Given the start of the new year & our eagerness to begin correctly, it seems appropriate to speak of foundations. In magic, foundational work usually takes the form of elemental rites as a basis for long-term achievements. That's rather fitting, as these are the assumed building blocks of our world.
And who amongst those creatures are more noted, in Western magical practice, than the "Elemental Kings": Nyxsa, Ghob, Djinn, and Paralda.
Now without getting in to the history behind them (as that's really rather convoluted), we'll instead take a more practical bend: focusing on how to work with them without much in the way of tooling.
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice that I've written about working with these spirits in an office environment. Those inclusions were a means of conveying the idea that you really don't need much to make this work....just some quiet and the ability to focus.
For those of you who like giving your monkey mind something to do so that it doesn't get distracted, raw simplicity doesn't quite work. When that's the case, I recommend procuring items that fit with your view of the element in question.
In my mind, the accessible elemental energies we're all familiar with are earth, air, fire, and water. They are respectively touted by the Gnomes whose king is Ghob, the Sylphs who answer to Paralda, the Salemanders who are ruled by Djinn, and the Undines who obey Nyxsa (or Nyksa, Nicksa, Nickse, Nyxse...there's a lot of potential Romanized spellings). There are other, more advanced components to this, but we're discussing basics, and these are the leaders of each.
I assume that each of you has a pretty good idea of what each element does and is used for, so I'll leave that out of this post. What may not be understood, however, is how to contact them and make use of their energies...there are a lot of ways to do it.
One such methodology involves the use of a miniature idol that you could carry with you to the office, then 'tap' as a means of activating that current. These should probably be the size of a dime or quarter, as you will wish to be able to keep them in your work bag or pocket. Beyond that, the form used is up to you.
When I first worked in an office environment in my teens, those items were a knife, a lighter, a USB drive, and a pen. The knife was made from ore, found deep within the earth, and formed into a shape useful to man. Dwarves & gnomes favor workmanship and tooling, and thus it was dedicated to them. The lighter is rather simple to connect the dots with, as flame is obviously sacred to fire spirits. Thus, they value the means of creating fire (matches work too, but they're a little less portable and water resistant). The USB drive struck me as being a means of storing and conveying data, which could be used to compress information. Information is valued by Sylphides, and so this became my micrototem for those spirits. Finally, the pen, while a simple and innocuous object at work, became associated with water for the simple facts that ink is a liquid & I've always had an easier time writing my emotions rather than saying them. And thus my my toolkit was built, and that was that.
I could use them in my day-to-day work (which was a serious benefit, outside the lighter) and nobody ever batted an eye at any of the other objects being used; I was constantly saving things on the USB, opening boxes with the knife, or writing notes. Easy, eh? And simplicity is usually more useful than complexity.
Whenever I needed to invoke a particular energy, I could just focus on the tool as a signal tuner, make the call to the appropriate King, then use the energy or spirit sent my way. It was fairly easy to get used to, and the spirits were responsive to my system. I could use it to make plans with friends more easily, help my boss to understand me, make writing a less difficult task, and so on and so forth. Didn't require a whole lot of effort, either, which in an office setting is basically required, lest you look like a total weirdo and get yourself fired.
If you like the idea put forth here, I would recommend giving this a go. Make a toolkit that works for you, and carry it about as a means of more readily accessing these currents. Over time, this will have an added benefit of making it easier for you to work with these energies, as well as show you what your strengths and weaknesses are.
It has been my experience that sometimes an immediate response is more useful than a large show of force. This sort of kitwork, if it works for you, will afford you a greater ability to utilize elemental magic in your day to day life, all while adding an element of expediency to it.
Have fun!
-Chris/SE
And who amongst those creatures are more noted, in Western magical practice, than the "Elemental Kings": Nyxsa, Ghob, Djinn, and Paralda.
Now without getting in to the history behind them (as that's really rather convoluted), we'll instead take a more practical bend: focusing on how to work with them without much in the way of tooling.
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice that I've written about working with these spirits in an office environment. Those inclusions were a means of conveying the idea that you really don't need much to make this work....just some quiet and the ability to focus.
For those of you who like giving your monkey mind something to do so that it doesn't get distracted, raw simplicity doesn't quite work. When that's the case, I recommend procuring items that fit with your view of the element in question.
In my mind, the accessible elemental energies we're all familiar with are earth, air, fire, and water. They are respectively touted by the Gnomes whose king is Ghob, the Sylphs who answer to Paralda, the Salemanders who are ruled by Djinn, and the Undines who obey Nyxsa (or Nyksa, Nicksa, Nickse, Nyxse...there's a lot of potential Romanized spellings). There are other, more advanced components to this, but we're discussing basics, and these are the leaders of each.
I assume that each of you has a pretty good idea of what each element does and is used for, so I'll leave that out of this post. What may not be understood, however, is how to contact them and make use of their energies...there are a lot of ways to do it.
One such methodology involves the use of a miniature idol that you could carry with you to the office, then 'tap' as a means of activating that current. These should probably be the size of a dime or quarter, as you will wish to be able to keep them in your work bag or pocket. Beyond that, the form used is up to you.
When I first worked in an office environment in my teens, those items were a knife, a lighter, a USB drive, and a pen. The knife was made from ore, found deep within the earth, and formed into a shape useful to man. Dwarves & gnomes favor workmanship and tooling, and thus it was dedicated to them. The lighter is rather simple to connect the dots with, as flame is obviously sacred to fire spirits. Thus, they value the means of creating fire (matches work too, but they're a little less portable and water resistant). The USB drive struck me as being a means of storing and conveying data, which could be used to compress information. Information is valued by Sylphides, and so this became my micrototem for those spirits. Finally, the pen, while a simple and innocuous object at work, became associated with water for the simple facts that ink is a liquid & I've always had an easier time writing my emotions rather than saying them. And thus my my toolkit was built, and that was that.
I could use them in my day-to-day work (which was a serious benefit, outside the lighter) and nobody ever batted an eye at any of the other objects being used; I was constantly saving things on the USB, opening boxes with the knife, or writing notes. Easy, eh? And simplicity is usually more useful than complexity.
Whenever I needed to invoke a particular energy, I could just focus on the tool as a signal tuner, make the call to the appropriate King, then use the energy or spirit sent my way. It was fairly easy to get used to, and the spirits were responsive to my system. I could use it to make plans with friends more easily, help my boss to understand me, make writing a less difficult task, and so on and so forth. Didn't require a whole lot of effort, either, which in an office setting is basically required, lest you look like a total weirdo and get yourself fired.
If you like the idea put forth here, I would recommend giving this a go. Make a toolkit that works for you, and carry it about as a means of more readily accessing these currents. Over time, this will have an added benefit of making it easier for you to work with these energies, as well as show you what your strengths and weaknesses are.
It has been my experience that sometimes an immediate response is more useful than a large show of force. This sort of kitwork, if it works for you, will afford you a greater ability to utilize elemental magic in your day to day life, all while adding an element of expediency to it.
Have fun!
-Chris/SE