This exercise makes use of what is called the Book of Elements.
It’s going to be one of your primary grimoires.
The technique is commonly used by most of the occultists whom I have known (myself included), and it works on the premise that practitioners will consistently work at erasing any mundane
conditioning complexes that inhibit their ability to concentrate on, and control, whatever they do within their Craft.
The self (the circle) is divided into four somewhat equal parts (I say somewhat because although they are, in essence, equal, it is usually the case that the section dealing with emotions takes the most practice to balance.)
The four parts are Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.
The qualities of these elements are as variable as the manifest elements themselves, so I prefer to present the manifest expressions prior to relating them to personality expressions.
Manifest Expressions
Fire
• Flame (all-from the flame of a candle through hearth fire to raging,
out-of-control forest fires)
• Electricity
• Fission
• Friction
• Combustion
• Light
• Brilliance
• Heat
• Transformation through interaction with other elements
Water
• Lakes, rivers, oceans, dew, rain
• Aqueous bodily secretions
• Moisture (condensation, dampness, steam)
• Wetness
• Liquid
• Nonconforming limitlessness
• Mutability
• Magnetism
• Transformation through interaction with other elements
Earth
• All things solid
• That which is tactile
• Tangible reality
• Subject to the transformative function of decomposition
• Ground; both in its electrical sense and in its relativity to that which
supports life (as we understand it)
• Structure and form
• Dimension
• Time
• Existence (as a sensate phenomenon)
• Transformation through interaction with other elements
Air
• All things atmospheric
• Gases
• Space
• That which is celestial
• Theory
• That which is ethereal or etheric
• Frequency
• Noumenon
• Sound and the medium through which it travels
• That which is invisible
Personal Expressions
Fire
People display the qualities of Fire when they are:
• Spontaneous
• Optimistic
• Lusty•
• Impetuous
• Blatant
• Outspoken
• Demonstrative
• Combustible
• Ruthless
The qualities of creativity, self-expression through the spoken and written word, enthusiasm, aggression, and, often, boisterousness are demonstrations of a Fire-dominant individual.
Water
People display the qualities of Water when they are:
• Artistic
• Empathic
• Passive
• Feeling
• Sensual
• Confused
• Unpredictable
• Dreamy
• Indecisive
• Doubtful
• Inscrutable
• Enigmatic
• Romantic
The qualities of intuitiveness, inventiveness, responsiveness, nurturing, and the use of innuendo, self-pity, and victim-consciousness because of a lack of personal boundaries are demonstrations of a Water-dominant personality.
Earth
People display the qualities of Earth when they are:
• Productive
• Precise
• Calculating
• Sexual
• Determined
• Stubborn
• Aesthetic
• Petty
• Belligerent
• Brave
• Predictable
The qualities of perseverance, administration, fixety, strategy, and orthodoxy are demonstrations of the Earth-dominant personality.
People display the qualities of Air when they are:
• Changeable
Inspirational
• Logical
• Intellectual
• Idiosyncratic
• Exacting
• Unpredictable
• Challenging
• Abrasive
• Solitary
• Musically inclined
• Expansive
• Explicit
• Technical
• Scientific
The qualities of rhythm and harmony, quick-temperedness, rigidity, and the tendencies to analyze, get caught in the past, and to display either too much emotion or be unable to express emotion are all demonstrations of the Air-dominant personality.
To work the Book of Elements, you will first need to purchase a notebook and divide it into four equal parts.
Title the first section Fire, the second section Water, the third Earth, and the fourth Air.
Divide the pages of each section into two equal columns, one side titled Acceptable and the other titled Unacceptable.
Down each side, list your own qualities and habits relative to those headings.
This is a process of self-observation, and it quite often takes several weeks or months, as you will not be aware of many of your traits without accompanying experiences to trigger them.
Once you are finished with your lists, look over the attributes of Earth, Fire, and Air and determine how many so-called unacceptable self-judgments are actually Water- or emotion-based.
Rearrange accordingly.
Then decide how many, or which, of the unacceptable aspects of yourself are socio-culturallv inclined (i.e., conditioned by your upbringing), and adjust your opinion according to your own standards, based on determining ethics, and which of those attributes can be eradicated or transmuted into more comfortable alternatives.
Consider two things:
1. Witchcraft is a way of life for individuals, not the masses, and there’s no point in you coming toward the Craft if you are a wimp, a follower, a coward, or a fool, as sorcery is both a practice and a priesthood, and it is not a garment that can be discarded when the going gets tough.
The main emphasis of the above technique is to understand your own nature well enough to get clear of fear based on speculation rather than actuality (we will cover fear later in this section) and to weave your webs accordingly.
2. Your aim is to get to the center of yourself and your motivations, and to find the big issues that undermine your capacity to respond in true will, after first having eradicated the blinds to those big issues (e.g., self-justification based on the opinions of others).
When you have completed your Book of Elements and have gone over it
and over it to see if vou can add or subtract anvthing, I suggest vou get rid of
it!
As long as you allow yourself to be conditioned to entertain the
expectations of others, as long as you allow yourself to w
r
allow in a lack of
control and self-respect, as long as you allowr
s others to direct the states of
your emotional and physical w
T
ell-being, you are unable to truly develop any
abilities of a psychic or occult nature, as you will be constantly living in some
state of anticipation or stress, under pressure from yourself. In this state,
you are ever seeking to please others for their attention or seeking to
dominate them for fear of “Not.”
Mulengro
I know your Name now, you Liar!
You, the killing machine of the soul!
I’ll tell!
I’ll tell!
If they can hear me they will know your Name also!
Too late! You are known: “Divide and Conquer”!
YOU ARE THE LIE THAT CLOSES OFF THE GATE!!
Your Faces, they are 7!
Your essences, they are 7!
Your Powers, they are 7!
And together they are you! Mulengro!
You are Greed!
You are Envy!
You are Guilt!
You are Deceit!
You are Denial!
You are Expectation!!
You are Assumption!!
