Elements and Harmony
Quite a lot of Druids work with the idea of four elements, corresponding to four directions in ritual. These can also be correlated with aspects of the self. Understandings may vary, but I was given… Earth/North/body, Air/East/mind, Fire/South/energy and Water/West/emotion. Honouring the four directions in ritual encourages us to look not only at the human aspect, but how each element is present within us.
Most of us will have more of some elements and less of others. I am both fearful of fire, and someone who struggles with energy levels. I’m not bipolar, but I do oscillate between intense energy highs and fatigue. Some of this is due to my lack of ability, and often my unwillingness, to manage my energy. I’ll run hard to get something done, and then fall over. But, at least I know. I don’t have a great relationship with my body, either, so there I am on that north-south axis, knowing I have a lot of work to do.
I’m much stronger on the east-west axis and this is also where I prefer to be in ritual. Air and water. River and sky. I’m a thinking person and also deeply emotional and there’s never been any conflict between the two for me. This is where I am at my most comfortable and confident.
After a bit of consideration, anyone can figure out where in that circle of correspondences, they most naturally sit, and where some attention may be needed. Druidry does not demand that we are all balanced in the same way, but it does pay to understand what kind of person you are, and where your life may need attention. The things we do not want to tackle are often the ones we most need to sort out.
As well as those cardinal points and their opposites, we can think about transitions. North East is where air and earth meet. A hilltop perhaps? The physical structure of the central nervous system. South East is air and fire. Well, you can’t have much of a fire without air. Mind and energy. I might place awen here. South west, fire and water. That may extinguish, but it also means steam, steamy. Emotion and energy. Sex, for me, lives in the south west. (Coincidentally, I live in the south west of the UK.) North west, water and land, this is the mud of the river’s edge. Emotion and body, this is the chemical process of oxytocin and endorphin and all those other glands and chemicals making my emotions flow.
You may have a different story to tell, tapping into whatever language or imagery you find resonant. There’s no ultimate right answer to making correspondences, just a case of mapping experience onto an idea to see if anything useful pops out.
The circle of correspondence also shows us that no aspect of the self is separate from any other. No aspect of the world is separate. All are part of bigger systems, each whole can be diminished into parts if that helps us understand it better.
