materials and their properties, their lattice structures, and learn to distinguish one material from the other. Any material is visualized or sensed as an image map with a specific pattern and density. Earth Mage's consciousness is like an X-ray machine; it can see a complete picture.

Earth Mages are creators, scientists, and engineers by nature. They create complex artefacts or machines and bind Magic to physical matter. Muladhara-chakra is the frequency of the physical world and is essential as it resonates with Elder energies. The development of Earth Mages goes via an increase in the complexity of the sea of consciousness when working with different structures. It allows energy accumulation and an increase in consciousness levels. Higher-level Mages have enough energy to create large material illusions.

The predisposition to Earth Magic is as follows. It is a person of high intellect, a technically savvy individual good at manipulating large amounts of data. Such an individual is a fast learner and a genius who can quickly grasp anything. Such people are very materialistic and research-oriented. They are precise and pedantic, maybe perfectionists, or have OCD. They are very attentive to detail and have a low tolerance for errors. They like order, and if you find yourself in a dwelling of such a person, you'll be constantly watched so that you won't break anything or do anything wrong by their standards.

Fire is a designation of an element associated with free energy and aggregate plasma state of matter. Free or kinetic energy is the energy that can do work. When fuel burns in an internal combustion engine, energy is released and used to move pistons. At the same time, the same energy is stored in fuel as intermolecular bonds and is in the potential state. When bonds break due to external heat, i.e., faster particle motion and instability of a compound, the energy is released. Forming combustion products no longer have usable energy because it's been extracted already.
   
There's always plenty of free energy in space. Energy is consumed by living beings that use it for organism growth. On Earth, the Fire element relates to the Sun. The Sun keeps the Earth's core and atmosphere temperature stable, creating living conditions for all creatures. The Sun is the dominant energy source in our world, and synchronization with its rhythms leads to resonance and peak energy. The "Here-and-now" state is associated with peak energy and synchronization with the Sun frequencies.

Fire Magic is the practice of Elemental Magic. When working with Fire Element, the consciousness learns to store and manipulate free energy. The energy can be transferred between external objects or used to create spells, or stored in the conscious. This energy, just like ordinary fire, may be used to heal an organism or to destroy it, depending on the needs of a Mage.

Events and situations also have some structure and energy levels. A Mage may use energy from a chosen source and direct it to a case in a way that may increase the speed of needed events.

There are Fire realms and universes where the Fire element is dominant, unlike our Earth, where Ether is dominant. Those realms are oceans of energy; some might have living fire organisms that a Mage may use as a source. Those living organisms are called Salamanders because of Mages' visions while interacting with them. In reality, there are different species of Fire elementals; some are just sustainable energy swirls. A Magus can create spells or artefacts based on the Salamander creature he caught. The main issue is to control the elemental from a different world; only high masters of magic may achieve that control. The energy of an Elemental is volatile, and the spirit of Fire may break free and wither the surroundings. Often magic circles of the Water Element are used to contain a Salamander.

The state of consciousness in Fire Magic is the state of involvement with current events that carry energy. In other words, the here-and-now state. Such a consciousness is fully consumed with work and has no time for the future or the past. Some people seize the day and do not worry about distant events. While others worry about their future, they build it today. A conscious fully immersed in some current work is more productive and less distracted; they can be either stressed or not so stressed. Stress is a condition associated with the Air element, connected with future or distant events and their models. People of Fire element always have an excess of energy because they are always doing work and expelling their energy. Having energy expended, they have room in their energy field to get more power from outer space.

Water Magic is a subject of Magic of Elements. If Air Magic is linked to the future time and future variables, Fire Magic is related to the current moment and manipulation of free energy. Water magic links to the past time and the planet's memory. Every living organism has a memory, and the Earth also has its memory. Events that already occurred and energies that already played their role are written down in history. Past events shape the current moment and the potential future.

The memory of a past often is corrupted with illusions. Illusions are not the events that happened but the perception of those events. Every newspaper tells the news based on actual events, but how they feed the information depends on whom interests it serves. The same happens with known history, often rewritten to serve authorities' interests. The mind of Water Mage operates in the past time. Some people are fixated on the events that have already happened; they never forget something and value past achievements; they will have a predisposition for Water Magic. Qualities of Water Magic can be linked to such abilities as photographic memory. Water Magic's developed psychic abilities and energy vision allow the operator to move in memories freely, watching and replaying them with high-quality images and sounds. If we compare two objects, one has a broad history and has been a part of important events, and a recently made replica. For a Water Mage, there will be a distinct difference between those two objects, the difference in energies. The item with thousand-year-old history will have unique powers surrounding it.

Even a few hundred years ago, cold weapons that killed humans will contain death energy. Items and artefacts with impressive history could be used as anchors to explore past events and gain experience. Items used in events with high energy outputs, like wars and conflicts, could be used to form artefacts. The artefact is an item with magical qualities or energy bodies.
   
Past experiences gained through a lifetime change the person. Going through harsh experiences may create a strong will and backbone in a person. It is safe to say you are now what you have done in the past. Past actions create current situations through the karma mechanism.
A person who has lived less than 20 and over 60 years will most likely have a different energy mass due to the amount of experience. We like to practice with Energy vision and compare trees' age. When looking at a young tree and a 1000-year-old tree, immediately, there's a huge difference in energy potential in the old tree. The old tree may not be as strong physically as the young one, but imprints of the 1000-year winds, rains, and sunshine are there, and it's a very strong energy on the astral level that a Magus can extract.

Because everyone has a history, your life will not change that quickly. There always exists a certain inertia to changes. However, when you develop, you also create an individual path. Walking this path for a long time makes history. The lifetime path will leave a trace in the soul, returning you to the tradition in the next life.

Water Magic is used when working with soul building and Magus's own past incarnations. When a Magus remembers an experience from a previous life, he adds a new domain to its memory block, increasing the size and strength of the sea of consciousness. Once a critical mass of those experiences develops, the sea of consciousness becomes so large and stable that Magus becomes spiritually immortal, capable of keeping the spirit body from withering after death until a new incarnation.