Eclectic Elementals: The Magic & Spirituality of the Elements
This is not a specifically named, established path like Asatru, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Kemeticism, Wicca or Santeria. Yet the Elemental Path can be adapted to any practice, traditional or modern, and the Elements are indeed present and utilized in all practices and systems. It can also be, as it is for me, its own completely original, self-contained and self-defined path. It is the path of peeking behind all the named and well-presented curtains; of getting to the heart of All and of connecting to and honoring the mystical, essential building blocks of everything in existence, from the planet to our souls.
The Oracle of Water: Ocean
Humans have been navigating and charting the seas at least since the Phoenicians, yet the ocean remains the last frontier. Even outer space is not as mysterious to us as the depths of the oceans, of which an estimate of only about 5% has been explored and charted. This is staggering considering the ocean covers 70% of our planet.
This is not unlike our own emotions or subconscious which, among many other things, the ocean represents. Our subconscious and darker sides are often as deep and mysterious to us as the abyss. There is no escaping that we are incredibly emotional and watery creatures. This also makes us magical for, as anthropologist Loren Eisley put it, “If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” We are water, and we therefore contain magic as well as records and ancestral memories in that strange medium. Also containing salt, we are like walking micro-oceans, ever connected to our source.
While there are different names for the different parts of the ocean, it is all one ocean in the end, one whole being connected all over the planet. This interconnection is echoed throughout nature and the human condition, and in all our individual lives.
In many traditions, the ocean represents the primordial source of life itself. Just as life emerged from the depths of the ocean in evolutionary narratives, so too does it signify the origins of creation in spiritual contexts. It is often seen as the womb of existence, where all life began and where all life returns. In this sense, the ocean becomes a metaphor for the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
Describing her first visit to the beach at five years old, limnologist Nina Munteanu describes the ocean as “...primordial, powerful and restful at the same time. It was vast, scary and comforting...it was the unknown, known. The unfamiliar, familiar. I was born in an “ocean”, after all.”
The ocean rules this planet and represents the vastness that is all living beings and life itself. The hugeness and depth of the ocean can barely be comprehend by humans, who shrink and pale in the shadow of a towering ocean wave. The ocean is everything, is life and death. When “Ocean” shows up, it can be likened to the “World” card of the Tarot’s Major Arcana. It is the summation and culmination of all, and encourages one to not miss the ocean for the beaches, as it were.
Ultimately, the ocean transcends mere physicality to become a symbol of the universal forces that govern existence. It represents the interplay of creation and destruction, chaos and order, life and death. Through its boundless expanse, the ocean invites us to surrender to the unknown, to embrace the mysteries of life, and to recognize our place within the greater tapestry of existence.
Copyright © 2024 Meredith Everwhite
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