Like the shamans and wicce before you, you’ll return from Spirit realms with countless blessings and gifts. One of the most precious is the gift of sight – the ability to see the Sacred in the natural world all around you. Nature is revelation.
The ‘mundane’ world is an enchanted world because it’s charged through with divinity. And with time and practice, like your shamanic ancestors, you’ll learn to hear the plants speaking, the animals thinking and the universe singing, even when you’re in so-called normal consciousness.
You’ll be able to see the Sacred embodied by Nature. You’ll also be able to see how you are part of Nature, and how your human nature is sacred.
There are so many ways to discover the divinity of the natural world. The simplest is to spend time in Nature. It’s an adventure worth ditching your phone for – it will awaken the divine magic within you.
I learned just how divinely alive Nature is on a winter camping trek into a remote canyon in Utah, one of the wildest places in the lower 48 states of the USA. My marriage was over, and so was any possibility of having children. My heart was broken, and so was my spirit. I thought this wilderness trip might help me heal. After just a few days in the barren landscape, and nights with punishing single-digit temperatures, I knew that without all the high-tech camping gear – clothes, subzero sleeping bag, water filter, matches and provisions – I would be dead.
Finally, the temperature warmed, and I went to sit on a high, sunny ledge. Slowly, the pain loosened its hold on my heart. I looked around myself, as if seeing for the first time, and there, high up on the sheer canyon wall, was a pictograph of an otherworldly figure crowned with a crescent Moon, or perhaps horns. Four thousand years ago, people lived in this wild canyon without any modern technology. Mother Earth fed them, gave them water and shelter and they not only survived, they created art, mystical art that is still here.
Hiking down between the canyon walls, it was as if I’d stepped into a field of energy. I knew that if I paid attention, Mother Earth would teach and provide me with whatever I needed to survive. For the remainder of my time within her womb, life showed itself to me – the wild donkeys that no one ever saw appeared every time I sang, tiny mice ran across my sleeping bag at night, and every day an eagle rode the thermals overhead. When I finally emerged, a message was waiting that the book deal I’d hoped and worked for had come through. My life was beginning again and I was ready.
You don’t have to trek into a wilderness canyon to experience Nature’s divine power. But first you have to realize how much you need those experiences. Many of us don’t recognize how drained of vitality we’ve become – we’re benumbed by the constant bombardment of bad news and the deliberately addicting clicks, likes and responses of social media, and spend most of our lives indoors, literally suffering from Nature deficit disorder with anxiety, depression and attention disorders. Not to mention how disoriented our souls have become. We’re living out of context, separated from the ground of being, from the natural world and the Sacred it reveals.
But the cure is right at hand. Studies have shown that we experience awe in places of natural beauty and that awe transforms us – our cortisol levels drop and our stress and aggression diminish. We become less egocentric, more generous, compassionate and optimistic. We become better human beings in Nature. Even if all you have is a backyard, a small city park, or the Sun coming in your window, Nature is always present, if you’ll pay attention to your senses and open your heart.
You may want to record the text below, to listen to it outside, or simply read it through before you start. You’ll need to take something with you as an offering – birdseed is always appreciated – and something to sit on.
Let’s begin.
Find a spot outdoors in a natural setting that attracts or calls to you and where you won’t be disturbed. A spot in your backyard, local park, or even an open window will do. Sit down, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and relax.
Bring your attention to your body. Notice how you’re feeling – cold, warm, rested, tired, stiff? Breathe into the part of your body that draws your attention. Feel the improvement. Breathe until your entire body feels relaxed. Now bring you attention to one of your senses. Let’s start with hearing. Listen to the sounds carried by the air. Pay attention. Are there distracting noises like traffic, machinery, airplanes, people’s voices? Which directions are the sounds coming from? Do they stop and start? Is there a rhythm or music they create? Listen to the hum of humanity. Notice how it makes you feel.
Now open your eyes and look around you. Can you locate where the various sounds came from? When you feel ready, close your eyes again, and focus on the natural sounds. Let go of any distracting noise pollution, just as you’ve learned to let go of distracting thoughts when you meditate and journey. Bring your focus to the natural sounds. Listen carefully. Pay attention.
What do you hear? A bird? Different birds? A flock? Where are they? Are they talking to each other, as crows do? Are they singing? How do their songs make you feel? Do you hear the wind blowing, leaves rustling, trees whispering? Do you hear dogs barking? Do you hear bees or cicadas? Are you hearing sounds you’ve never noticed before? Is there a rhythm, a music, to Nature’s sounds? Listen to the silence between sounds. How do you feel? If your mind starts to wander, return to being present in the moment by focusing on the sounds of Nature.
When you’re ready, open your eyes. See if you can spot the sources of Nature’s sounds. How does listening to Nature make you feel? How does it feel to come to your senses? Be sure to thank the place, its spirit, and leave your offering. Write about how you felt and what you experienced in your magical journal.
Over time, as you repeat this practice of sacred awakening, you may hear a song or poem, or some other expression of inspiration and wisdom. You may receive a gift of insight or a power song from the spirit of the place, the genius loci. You can use this same practice to develop your other senses – sight, smell, touch, even taste. Isolate each one of your senses and then concentrate on it, paying careful attention to your experience of the natural environment you’re in.
Practice coming to your senses in this same spot at different times of the day and night, if it’s safe to do so, and in different weather and different seasons. Pay attention to the differences in what you perceive. With time, each sense will become more acute and you’ll become more aware of the other beings with whom you live, and more attuned to Nature’s wisdom and blessings. The next time you’re outdoors, or even watering a houseplant, notice how your body feels. Pay attention to what you’re sensing and how present you’re becoming.
The more time you spend in Nature, the more embodied your spirit will become. But we’re so cut off from the natural world that we forget Nature is not just the ‘great outdoors,’ limited to a vacation or an extreme wilderness trek. Working with the elements – Air, Fire, Water, Earth – helps you to recognize that Nature is everywhere, in everything, including you.
I was taught the old-fashioned approach to elemental magic, using Air, Fire, Water or Earth to bring about a desired change or outcome. It was fun and creative and sometimes it worked. But it took a long time to realize that there was a deeper magic waiting within the elements. You don’t have to wait to discover that magic. It’s where you’re going to start.
Working with the elements is an active meditation, a spiritual practice that attunes you to the sacred wisdom and power of Nature: you discover how you and the Earth are interconnected and how you too are part of Nature. When you make magic with the elements, their energies help you to discover, transform and fulfill yourself. The elements show you how deity is present in the world and how these life-sustaining aspects of divinity are present in you. Each element is a part of you and the powers of the elements correspond to your powers.
Elemental magic makes you whole, unleashing an infinite flow of divine energies that move naturally into the corresponding areas of your life, with inspiration, transformation, healing, nourishment and more. You’ll discover how your body and the body of Creation are one, your inner world and the outer world are one, your human nature and outer Nature are One, and how the magic that surrounds you is also within you. It’s divine magic. It’s natural magic.
Each element is a physical and spiritual part of you.
Each element has gifts that will empower you:
Inspiration; creative thinking; thoughtfulness; ease of communication; peace of mind; remaining calm or focused; work involving your mind or communication, like learning, writing, lecturing, taking an exam; cultivating your intuition.
Breath; chant; meditate; write a poem, spell or invocation; journal; fly a kite with your spell written on it; breathe your prayer onto a feather that you tie to a tree for the spirits of Air to carry off; stand outside on a windy day and shout your affirmation; follow your intuition; say yes to everything for a day; create and use an incense.
Power; change; transformation; courage; passion; determination; quick manifestation; purification; cleansing and banishing; enlightenment; illumination.
Greet the Sun every morning; cook; burn a piece of paper on which you’ve written whatever you want to ‘banish’ – a spell to remove or get rid of a problem, bad habit or unwanted situation; carve a candle with your goal, place it on a plate and on your altar (more on this later), light it and let it burn until it’s gone, cup your hands around the flame and draw its power into your belly – feel your power to make it manifest; build, tend and dance around an outdoor fire.
Love; dreams; to visit ancestors; to cultivate your intuition and your feelings; to help your emotions flow and change; to put out fires of conflict and anger; to cleanse and purify; to dissolve emotional blocks and heal emotional wounds; to nourish your inner landscape with self-love.
Create a potion and bathe in it; make an herbal tea and drink it; bathe, float, swim; go out in the rain and get wet; go whitewater rafting or sailing; jump into a deep body of water; water your garden; wash your face; stand at the edge of the ocean, where it rolls in and out of the shore’s edge.
Attuning to Nature’s rhythms and cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth; manifesting ideas and desires; cultivating creativity; creating prosperity; giving birth to the life you want; grounding, nourishing and taking care of your body and soul, to experience abundance.
Put your hands in the dirt; plant a seed and nourish it, envisioning your goal growing as the plant grows; weed and envision that you’re pulling up any problems, cares or obstacles; exercise and take care of your body; recycle your garbage; sit on the Earth and feel your heart beating; develop a relationship with a tree or other plant; ground (see opposite); walk your dog; cultivate a relationship with a natural spot as your place of power.
Let’s look at the element of Earth with ‘grounding’ – the practice of running energy from Mother Earth through your body and back into Mother Earth. It’s one of the most powerful and unique Wiccan techniques connecting you to Mother Earth and her divine life force that energizes, nourishes and heals all of life.
You may want to record the following text, so you can listen to it as you practice. Grounding can be done indoors, but for maximum benefit you should work outside, seated directly on Mother Earth with your back against a tree. Take an offering, such as birdseed.
Let’s begin.
Find a tree that you feel drawn to, where you can sit without being disturbed. Ask the tree for its help. The response may come with a sign, like the rustling of its leaves or a bird singing, or simply a feeling of joy and acceptance. Acknowledge and thank it, sit down with your back against its trunk and close your eyes.
Breathe, and when you feel yourself relaxed and peaceful, your awareness open and expanded, bring your attention to the life force coursing through the tree. Feel the power, energy and vitality giving this tree life. Sit up straight and feel your back becoming strong and solid, like the tree’s trunk. Ask the tree to teach you what it’s like to be a tree rooted in Mother Earth.
Exhale and feel yourself sending roots from the base of your spine down into Mother Earth beneath you. At first, you may need to ‘imagine’ this but very quickly you’ll feel the sensation of your roots growing, pushing downward, connecting you to Mother Earth. Feel her beneath you, surrounding your roots, embracing them and holding them with love. Feel her accepting you with love and joy.
Exhale and feel your roots descending, expanding, stretching, reaching into the moist and nourishing Mother Earth. Feel your roots becoming thinner and finer, like thousands of tiny hairs, nestling into the love of Mother Earth.
Now inhale and feel her energy flowing into you. Feel the minerals and water, the nourishing life force flowing into you. Feel Mother Earth’s energy coursing upward through your roots, up your spine, into all the nerves in your body, which branch outward like the tree that’s supporting you. Feel her energy flowing up your spine, through your muscles, your organs, your consciousness. Inhale and draw up the energy of Mother Earth, the energy of the divine life force, into your body. Feel her energy rising up your spine, spreading through you, circulating through you, filling and energizing you.
Inhale and draw the energy up. Now direct the energy into whichever part of your body or spirit needs healing. Feel the warmth, the nourishment, the vitality flowing through and healing you. You may feel tingling, or sensations of love, light and potency. Feel yourself healed, nourished, strengthened. Breathe and feel yourself grounded in Mother Earth, rooted in Mother Earth, loved by Mother Earth. Feel your heart overflowing with joy, with life, with love. Hold the energy in your heart.
When you’re ready, gently, slowly, gratefully withdraw your roots from Mother Earth. Feel them curling into themselves – the smaller ones merging with the larger roots, the larger roots moving slowly back up from the generous, life-generating Earth. Feel them curl neatly into the base of your spine. Take a deep breath. Thank Mother Earth and the tree for their blessings.
When you’re ready, open your eyes. You may be dazzled by the beauty that you see. The tree and your own body may be glowing and you may see auras or energy radiating from everything around you. If you feel light-headed, put your palms and the bottoms of your feet on the ground and return the excess energies to Mother Earth and the tree that has helped you. Take your time. Leave your offering.
Reflect on your experiences in your magical journal – on what it feels like to develop a personal relationship with Mother Earth and how it changes the way you think and act.
You’re mastering an important technique that will help you discover and deepen your relationship with Mother Earth, and one of her most precious children: the tree who is teaching you how to be grounded. (And is also an immortal, shamanic guide connecting this world with realms of Spirit.)
There are many ways of making elemental magic. An elegant system of meaning and symbols called the Table of Correspondences will help you make yours.
Some of this organizational system comes from the ancient Greeks, and is found in European esoteric and ceremonial magic, and some has been recently developed. It also reflects Euro-Indigenous wisdom, and parallels can be found in other Indigenous traditions elsewhere in the world.
Briefly, each of the four elements corresponds not only to human qualities and aspects of Nature, but also the four directions, times of day and seasons, elemental spirits, deities, animals, plants, colors, astrological signs, Tarot suits and more.
With time and practice, elemental correspondences will become a familiar vocabulary, an artist’s palette rich with spiritual meaning. Each element offers a path of self-awareness, balance and fulfillment as you move around the sacred circle of your life. Working magically with each of the four elements, you learn how to discern and intuit, to have passion and courage, to love and heal, to cultivate and create.
There are many more aspects and qualities, animals and plants, Goddesses and Gods associated with each of the elements, but the Table of Correspondences (see previous pages) provides a few examples that you can begin to explore and work with.
Just as you will when casting circle, I recommend you begin with Air (East), then Fire (South); next work with Water (West) and finally Earth (North). As you meditate, reflect and begin to make magic with each of the elements, you’ll discover where you’re out of balance, and you’ll learn how to restore equilibrium to all aspects of your Self, your inner and outer nature, your inner life and your outer expression.
For example, are your heart and mind out of balance? Are you too intellectual and out of touch with your feelings? Working with Water will release your emotions and open you to love. Are you too quick to anger? Working with Earth will channel your fiery-ness and teach you patience. Are you down in the weeds and unable to see the big picture? Working with Air will lift you up and clear your vision.
Reflect on the meaning of each of the elements’ qualities. Consider each element in terms of your strengths and weaknesses. Write down your findings in your magical journal:
You may know immediately, or it may take time to recognize yourself, your gifts and your gaps. What follows is a simple plan for engaging creatively and magically with the elements and gradually, organically, becoming balanced and whole, inside and out. And the Table of Correspondences will provide the essential information you’ll need.
Spend a month working with each element. Trust your intuition and your creativity. Reflect on the element’s meaning in your life.
Use an altar cloth and candles of the appropriate color. Place the element and objects that symbolize the element in the center of your altar. Include statues and images of the animals and deities associated with the element. Create an incense, oil or potion using plants (herbs) associated with the element.
Keep a record of your elemental magic, your experiences and reflections in your magical journal.
One of my favorite practices is to cultivate my relationship with my place of power. It’s a place of visions, healing, enlightenment, soul nourishment and magic. Your place of power doesn’t have to be on a sacred mountaintop or in an ancient cave, although those places are charged with divinity and will work with you if approached with reverence and openness. Your backyard is filled with magic and grace and will offer its blessings if you ask, because all natural places have a spirit, called the genius loci.
There are also Nature spirits – the spirit of a particular plant or animal – and spirit beings of the elements, which are called elementals. You can journey to meet them, meditate or simply pay attention and respect your intuition as they communicate with you. If approached with respect, they will teach, help and heal you.
You can find your place of power simply by using your intuition.
Take a walk, pay attention, listen, feel, look, wander and wonder. And when you feel yourself drawn to a spot, a tree, a flower, a rock, a hollow, a stream, a place of natural beauty that beckons you, ask if it’s your place of power. If you have that special feeling of joy, acceptance, comfort, you know you’ve found it.
Cultivating a relationship requires attention, effort and consistency. Try to visit your place of power regularly, clean it up, take water and other offerings, plant flowers or grass or whatever the place tells you it needs. Watch, listen and learn. Over time, you’ll get to know the genius loci, the spirit of the place, and it will become your teacher, your companion, your guardian, as you’ll become its.
Be patient if you don’t meet the genius loci immediately. It can take time for them to trust us, given the terrible damage we’ve done to the natural world. Next time you visit your place of power, be sure to express your love for the spot and for Mother Earth. Share your sincere willingness to work together to heal and repair Mother Earth’s wounded places. And bring an offering for the birds and animals. After you’ve met and begun working together, you can also ask for advice about your life, your spiritual journey, the challenges you face and goals you’ve set.
Working with the elements, you’re healing your separation from Mother Earth and the Sacred that is the root of so many of the wounds we all suffer from. As you heal, the Earth heals.
Below are four Invocations of the Elements, also called Honoring the Four Directions or the old term, Calling the Quarters. These are traditionally done at the beginning of casting circle, which you’ll learn more about soon. Working with them now, especially when you do your month-long work with each element (see Making magic with Nature practice) will prepare you to use them when you cast circle.
Read the invocations aloud; repetition leads to memorization, and then use them as a model for writing your own. Begin by facing East, where the Sun rises, and recite the Honoring of Air, then turn to the South and address Fire. Turn to the West and speak to Water. Next, turn to the North and honor Earth and finally turn back to the East, because we always end where we began, completing the circle. You’ll be amazed by how much you’ve changed.
I call the ancient spirits of the East
Powers of Air
Where the Sun rises in the morning
Powers of wonder and imagination
Clarity and communication
Laughter, music, birds singing, breezes blowing
Blessings of eagle and butterfly
All creatures on the wing
I invite you to this sacred circle,
Hail and welcome! [this last phrase is traditional]
I call the ancient spirits of the South
Powers of Fire
Where the Sun is high in the midday sky
Powers of passion and determination
Courage and transformation
Light, energy, flames leaping, fire burning
Blessings of lion and dragon
All creatures of fang and claw
I invite you to this sacred circle,
Hail and welcome!
I call the ancient spirits of the West
Powers of Water
Where the Sun sets and our ancestors dwell
Powers of love and dreaming
Compassion and healing
Womb, water, oceans flowing, rain falling
Blessings of whale and otter
All creatures of fin and those who swim
I invite you to this sacred circle,
Hail and welcome!
I call the ancient spirits of the North
Powers of Earth
Where the Mystery dwells
Powers of fertility and creation
Rebirth, strength and manifestation
Seed, mountain, forest knowing, fields growing
Blessings of bear and wolf and stag
All creatures of fur and paw, hoof and horn
I invite you to this sacred circle,
Hail and welcome!
The more you practice any Wiccan technique, the simpler and easier it becomes and the deeper the experiences you’ll have. My own morning ritual in my garden, addressing each direction and scattering birdseed as I turn in a circle, goes something like this: ‘May my thoughts be clear, may my determination hold fast, may my heart be open, may my work be of value. May I be aware and grateful today.’ And I am.
John Muir, one of America’s greatest naturalists, observed that ‘every natural object is a conductor of divinity.’ Nature gives Spirit its form. It makes Spirit knowable. And just as it was for our Indigenous ancestors, it’s our greatest spiritual teacher. The more time you spend in Nature, the clearer it will become that Nature doesn’t just nourish our bodies. It nourishes our souls.
One of the most profound lessons Nature has taught me is that Creation reveals a divine blueprint, a sacred order. And Nature has a holy magic we must rediscover: all life – rabbit, hummingbird, mushroom, whale, every living thing – cares for the world that’s taking care of it.
Whatever Nature’s children do to live –
eat, make a home, procreate, recreate,
evacuate – makes the place where
they live, the Earth where they live,
more conducive for all Life.
Only human beings have forgotten.
But everything we need to remember, to live a healthy, abundant and joy-filled life that makes the world a better place for all, is right here – within us and all around us. Working with the elements you discover that just as Mother Earth is the embodiment of the Divine, so are you. Elemental magic heals our separation from essential parts of ourselves, from Nature and divinity. The boundary between inner and outer drops and a profound flow of divine energy, love and blessings begins. You’re becoming whole and your spirit is becoming fully embodied in your life.
You’re mastering the methods of an embodied spirituality, a path guided by Nature’s deep spiritual intelligence, a path back home to a world charged through with divinity and a life charged through with divinity – mind, spirit and body. You’re becoming one with Creation. You’re awakening the divine magic within.