Relationship Issues? Could Elemental Differences Be Causing Problems?

If you are having relationship issues, the problem could be that you and the other person (or people) are not a good elemental match. One of the basic tenets of magical studies is that everything in this Universe is made up of some combination of the 4 elements: Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Having an understanding and knowing how to work with the 4 elements allows you to understand (and create) anything you desire. This includes an understanding of relationships that will be compatible with us. Our personalities reflect the characteristics of the element or elements that are dominant in each of us. If our elemental balance is not compatible with another person's then communication problems and other relationship problems can exist.

Understanding the 4 Elements
The first lesson in understanding how the 4 elements might have a role in your relationship issues is to have a basic understanding of the characteristics of the 4 elements themselves. As you read through the following descriptions try to see which fits the type of personality traits you exhibit and other people that you know.

Air Element – corresponds to seeing, breathing, speaking, hearing, planning, thinking, believing, memorizing, communicating, learning, teaching, information, ideas, wisdom, understanding, worry, sensation, awareness, opinions, data, memory, mind.

Fire Element – 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.

Water Element - corresponds to emotions, feelings, intuition, compassion, empathy, sympathy, knowing, devotion, quest, aspiration, intention, appreciation, integrity, harmony, beauty, balance, serenity, fluidity, grief, apathy, joy, love.

Earth Element – corresponds to strength, money, foundation, endurance, structure, mundane world, serenity of beingness, solidity, boundaries, permanence, land, commerce, products, confidence, loyalty, persistence, stubbornness, fortress, security, anchor, barter, substance, body, base, possessions.

How the 4 Elements Relate to Relationship Issues
Now think about how each of these elements react to each other. For example, you know that you can blow out a candle so too much Air can smother Fire. Let's say you as a predominantly Fire Element person are in a relationship with a predominantly Air Element person. You can see how applying the 4 element characteristics can predict that relationship issues are bound to occur. Another example of a pairing that could be difficult would be in the case of a predominantly Water element personality matched with a predominantly Air Element person or predominantly Fire Element person. Water cannot accept air alone or fire alone easily. Water accepts air that is carrying fire. This case demonstrates how a Water Element person would probably have less relationship issues with a person who is an Air/Fire mix rather than predominantly Air or Fire.

How to Determine Your Elemental Make-up
The elements that dominate your personality play a key role in determining how you deal with life issues. That includes how you deal with relationship issues. Knowing your elemental make-up can help you determine the type of people you want to establish relationships with and help you know when to take on more of or dump excess types of elemental energy when you have to deal with someone who is not a good elemental match for you.

So how do you know what your elemental make-up is? As mentioned above, first look over the characteristics above. Are you a planner, a worrier, or a person who spends a lot of time engaged in mental processing or thinking about things? If so then you probably are predominantly Air. Do you anger easily or are you a very passionate person? Then you more than likely are a Fire person. Look at each of the elemental correspondences above and see which fit you the best.

A way to get a more exact answer as to which of the 4 elements you are most dominant in is to take our 4 Element Personality Test and to study the 4 elements more in-depth. You can learn more about the 4 elements in our Basic Magic Course or our Four Element Short Courses. The Four Element Courses are now available with a free offer. Just email info@shamanschool.com and ask for details. You can also take our 4 Element Personality test for free by clicking HERE.

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7 Protection Magic Rituals You Should Practice

When it comes to defending yourself against a variety of forms of attack, protection magic is very effective. However, magicians must be careful when using protection magic because we have considerable power and force. The inappropriate use of that power and force can cause Universal backlash. We therefore must be careful to control our tempers and not use magical protection from attackers in a reactive manner. When it comes to protection magic a good rule of thumb to remember is that you have the right to exist and follow your own path and by extension, your right to defend yourself against those who might seek to prevent you from walking your path.

Protection Magic: 7 Techniques
There are basically 7 protection magic techniques that can be used either separately or in combination. They are:
1. Rooting and Grounding – used with excess noise, aggression, anger or general fire energies in your space.

2. Hand Lightning – used to stop someone invading your space or preventing an attack.

3. Lightning Rod – used to send back an attacker's energy or to boost your own energy.

4. Fireballs – used for self defense from attack and to warm a cold room.

5. Fireball Messages – used for sending extremely severe messages to an adversary.

6. Fire Half Shields – used as energy shield to protect yourself from attack.

7. Sonic Self Defense – used to stop attackers in their tracks with the use of your voice.

Protection Magic: Grounding Exercise
Here's an exercise you can try out on Grounding for magical protection from a person who is angry and directing that anger towards you or using it to disrupt your space.

With Grounding you pull excess fire energy from another person or the environment, flowing it through your body and pushing it into an electrical ground.

• Find a source of the energy color you want to pull (anger is red-orange) to look at as a reference
   
• Locate an electrical ground like an outlet, light switch or a sink (uses water pipes running into earth). This is where you will flow the excess fire energy to for it to be safely grounded.
   
• Put your output hand (hand you point with) or your foot on the electrical ground if possible. If that is not possible, you can point your output hand toward the electrical ground, but make sure no living thing comes between you and the ground.
   
• Pull excess fire energies in through your input hand, through your body and out of your output hand into the electrical ground.
   
• Keep pulling until the anger is gone. This usually takes two minutes or less according to how angry the person is, thus how much excess fire energy they have.

You can use this technique discreetly and the person you are pulling the fire energy from need not be aware that you are doing it. All they know is that the anger subsides in them. To develop your own magical self-defense arsenal using magical protection and self defense techniques, check out our homestudy Magical Self Defense course.

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Magic That Works: What to Do If Magic Has Failed You Before

People often confuse magic that works or real magic with fantasy or fictional magic and then wonder why their magical acts have failed. There have been many books, movies and TV shows lately that involve magic and witchcraft as the main themes. The Harry Potter books, Practical Magic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Charmed are a few of the more popular ones. These fictional offerings have been really good at getting more people interested in magic and witchcraft, but the practices these fictional characters employ are not all factual. For example, Harry Potter and his friends and foes use their Wands as multi-purpose tools to conduct all four magical elements – Air, Fire, Water and Earth. In reality, to make magic that works, the Wand is only useful with the element Air. The element Air is associated with messages, communication, thinking, or planning. A wand on the other hand is not good for conducting fire energies mainly because it is made of wood and wood burns.

What is Real Magic?
Magic that works consists of practical, proven, and effective spells and rituals that follow Universal Laws and is very real. Magic and witchcraft have been around for thousands of years and are a precise science. These practices used to be taught and were considered as important as math, science or the arts, but sadly this is no longer true. Everyone has the abilities, but they are not nurtured as in the past nor are we instructed on magical techniques. The practices are still the birthright of every planetary citizen and the information is still available to those who seek it. In our new Kindle book series, our mission is to make this ancient wisdom available to all those that wish to claim their birthright and use magic that works in their lives.

What Will Real Magic Do For Me?
Those who already have a magical practice in their lives can attest to the amazing changes magic and witchcraft can make in their lives. Magic as a precision science allows for deliberate creation, effective prayer, manifesting Higher Will on energetic and material planes, heightened awareness, selective perception, dynamic harmonious relationships and the study of intention. Aleister Crowley, one of the greatest magical practitioners of all time, was a master of using intention and through his work we learn that every intentional act is an act of magic. Magic and witchcraft are the study of intention and a creation system, not coercion. A misunderstanding of this is where some people believe magic has failed them. If your goal is not in alignment with the Universe or you are performing a technique based on fictional principles rather than real principles, it may seem to you that magic has failed you. Through the study of magic you can come to understand the actual workings of the Universe through direct experience thus gaining the ability do things like communicate with beings on all levels, begin on a path of spiritual growth, balance your energies for healing and manifestations, change old beliefs, defend yourself against physical and psychic attack, heal yourself and others, find hidden information and see possible futures, psychically communicate with other beings, create sacred space, find lost objects and people, and manifest what you want and need in life.

Hopefully you now see the difference between fictional or fantasy magic and the real thing and understand what a real magical practice can add to your life. If you're ready to get started learning about witchcraft and magic, a good place to start (that won't break your budget) is our new Kindle book series. The first book in the series is Learn How to Do Witchcraft Rituals and Spells with Your Bare Hands and available now HERE. So check it out and let the magic begin!!

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Spells and Magic: What Happens When the Rubber Meets the Road? Rules of the Road

When it comes to spells and magic, nothing that we teach is more important than Rules of the Road--the rules that govern esoteric practices. Rules of the Road are the universal laws that will affect any practitioner of spells and magic, regardless of whether that practitioner knows about the rules or not. That's why the first, middle, and last thing we teach in the Esoteric School are the Rules of the Road. Not sure about these rules? Check out the version created by George Dew, one of our greatest teachers, HERE.

When the Rubber Meets the Road -- Stage One
Safety is the most important factor when we teach people about spells and magic. Hence, we stress the Rules of the Road over and over, ad nauseam (just ask some of our students!). So what happens when "the rubber meets the road," so to speak, at first? As a new practitioner of spells and magic, what happens first is that you practice the Rules of the Road exactly as given. This keeps you safe and prevents any negative "side effects" or "karma" from bouncing back to you.

For some practitioners, learning Rules of the Road requires that they print out a copy and read them over and over again. For other practitioners, being safe according to Universal law means using only spells and magic that have been created according to the Rules of the Road. For more advanced practitioners, following Universal laws means checking new spells or rituals against Rules of the Road before performing these spells or rituals.

You'll have to decide for yourself the kind of role that Rules of the Road will play in your magical practice. For instance, you have to decide whether Rules of the Road are true ... and whether you would rather be safe or risk negative side effects to find out. That's stage one.

When the Rubber Meets the Road -- Stage Two
Then there is stage two, in which you codify your own Rules of the Road. In other words, the "road," as defined by the Rules of the Road, is a pretty wide road. The Rules of the Road define the very external boundaries you don't want to cross in your practice of spells and magic. But on that very wide road, there is quite a bit of latitude. In the second--or more advanced--stage of your magical practice, you may want to define a more specific or tighter set of rules for your own practice. This may include specific interpretations of the general Rules of the Road, based on your direct observation and experience. Or you may wish to include rules that are meant more for daily practice or everyday use--something not covered in the broader Rules. Still other practitioners may include rules that only apply to specific areas of spellwork and magic, such as the use, keying, and protection of objects used in simulacra (or Voodoo) magic. See the Voodoo Ebook for more details on this practice.

The key in stage two is to define rules that are appropriate and specific to your more advanced magical practice. Don't worry, these rules will continue to grow, evolve, and change as you do. You will keep adding, modifying, and perhaps changing these rules, and that is exactly what you should do. The difference between a priest and a magician is that a priest merely performs rituals while a magician performs and creates them. So as you continue to create and grow in your practice, your own personal Rules of the Road should change to accommodate. Just be aware of this as you deepen your knowledge of spells and magic so that you can be aware of when and where your own personal Rules need to change.

As always, enjoy the magic!

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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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