Magical Element Fire: The Action and Will of Manifestation

Everything in this Universe is made up of some combination of the four magical elements: Air, Fire, Water and Earth. The fire element is associated with will, personal power and creativity. Fire is also the actional and motivation part of any creation and manifestation.

Magically speaking, once you've developed the idea of what you want to create (and done the planning part) in the Air element, it's time to move into Fire, where you take action and endeavor to bring your creation into being.

Fire is associated with the direction South, which is also the direction in which we perform all major spellwork and creation. Fire elementals are called salamanders and reside in campfires, woodstoves or anywhere there is a fire. Specifically, Fire corresponds to:

... energy, power, will, desire, anger, pain, motivation, radiance, passion, initiative, aggression, limitation, endeavor, activity, creative, willingness, urge, inspired, excitable, courage, bravado, compulsion, fanaticism, frustration, resentment, rage, freedom ...

If you want to affect any of these areas in your life, then you need to work with Fire. Unlike Air, which has only three colors, Fire has six major colors:

Sun Yellow - Spirit fire, creativity, radiance
Yellow-Orange - Motivation, excitability, activity
Red-Orange - Anger, pain, fever, aggression, drive
Bright-Red - Courage, bravado, will, endeavor
Deep Red - Passion, flow
Electric-Blue - All bands, initiating force on galactic or universal levels

As with the element Air, you can use the element Fire to adjust various aspects of your life. For instance, if you consistently wake up with the "Monday morning blues," try adding Sun Yellow to your environment. For instance, you could start dressing in Sun Yellow, burn a Sun Yellow candle or put a Sun Yellow spread on your bed.

All of these sources of Sun Yellow will nourish and feed your spirit, increasing your Spirit vitality and chasing away feelings of gloom and doom. Sun Yellow also feed any "hole in the soul" feelings you might have (and which you might otherwise try to fill with food, sleep or other numbing pleasures). Sun Yellow is literally a spiritual "jump start."

+++ More About Salamanders +++
Harry Potter played with salamanders in his movie … and so can you! Salamanders occur around fires, such as wood burning stoves or campfires. They are ball-shaped, pick up the energy of the fire, and become visible. You will see a ball shaped dome in certain parts of the fire, and ashes will fall around them, not on them.

They are useful to have around as they increase the level of heat, making the fire hotter with less wood. If you leave an inch of ash at the bottom of the campfire, it will encourage the salamanders to stay in the campfire, which makes it easier to restart when you return. To keep salamanders around, bed down your coals with layer of earth, it provides an air insulator that they can burrow into. You can dig them out later, and easily restart your fire. A candle flame will spit out little sparks called sprites, which are actually baby salamanders. You can catch them in baby food jars and they will stay glowing in there for 30 or 45 seconds. If you open the jar during that time, they will jump back into in the candle flame. Have fun!

More Ways to Play with Fire
If you want to get "hands on" with the element Fire, try the Fire Home Study Short Course.

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Magical Element Air: The Beginning of Manifestation

One of the basic principles that any apprentice magician or shaman learns is that almost everything in this Universe is made up of some combination of the four magical elements: Air, Fire, Water and Earth. The premise is that if you can understand the four elements directly, then you can understand anything in the Universe.
The apprentice also learns that everything that is physical and manifest started out as a mere thought in someone’s mind—or, in this case, as the element Air. Air is at the beginning of all creation, so if you want to create anything, you have to start with Air. Air is associated with the East and also with elemental beings called sylphs. The element Air governs:

…seeing, breathing, speaking, hearing, planning, thinking, believing, memorizing, communicating, learning, teaching, information, ideas, wisdom, understanding, worry, sensation, awareness, opinions, data, memory, mind…

What does this mean to you? It means that if you want to affect any of these areas in your life, you need to work with the element Air. Air is the perfect place for a beginning magician to start learning. As an element, Air is powerful, but not dangerous. There are three colors associated with Air:

Clear: breathing, physical reactions, physical sensations, seeing
White: mental processes, thinking, planning, communicating
Sky Blue: spiritual enlightenment, wisdom, understanding

So how can you use Air to affect and improve your daily life? Here’s a simple way to begin. Through experience and observation, we know that the color White affects the mental processes. If you have either too little or too much White in your elemental balance, you won’t be able to think, learn or recall well. If you have difficulty in any of these areas (or if you really need to cram for a test and can’t seem to study), check how much White is in your environment and in your clothing. If you see a lot of White, change your clothes or change your location. Move to an area with more Sky Blue. If you are surrounded by very little White, put on some White clothes or move into a room that has White walls. Either way, you should notice a shift in the speed and clarity of your mental processes!

More About Sylphs
While it’s true that almost everything in this Universe is made up of the four elements, elemental beings such as sylphs are the exception. Elemental beings are wholly composed of a single element, so sylphs are wholly composed of Air. Sylphs are friendly beings, about 3 to 18 inches long that are twisty in shape. They love to play in cigarette smoke or in dust devils. You might sometimes feel a sylph as a light brush against your face. They are fun to be around and also make excellent messengers and sources of information. When we were traveling through Yellowstone during the fires, we used sylphs to help us find safe routes through the park.
To communicate with sylphs, just ask for one silently, in your mind. Sylphs have short attention spans so it’s best to communicate with your mind because the spoken word is too slow. Ask for what you need and then send them on their way (always thanking them in advance, of course). Don’t be surprised when the sylph returns in short order with the answer you need!

Want to Know More?
To learn how to directly handle the element air, try our Air Home Study Short Course available online. Or email us first at info@shamanschool.com for details on our free offer for the Air Course and all the other elemental courses and to get the coupon code to use when ordering.


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Online Magic: Which Magical Type are You?

When students enter our online magic school, we can usually identify their magical element type right away. Even when we only have email or phone contact with our students, people are usually quite obvious when it comes to the magical elements and their personality type. The four magical elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth, when interpreted as a personality type, can be translated with the following types:

- TALK: This is the Air personality type. Other descriptors include communicate, think, plan, translate, enlightenment (on the Spirit level)

- DO: This is the Fire personality type. Other words to describe this personality type include kinetic energy, movement, action, power

- FEEL: This is the Water personality type. People with this personality type are also described as emotional, strongly connected to Spirit (emotion is the language in Spirit), psychic, receptive

- BE: This is the Earth personality type. Earth personality types are also described as serene, stable, steady, strong, anchored

So which type are you? You might be a combination of two types, but usually one of the magical elements dominates your personality type.

Why is it important to know your personality type in terms of the four magical elements? Because as magicians and shamans the more we know about ourselves, the better practitioners we become. We can use this knowledge to compensate for our weaknesses, and capitalize on our strengths.

If you are still not sure about your personality type in terms of the magical elements, consider downloading and taking our online no-cost test.


Have fun learning about yourself magically in terms of the four magical elements. Know thyself!

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The Magic of Running Water to Remove Negative Emotions

Once upon a time, when I felt quite depressed and "stuck" in my life, a wise shaman and magical practitioner told me to walk in the rain by running water. She told me that the running water would carry away my depression and negative emotions. The rain would bring fresh emotions and insight to me. One rainy day in Boulder, CO I did walk in the rain by a fast-running creek. The combination worked and I felt immediately better: refreshed and positive.

I recently got to try that experience again, in Zion National Park, where we just spent 2 weeks playing in the wonders of nature. Twice we hiked the Narrows (that's me in the picture), a hike that took us up the Virgin River through towering canyon walls. The water was clear, fast, and purifying. We hiked 3 miles upstream, then came 3 miles back downstream. When I emerged from the Narrows, I felt spiritually refreshed, as if I had just done a walking meditation. I wasn't feeling particularly negative before I hiked the Narrows, but even so I felt the magic of running water to refresh and rejuvenate.

What's the Magic of Running Water?
The shaman who gave me the advice was quite accurate from a magical point of view. Magically, the element water represents emotions, which are the language of Spirit. In addition, moving water has the ability to carry the elements air and fire. The element air magically represents thoughts, while fire represents will and action. So, by walking in running water and consciously "letting go" of negative thoughts, tension in the body, and negative emotions, you have a magical outlet for unwanted "gunky" energies.

One magical caveat here is that for this to work, you need to have running water, not standing water. Standing water is stagnant, and therefore doesn't do a great job of carrying negativity away from you. Standing water can receive negative energy from you, but it requires a lot of effort on your part to push that energy into the water.

Using Standing Water to Clear Negative Energies
There is, however, one way you can effortlessly use standing water to magically clear negative energy. Put a  glass of water on your bedside table before you go to bed at night. During the night, the water will absorb any thoughts and emotions your release during the night. When you sleep, you are more open spiritually, which allows the standing water to more easily absorb your negative energies.

When you get up in the morning, dump the water down the drain. Do not drink it, as you will just reabsorb all the energies you released during the night. Many people find that using this technique 21 nights in a row is an effective way to clear negative energies and create sacred space.

Learn More Magical Self-Healing Techniques
There are dozens of other ways you can use basic things in your environment, like a glass of water, to heal yourself. Discover the multiple ways you can use everyday items you find in the grocery store for self-healing and other types of magic in this Kindle book or our ebooks:

Energy Healing for Self and Others
10 Magic Quick Fixes for Your Life
Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life



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Relationship Blues? Magical Elements Could be the Solution!

We all know that our personalities play a major role in how we deal with other people and how we handle life situations. You may have even taken one or more personality tests to better your personality type.

Did you know that there is a magical personality test as well? You can get the test by clicking the link BELOW.

Magical Elements Personality Test

This test tells which of the four magical elements--Air, Fire, Water, and Earth--dominate your personality. But here's the real kicker. Depending on your magical elemental personality and that of another person close to you, you may be destined to constantly have relationship problems unless you take the time to understand the specific needs communication styles of each type.

We will delve into each type later. For now, download test, score yourself, and enjoy! Many people end up with two magical elements being equally dominant, which is perfectly normal! Once you have found out about yourself, ask that special someone in your life (who gives you such relationship trouble) to take the test, too. Or take it for them if you like! Read future blogs to find out why you do or don't get along!

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Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Know Thyself

How well do you really know yourself? Do you know what element you most correspond to? Do you know your different archetypes and personalities, your sun sign and moon phase? The more you know about yourself, the more you can evaluate which magical techniques and procedures will work best for you. Knowing your sun sign, moon phase and which element you align with, you will gain insight into how you handle life issues and what you can do magically to make changes.

For example, if you are a water personality, you are going to be drawn to techniques that operate on an emotional level. You may need to adjust your water energies periodically to stay in balance. You may find that using your Chalice (the water tool) for divination gives you more information than using the pendulum in some cases. Knowing your archetypes and personalities allows you to work on controlling them and using them when you want rather than them using you. I have a friend that is a very emotional person. Outside influences affect her very deeply on an emotional level and she often becomes overwhelmed to the point of being non-productive. After determining that she is a 'Water Person', I was able to suggest that when she feels bombarded with emotions and begins to feel overwhelmed she needs to be near running water. I even got her a small fountain that runs water through it to keep by her desk at work. This helps her to soothe her emotions (water energy), slow it down and keep it moving so her emotions don't get stuck.

The more you know yourself, the better you can tailor your magic to fit you. There are several tests available through the Esoteric School website to get to know yourself better. Click here and have fun taking the various get to know yourself tests.

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